KW Knowledge base

SLA Management

How SLA policies work, how to configure them per priority and per customer, and how breach alerts function.

Mitch Wigham
Updated 24 June 2026 · 6 views

What Is an SLA?

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) policy defines how quickly tickets must receive a first response and be resolved. The platform tracks two SLA deadlines per ticket:

  • Response Due — when the first public reply must be sent.
  • Resolution Due — when the ticket must be resolved/closed.

Both are shown as countdown timers on the ticket detail page. When a deadline is missed, the ticket turns red and appears in the SLA Breached queue view.

Default SLA Policies

SLA policies are defined per priority level. The four priorities and their typical default deadlines are:

Priority Response Resolution
Urgent 1 hour 4 hours
High 4 hours 24 hours
Medium 8 hours 72 hours
Low 24 hours 120 hours

These are configurable per organisation.

Creating an SLA Policy

  1. Go to Admin → Helpdesk → SLA Policies.
  2. Click + New Policy.
  3. Set:
    • Priority — which priority level this policy covers.
    • Response Hours — maximum hours to first public reply.
    • Resolution Hours — maximum hours to resolution.
    • Customer (optional) — leave blank for a global default; set to a specific customer for a per-customer override (e.g. premium support clients).
  4. Click Save.

The resolver picks the most specific policy: customer-specific > org-wide default.

SLA Clock Rules

  • The SLA clock starts when the ticket is created.
  • The clock pauses when the ticket enters a status marked isResolved (e.g. "Awaiting Customer"). It resumes when the status changes back to an open state.
  • The clock stops permanently when the ticket is set to a status marked isClosed.
  • The Response SLA is met when the first public reply is added.

SLA Breach Alerts

When a ticket is within 30 minutes of breaching, a notification is sent to the assignee. When it breaches, the SLA Breach queue view updates automatically and a second notification fires to the assignee and any configured escalation contacts.

To configure escalation contacts: Admin → Helpdesk → Notifications → SLA Breach Escalation.

Viewing SLA Compliance Reports

Go to Helpdesk → Reports → SLA Compliance. The report shows:

  • Percentage of tickets with SLA met vs breached.
  • Breakdown by priority, agent, and customer.
  • Trend chart over the selected date range.

Export as CSV for further analysis in a spreadsheet.

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