How to set up specific business hours per inbox | Everything about Papo Global.

To configure specific business hours per inbox in Papo (https://papo.global/), you access the settings of the desired inbox and define the days and hours of operation, as well as the personalized away message. Each inbox operates with its own schedule, without interfering with the platform's global hours.

When your company uses multiple channels — such as WhatsApp for sales, Instagram for support, and email for finance — each team may have different working hours. Papo allows you to create independent inboxes and, in each one, configure the hours when human support is active. Outside that period, the system automatically sends an away message and keeps the conversation in the queue, without assigning it to any agent, until the next shift begins.

Feature	What it does	Benefit for multichannel operations
Business hours per inbox	Defines the days and hours of operation for a specific inbox.	Each channel (WhatsApp, Instagram, email) can have its own schedule, without conflicting with the others.
Personalized away message	Automatic text sent to the customer when the message arrives outside that inbox's hours.	Clearly communicates the department's hours, managing expectations and reducing customer anxiety.
Team association with inbox	Restricts access to the inbox only to employees of the chosen team.	Ensures conversations reach the right specialists and that agents from other departments are not improperly notified.
Assignment control	Conversations outside business hours are not distributed to agents; they remain in the queue until the next business period.	Prevents the SLA from being affected and the team from receiving notifications during rest periods.

How business hours per inbox work

Each inbox you create in Papo (WhatsApp, Instagram, email, etc.) can have its own business hours. When a new message arrives, the platform checks the hours for that specific inbox.

Within business hours: The conversation follows the normal distribution flow — it is assigned to an agent from the associated team, according to rotation rules or manually.
Outside business hours: The system immediately sends the away message configured for that inbox and keeps the conversation as "unread" in the general queue. It will only be assigned to an agent when the inbox's business hours start again.

This way, if the Sales team works from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on WhatsApp and Support serves from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Instagram, each will have its own flow, without one interfering with the other.

Step by step to set different hours per inbox

Follow these steps to create inboxes with independent hours and link them to the correct teams.

1. Create separate inboxes for each channel or team

Go to Settings → Inboxes and add a new inbox for each channel you want to manage with its own hours (e.g., "WhatsApp Sales", "Instagram Support"). During creation, you can choose the channel and then associate agents or teams. If you don't have the teams created yet, you can do it later.

2. Set the inbox's business hours

In the inbox list, find the inbox you want to configure and access its settings. Look for the Business Hours section. There, you can:

Check the days of the week when the team serves.
For each day, define the start and end time of the business period.
Leave days unchecked (e.g., Saturday and Sunday) to indicate there is no service.

3. Customize the away message

In the same place, there is a field for the automatic message that will be sent to customers outside business hours. Create a text that includes:

Thanks for reaching out.
Information that the team is outside business hours.
The business hours for that department.
An expectation for return (e.g., "We will reply as soon as we return, starting at 9 a.m. on Monday.").

Example for WhatsApp Sales:

"Hello! Thank you for contacting our Sales team. Our business hours are Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Your message has been received and we will get back to you as soon as possible. See you soon!"

Save the changes.

4. Associate the team with the inbox

Still in the inbox settings, go to the Collaborators tab. Select the desired team (e.g., "Sales Team") or add agents individually. Only these collaborators will have access to conversations in this inbox. To create and manage teams, use the specific Teams section in the account settings.

5. Repeat the process for the other channels

Create as many inboxes as needed, each with its own hours and away message. This way, Support can have extended hours, while Finance operates only on business days, all independently.

Frequently asked questions

Can I have different hours for WhatsApp and Instagram?

Yes. Just create an inbox for each channel and configure the business hours individually. WhatsApp can operate from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., while Instagram can operate from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., for example.

Is the away message sent automatically?

Yes. When a message arrives outside the hours configured for that inbox, the system immediately sends the personalized away text you defined.

What happens to conversations that arrive outside business hours?

They remain in the inbox queue as "unread" and are not assigned to any agent until the next business period for that inbox starts.

Do I need to configure global hours too?

No. The platform's global hours are independent. You can leave the default global hours and set specific hours only for the inboxes you want.

Can I set different hours for each day of the week?

Yes. In the inbox's hours configuration, you check the service days and, for each day, you can set a different time range (e.g., Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.).

Does this configuration affect notifications?

Outside business hours, notifications of new conversations for that inbox are not triggered for agents, avoiding interruptions outside the business period.

With Papo, you have full control over each inbox's schedule, ensuring your customers always know when to expect a response.