A schedule defines your weekly business hours in a single timezone, the days you’re closed, and an optional out-of-office message that goes out automatically when a customer messages outside your open hours. Once a schedule is saved, you assign it to one or more channels so it controls how those channels respond when you’re away.

You can create as many schedules as you need — for example, one for your support team’s hours and another for sales — and assign each one to a different set of channels.

If your account has no schedules yet, you land on an empty state titled No schedules with the helper text “Get started by creating a new schedule.” and a Create Schedule button.

If you already have one or more schedules, the page opens directly into the editor for the first schedule. To create another, click Add Schedule in the top right.

In the Schedule Details card:

Note: If you try to save without a name, Octopods returns the error “Title can’t be blank. Please insert a title below.”

In the Weekly Hours card header, pick the timezone the schedule should run in:

The timezone applies to every open and closed time you set below. Octopods uses your browser’s detected timezone as the default for new schedules and remembers the saved timezone whenever you re-open the schedule later.

Important: If your team works across multiple timezones, pick the one that best matches the hours you want to advertise to customers. A schedule has only one timezone — if you need different timezones for different channels, create a separate schedule for each.

The Weekly Hours card lists each day of the week from Monday to Sunday using three-letter labels: MON, TUE, WED, THU, FRI, SAT, SUN. Each day has a checkbox that toggles whether the day is open or closed.

When you start with a brand-new schedule, Octopods pre-fills weekday hours of 9:00 to 17:00 and marks Saturday and Sunday as closed. Adjust them to match your team’s real hours.

To set hours for an open day:

If you accidentally enter an end time earlier than the start time, Octopods automatically corrects it so the end time is never before the start.

To add a second time block on the same day — for example, a morning shift and an afternoon shift with a closed lunch break — click the indigo + Add button to the right of the first block. A new pair of time pickers appears below the first one. Each additional block has a red Remove button so you can delete it if you change your mind.

To mark a day as closed:

Note: If you save a schedule with every day closed, Octopods returns the error “Schedule can’t be blank. Please insert a schedule below.” At least one day must have an open time block.

The Out of Office Message card lets you reply automatically to customers who message you outside your business hours. You can leave this off if you only want the schedule to define your hours.

For more on how out-of-office messages behave and what to write in them, see Out-of-Office Auto-Responses.

In the Schedule Details card, the Assign to Channels section lists every Intercom-connected channel on your account, grouped by workspace. Tick the channels this schedule should govern. You can also save the schedule without picking any channels and come back to assign them later.

For the full assignment workflow, see Assigning Schedules to Channels.

When all three cards look right, click Save Schedule in the bottom-right corner of the page. Octopods saves the schedule, returns you to its editor, and adds a tab for it at the top of the Schedules page so you can switch between schedules.

If you assigned channels, those channels start using the schedule immediately — incoming messages are checked against the schedule’s open hours from this moment on.