Epik Networks Knowledge Base

How Time of Day Actions Work

Each Time of Day Action has associated fields that are hidden until you select an action from the pull-down menu. When you select an action, you must specify some time frame for the action, and if the selection involves forwarding, you must enter a forward destination number.

The following picture shows the fields that are displayed after a Time of Day Action is selected:

The Time of Day Action pull-down menus provide several types of forwarding and call
screening options. The following is a description of these choices:
• Disabled – This indicates the Time of Day action is not in effect.
• Call Block – This selection will block calls from this phone number. The caller will hear a recorded message that you are not accepting calls.
• Forward to Number – Calls from this number will be forwarded to the phone number that you specify in the Forward to field. The originally called number is bypassed and does not ring.
• Forward to VoiceMail – The call goes directly to voice mail without ringing your phone.
• Selective Forwarding – This caller will be forwarded to a specified number.

NOTE: This option will only be displayed if a selective forwarding number has already been defined.
See Selective Forwarding for more information about this feature.

• Priority Call – This will mark this number as a priority call and it will have a priority ring tone. The priority ring tone you will hear depends on the type of phone you have.
• Urgent Call – This will mark the call as urgent, and will override Do Not Disturb (DnD), if you have DnD set on your phone. If you do not answer the phone, and if it is forwarded to voice mail, then it is tagged as an urgent message. If you want to be notified when you receive an urgent message, make sure that you select "Urgent Voice Mail" in Voice Mail Notification.
• Virtual Ring – The caller always hears a ring. To the caller it appears as if their call is not being answered. Actually the call does not ring at your phone, nor does it go to voice mail, it is simply routed to a virtual phone.
• Find-Me – This option will only be displayed if at least one Find-Me list has been created. The Find-Me feature will forward the incoming call to a list of phone numbers specified by the user.
• Ringback Tone – This option will only be available if you have created a ringback tone already using the Options > Ringback Tones tab described in “Ringback Tones” on page 119.
• Forward when Busy – If your phone is busy when this call comes in, the call will be forwarded to the number specified in the Forward to field. The originally called number is bypassed and does not ring.
• Forward when No Answer – If you miss the call, it will be forwarded to the number specified in the Forward to field.

Specifying a Time of Day

To specify a time of day for a particular action, select the action and then choose the appropriate time and date elements.
Example: if you want the action to occur all day on Monday, click the All Day checkbox and the Monday checkbox. You can specify a time frame by selecting the Start Time and End Time (using a 24-hour clock).

The Time of Day Actions are implemented in order from top to bottom. If Time of Day Action time frames overlap, the first call screening entry that meets the specified time of day requirements will be applied to the call. Therefore, actions with the shortest time of day period should be listed first. The Default Action is the ultimate action that is implemented for the caller. Thus, it would not make sense to have an “All Day, Everyday” action plus a Default Action because the Default Action would never be applied. If you need to specify an “All Day” action, with other actions, you should put it last in the list. Most call screening entries are mutually exclusive. Some actions are applied “before ring” and others are applied on “no answer”.

Some actions cause the call to be redirected away from the line before ringing (such as Virtual Ring and Call Block). In these cases, once this “before ring” action has been applied, the other actions specified will not be applied. For example, both Virtual Ring and Redirect to Voicemail cannot be applied to the same call. Further, it would not make sense to specify Call Block with another action being Find Me, because the call would never be sent to the phone to cause a “no answer” condition.

Example of overlapping Time of Day Actions:
• ToD Action 1 forwards to x1234 from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm.
• ToD Action 2 forwards on No Answer to x2345 from 9:00am to 12:00pm
Result:
• An unanswered call at 10:00am will be forwarded to x2345.
• Any call at 11:45 will be forwarded to x1234 without ringing the original phone.
• An unanswered call that is before