I have 2 IVRs. 1 for open hours and 1 for closed hours. Both IVRs allow direct dial to extensions.
I have a time group setup for 9am - 5pm and a time condition setup which sends callers to the open hours IVR if the time group is matched, otherwise it goes to the closed hours IVR.
I have 1 extension (ext 314) which I want to go directly to voice mail if its dialed after hours. I don’t want it to ring the extension because it is an extension which is in my home office. I know I can just put the extension on DND, but I don’t want to have to do that because I will forget and I don’t want that extension ringing at 11pm if someone happens to try an call that extension when the office is closed.
I tried creating a new time group specifically for the extension 314 of 9am - 5pm and a time condition which sends the call to extension 314 during normal open hours, and if the destination doesn’t match, send it directly to the unavailable voicemail message for extension 314.
I believe the reason its not working is because the time condition will always match because the person dialed extension 314
How can I set this up so if after 5pm someone dials extension 314 it goes straight to unavailable voicemail instead of ringing the extension?
I took your suggestion, but added to it. I ended up creating a new time condition and time group so I could override the time of day that the extension could be dialed. Sometimes I may actually be at home working past 5pm and still need someone to be able to call me at extension 314 due to some followme sequences I have setup.
For anyone in the future that wants to limit calls to an extension after hours(after 5pm), but also have the ability to say still accept calls on that extension until 8pm here is what I did.
I created a Time Group called Extension 314 and I set up the hours to be Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm.
I then created a Time Condition which which says if destination matches, Extensions, 314. If destination does NOT match, Voicemail, 314.
I then went back into the IVR Open and the IVR After Hours and setup an entry that if the digits 314 are pressed, it routes to the Time Condition I created for extension 314.
This works perfectly! Now if someone calls between 9am-5pm and presses 314, it rings the extension. If its after 5pm, it goes straight to the unavailable voicemail for extension 314.
If in the future I want to take calls until say 8pm, all I have to do is edit the Time Group for extension 314 and change the time from 5pm to 8pm.
You don’t need to add that to the open hours, since 9-5 you anyway want anyone dialing 314 to ring your extension. You only need to add it to the after hours IVR.
Unless you want the ability to control during open hours and send calls sometimes to voicemail.
You don’t have to do that.
Every time condition has a feature code associated, which if you dial that feature code it’ll override the current state. (you can also enable BLF in the time condition, so you can have this feature code on a button on your phone)
So if you want to take calls after 5, all you need to do is dial the feature code after 5, and once you want to stop taking calls, you dial the feature code again.
Nothing is wrong with the way you set it up, but I would do it a bit different.
I would create a Call Flow Control, True = Voicemail, False = Extension.
Then, only on the night IVR I’d point 314 to the CFC, and anytime I want to take calls I can dial the feature code to change the state and then dial again to stop.
So if I know in the middle of the day that tonight I’ll need to take calls, I can right away dial the feature code and anyone dialing 314 after 5 will right away ring my extension. VS time conditions only changes the current state of the time condition, so you can only dial the feature code after 5.
Oh, that’s great to know! I’ve never messed around with Call Flow Controls before. I’ll revisit this when I have some more time to play around. Thanks again for your tips!