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Dynamically Assign Business Hours to Cases Using Escalation Rules

Julkaisupäivä: Jun 28, 2026
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In Salesforce, Business Hours define the time periods during which your support team is available. By default, cases are assigned a single set of business hours, but administrators can configure escalation rules to dynamically assign different business hours to cases based on criteria such as case priority. For example, a 'Critical' priority case can be assigned 24/7 business hours while a 'Low' priority case uses standard 9-to-5 hours. This article explains how to set up Business Hours and Escalation Rules in Salesforce to achieve dynamic business hour assignment.

 

Ratkaisu

It is possible to dynamically assign a set of pre-defined business hours to a case based on the priority of a case.

The following steps describe how to first configure Business Hours settings in Salesforce and then create Escalation Rules that assign those business hours dynamically based on case criteria. Both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience steps are provided.

First of all, customize the business hours:

Classic

1. Click Your Name | Setup | Company Profile | Business Hours
2. Click New Business Hours and create the business hours setting 
3. Remember to Click Active to allow users to associate the business hours with cases and escalation rules. [Click Active again to deactivate the business hours. You cannot delete business hours.] 
4. Optionally, click Use these business hours as the default to set the business hours as the default business hours on all new cases.

Lightning
 
1. Click the gear button on the upper right of the page.
2. Select "Setup".
3. On the Quick Find box, search for Business Hours.
4. Select "Business Hours" (Under Company Settings).
5. Click "New Business Hours" Button.
6. Set the business hours name (Step 1)
7. Click Active. (You can click "Use these business hours as the default" to set this as default)
8. Set the Timezone. (Step 2)
9. Uncheck "24 hours" checkbox to set Business Hours. (Step 3)
10. Click Save.

Default business hours on cases can be automatically updated with other customized business hours on escalation rules: if the cases match escalation rule criteria and the rule is set to override business hours.


To create an escalation rule:

Classic

1. Choose Your Name | Setup | Customize | Cases | Escalation Rules
2. Choose New, and give the rule a name. Specify whether you want this to be the active escalation rule [only one escalation rule can be active per time]. Click Save. 
3. To create the rule entries, click New. Each rule can have a maximum of 3000 entries. Each entry defines a condition that determines how cases are processed. 
4. Specifies conditions that the case must match for it to be escalated [in your issue: Choose criteria are met and set a case filter to case: priority equal to ...] 
5. Specifies how business hours apply to an escalated case (click on Set business hours and search for the business hour you created)

Lightning

1. Click the gear button on the upper right of the page.
2. Select "Setup".
3. On the Quick Find box, search for Escalation Rules
4. Select Escalation Rules (Under Service in Feature Settings).
5. Click New.
6. Set the Rule Name (You can make this Active but NOTE that only one active escalation rule per time)
7. Click Save.
8. Click The Rule Name.
9. Click New button in Rule Entries.
10. Set Sort Order. (Number)
11. Specify criteria for escalation. (Step 2)
12. Specify Business Hours. (Step 3)
13. Specify escalation times. (Step 4)
14. Click Save or "Save & Next" button to create more entries.

 

After creating the entry, click Save, or Save & New to save the entry and create more entries.


You can find further information on escalation rules in Set Up Escalation Rules .

Knowledge-artikkelin numero

000385119

 
Ladataan
Salesforce Help | Article