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FAQ — Why doesn't my opening-hours rule apply?

Five usual suspects when a rule isn't behaving as expected: scope mismatch, active toggle off, another rule winning specificity, timezone mismatch, or a date override silently overriding.

Updated May 13, 20264 min read

FAQ — Why doesn’t my opening-hours rule apply?

Five things to check, in roughly the order they’re most likely to be the cause.

1. Is the rule’s scope matching the conversation?

The rule has a Team Assignment and a Channel Assignment. The conversation has an assigned team and a channel. The rule only applies if both match (or are left empty, which means “any”).

Open the rule. Look at:

Team Assignment — does the conversation’s assigned team appear in the list? If empty, the rule covers any team.
Channel Assignment — does the conversation’s channel appear in the list? If empty, the rule covers any channel.

The most common scope mismatch is a typo or an outdated team reference. Picking the team from the dropdown rather than typing it usually catches this.

2. Is the rule active?

Each rule has an Active toggle. An inactive rule is invisible to the resolver — it’s as if the rule didn’t exist.

Check the toggle. If it’s off, turn it on and re-test.

This is also worth checking after a “let me temporarily test something” — easy to forget to flip a rule back on after testing.

3. Is another rule winning the specificity contest?

When multiple rules match a conversation, the most specific wins:

Team + Channel → score 3 (highest)
Team only → score 2
Channel only → score 1

If a Team+Channel rule exists for the conversation’s combination, it wins over your Team-only or Channel-only rule even if the latter looks like it should apply.

To trace which rule is actually active: open the rules list, filter by the conversation’s team or channel, and look at the most specific match. See rule resolution reference for the full details.

4. Is the rule’s timezone what you expect?

A rule’s schedule is interpreted in the rule’s timezone. If the rule says 09:00-17:00 in America/New_York and you’re checking it from London, the schedule applies in NYC time — the SLA timer pauses overnight in NYC, not in London.

Check the timezone field. Use fully-qualified zones (America/New_York) rather than abbreviations (EST) — abbreviations don’t observe DST consistently.

For multi-timezone teams, you should have multiple rules — one per region with its own timezone. See multi-timezone hours.

5. Is a date override silently changing the day?

Date overrides (Christmas Eve half-day, custom holiday hours, year-end closure) apply for specific dates. If you’re testing on a date that has an override, the rule’s normal schedule isn’t what’s running.

Open the rule’s date overrides list. Look for entries on the date you’re testing. If one exists, it takes precedence over the weekly schedule for that date.

Less common causes

The conversation isn’t actually assigned to the team you think

A team-scoped rule needs the conversation to be assigned to the team. If the conversation is unassigned, or assigned to a different team than you thought, the team-scoped rule doesn’t match. Check the conversation’s assignment.

The rule’s weekly schedule has the day toggled off

Weekly schedules let you toggle individual days on or off. A rule for “Mon-Fri 9-5” with Saturday and Sunday off doesn’t apply on weekends — by design. If you’re testing on a Saturday and expect coverage, the rule needs to have Saturday toggled on with hours.

The active rule is the no-rule default

If no rule matches a conversation’s team-and-channel combination, the resolver falls back to default behavior — which is not “apply the most-recently-saved rule.” It’s per-feature: SLA timers run continuously, automation schedule restrictions evaluate as “always inside hours,” IVR Is Open defaults to closed.

If you expected the no-match case to behave differently, the fix is to add a fallback rule with broad scoping (empty team, listing all relevant channels).

Quick diagnostic flow

Identify the conversation that should be affected. Note its team and channel.
List active rules in Settings → Opening Hours.
Filter to rules whose Team or Channel scoping covers the conversation.
The most specific match wins. If multiple match, the highest-score rule applies.
Verify the timezone and any date overrides on the winning rule.