Austria
Belgium
France
Germany
Italy
Netherlands
Poland
Spain
Sweden
United StatesWhoever is on duty gets the calls.
The duty rota decides where the call goes — not a setting someone has to remember on a Friday afternoon. If someone swaps a shift or drops out, you change the rota and the change takes effect straight away.
Built for on-call rotas in healthcare. Now also used on IT fault lines and in security.
Weekend duty · urgent line 020 7946 0012
live
- Week 38
- Dr Clarke Mon–Fri
- Dr Patel Sat–Sun
- Week 39
- Dr Patel Mon–Fri
- Dr Clarke Sat–Sun
- Week 40
- Dr Clarke Mon–Fri
- Closed bank holiday · different message
On duty now: Dr Patel
until Sun 23:59One calendar runs several teams, time slots and numbers at once.
Where it goes wrong without a calendar
A rota isn’t the problem. The problem is that the phone system knows nothing about it.
The rota lives somewhere other than the routing
The duty rota lives in a spreadsheet or in the planning tool, and the forwarding somewhere in a phone setting. Someone has to keep the two in step every week, and that is exactly where it goes wrong.
Someone drops out and nobody changes the phone
A colleague falls ill and the rota is updated, but the calls keep going to the old number. The caller is the first to notice, and on an urgent line that is the worst possible moment.
Easter Monday wasn't in the settings
Fixed opening hours don’t know about exceptions. On a bank holiday the phone simply rings in an empty office, until someone happens to notice.
Not a time switch. A duty rota.
Most phone plans have a time schedule: open from nine to five, voicemail outside those hours. This is something else — and the difference is the reason we built it ourselves.
Switching office hours on and off
One number, two states, the same destination every week. Enough for an office that closes at five, and nothing more.
Putting people on the rota for a line
A full calendar, like the diary you already know: you drag people into time slots instead of writing rules. Several teams, several numbers at once. Whoever is on duty this week gets this week’s calls.
We spent years developing this calendar for the medical sector: on-call rotas and urgent lines, where a misrouted call is not an inconvenience but an incident. The same calendar is now used by IT organisations for their fault lines and by security companies for the guard on duty.
Three rotas that can't afford to be wrong
GPs on weekend duty
A group of doctors shares one urgent line; each doctor is on duty one weekend a month. The call goes to whoever is on the rota at that moment, without anyone having to switch a number over on a Friday.
Volunteers on a helpline
Volunteers each cover their own hours, which often change from week to week. The line is staffed at every agreed time, and anyone who isn’t on the rota doesn’t get called either.
The fault or security call-out
Outside office hours, a report goes to the engineer or guard who is on call. Twenty-four-hour cover, without a spreadsheet that someone keeps up to date by hand.
We set up the calendar, you fill in the rota
That distinction matters: setting it up is work we do, while keeping it up to date is something you do yourself, and that happens in real time.
- 01
You describe your schedule
we set it upWhich teams there are, which time slots, how the rotation runs and what should happen on bank holidays. However complicated it is — the calendar is made for on-call rotas.
- 02
You fill in the rota online
you, in real timeWho is on duty when, in a calendar you manage yourself. If someone swaps or drops out, you change it and the new rota takes effect straight away.
- 03
The routing follows the rota
automaticWith every incoming call, the system checks who is on the rota at that moment and sends the call there. There is no longer a setting anyone can forget.
What you can put in the rota
Who is on duty
per time slotOne person, a team or a number per time slot. Several at once as well, if someone needs to listen in or act as back-up.
The rotation
recurringChanging over weekly, every other week, or in an irregular pattern. Once it is set, it keeps running until you change it.
Bank holidays and closures
exceptionsA different message, another number, or straight to voicemail. Set per day, separately from the weekly pattern.
What happens outside the rota
fallbackIf nobody is on the rota, the caller reaches a destination chosen in advance rather than a dead line.
Live switching or planning ahead? In the real-time dashboard you see who is available and move a destination with a few clicks. That works well for a small team where someone keeps an eye on the phones, for example when a colleague has to leave unexpectedly. Fixed opening hours and bank holidays you set there once, at no extra cost.
An organisation with a duty rota works differently. It already knows who covers the evenings next week, who has the weekend and when a department is closed, and it would be a waste to switch all that by hand every day. A GP out-of-hours service, a fault line, a security company, a housing association with a repairs number or a care provider with several sites therefore plans its availability ahead in the calendar, so the phones follow the rota rather than the other way round.
What does the calendar application cost?
The calendar is a separate application with its own licence, developed and maintained apart from our platform. We have external costs for it ourselves, which is why the calendar application costs £43 a month on top of your plan. You do the scheduling yourself, as often as you like.
If you only have fixed opening hours and bank holidays, you do not need the application: you set those yourself in the dashboard at no extra cost, on your UK telephone number or international telephone number. Live forwarding is done in the real-time dashboard.
What customers ask about this
Yourself, online, and the change takes effect straight away. We set up the calendar — which teams, which time slots, how the rotation runs — but you fill in who is on duty. That is also why a swap on a Sunday morning is no problem.
Then the call falls back to a destination you choose in advance, such as a central number or voicemail with a different message. A gap in the rota doesn’t leave a dead line.
Yes. Several teams, time slots and numbers at once from the same calendar — that is what it was built for. An organisation with an urgent line, a fault line and a general line doesn’t have to keep three schedules up to date.
Yes. The extended version includes training for your team, so that several people can fill in the rota and it doesn’t depend on one person. On an on-call rota, that dependence is the real risk.
Then you don’t need the rota calendar. For nine-to-five opening hours, with a different rule for bank holidays and voicemail outside those hours, the standard time and date settings are enough. The rota calendar is meant for lines where people are put on a rota and the cover changes from week to week.
You put your rota into the calendar yourself, with office hours, shifts, on-call cover and holidays, and link each time slot to a destination. The routing then follows the rota automatically.
You change a planned shift yourself in the calendar. If something needs to change immediately, for example after a sick call, you switch live in the real-time dashboard.
Yes. You schedule both recurring and one-off exceptions, such as weekends, bank holidays, company closures and emergency days. The routing follows the rota you have set.
Yes. Each CallFactory number can have its own calendar, which is useful for businesses with numbers in different time zones or for departments with their own shifts.
Yes. During office hours you route calls through a phone menu and a queue, and outside those hours you play a message and offer voicemail. The calendar decides what happens when, while the other features determine how the call continues from there.
You schedule who covers which days and times. The person on call this week gets this week’s calls, and next week the duty moves on automatically according to your rota.
Yes. The calendar is a separate application with its own licence and maintenance, which carries external costs for us too, so it costs £43 a month extra. Ordinary opening hours and the holiday calendar in the dashboard come at no extra cost with your plan.
What does your rota look like?
Tell us how the duty is shared out, and we'll show you in a demo how that rota drives the phone.
