Click here to watch a complete video of how to configure business hours and holidays using both the Easy Attendant and Premium Attendant.

Sometimes it might be necessary to change your business hours on a day because of an early closure before a holiday, or for a special company event such as a staff meeting, holiday party, or other function.

If your organization uses a full-time auto attendant, and calls are answered by the automated system around the clock, you only need to complete the steps in Part A below.

However, if your organization answers calls live during business hours and only uses an auto attendant when you are closed and as an overflow to a live operator, you need to complete steps in both parts A and B below.

These instructions are for the EASY ATTENDANT. This is the standard auto attendant included with PHONEWARE Cloud-Based Telecom service and is used by most of our customers. If your organization uses a PREMIUM ATTENDANT, these instructions do not apply. Please contact PHONEWARE support for assistance with your PREMIUM ATTENDANT.

Part A – change your schedule on the auto attendant

This schedule will determine whether callers hear your business hours (open) main company greeting, or your non-business hours (closed) main company greeting when they call your main telephone number.

NOTE: You can make this temporary schedule change up to 6 days in advance. The change MUST BE reversed within 6 days after the event to prevent the special hours from repeating.

  1. Open an internet browser and visit https://phoneware.us.
  2. Hover over the LOGIN option and select ADMIN PORTAL LOGIN. Admin portal login screen is displayed.
  3. Enter the direct telephone number of a user with administrator priveleges. Enter the number without formatting characters such as ()-.
  4. Enter the commportal password for the account. The default password was included in your original user training documentation, but it can be changed. If you don’t know the admin portal password, contact PHONEWARE support. Admin portal is displayed after password is successfully entered.
  5. Click on the “Attendants” link on the menu at the left.
  6. Find your easy attendant line in your business group that is an Easy Attendant line type. Click on ACTIONS and then VIEW ATTENDANT SETTINGS. This will open the easy attendant account in a new window.
  7. Click on the OPEN ATTENDANT SETTINGS button.
  8. Click on the SCHEDULE tab. Your current daily business hours are shown in a grid.
  9. Use your mouse to click and drag within the grid to change the shaded business hours. If you need to select half hours or quarter hours, click on the ZOOM IN option.
  10. Click on the APPLY button to save your changes.

NOTE REMINDER: You can make this temporary schedule change up to 6 days in advance. The change MUST BE reversed within 6 days after the event to prevent the special hours from repeating.

Part B – change your schedule on the main telephone number

Since you will not want your main telephone number to ring during these special temporary schedules, and you will want callers to go directly to the auto attendant, you must also make the same schedule changes on your main telephone number call manager schedule. If your organization uses a full-time auto attendant, you DO NOT NEED to complete this process.

NOTE REMINDER: You can make this temporary schedule change up to 6 days in advance. The change MUST BE reversed within 6 days after the event to prevent the special hours from repeating.

  1. Back at the business group administrator portal, click on ALL LINES on the menu at the left.
  2. Find your main telephone number in the list of lines. Click on ACTIONS and then VIEW INDIVIDUAL SETTINGS.
  3. Click on the GO TO CALL MANAGER button.
  4. Click on the WEEKLY SCHEDULE tab. Your daily business hours are shown in a grid.
  5. Use your mouse to click and drag within the grid to change the shaded business hours. If you need to select half hours or quarter hours, click on the ZOOM IN option.
  6. Once the desired schedule changes have been made, click on the APPLY to save your changes.

NOTE REMINDER: You can make this temporary schedule change up to 6 days in advance. The change MUST BE reversed within 6 days after the event to prevent the special hours from repeating.

This completes the process and you can close out the admin portal tab or window.