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After-hours and on-call text routing by time of day

After-hours on-call text routing picks the phones for each alert by the hour and the weekday, so the manager stops getting 2 AM texts. Day alarms reach the crew on site, while nights and weekends go to whoever has the on-call phone. You set the time windows once, in your own time zone.

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  • Windows by hour and weekday
  • Your own time zone
  • No per-user fees

Works by email with

  • Generator & power
  • Pump & lift stations
  • Nagios
  • After-hours voicemail

On-call routing

Try it: turn it off and on.

3

The manager's phone, no routing: every alarm, day and night

1

The same phone with routing: daytime alarms only

On. The phone gets 1 text.

With On-call routing off, the phone gets 3 texts: Welco: [Main Campus] Generator 2 run status in alarm at 10:20 AM. Reply STOP to opt out. Welco: [Main Campus] ATS transfer to emergency power at 2:14 AM. Reply STOP to opt out. Welco: [Main Campus] Generator 2 low fuel warning at 3:02 AM. Reply STOP to opt out. With it on, it gets 1: Welco: [Main Campus] Generator 2 run status in alarm at 10:20 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.
Animation: On-call routing switched off and on. The manager's phone, no routing: every alarm, day and night. The same phone with routing: daytime alarms only.

What after-hours routing changes for your team

  • The day crew sleeps

    People who aren't on call stop getting night texts, so they stop muting their phones.

  • The on-call phone always hears

    Nights and weekends land on the phone of the person whose turn it is.

  • Urgent alarms ignore the clock

    A rule for CRITICAL or LOW LOW can text at any hour, while routine alarms wait for morning.

  • Weekends get their own crew

    Saturday and Sunday can go to a different list from weekday nights.

Who gets the 2 AM alarm, before and after routing

Before routing

  • Every alarm texts everyone on the list, day or night.
  • The manager wakes up, then calls the person who is actually on call.
  • Day staff start to mute alarm texts, and miss the one that matters.
  • Someone forwards the alarm email by hand on holidays.

With time windows

  • The rule whose window matches the hour picks the phones.
  • The night phone gets the text first, with the site and the fault.
  • Day staff only hear about alarms during the working day.
  • Holidays need one edit to the weekend rule, not a forwarding chore.

How to set up after-hours text routing in 3 steps

Routing is a time window on an alert rule. It sits alongside every other Welco feature and uses the alert email you already send.

  1. Add a time window to a rule

    One rule can hold several windows, such as weekdays from 6 PM to 7 AM plus all of Saturday and Sunday. Times follow your account's time zone, so 2 AM means 2 AM where your crew sleeps.

  2. Pick the phones for each window

    Choose from staff who joined and replied YES. A common setup uses one alarm email to feed three rules.

    • Weekdays, 7 AM to 6 PM: text the day shift lead and the maintenance desk.
    • Weekday nights, 6 PM to 7 AM: text the night on-call phone.
    • Saturday and Sunday, all day: text the weekend on-call phone.

  3. Split urgent alarms from the ones that can wait

    Give the urgent rule no time window and match words like CRITICAL, FAIL or LOW LOW. A second rule catches the rest and only texts during the working day.

A real example: a power transfer at 2:14 AM

A distribution center's generator panel emails every event. At night, the facilities manager should sleep and the on-call tech should know.

Alert email from genset@facilities.example.com, subject “GEN.RUN-S Alarm 14”. Welco trims it to one text of 89 characters: “Welco: [Main Campus] ATS transfer to emergency power at 2:14 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Text received: Welco: [Main Campus] ATS transfer to emergency power at 2:14 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

Characters211891 credit

Animation: the alert email "GEN.RUN-S Alarm 14" is trimmed into one text: "Welco: [Main Campus] ATS transfer to emergency power at 2:14 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

At 2:14 AM on a Tuesday, the night window matched, so only the on-call tech's phone buzzed. The manager saw the alarm in the feed the next morning.

Send night alarms to the night phone

Sign up, invite your night crew and set your first time window.

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One generator panel, a day shift and a night shift

The same panel sends both emails. The clock decides whose phone buzzes.

  1. Daytime: the shift lead on site gets it

    Welco: [Main Campus] Generator 2 run status in alarm at 10:20 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

  2. The night window opens

    From now until 7 AM, the night rule is the one that sends.

  3. Night: only the on-call tech is woken

    Welco: [Main Campus] ATS transfer to emergency power at 2:14 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

  4. The tech answers from bed

    Driving in, 20 min

  5. The reply reaches the facilities mailbox

    Welco emails replies to the alert's sender. It does not acknowledge the alarm at the panel.

    Reply from the on-call phone: Driving in, 20 min

Times are an example. Text delivery depends on mobile networks.

Where after-hours routing matters most

How do I change who is on call each week?

Welco doesn't keep a rotation calendar. When the on-call person changes, you edit the phones in the night rule. The new phone must already have confirmed with a YES reply.

Some teams pass one shared on-call phone from person to person instead. Then the rule never has to change. The on-call basics guide compares both ways, and the on-call contact sheet helps you plan the list.

Features to use with routing

Frequently asked questions

Can I text the on-call tech and a backup at night?

Yes. A night rule can text as many techs as have joined and replied YES. Many teams text the on-call tech and a backup for critical alarms. That way one dead battery or a phone left in a truck doesn't leave the alarm unseen.

Do I need a separate Welco address for each shift?

No. One Welco address can feed many rules, and each rule has its own time window. The time the email arrives decides which rule sends the text. Separate addresses are only useful when you want to keep sources apart.

Does the on-call person need to install anything?

No. The on-call person gets a normal text on any mobile phone. There is nothing to install and no account to sign in to. They join from your invite with their own phone, reply YES once, and alerts start arriving.

How do I handle a holiday with after-hours routing?

Time windows follow weekdays, not dates, so Welco has no holiday calendar. The day before, edit the weekday rule so that day's alarms go to the weekend phone. Change it back the morning after. Test mode lets you check the edit without waking anyone.

Which time zone do the routing windows use?

Your account's time zone. A window of 6 PM to 7 AM means those hours where your crew works, not where a server sits. If a system stamps its emails in another zone, the window still follows the time the email reaches Welco.

Does my monitoring system need to know who is on call?

No. Your system keeps sending the same alert email to the same Welco address. The routing happens in Welco, so you never touch the system's contact list when the shift changes.

Can Welco replace a PagerDuty on-call schedule?

Welco routes by time windows, not by a rotation calendar, and it does not escalate. If you need those, an incident tool fits better. The PagerDuty alternative page compares the two honestly.

Put your night alarms on the night phone

Set one time window and the day crew stops getting 2 AM texts.

Route my after-hours alarmsBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing