A business hours calendar defines when your organisation is open. It is what makes "four hours to respond" mean four working hours rather than four hours on the clock.
Not the same as Booking Calendars
- Booking Calendars — scheduling appointments against a resource: who is free, which slots can be booked.
- Business Hours Calendars — measuring working time, and calculating due dates that respect opening hours.
If you are booking somebody in, you want a Booking Calendar. If you are measuring how long something took, or when it is due, you want this.
What makes up a calendar
- The calendar itself — a name and a timezone.
- Its hours — the open periods for each day of the week.
- Its exceptions — individual dates that differ, such as public holidays.
How many do you need?
One per genuinely different pattern of opening — a standard business calendar, a 24×7 calendar for critical services, one per region if you operate in several. Resist creating one per team unless they really do work different hours: every extra calendar is another place holidays have to be kept up to date.
Worked Examples
- Support desk: a standard business calendar for normal cases and a 24×7 calendar for priority-one incidents.
- Multi-region: UK, Ireland and Germany calendars, each with their own public holidays.