Configure after-hours rules and on-call rotation

Most home-service shops lose more revenue to nights and weekends than to busy signals. After-hours rules let LARA triage urgency, schedule low-priority jobs for morning, and only wake your on-call tech for the calls that warrant it.

What counts as after-hours

By default, after-hours is everything outside the business hours you set. You can also flag certain weekday hours (lunch, training) as after-hours without redefining your full schedule.

Set your business hours

1. Open Settings → LARA → Business hours.
2. Pick your time zone first — every rule is evaluated against this.
3. Set open and close times per weekday. Use the copy-day shortcut for typical 8-to-5 schedules.
4. Mark Saturdays/Sundays as open if you cover weekends. Otherwise leave them closed.

Pick the after-hours rule

There are four rule shapes. You can compose them — for example, triage urgent + schedule the rest.

1. Triage urgent — LARA asks 2–3 qualifying questions. If urgency keywords hit, transfer to on-call. Otherwise, schedule.
2. Schedule for morning — LARA offers the next-day morning window and books it. No transfer.
3. Transfer to on-call — every after-hours call rings the on-call tech directly.
4. Take a message — LARA captures name, number, and reason, then sends a notification.

On-call rotation

If a rule transfers, LARA uses the rotation to decide who to ring.

1. Open Settings → LARA → On-call rotation.
2. Add team members with their personal cell numbers.
3. Set the rotation cadence — daily handoff at 6pm is the most common.
4. Add a fallback (usually the owner) for the case where the on-call tech doesn't pick up after 3 rings.

// Rotation example — weekly Mon → Fri
{
  "cadence": "weekly",
  "handoffAt": "06:00",
  "members": [
    { "id": "u_01", "phone": "+17165550101" },
    { "id": "u_02", "phone": "+17165550102" }
  ],
  "fallback": { "id": "u_owner", "phone": "+17165550100" }
}

Holidays and exceptions

Add date-range exceptions for holidays, training days, or full-shop closures. LARA falls back to the after-hours rule for the entire range, regardless of weekday.

Test it

Use Settings → LARA → Simulate to send a test call as if the clock were 10pm. Verify the rule fires, the transfer reaches the right cell, and the call shows up tagged as after-hours in /lara/calls.