Time Scheduling and Dial Codes

[Kalee Bradshaw]

Hello-
My clients have made a request but I am not sure if it's possible. They go to lunch at different times a day and would like to have a dial code to press to have calls forwarded to another location during their lunches and then a dial code to open the lines back up to them when they return. I know about time scheduling but since they don't have a set time for lunch every day, I am not sure how I would get this to work? Is this even possible using a dial code?

Thank you-
Kalee

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

Hello @Kalee Bradshaw

Please note that there is a dial code that sets the PBX to out of office hours and can set it back in again. This can be set under settings / Dial codes. Search for the dial code "Force 3CX Phone System to IN or OUT of office". The default value is *64
If you dial *641 then the PBX will be forced to in office hours while *642 will set the PBX to out ot office hours. *640 will set the PBX back to default hours.

Disclaimer: If the system is forced to In or Out office hours then you need to use the dial codes again to revert the change. For example if you have office hours set and you force the system to In office hours then at the end of day the PBX will not go to Out of office hours automatically unless you revert the PBX to default office hours with *640
https://www.3cx.com/docs/pbx-dial-codes/#h.665f9ex1w4m3

 

[VoIPTools]

You could create a CFD and assign this to a BLF. The CFD app, when called, could say something like "Your current status is 'Out of Office. To change the current state, select from the following: For in-office, press 1, for out of office, press 2, for the default status press 3". This approach would only require one button. Unfortunately, we cannot change the color of the button based on the current state.

The next question is about where to route calls during lunch breaks vs outside of business hours. If calls are routed to the same place regardless, then it's easy. If you want calls to be routed to a different place during lunch vs outside of business hours, then we have to get a little more creative. The CFD, in addition to setting your PBX state, could manipulate the presence of a dummy extension and then have calls routed to that extension with different forwarding rules for each presence setting.