# Business Hours and Holidays (/docs/guides/answer-every-call/business-hours-and-holidays) Your operating hours tell careCycle when your agency is open. Outbound campaigns use them to decide when to dial, your Receptionist uses them to switch between business-hours and after-hours behavior, and appointment booking uses them to decide which slots can be offered. You configure everything at [Settings > Organization > Operating Hours](https://app.carecycle.ai/settings/organization/operating-hours), which has three tabs: **Regular Hours**, **Special Hours**, and **Holidays**, plus a **Business Timezone** picker at the top. All of your operating hours are interpreted in that timezone. Regular Hours [#regular-hours] Your standard weekly schedule. Add one or more schedules, each covering selected days (with **Weekdays (Mon-Fri)** and **Weekends (Sat-Sun)** presets) and a start and end time. Multiple schedules let you keep different hours on different days, for example 9 to 5 on weekdays and 10 to 2 on Saturdays. Days with no schedule are treated as closed. Special Hours [#special-hours] Special hours are named, temporary changes to your regular schedule, for things like a company training day or a shortened summer Friday. Each entry has a name, an open window, and one of three types: * **One-time Special Day**: a single specific date. * **Date Range**: a start and end date, for example a company retreat week. * **Recurring Event**: repeats weekly (pick a day of the week) or monthly (pick a day of the month). Special hours override your regular hours on the days they match, but they do not override holidays. Holidays [#holidays] Holidays live in **Holiday Groups**, so you can manage related sets together, for example a federal holidays group and a separate company holidays group. Each holiday in a group is one of two types: * **Fixed Date**: the same date every year, like December 25. * **Floating Date**: a rule like "the third Monday of January," for holidays that move each year. Both types recur automatically every year, so you set them up once. By default a holiday closes your agency for the whole day. Flip on **Modified Hours** instead to stay open for part of the day, for example closing at noon on Christmas Eve. New organizations come with a federal holidays group already loaded, so you do not have to build the standard calendar yourself. Review it, adjust any holidays your agency treats differently, and note that a holiday group only takes effect while it is enabled for your organization. Which Schedule Wins [#which-schedule-wins] When more than one schedule applies to the same day, careCycle resolves them in a fixed order: 1. **Holidays** win over everything. A closed holiday closes the day even if special or regular hours say otherwise. 2. **Special hours** override regular hours on the days they match. 3. **Regular hours** apply on any ordinary day. What Happens Outside Your Hours [#what-happens-outside-your-hours] * **Outbound campaign calls are deferred.** A call that comes due while you are closed is automatically pushed to your next open time, so nothing is lost when a holiday lands mid-campaign. * **Closed holidays are always respected.** Even campaigns configured to dial outside business hours (for example speed-to-lead campaigns that run evenings and weekends) will not dial on a closed holiday. * **TCPA quiet hours apply on top, always.** Separately from your operating hours, careCycle never places outbound calls or sends campaign SMS outside 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM in the customer's local timezone. This is a legal compliance floor and cannot be turned off. See [TCPA Compliance](/docs/guides/stay-compliant/tcpa). What Else Uses Your Operating Hours [#what-else-uses-your-operating-hours] * **Your Receptionist**: Assistant Behaviors can differ between business hours and after hours, and your hours are what flip that switch. A scenario can transfer live during the day and log an inquiry overnight. * **Appointment booking**: offered slots must fall inside your operating hours, further narrowed by any per-appointment-type [booking hours](/docs/guides/campaign-toolkit/calendars). * **Live transfers**: inbound availability checks treat you as unavailable after hours, so callers route to the after-hours path instead of ringing an empty office. Recommendations [#recommendations] * **Campaigns that warm-transfer to your team** should run only during business hours, so there is always someone to receive the call. * **Appointment and inquiry campaigns** can run around the clock: the AI employee books and logs on your behalf, and your team follows up when you reopen. Business-hours and after-hours behaviors in the behaviors table. Booking hours that narrow availability inside your operating hours. How campaigns use your settings.