What the Scheduled Callbacks Local Timezones setting does

By default, when an Agent sets a Scheduled callback they pick a date and time in the agent server's clock. If your customers are spread across time zones, that is a foot-gun — “3pm” means three different moments depending on where the Lead lives. The Scheduled Callbacks Local Timezones campaign setting fixes that by letting agents schedule in the customer's local time.

What it changes on the agent screen

The setting defaults to DISABLED, and while disabled the callback screen uses the agent server time. Set it to anything other than DISABLED and you point it at a TIMEZONE_LIST Settings container — a named block of configuration in the admin portal. VICIdial then shows a list of time zones in the scheduled callback panel. The agent picks the customer's zone, picks a local time, and the system stores the right moment.

flowchart TD
  A[Local Timezones enabled] --> B[Point at a TIMEZONE_LIST container]
  B --> C[Timezone list shows on callback panel]
  C --> D[Agent picks customer's zone]
  D --> E[Agent picks local time]
  E --> F[System stores correct moment]
  G[Setting DISABLED] --> H[Use agent server time]

So the agent stops doing time-zone math in their head. They schedule in the time the customer experiences, and the dialer handles the conversion behind the scenes.

What it needs to work

There is one prerequisite: a TIMEZONE_LIST type Settings container has to exist and be selected. That container holds one time zone per line, each line describing a zone the agent can choose from. Without it there is nothing to display, so this setting and the container are a pair — you build the list, then point the campaign at it. Selecting DISABLED instead simply falls back to the agent server clock, which is fine for a single-region team but a trap for anyone calling across zones.

The zone codes come from the phone-code data already on your system, so you are not inventing them — you copy the exact combinations your box already knows about. This is also why local time-zone callbacks lean on the same GMT offset (lead) thinking that runs through the rest of VICIdial's call-time logic: each zone maps to an offset, and that offset is what turns “3pm Eastern” into the precise server moment the dialer stores and fires on.

It is worth being clear about what this setting does not touch. It changes how a callback time is captured at the moment the agent sets it; it does not retroactively fix callbacks already on the books, and it does not change whether a callback is reserved for one agent or open to the pool. It is purely about getting the time right.

Where it fits with the other callback settings

Local Timezones changes how a callback time is captured, not how the callback is reserved or surfaced. The reserved-versus-open split is covered in ANYONE vs USERONLY callbacks, and the basic act of choosing a date and time is in how to set a callback date and time. For the building step — creating the TIMEZONE_LIST container itself — see how to set up a callback timezone list. The scheduled callbacks overview connects all of it.

Turn it on for multi-region campaigns

If a single Campaign calls customers across several time zones, Local Timezones removes a whole class of scheduling mistakes — callbacks that fire at the wrong hour because someone forgot the offset. Build the TIMEZONE_LIST container, point the campaign at it, and your agents schedule in the customer's clock from then on. A managed VICIdial server gives you the admin portal where these containers live, ready in under 40 seconds — see our plans.