Business Hours
Tell TicketCord when your team is available, what to say outside those hours, and whether tickets may still be opened
Business Hours give your server a weekly schedule, a timezone, and a holiday list. Outside those hours the bot either blocks new tickets with a closed notice, or lets them through and posts a notice in the ticket so both the user and staff know a reply may take longer. The same schedule can pause SLA timers and decide when the AI answers on its own. It is for teams that do not staff support around the clock and want to set expectations instead of leaving people waiting.
Business Hours is an Enterprise feature. The tab shows a lock badge on lower plans, and if the bot owner's plan is not Enterprise the bot ignores any saved schedule and creates tickets at all hours. Upgrade your plan to use it.
Setting up
Open the Business Hours tab
Go to Dashboard → Bots, pick your bot, choose the server, and open Business Hours under the Service Levels group. Turn on the Business hours card.
Set the timezone
Under Timezone settings, leave Auto-detect timezone on to use the timezone of the browser you are configuring from (the detected zone is shown), or turn it off and pick one under Select timezone. Schedules use named timezones, so daylight saving changes are handled for you.
Fill in the weekly schedule
Under Weekly schedule, enable each day you offer support and set its From and To times in 24-hour HH:MM format. Disabled days are closed all day. A range that ends before it starts, such as 22:00 to 06:00, runs overnight into the next day.
Write the off-hours message
Under Off-hours message, set a Message title and Message description, or click Convert to Components V2 to design a richer container. Decide whether to Show next opening time and whether to Allow ticket creation outside hours.
Add holidays
Under Holidays and special dates, click Add holiday, enter a Holiday name and Date, and tick Recurring yearly for dates that repeat. Holidays close the whole day regardless of the weekly schedule.
Save
Click Save or press Ctrl/Cmd + S. The schedule applies to the next ticket request immediately.
Settings
| Setting | Allowed values | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Business hours (card switch) | on or off | off |
| Auto-detect timezone | on or off | on |
| Select timezone | any IANA timezone, for example Europe/Berlin | America/New_York |
| Weekly schedule → day enabled | on or off per day | Monday to Friday on, Saturday and Sunday off |
| Weekly schedule → From / To | HH:MM, 24-hour, one range per day, overnight allowed | 09:00 to 17:00 |
| Message title | 1 to 100 characters | We're Currently Closed |
| Message description | 1 to 500 characters | Thank you for contacting us! We're currently outside of business hours, but you can still create a ticket and we'll get back to you during our next business day. |
| Components V2 container | up to 3 containers; supports {title}, {description}, and {nextOpenTime} | one orange container containing the title and description |
| Show next opening time | on or off | on |
| Allow ticket creation | on or off | on |
| Holidays → Holiday name | 1 to 100 characters | none |
| Holidays → Date | YYYY-MM-DD | none |
| Holidays → Recurring yearly | on or off | off |
Allow ticket creation is on by default. A freshly enabled schedule therefore only adds a notice; it does not stop anyone from opening a ticket until you turn that switch off.
Worked example: a European weekday team
A team in Berlin that works office hours, offers a shorter Friday, and closes on public holidays would set Auto-detect timezone off, Select timezone to Europe/Berlin, Monday to Thursday 09:00 to 18:00, Friday 09:00 to 15:00, Saturday and Sunday disabled, and add 2026-12-25 "Christmas Day" and 2026-01-01 "New Year's Day" as recurring holidays. With Allow ticket creation on and Show next opening time on, a user opening a ticket at 20:00 on Friday gets their ticket plus a notice saying the team is back Monday at 09:00, shown in the user's own local time.
What happens outside hours
The bot checks the schedule every time someone tries to open a ticket from a panel button, dropdown, modal, or a ModMail DM.
With Allow ticket creation on
- The ticket is created normally, with the welcome message you configured.
- A separate notice is posted in the ticket: a bold clock line with your Message title (or "Outside Business Hours" if empty) and your Message description (or "This ticket was created outside of business hours. Staff may not respond until the next business day.").
- On-call and per-button staff pings are suppressed for that ticket so nobody is woken up. Staff can still see and answer it.
- The ticket is otherwise a normal ticket: it counts toward limits, can be claimed, and follows your close settings.
With Allow ticket creation off
- No ticket or channel is created.
