In HappyFox Help Desk, service level agreement (SLA) management helps your team measure whether applicable tickets receive an assignment, response, or status change within a defined amount of time.
Each SLA combines a time-based objective with the tickets it applies to. HappyFox uses the objective, conditions, associated categories, work schedule, and excluded statuses to calculate whether each applicable ticket meets or breaches the SLA.
If you need instructions for configuring an SLA, see Create and manage an SLA.
What an SLA measures
When you create an SLA, you select one of the following objectives and set a target in minutes, hours, or days:
| Objective | What it measures | Objective is met when |
|---|---|---|
| Time taken to send first response to a ticket | The time from ticket creation to the first response from an agent. | An agent sends the first response. |
| Time taken to change a ticket from unassigned to assigned | How long a ticket remains unassigned. | The ticket is assigned to an agent. |
| Time taken to respond to a contact response | The time between the latest contact response and the next agent response. | An agent responds to the contact. |
| Time taken to add response to an existing last response by agent | The time between the latest agent response and the next agent response. | An agent sends another response. |
| Time taken to reach ticket status | How long a ticket takes to reach the selected completed status. | The ticket reaches that status. |
The selected objective determines which ticket event starts the timer and which event completes it.
You also select a Goal percentage. The goal represents the percentage of applicable tickets that your team aims to complete within the target time. Each individual ticket still meets or breaches the SLA based on its own timer.
Which tickets an SLA applies to
An SLA applies only to tickets in its Associated Categories. You can narrow that scope further with Match All and Match Any conditions.
- Match All: Every condition in this group must be true.
- Match Any: At least one condition in this group must be true.
- Match All and Match Any: Every Match All condition and at least one Match Any condition must be true.
Conditions can use ticket information such as priority, contact group, creator, latest responder, number of updates, subject, and message content.
When SLA evaluation begins
The Start SLA evaluation only when all applicable conditions are met setting controls whether the condition set affects only the breach decision or also controls when the timer begins.
| Setting | How the timer works |
|---|---|
| Off | HappyFox calculates the target time from the objective's starting event. At the target time, the ticket breaches only if the SLA's condition set is satisfied. |
| On | HappyFox begins the timer when the objective is active and the SLA's condition set is satisfied. If the condition set stops matching, HappyFox clears the target time. A new target time is calculated when the conditions match again. |
For example, consider a first-response SLA with a two-hour target and these conditions:
- Priority is Critical.
- Status is Open.
A ticket is created at 10:00 AM. At 11:30 AM, a Smart Rule changes its priority to Critical, so the ticket now satisfies all the SLA conditions.
- With the setting off, the target remains 12:00 PM because the objective started at ticket creation. If the ticket still matches the conditions and has no agent response at 12:00 PM, it breaches the SLA.
- With the setting on, the target becomes 1:30 PM because evaluation begins when the condition set starts matching. If either condition stops matching before then, the target is cleared.
How work schedules and excluded statuses affect the timer
The selected Work Schedule determines how working hours, working days, and holidays affect the target time. See Create and manage work schedules for work-schedule configuration.
When a ticket moves into one of the SLA's Excluded Statuses, the SLA timer pauses. When the ticket leaves the excluded status and the SLA becomes active again, HappyFox moves the breach time forward by the amount of time the ticket spent in the excluded status.
What happens when an SLA is met or breached
An applicable ticket meets its SLA when the selected objective is completed before the target time. If the target time arrives before the objective is completed, the ticket breaches the SLA, provided its configured conditions are satisfied.
An SLA can also:
- Display its timer in Ticket Details when Display SLA Timer within Ticket Details is enabled.
- Send an email notification when a breach occurs when Send Email Notification upon SLA Breach is enabled.
- Be temporarily prevented from evaluating tickets by turning off Enable SLA.
To review breached tickets, see Identify SLA breaches.