Cron Schedules

Business Hours (9 AM - 5 PM Weekdays)

Run every hour during business hours on weekdays only.

Pattern

0 9-17 * * 1-5

Explanation

Runs at the start of each hour from 9 AM to 5 PM, Monday through Friday.

Examples

Cron Expression
Output
0 9-17 * * 1-5
Runs
Output
Mon-Fri: 09:00, 10:00, 11:00... 17:00
Skips
Output
Weekends and 18:00-08:00

Code Examples

Crontab
# Crontab entry
0 9-17 * * 1-5 /path/to/business-task.sh

# Breakdown:
# 0     - At minute 0
# 9-17  - Hours 9 through 17 (9 AM to 5 PM)
# *     - Every day of month
# *     - Every month
# 1-5   - Monday (1) through Friday (5)
Node.js with Timezone
// Node-cron
const cron = require('node-cron');

// Business hours only
cron.schedule('0 9-17 * * 1-5', () => {
  console.log('Running during business hours');
  checkBusinessMetrics();
}, {
  timezone: "America/New_York"
});

Try it Now

💡 Tips

  • Perfect for user-facing notifications
  • Set timezone explicitly for multi-region teams
  • Consider excluding lunch hour (12:00) if needed
  • Add holiday calendar check in script
  • Great for API calls during working hours

⚠️ Common Pitfalls

  • Timezone matters - use server or app timezone
  • Doesn't account for holidays
  • 17:00 = 5 PM runs, but 18:00 = 6 PM does not
  • Different regions have different business hours