Phone & Amy · 3 min read · Beginner
After-hours and holidays
Amy answers around the clock, even when you're closed. Set your hours, holidays, and time off so she books, greets, and escalates the right way — day or night.
Updated Jul 9, 2026
The biggest thing Amy fixes is the after-hours gap. Nights, lunch breaks, weekends, and holidays are when practices miss calls — and miss patients. Amy picks up every time, whether you're open or not. All she needs to know is when you're open, and you tell her that once in Settings.
Tip
Amy still books, answers questions, and takes messages after hours. "Closed" doesn't mean voicemail — it just changes how she greets callers and which of your rules apply.
What "after hours" means to Amy
Amy compares each call to the open hours you set, in your practice's time zone. Based on that, she:
- Greets callers differently. During open hours she uses your daytime greeting; when you're closed she opens with something like "Since we're closed right now…" so callers know where things stand. Set both in Changing Amy's greeting.
- Still books appointments into your real openings, so a patient calling Saturday night can lock in a Monday slot.
- Applies your after-hours escalation rules, which are often different from your daytime ones — for example, transferring true urgencies to an on-call phone and taking messages for everything else.
Set your hours
- Open Settings → Hours. This is where your open hours and time zone live.
- Set each day. Enter the hours you answer the phones for every day of the week. Leave a day closed if you don't open, and add a midday break if you close for lunch.
- Confirm your time zone. Amy uses it to decide what "after hours" means, so make sure it matches your practice.
- Save. Amy starts using the new hours right away.
Add holidays and time off
- Open the Holidays and time off section in Settings.
- Add a closure. Enter the date or date range you'll be closed — a holiday, a long weekend, a team training day, or vacation.
- Choose how Amy treats it. On those days Amy uses your closed greeting and your after-hours rules, and can let callers know when you reopen.
- Save. Amy honors the closure automatically when the day arrives, then goes back to normal after.
Note
Add recurring holidays ahead of time so you're not editing settings the morning of. Amy will quietly switch to closed behavior on those days and switch back on her own.
Emergencies when you're closed
Your safety guardrails don't sleep. If someone describes a medical emergency at 2 a.m., Amy tells them to hang up and call 911 and flags it — exactly as she would during the day. For true urgencies that aren't 911-level, point an after-hours escalation rule at your on-call number so those callers reach a person. See Amy's escalation rules and What Amy always sends to a human.
Test your after-hours setup
- Save your hours and holidays.
- Call your main number outside your open hours — after you close, or on a day you marked as a holiday.
- Confirm the closed greeting plays and that any after-hours rule you set behaves the way you expect.
Frequently asked questions
Does Amy really answer 24/7? Yes. Amy picks up every call, day or night, weekday or holiday. Your hours only change how she greets callers and which rules apply — not whether she answers.
Can patients book while we're closed? Yes. Amy books into your real openings any time, so an after-hours caller can grab the next available slot on your calendar.
What if my hours change week to week? Update them in Settings whenever they change, and add one-off closures under Holidays and time off. Amy uses whatever is current at the moment of the call.
How does Amy know my time zone? From your settings. It's worth double-checking, because your time zone is what tells Amy when "after hours" begins and ends.
Will after-hours messages reach my team by morning? Yes. Everything Amy takes overnight lands in What needs to get done with the details attached, so your team starts the day with a clear list.
Still need a hand?
Reach the Valian team any time at help@valiansystems.com, or open a ticket from the Help Center inside your dashboard. During onboarding, your onboarding contact is at onboarding@valiansystems.com.