As a business owner, you wear a lot of hats—and sometimes you just can’t (or don’t want to) answer every call. That’s why Grasshopper offers flexible scheduling tools that let you control when and how your business phone rings.

In this post, we’ll break down the three scheduling layers you can set in Grasshopper—account level business hours, extension level office hours, and call forwarding hours. Think of these as gates each incoming call passes through; they either send the call to the next gate according to your account configuration or modify the flow for after-hours. Use of these schedules is optional, but thoughtful customization can help you appear professional, tailor your call flow to match your unique needs, and never miss an important opportunity.

Account level business hours

What it is:

This is the “front door” of your business. It’s applied to all incoming calls for Grasshopper phone numbers that are configured with a phone menu and welcome greeting and determines whether callers hear your standard welcome greeting (and get the chance to select an extension) or an away greeting.

Useful for:

Notifying callers up front that your business is closed.

Example: If your business is always closed on weekends, and you don’t want callers to leave voicemails, you can set those as closed days and relax, knowing customers will get a professional message and calls won’t disturb you or your team on your time off.

Configuration options:

• Set typical “9 to 5” hours—or customize to the day and minute.
• Set specific “away” days for holidays, vacations, or just a well-deserved day off.
• Choose to always be open and routing calls from the main number(s).

How it works:

Within your set business hours: Callers hear your welcome greeting and choose an extension as normal.

Outside your set business hours: Callers hear a (customizable) away greeting instead of the typical welcome. No options, no voicemails.

Pro tip: When calls come in outside account business hours, callers won’t be able to leave a voicemail. If you want to get voicemails after hours, you can leave your account business hours open 24/7 and use the extension or forwarding hours to manage your schedule (see below).

Extension office hours

What it is:

Each extension in Grasshopper can have its own specific schedule, known as ‘office hours.’ Once a call passes the account business hours check, the extension office hours determine whether a specific extension forwards the call to the assigned forwarding numbers or sends it to voicemail.

Useful for:

Getting voicemails after hours and assigning different schedules for different departments.

Example: Set different office hours for sales and support extensions to keep the sales phones ringing until 7:30 PM but send billing calls to voicemail after 5 PM.

Configuration options:

• Set typical “9 to 5” hours—or customize to the day and minute.
• Set specific “away” days for holidays or vacations
• Choose to be always open (routing calls), or always closed (sending calls to voicemail)

How it works:

Within office hours: The call rings assigned forwarding numbers (for instance, the mobile numbers for your sales team).

Outside office hours: Callers hear a (customizable) away message, then leave a voicemail.

Call forwarding hours

What it is:

Each call forwarding number assigned to an extension can have its own schedule of working hours. Once the extension office hours gate is passed, the call forwarding hours determine which forwarding numbers actually ring.

Useful for:

Sharing an extension between team members who work different hours.

Example: Two part-time employees share an extension, with one person taking calls 8am-12pm while the other takes calls 12:01-5pm.

Configuration options:

• Set unique schedules for each forwarding number

How it works:

During forwarding hours: The number rings as part of the extension’s call group, according to your regular extension settings.

Outside of forwarding hours: The number doesn’t ring. If other numbers assigned to the same extension are within their forwarding hours, they will ring as normal. If all forwarding numbers for the extension are outside their hours, calls will go to the extension’s voicemail.

Pro tip: When setting custom forwarding hours, make sure they fall within the extension’s office hours. If you have one support employee scheduled to work Saturdays, but your support extension office hours only cover Monday-Friday, that person won’t receive any Saturday calls. To send calls to your Saturday employee, you’d need to include Saturday in the extension’s office hours. Just be sure to set appropriate forwarding hours for any other employees sharing that extension, to ensure they don’t get calls outside their work hours.

How it all comes together: example scenarios

Scenario 1: Call outside account business hours (Sunday, business “closed”).

The caller hears your away greeting as soon as they’re connected—no voicemail.

Scenario 2: Call within account business hours, but outside extension office hours (Tuesday 6pm, but sales extension closed at 4pm).

Caller hears the main welcome greeting and dials ‘1’ for the Sales extension; they hear the extension’s away greeting and can leave a voicemail.

Scenario 3: Call comes in within account and extension hours, but outside the call forwarding schedules (business and extension open at 8am, but call comes in at 9am and forwarding hours don’t start until 10am.)

Caller hears the welcome greeting and selects ‘1’ for the Sales extension, but goes to voicemail without ringing anyone’s phone since none of the assigned forwarding numbers are open yet.

Pro tip: Remember, there’s no need to set custom hours at all three levels. If after hours calls aren’t a problem for you, you could leave all schedules open 24/7. If you don’t want your customers to hear an away message, but still want to protect employees from after-hours calls, you can leave account and extension hours open 24/7 and control the schedule exclusively at the call-forwarding number level.

To sum it all up

Grasshopper’s schedules work like a series of gates for every call – account business hours first, then extension office hours, and finally call forwarding hours. At each gate, Grasshopper decides whether to pass the call to the next gate, per your normal configuration, or modify the flow for after-hours.

How you use these gates is up to you (you can choose to set custom schedules for any, all or none of them), but thoughtful setup will ensure your call flow matches the unique operations of your business, and you’ll never be caught off guard by business calls while having dinner or taking a much deserved break. Take a few minutes today to review your settings and ensure your schedule works as hard as you do.