- The user sees an error card with code TC018. The heading is "Ticket creation is not available outside of business hours." When you designed a Components V2 message, its first line of content is used as the heading instead.
- When Show next opening time is on, the card also says We'll be back: followed by a Discord timestamp of the next opening, rendered in each viewer's local time.
- ModMail users who DM the bot outside hours receive "We're currently outside of business hours. Please try again later." and no ticket is opened.
The next-opening placeholder
In a Components V2 off-hours message you can place {nextOpenTime} anywhere in the content. It becomes a Discord timestamp when Show next opening time is on. If you leave the placeholder out, the bot appends a block instead: We'll be back: with the timestamp, Our Hours: with your weekly schedule, and a note that times are shown in the viewer's local timezone. If the next opening cannot be worked out (for example every day is disabled), the placeholder is removed silently.
What else uses the schedule
| Feature | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| SLA Management | With Business hours only on, SLA timers pause while you are closed, including holidays |
| AI answers | The Respond Outside Business Hours Only behaviour setting on the AI Features tab makes the knowledge-base AI answer only when your team is closed, so staff handle tickets during the day and the AI covers nights |
| ModMail | DMs outside hours follow Allow ticket creation as described above |
| Auto-close and reminders | Not affected. Inactivity timers count wall-clock time |
Limits and gotchas
- One schedule and one timezone per server. Different teams in different timezones need to agree on one schedule.
- One time range per day. Split shifts (morning and evening with a lunch gap) are not supported; enable the whole span instead.
- Holidays are always full-day closures. Use the weekly schedule for shortened days.
- The start time is inclusive and the end time is exclusive: with
09:00to17:00, a ticket at17:00exactly is outside hours. - The schedule is stored in the timezone you pick, but users always see the next opening time in their own timezone thanks to Discord timestamps.
- If the bot cannot evaluate the schedule for any reason, it errs on the side of creating the ticket rather than blocking users.
With Auto-detect timezone on, the schedule follows the browser that last saved the page. If a colleague in another timezone opens and saves the tab, your hours shift with them. Pick an explicit timezone for teams spread across regions.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Tickets are still created outside hours | Allow ticket creation is on (the default), or the bot owner's plan is not Enterprise | Turn the switch off to block, and confirm the plan on Dashboard → Billing |
| Users get TC018 during working hours | The timezone is wrong, or the day is disabled or listed as a holiday | Check Select timezone and the day's toggle; remove stale one-off holidays |
| Users see TC018 with no next opening time | Show next opening time is off, or every day is disabled so no opening exists | Turn the switch on and enable at least one day |
| The off-hours notice shows the default text, not mine | The V2 message was saved without a title or description fallback, or the plain fields are empty | Fill in Message title and Message description even when using Components V2 |
| SLA timers keep running at night | Business hours only on the SLA tab is off | Turn it on; see SLA Management |
| Staff were not pinged for an off-hours ticket | Pings are suppressed on purpose for tickets created outside hours | Expected. Use the notice in the ticket or check the queue in the morning |
| The next opening time is a day late | An overnight range such as 22:00 to 06:00 belongs to the day it starts on | Enable the range on the evening day, not the morning day |
Common questions
Can users still open tickets when we are closed? Yes by default. Allow ticket creation is on unless you turn it off, and the ticket gets an off-hours notice. Turn the switch off to block tickets with a TC018 message instead.
Does Business Hours affect ModMail? Yes. Outside hours, a DM either opens a ticket with the off-hours notice (switch on) or gets "We're currently outside of business hours. Please try again later." (switch off).
Can I set different hours for different ticket categories or priorities? No. There is one schedule per server. Use SLA Management targets per priority if you need urgent tickets treated differently.
How do I handle daylight saving time?
Nothing to do. Pick a named timezone such as Europe/London and the schedule follows local time through the change.
Why does the next opening time look different for different users? It is a Discord timestamp, so Discord renders it in each viewer's own timezone. The underlying moment is the same.
Can I close for lunch? Not with a gap. Each day has a single range. Keep the range continuous, or make a holiday for a whole day off.
What does the user see when tickets are blocked? An error card with code TC018, your off-hours heading, and, if enabled, the next opening time. Nothing is created and staff are not notified.
Does the schedule stop auto-close timers overnight? No. Auto-close and reminders count wall-clock time. Only SLA timers pause, and only when Business hours only is on.
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