Configure SLA Policies

SLA policies are real: create, match, and enforce them

Every gap the old version of this page warned about is closed. A policy carries a client tier, a ticket priority, a response target and a resolution target in minutes, a business-hours calendar, and rules for pausing and escalating. Tickets are matched to a policy and stamped with deadlines the moment they are created — no separate step, no manual policy lookup.

Creating a policy

Ticketing → SLA Policies (/dashboard/sla) → New SLA Policy:

• Tier and Priority — the combination a ticket is matched against
• Response target and Resolution target, in minutes
• Business hours only — leave on and set a per-weekday open/closed window plus holiday dates, or turn it off for a 24/7 clock
• Pause statuses — a comma-separated list of ticket statuses (for example pending, waiting_customer) that stop the clock while a ticket is sitting with the client
• Escalate after (minutes) — optional, fires ahead of the resolution deadline
• Use as fallback — mark one policy as the default so tickets with no matching tier/priority combination are still covered

If you're starting from nothing, click Seed starter policies for a ready-made matrix across common tiers and priorities, then adjust from there.

How matching works

Every ticket — raised through the client portal, created by staff in the dashboard, or turned into a ticket from an inbound email — is matched against your active policies by the company's SLA tier and the ticket's priority, and its response and resolution deadlines are stamped at creation. If nothing matches and no fallback policy exists, the ticket is left without SLA deadlines. The coverage-gap warning on the SLA Policies page tells you exactly which tier/priority combinations that applies to, so gaps don't hide.

Breach detection

A background sweep runs every five minutes, compares every open ticket's deadlines to the clock, and flags slaResponseBreached / slaResolutionBreached the moment either is missed. The same sweep also fires an automation-ready event — ticket / sla_response_breached, sla_resolution_breached, or sla_escalated — so a rule can notify an account manager or escalate a ticket the instant a deadline slips. Click Run breach check to trigger the same sweep on demand instead of waiting for the schedule.

The page's stat tiles give a live read on where you stand: Attainment 30d, Open under SLA, Due within 1h, Response breaches, Resolution breaches, and Clock paused. The same breach flags also feed the SLA columns in the report builder.

What this doesn't replace

Ticketing → Contracts is still the commercial half of an agreement: an hours bank drawn down by logged time, with an overage rate once it runs out. A support contract shows the SLA tier it's on; the policy itself now lives, is matched, and is enforced here.

Where to go next

• Understand the whole module → How Service Desk & Ticketing Works
• How Contracts Work
• Set Up the Customer Portal
• Using Internal Team Messaging
• See where this fits in the bigger picture → How a Request Becomes a Resolved, Billed Ticket