A call at 8 pm should not be handled like one at 11 am. FrontDesk lets you choose a separate behaviour for nights, weekends and holidays.
Turn on after-hours handling
- Open Settings → Phone & SMS, Calls tab (the section is headed Who answers).
- Turn on Answer differently after hours. Off, the card reads Every call, any hour and warns that a 2 a.m. Sunday call rings the same way as a weekday one. On, it splits into During business hours and Nights, weekends, holidays.
- Choose the night-time handling:
- AI receptionist: "Books overnight callers instead of losing them."
- Voicemail: "Plays your greeting and records a message." A message box appears (up to 500 characters); leave it empty for the default.
- Forward to a phone: "For the on-call line." Enter the number.
- Save.
The decision is made when a call starts: a call that begins inside business hours stays a business-hours call.
What the AI may do after hours
When the night-time handling is AI receptionist, the AI's scope is set under Receptionist → AI Voice, When the AI answers after hours: Book appointments & take messages, Take a message, Send to voicemail, or Emergency calls only. See Call handling settings.
Business hours and holidays
Hours belong to the location: click Change business hours on the Calls tab or open the location under Settings → Locations.
- Time zone. Hours are read in the location's own time zone, the same one the AI receptionist and web chat use. A location with no time zone set is read in Central time, so set it under Settings → Locations. The Calls tab shows it after the hours, with Open now or Closed now.
- Past midnight. A closing time earlier than the opening time (8:00 PM to 2:00 AM) is an overnight shift, and it counts as part of the day it opens. Call routing, the AI receptionist and web chat follow it; online booking times don't use overnight hours yet.
- Holiday closures. Add them under Settings → Locations → Holiday closures (Add a closed date). The AI will not book on those dates, and a closed day is closed all day: with Answer differently after hours on, every call that day takes the night-time route, and the Calls tab shows Closed now. With it off, nothing changes for call routing. The AI receptionist treats a closed day as after hours everywhere it checks, including which actions it keeps when it is set to take a message after hours. See Set holiday closures.
Voicemails
Messages left after hours land under Call Logs → Voicemails with a transcript (on paid plans and trials), and the people who have New voicemails on under Settings → Account → Notifications are told. See Handle voicemails.