Business Hours Explained: How KaiCalls Handles Calls Differently When You're Open vs. Closed

Business Hours is the setting that tells Kai when you're open, so calls during that window ring your phone first and calls outside it go straight to automatic handling. You set an open and close time for each day, add holidays where you're closed, and Kai routes every call based on the clock the moment it comes in.

Without hours set, Kai treats every hour of the day the same way. That's fine until a customer calls at 7am expecting your voicemail and instead your phone rings on the nightstand, or a lead calls at 9pm and gets nothing but silence because nothing was configured to catch it. Business Hours exists to make that distinction on its own.

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Table of Contents

1. What Business Hours actually controls
2. What you can configure
3. How it connects to Call Routing
4. How to set it up, step by step
5. What it costs
6. FAQ

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What Business Hours actually controls

Business Hours is the schedule that decides which of two modes a call falls into: during-hours or after-hours. During business hours, an incoming call rings your phone first so you can pick it up personally. Outside that window, Kai takes over immediately — greeting the caller, handling the conversation, and capturing lead information while you're away.

The schedule is per day of the week, and it runs in your business's time zone. If the time zone on your business profile is wrong, calls can route to after-hours mode during your actual open hours, or the other way around, so it's worth double-checking that setting if routing ever looks off.

What you can configure

• Open and close times for each day of the week, set individually so a shorter Saturday or a closed Sunday is just a toggle.
• Toggle any day off entirely. A day toggled off is treated as closed all day, and Kai uses after-hours routing for the full 24 hours.
• Holidays. Add a specific date — a bank holiday, a company event, any day you won't be answering — and Kai uses after-hours routing on that date regardless of what your normal weekly schedule says. Each holiday gets a name so you can see at a glance why that date is blocked out.
• What "after-hours" actually means for the caller. You choose one of three behaviors: AI-Only, where Kai answers, handles the conversation, and captures the lead with no voicemail prompt at all; Voicemail, where the caller hears your voicemail greeting and the recording gets transcribed and saved to your dashboard; or Custom Greeting, where Kai plays a greeting you write before falling into either AI handling or voicemail.

AI-Only is the most commonly used setting, since it means every after-hours caller gets an immediate response instead of a recording, and you end up capturing more of those leads than a plain voicemail box would catch.

How it connects to Call Routing

Business Hours is the when; Call Routing is the how. Routing decides whether a call rings you first, goes to Kai directly, or follows some other path — Business Hours is one of the inputs that routing checks before making that call. Set your hours correctly and the rest of your routing setup automatically respects them, without you having to duplicate the schedule anywhere else.

How to set it up, step by step

1. Go to Dashboard > Business > Settings > Business Hours.
2. Set the open and close time for each day you're operating.
3. Toggle any day off if you're closed that day — Kai will use after-hours routing all day for it.
4. Click Add Holiday for any one-off closed dates, pick the date, give it a name, and save.
5. Choose your after-hours behavior — AI-Only, Voicemail, or Custom Greeting — and write a custom greeting if you picked that option.
6. Confirm your time zone under Dashboard > Business > Business Profile matches where you actually operate.
7. Click Save. The new schedule takes effect immediately — no waiting period, no redeploy.

What it costs

Business Hours is included on every KaiCalls plan — Solo starts at $69/mo, Pro at $199/mo, both with a generous answered-call allowance and no per-minute overage. There's no extra fee to configure a schedule, add holidays, or switch your after-hours behavior.

FAQ

What happens if I never set Business Hours? Kai uses the same behavior around the clock. Setting hours is what gives you the during-hours/after-hours distinction in the first place.

Can I close for just one day without changing my whole schedule? Yes. Add that date as a holiday. Kai uses after-hours routing on that date only, and your regular weekly schedule picks right back up the next day.

Which after-hours option should I use? AI-Only is the most popular choice because callers get an immediate response and you capture more leads than with a plain voicemail box. Voicemail is still available if you'd rather just get a transcribed message, and Custom Greeting lets you say something specific before either path kicks in.

Why did a call route the wrong way even though my hours look right? Check your time zone under Business Profile first. Business Hours runs on that time zone, so an incorrect one can make calls route as after-hours during your real open hours, or the reverse.

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Set your hours in a couple of minutes. Open Dashboard > Business > Settings > Business Hours, or call the KaiCalls demo line at (417) 386-2898 to hear how Kai handles during- and after-hours calls, or visit kaicalls.com.