Your business doesn't answer calls the same way at 2 PM on a Tuesday as it does at 11 PM on a Sunday. The Business Hours block is how you tell Romulus when you're open — and what to do when you're not. Once it's set up, your phone system automatically handles after-hours calls without you having to do anything.

Without business hours configured, your inbound rules don't know when you're available. Calls might ring your team at midnight, or callers might never hear an after-hours message — they'd just hear ringing with no answer. Setting your business hours is the foundation that makes everything else in Lesson 2 work correctly.

The Business Hours block splits every incoming call into two paths:

You set the hours once. From that point on, the system handles the routing automatically based on the time of day and day of the week.

The full step-by-step guide is here:

👉 How to Set Up Business Hours and an Out-of-Hours Message

Configure your open hours by day and time, set a closed greeting, and define what happens to calls that arrive outside your schedule.

Set your timezone first. Romulus uses your account timezone to evaluate business hours. If your timezone is wrong, calls will route incorrectly. Check it in your account settings before configuring hours.

You can have different hours on different days. For example, Monday to Friday 9 AM–6 PM, Saturday 10 AM–2 PM, Sunday closed. Each day can be configured independently.

Your out-of-hours message should tell callers what to do. Don't just say "We're closed." Say when you reopen and give callers an option — like leaving a voicemail. A clear message reduces frustration and abandoned calls.

Once your business hours are set, you know how to split calls by time. The next step is deciding what happens to callers who reach you during open hours — and the most common way to do that is with a voice menu.