How to set up a callback timezone list

To let agents schedule callbacks in the customer's local time, VICIdial needs a list of time zones to show them. That list lives in a TIMEZONE_LIST Settings container — a named block of configuration in the admin portal that the Local Timezones feature reads from. Here is how to build one and wire it to a Campaign.

Step 1 — find your time zone codes

Before writing anything, look up the codes your system supports. In the admin portal, go to Admin → System Settings and click the Phone Codes link. That page lists every country-code and time-zone combination available on your box. You will use these exact codes in the list, so do not invent your own — copy them from here.

Step 2 — create the container

In the Settings Container section of the admin portal, create a new container and set its type to TIMEZONE_LIST. Give it a clear name — something like US_TIMEZONES — because you will select it by name on the campaign later.

The body is one time zone per line. Each line has four comma-separated fields:

• 3-letter country code — for example USA.
• TimeZone code — for example EST, taken from the Phone Codes page.
• Y or N — whether Daylight Saving Time is observed in that zone.
• Short description — the friendly label the Agent sees, for example Eastern Time Zone.

So a single Eastern US line reads USA,EST,Y,Eastern Time Zone. Add one line for every zone your agents need to choose from.

flowchart TD
  A[Open Phone Codes page] --> B[Copy country and timezone codes]
  B --> C[Create TIMEZONE_LIST container]
  C --> D[Add one zone per line]
  D --> E[code, tz, Y or N, description]
  E --> F[Save the container]
  F --> G[Select it on the campaign]
  G --> H[Agents schedule in customer local time]

A note on ordering and naming: the lines appear to the agent in the order you write them, so put your most-used zones at the top to save them scrolling. Keep the descriptions short and unambiguous — “Eastern Time Zone” reads better mid-call than a cryptic code — because this label is the only thing the agent sees when they pick a zone under time pressure.

Step 3 — wire it to the campaign

Open the campaign and find the Scheduled Callbacks Local Timezones setting. Change it from DISABLED to your new container's name. From then on, when an agent sets a Scheduled callback for a Lead, the callback panel shows your zone list and they schedule in the customer's local time. The same container can be wired to as many campaigns as you like, so build one good list and reuse it across the floor rather than maintaining a copy per campaign. What the setting does once it is wired up is covered in what the Local Timezones setting does.

Verify and extend

Log in as an agent on that campaign, disposition a test call as a callback, and confirm the zone list appears with your descriptions. If it does not show, double-check the container type is TIMEZONE_LIST and the name on the campaign matches exactly. Because the codes map onto each zone's GMT offset (lead), a wrong code silently shifts the stored time — so test before you trust it. For the basics of setting a callback at all, see how to set a callback date and time, and the scheduled callbacks overview puts it in context.

Get a box where these containers live

Settings containers like TIMEZONE_LIST live in the VICIdial admin portal, which you get the moment your server is up. A managed VICIdial box gives you that portal pre-built so you can create the container and start scheduling local-time callbacks the same day — we provision in under 40 seconds. See our plans.