#Temporary closures and On-call roster
| Role | Access |
|---|---|
| Client Admin | Edit authorized phone lines |
| Client Manager | Edit authorized phone lines |
| Client Staff | No section |
Partners can edit the same operational entries within their assigned projects. Weekly hours and other Settings permissions stay unchanged.
#Where to find them
Temporary closures is the first card in Settings → Opening hours, above Weekly hours. A closure tells callers you are closed for part of a day or longer, on top of your weekly hours. It does not change or cancel appointments in your booking system.
On-call roster is a separate Settings row directly after Opening hours in the desktop menu and phone section selector. It appears when at least one phone line you can access has an on-call role. A selected line without one shows Not set up for this phone line and explains how to request setup. If none of your lines has a role, the row is hidden once a phone line is selected and checked, and its direct link then opens Opening hours.
Choose the correct project before editing. Times are entered and displayed in the project's time zone, regardless of your computer's zone. Phone numbers, role definitions, fallback contacts and approved contact choices are managed by AiDial; numbers are never shown or entered here.
#Adding a temporary closure
- Open Settings → Opening hours and select Add closure.
- Enter Start date/time and End date/time, or use a shortcut to prefill them. Rest of today starts at the next 15-minute ceiling and ends at midnight in the project zone; it is disabled when less than 15 minutes remain. During a repeated daylight-saving hour it advances to the earliest quarter-hour that can be saved at or after now. Tomorrow, all day fills midnight to midnight tomorrow, including daylight-saving changes. Shortcuts do not add or save an entry by themselves.
- Select Add. The list shows the entry and Unsaved changes.
- Select Save closures, review the actual changes, then Save changes.
Use Edit to change an entry, or Delete to remove it from the draft, then save. Ended entries retain both actions and count toward the limit until deleted. Discard changes restores this card's last saved entries.
#Rostering on-call periods
For each duty role, the page shows Now: with its rostered contact, or Now: backup, with its fallback. When no one is rostered, on-call calls go to that fallback contact. Who can take these calls lists the role's approved contacts; Contact support requests a setup change.
- Open Settings → On-call roster and find the role.
- Select Add period, enter its start/end date and time, and choose Send calls to from that role's approved contacts.
- Select Add, then Save on-call roster, review the changes and confirm Save changes.
Periods for a role cannot overlap. One can end exactly when the next starts. A role with no approved choices has Add disabled and explains how to request them. An unavailable saved destination stays visible until you choose an approved replacement or delete that period; it is never replaced automatically.
#Reading the roster
The Monday–Sunday strip shows periods and gaps labelled Backup: with the fallback. Previous/next buttons change the week; the week label and date range show what you are viewing. The Now line appears only in the current week. Its screen-reader summary describes the same periods and backup gaps; the list below remains the accessible source of entry details.
Entries are chronological. Now contains the current instant; Next is the next starting entry; Ended has finished. A gap note explains when calls will return to the fallback. Unsaved previews and saved settings waiting to go live do not mean calls have changed.
#What callers hear
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Live on calls | AiDial last confirmed that the saved entries match the settings used on calls. |
| Saved, waiting to go live | AiDial applies saved closures and on-call changes to your receptionist. Until then, callers hear your previous settings. |
| Can't confirm what's live | The current call settings cannot be confirmed. Contact support if this continues. |
Saving stores entries. AiDial applies them separately. Save each card separately. Switching section or project asks you to discard unsaved changes; Cancel keeps your draft, and Discard and switch continues to your chosen section or project. Selecting the active project or section keeps your edits.
#Limits and recovery
- The end must follow the start and be no more than 366 days from saving.
- At most 256 entries across closures and duty periods, including ended entries.
- Six saves per five minutes per project and signed-in actor; wait for the retry guidance if limited.
- A skipped daylight-saving wall time is rejected. A repeated time is saved as its first occurrence.
- A version conflict keeps editing locked while it reloads the latest saved block and explains that the old draft was not saved. Editing resumes when the reload finishes. If reloading fails, the old revision and error remain; a later Save still checks that revision.
- Missing timezone or unconfirmed setup can block editing/saving. Contact support; saved entries remain intact.
- A failed phone-line visibility check remains retryable and does not prove there is no roster.