Definition
Business Hours is a Setup page where administrators define the operating hours for the organization, including specific days and times for each day of the week. Business Hours are used by Case escalation rules, entitlement processes, and milestones to calculate response and resolution times based on when the support team is actually available.
Real-World Example
The admin at QuickAssist Insurance sets up two Business Hours records: "US Support" (Monday-Friday, 8am-6pm EST) and "Global 24/7" for premium clients. When a Case is created for a premium client at 11pm on a Friday, the entitlement milestone timer continues counting because the Global 24/7 business hours apply, whereas a standard Case would pause until Monday morning.
Why Business Hours Matters
Business Hours in Salesforce is a Setup configuration that defines when your organization's support team is available to work, specified as time ranges for each day of the week. This setting is foundational for accurate SLA tracking because it determines when the clock is running on case escalation rules, entitlement processes, and milestones. Without Business Hours, a case created Friday at 5 PM would show 60+ hours of elapsed time by Monday morning, even though no agent was available during the weekend. By pausing the timer during off-hours, Business Hours ensures that SLA calculations reflect actual working time, giving a fair and accurate picture of support performance.
As organizations expand globally or offer tiered support with different availability levels, Business Hours configuration becomes increasingly complex and critical. A company operating in five time zones might need separate Business Hours records for each regional team, plus a 24/7 record for their premium support tier. Each entitlement process and escalation rule can reference a specific Business Hours record, enabling granular SLA management. Organizations that neglect this setup often face two painful outcomes: either they over-promise by measuring against calendar time they cannot actually deliver, or they under-report performance because their metrics penalize the team for non-working hours. Getting Business Hours right is the difference between trustworthy SLA reporting and misleading metrics that erode credibility with customers and leadership alike.
How Organizations Use Business Hours
- Summit Global Insurance — Summit operates support centers in New York, London, and Singapore. They configure three Business Hours records aligned to each region's working hours and holidays. When a case is created by a London-based client at 6 PM GMT, the UK Business Hours record pauses the milestone timer at the end of the UK business day and resumes it the next morning, ensuring the London team is not penalized for overnight hours when they are not staffed.
- EliteServe IT Solutions — EliteServe offers three support tiers: Standard (Monday-Friday 8 AM-6 PM), Extended (Monday-Saturday 7 AM-10 PM), and Premium (24/7/365). Each tier has its own Business Hours record linked to the corresponding entitlement process. When a Premium client submits a case on Christmas Day, the milestone timer keeps running because their 24/7 Business Hours record has no holidays, while a Standard client's timer pauses until the next business day.
- Keystone Medical Devices — Keystone's field service team works different schedules for different device types: life-critical devices have 24/7 Business Hours, while standard equipment follows regular business hours. When a hospital reports a life-critical device failure at 2 AM, the escalation rule references the 24/7 Business Hours record and escalates the case after 30 minutes of elapsed time. A non-critical device issue reported at the same time would not begin its escalation countdown until 8 AM.