Inbound routing should follow Department office hours (incl. lunch-break gaps) to avoid dummy extensions that waste licenses

[_aMiCiCi_]

Problem:
In V20 an inbound rule decides open/closed only from its own Hours setting; there is no option to follow a Department's office hours, and a split shift with an intra-day gap (for example a lunch break 13:00-16:00) is treated as open. Night-time closes correctly, but the mid-day gap still routes calls as if the office were open.

To get correct behaviour we had to build a workaround: one dummy extension per site, each with its own office hours and auto-switch status, used only to gate the inbound route to the "open" or "closed" destination. On a 7-branch deployment that is 7 extra extensions created purely to fix routing, consuming license slots that were never meant to be spent this way.

Request:
Let an inbound rule (and the greeting/queue chain) follow a Department's office hours directly, honouring intra-day gaps such as a lunch break, so a split shift closes during the gap and reopens afterwards, with no dummy extensions. Ideally add an explicit "follow Department office hours" option on the inbound rule.

Benefit:
Correct open/closed routing for split-shift businesses out of the box, no shadow extensions, and no license slots wasted on a routing workaround.

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Note: this request belongs in the 3CX Ideas > Server sub-forum. I'm posting it in the general forum because my account cannot currently create threads in the Ideas forum, even as a Bronze Partner. Could a moderator please move it there and, if possible, correct my account permissions (ID) so I can post ideas directly in the future? Thank you.

 

[bitn2]

I don't understand the problem. What do the inbound rules look like? If, for example, the business hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and a break is set for 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., the system follows those rules. You just have to configure them.

 

[Ronaldvdv]

This is already possible. If you configure a department (e.g. Sales), you will find the department as Sales grp in Call handeling. Set your DID on the Sales grp and configure the settings for open, close, break and holiday. No need for a dummy.

Also in stead of using a dummy user you can also use an IVR for redirecting a call based on a department schedule. Set the "If no input" to 1 sec. and forward to normal call flow, for break, closed and holiday you can set a different call flow.