Routing Calls Based on Office Hours and Holidays
PortSIP PBX allows you to route calls dynamically based on office hours, holidays, and other time-based conditions. This flexibility ensures that inbound calls are always directed to the appropriate destination depending on when they are received.
Inbound Call Routing
PortSIP PBX handles all inbound calls from SIP trunks using inbound rules. Within an inbound rule, you can:
Specify the SIP trunk on which the call is received
Define matching criteria using Caller ID (CID) and DID numbers
Configure different routing destinations based on office hours and holidays
Example routing behavior
In the inbound rule shown in the example:
Calls received during a holiday are routed to extension 103
Calls received during office hours are routed to extension 101
Calls received outside of office hours are routed to extension 102
This allows you to provide different call handling behavior for business hours, after-hours, and holidays using a single inbound rule.
Configuring office hours and holidays for an inbound rule
Within an inbound rule, open the Office Hours tab to configure time-based routing:
Choose Use Default Global Office Hours to apply the tenant-wide office hours.
Choose Use Specific Office Hours to define custom office hours for this inbound rule.
Select one or more holidays from the Global Holiday List to apply holiday-specific routing.
The PBX evaluates the current time and date against these settings and routes inbound calls to the appropriate destination accordingly.
Advanced Routing for Inbound Rules
In addition to office hours and holiday routing, PortSIP PBX supports advanced, time-based routing for inbound calls. Advanced routing allows you to direct calls to different destinations based on custom date and time conditions, providing fine-grained control over call handling.
Within an inbound rule, open the Advanced Routing tab to configure these routing strategies.
How Advanced Routing Works
An advanced routing strategy evaluates the current date and time against a set of conditions. If all conditions match, the call is routed to the specified destination or action.
Advanced routing strategies can be based on:
Years
Months
Days of the month
Days of the week
Time shifts
Each strategy defines both when it applies and what action to take when it matches.
Advanced Routing Fields
Priority
Determines the order in which routing strategies are evaluated.
The PBX evaluates strategies from lowest priority value to highest.
Priority range:
0–10000is the highest priority.
If the current date and time do not match a strategy, the PBX evaluates the next strategy.
Years
Specifies the years during which this routing strategy applies.
The strategy is ignored if the current year does not match.
Supported formats:
Range:
2023–2030Single year:
2031Combination:
2023–2030;2032;2035
Enter
allor leave the field empty to apply to all years.
Months
Specifies the months during which this routing strategy applies.
The strategy is ignored if the current month does not match.
Supported formats:
Range:
1–9Single month:
11Combination:
1–9;11;12
Select or enter
allto apply to all months.
Days (Day of Month)
Specifies the days of the month during which this routing strategy applies.
The strategy is ignored if the current day does not match.
Supported formats:
Range:
1–21Single day:
11Combination:
1–9;11;22
Select or enter
allto apply to all days of the month.
Weekdays
Specifies the days of the week during which this routing strategy applies.
The strategy is ignored if the current weekday does not match.
Supported formats:
Range:
1–5Single day:
3Combination:
1–3;4
Select or enter
allto apply to all weekdays.Weekday numbering:
1= Monday7= Sunday
Time Shifts
Specifies one or more time ranges during which this routing strategy applies.
The strategy is ignored if the current time does not fall within any defined range.
Format:
HH:MM–HH:MMMultiple ranges separated by semicolons.
Example:
09:00–11:30;14:00–18:00
Action
Defines what happens when the routing strategy matches.
Number – Routes the call to a specified number.
Voicemail – Routes the call to an extension’s voicemail.
Hangup – Terminates the inbound call.
Destination (Dest)
Specifies the destination number for the selected action.
Used when Action is Number or Voicemail
Ignored when Action is Hangup
Example:
If Action is Number and Dest is 123456, the call is routed to 123456.
Note: To route calls to a shared voicemail, set Action to Number and enter the shared voicemail number as the destination.
Strategy Evaluation and Fallback
Multiple advanced routing strategies can be defined per inbound rule.
Strategies are evaluated by priority (lowest value first).
The first matching strategy is applied.
If no advanced routing strategy matches, the PBX falls back to the Office Hours and Holiday routing configured for the inbound rule.
Extension Call Routing
Each extension can have call forwarding rules that define how PortSIP PBX handles calls when the user is unavailable or cannot answer. These rules can be evaluated based on:
The user’s status
The current time (office hours and holidays)
Routing behavior when an extension is offline
When an extension is offline, the PBX evaluates the extension’s office hours and holiday settings:
Outside office hours or during a holiday The call is routed to the destination configured in the When Out of Office Hours field. The destination can be:
Another extension
A PSTN phone number
A mobile phone number
Example: Calls are routed to
332061180.During office hours and not on a holiday The call is routed to the destination configured in the In Office Hours field. Example: Calls are routed to the extension’s voicemail.
Extension holidays
An extension can:
Select holidays from the tenant-level Global Holiday List
Define custom personal holidays
Both global and personal holidays are treated as outside office hours for that extension and will trigger out-of-office routing behavior.
Exceptions for Extensions
You can define exception rules for an extension to override the extension’s standard call forwarding behavior under specific conditions.
How exception rules work
An exception rule is evaluated based on:
Caller ID – identifies specific callers or caller patterns
Received During – specifies the time shifts when the exception applies
Forward To – defines the action or destination when the exception is matched
Routing behavior
If an inbound call matches an exception rule, the PBX immediately applies the action defined in that exception.
When an exception rule is applied, the extension’s normal forwarding rules are bypassed.
If no exception rule matches, the PBX processes the call using the extension’s standard forwarding configuration.
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