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Overview

Your phone system does not work out where a call goes all at once. It runs down a short list of checks, in a fixed order, and the first check that is switched on takes the call. Everything below it is never reached. That one rule explains almost every “why did it do that” question: why a divert someone left on beat the schedule, why a break ended by itself at the right time, and why a holiday closure is the only thing that clears the others out of the way.

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Which build do you have

There are two ways a Pear phone system decides whether you are open, and the order is almost identical either way. Open Inbound Call Routing in the left menu. The banner at the top tells you which one you have. If your reception dials something like *289 at opening and closing time, or presses a Day/Night button on their desk phone, you are on manual. That button shows green in Day mode and red in Night mode. You may have other buttons on your handsets as well, such as Break, Override or Busy. If you are not sure what yours do, reach out to the Pear Support team.

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The order, on a scheduled system

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The order, on a manual system

Only the fifth line differs. Everything above it is the same, and it behaves the same.
Whichever build you are on, the fifth check is your normal state: whether you are open or closed on an ordinary day. Everything above it is an exception that somebody, or a closure they booked, deliberately set. That is why Holiday Mode sits above it. A closure has to work whether the practice was left open or closed.

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Real examples

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An ordinary Tuesday, 10am

Nothing is switched on. Every check passes the call down. The last check agrees you are open, either because the timetable says so or because the Day/Night switch is on Day. Reception rings. This is the path almost every call takes.

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An ordinary Tuesday, 7pm

Same again, right down to the last check. This time it says you are closed, either because the timetable has ended or because somebody set Day/Night to Night when they locked up. The caller hears your after hours message.

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Reception steps away for fifteen minutes

Switch on Break Mode and give it a fifteen minute timer. Break sits above the last check, so it takes the call even though you are open, and callers hear your break message. At fifteen minutes it switches itself back off and the phones return to normal. Nobody has to remember to undo it, which is the whole point of setting a timer rather than leaving it running.

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A burst water main closes the practice at 2pm

Use Override Mode. It sits at the very top, so it takes every call whatever the time and whatever else is set. Because it beats everything, it is also the one to be careful with. It stays on until a person turns it off. See the Monday morning example below.

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A Christmas shutdown, booked in October

Schedule it in Holiday Mode, months ahead if you like. Nothing changes until the closing time arrives, and it runs on your phone system rather than in the portal, so it still happens if your internet is down. Because the closure sits above the last check, it does not matter what state the practice was left in. On a manual system, whoever locked up on the 23rd can leave Day/Night on either setting and the closure still plays your holiday message. The other useful part is what it does on the way in. When the closure starts, it switches off Override Mode and Main Number Divert if either was left on. Without that, a divert set by whoever locked up would quietly send every holiday call to their mobile for a fortnight.

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A break is running when a holiday closure starts

Holiday Mode sits above Break Mode, so the closure takes the call and callers hear your closure message rather than your break message. When the closure ends, both are off and normal routing resumes.

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A divert left on over the weekend

This is the most common surprise. Main Number Divert sits above the last check, so it does not stop when you close. All weekend, callers who would have heard your after hours message are forwarded to that mobile instead. Monday morning it is still on. That is why the banner on the Inbound Call Routing page turns amber when something is manually set. Amber means a person is in charge of your routing, not the clock.

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Nobody switched to Night at closing time

On a manual system, if the Day/Night switch is left on Day, the phones keep ringing Reception all evening. Nothing above it is switched on, so nothing catches the call. There is no way for the phone system to notice, because Day is a perfectly normal setting. If this keeps happening, ask Pear about moving you to a timetable, or to a timetable with the switch on top of it.

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Which setting wins

When two things are on at once, the higher one takes the call and the lower one simply never gets asked.
While a closure is running, changing the mode on the Inbound Call Routing page will not change what callers hear, because the closure sits above those modes. To take control back, end the closure first.