Holidays and closures

Your weekly business hours repeat forever. Holidays are how you make exceptions for specific dates — Christmas Day, a long weekend, the week you’re at a trade show.

You’ll find them in Settings → Business Hours → Holiday schedule.

How they interact with your weekly hours

On a date in your holiday list, the holiday’s hours replace your weekly ones entirely.

That applies even if you’re normally open. If your weekly schedule says Thursday 9–5 and you’ve added a holiday for that Thursday marked Closed, callers go to voicemail all day.

It applies even if you’re set to take calls 24/7. A holiday still overrides it.

Dates not in the list are untouched — they follow your weekly schedule as normal.

Adding a holiday

Switch on Enable holiday hours, then Add holiday:

Name — whatever helps you recognise it later. Christmas Day, Trade show — Vegas. Up to 60 characters.

Start date and End date — for a single day, set both to the same date. For a stretch, set the range; the end date is included, so 24–26 December covers all three days.

Availability — the same three options as a normal day:

• Closed — the usual choice. Nobody rings through; everyone goes to voicemail.
• Open 24 hours — for a date you’re covering round the clock.
• Custom hours — shorter hours. Christmas Eve 9:00 to 13:00, say.

Rules Callify enforces

• Holidays can’t overlap each other. Two entries covering the same date is ambiguous, so you’ll get an error naming the pair.
• End date can’t be before the start date.
• Time ranges within one holiday can’t overlap, same as a normal day.
• Every holiday needs a name.

Turning holidays off

The Enable holiday hours switch turns the whole list off without deleting anything. Every date goes back to following your weekly schedule.

That’s handy for a list you rebuild each year — switch it off in January, edit the dates when you know them, switch it back on.

To remove one holiday permanently, use the remove control on its card, then Save.

What callers hear

Exactly what they’d hear any other time you’re closed:

• Voicemail on — your greeting, a beep, and a chance to leave a message.
• Voicemail off — “We’re sorry, we’re currently closed. Please call back during our business hours,” and the call ends.

If you’re closing for more than a day or two, it’s worth recording a temporary greeting that says so and gives a date you’ll be back. Callers who know when you’ll return are much less likely to give up.

A worked example

You’re closed from 24 December to 2 January, but running short hours on Christmas Eve.

1. Holiday 1 — Christmas Eve, 24 Dec to 24 Dec, Custom hours 9:00 to 13:00.
2. Holiday 2 — Holiday closure, 25 Dec to 2 Jan, Closed.

Two entries, no overlap. Christmas Eve morning rings through; from 1pm on the 24th until the 3rd of January, everyone goes to voicemail.