Schedules

What Are Schedules?

Schedules define your business hours in Zendesk. They specify when your support team is available and are used primarily by SLA policies to calculate response and resolution targets during business hours rather than calendar hours. Schedules can also include holiday overrides for days when your team is not available.

What Configly Captures

For each schedule, Configly stores a complete snapshot of its configuration:

• Basic Information

  • Schedule name
  • Time zone -- the time zone used for business hour calculations

• Business Hour Intervals

  • Day of week (Monday through Sunday)
  • Start time for each interval
  • End time for each interval
  • Multiple intervals per day are supported (e.g., 9:00-12:00 and 13:00-17:00 for a lunch break)

• Metadata

  • Zendesk ID
  • Created and updated timestamps

Viewing Schedules

Navigate to Schedules from your connection dashboard to see all your business hour schedules. You can:

• Browse all schedules with their time zones
• Search schedules by name
• See the total count on the dashboard card
• Click any schedule to view its full interval configuration

Common Dependencies

Schedules are referenced by SLA policies and indirectly affect automations:

Use dependency mapping to see which SLA policies reference each schedule.

Tips for Admins

Before Making Changes

• Before changing business hours, check which SLA policies use this schedule. Every SLA referencing the schedule will be affected.
• Before changing the time zone, remember that all interval start/end times are relative to the schedule's time zone. Changing the time zone shifts all business hours.
• Before deleting a schedule, ensure no SLA policies reference it. An SLA without a valid schedule may fall back to calendar hours.

Common Patterns

• Regional schedules -- Separate schedules for each region (e.g., "EMEA Business Hours", "APAC Business Hours") with SLA policies that apply the correct schedule based on the requester's region
• Extended hours -- A schedule covering evenings and weekends for premium support tiers
• 24/7 schedule -- A schedule with no gaps, used for SLA policies that should count all hours

Maintenance

• Review schedules at least twice a year to account for daylight saving time changes and holiday updates
• Compare schedule intervals against your actual staffing to ensure accuracy
• Check that every SLA policy references the correct schedule for its target audience

Using Configly

• Use snapshot comparison to detect when schedule intervals change -- even small changes (e.g., shifting start time by 30 minutes) can affect SLA calculations
• Use dependency mapping to see which SLA policies depend on each schedule
• Use What-If simulation to test schedule changes and understand the impact on SLA targets

Example Use Cases

Time Zone Correction

You discover that a schedule is set to the wrong time zone:

1. Open the schedule in Configly and note the current time zone and intervals
2. Check which SLA policies reference this schedule using dependency mapping
3. Fix the time zone in Zendesk
4. Sync and compare snapshots to confirm the change

New Regional Schedule

You're expanding support to a new region:

1. Sync your current configuration to capture the baseline
2. Create the new schedule in Zendesk with the region's business hours
3. Update SLA policies to use the new schedule for that region's tickets
4. Sync again and compare snapshots to verify the setup

SLA Troubleshooting

Agents report that SLA timers seem off -- tickets are breaching targets during non-business hours:

1. Check the SLA policy in Configly to see which schedule it references
2. View the schedule's intervals to verify they match your expected business hours
3. Look for gaps or overlaps in the intervals
4. Compare recent snapshots to see if the schedule was recently changed

Related Objects

• SLA Policies -- service level targets that use schedules for business hour calculations
• Automations -- time-based rules that may factor in business hours
• Groups -- teams whose availability should align with schedule definitions