How to send an automatic reply outside support hours or on holidays

Last updated: October 2, 2026

You can automatically reply to customers who reach out after hours or on a holiday. You need two things: a Support Hours schedule that defines when your team is working, and a Trigger that sends the reply.

Step 1: Set up your support hours and holidays

  1. Go to Settings → Support Hours.

  2. Open the schedule you want to use, or click Create Support Hours. Set the Timezone and the days and hours your team is available.

  3. Open the Holidays tab and click Add holiday. Pick a holiday from the list, or click Create custom holiday and enter a Holiday name and Holiday date. Choose whether it Repeats.

  4. Click Save.

The built-in holiday list covers US federal holidays (for example, US Labor Day in September). For holidays in other regions, use Create custom holiday and enter the date yourself.

If you support several regions (for example APAC, EMEA and US), create a separate schedule for each one. Then use Assignment rules on the Support Hours page to decide which accounts use which schedule. Add each region's holidays to its own schedule. A holiday on the APAC schedule only affects issues from accounts that use the APAC schedule.

Step 2: Create the auto-reply trigger

  1. Go to Settings → Triggers and create a new trigger.

  2. For the kickoff, choose New issue created.

  3. Add a condition: Support Hours is On Holiday. For an after-hours reply instead, choose Outside Support Hours.

  4. Add the action Send issue message and write your reply, for example: "Thanks for reaching out! Our team is out today for a public holiday. We'll get back to you on the next business day."

  5. Save and turn the trigger on.

Shortcut: When creating a trigger, click Start with a template and pick Send automated response for issues created outside support hours. It comes set up for after-hours replies. Change the condition to On Holiday to make a holiday version.

Want both an after-hours and a holiday reply?

Create two triggers, one for each condition. A holiday counts as On Holiday, not Outside Support Hours, even during your usual working hours. That means your after-hours trigger won't fire on a holiday, and each message only goes out at the right time.

One-time closures (no holiday needed)

If you only need a reply for a fixed set of dates, such as a team offsite, use the template Send automated response for issues created during a date range instead.

Good to know

  • The reply goes out when a new issue is created. To also reply to new messages on existing issues, add a second kickoff, Issue has a new message. That can mean a customer gets the reply more than once during a long holiday.

  • Holidays also pause SLA timers that are set to use support hours, so your SLAs won't breach while the team is out.