FAQs: Assignment Rules

FAQs: SLA (Service Level Agreement)

1. What is an SLA
An SLA (Service Level Agreement) defines the response and resolution time commitments your support team makes to customers when handling their requests. It sets measurable expectations for how quickly a customer's issue should be acknowledged and fully resolved, creating a level of accountability towards the client.

Without SLAs, there is no standardized mechanism to ensure tickets are handled within a defined timeframe. Tickets may sit unresolved for unpredictable periods, leading to customer dissatisfaction, inconsistent service quality, and no clear way to identify when a process is breaking down. SLAs solve this by attaching time-bound targets to tickets — for example, responding within 4 business hours and resolving within 12 business hours — and by providing dashboards and escalation mechanisms to monitor compliance and take corrective action when targets are at risk of being missed.
2. What is the difference between Response SLA and Resolution SLA?
  1. Response SLA tracks the time taken by the support team to acknowledge a customer's issue and assign it for action. The formula is: Response Time = SLA Execution Time + Allowed Response Time. For example, if a customer submits a ticket at 10:00 AM and the SLA states issues must be acknowledged within 4 business hours, the response deadline is 2:00 PM. The support team must acknowledge and assign the ticket by 2:00 PM to meet the SLA.
  2. Resolution SLA is the maximum time committed to fully resolving a customer's issue. The formula is: Resolution SLA = Time when the issue is resolved − Time when the issue is created. For example, if a customer raises a ticket at 9:00 AM Monday and the Resolution SLA is 12 business hours, the system expects the issue to be resolved by 9:00 AM Tuesday (factoring in business hours). If the agent resolves it by 11:00 AM Tuesday, the Resolution SLA is breached.
Both SLAs work together — the Response SLA ensures quick acknowledgement, while the Resolution SLA ensures the issue is fully resolved within a committed timeframe.
3. How do Business Hours affect SLA timers?
When an SLA is linked to Business Hours, the SLA timer runs only during the defined working hours. Time outside of working hours — such as weekends, holidays, and non-working hours — is excluded from the SLA countdown. This ensures fair and accurate tracking of SLA compliance.

For example, with business hours of Monday–Friday 9:00 AM–6:00 PM and an SLA response time of 4 business hours:
  1. A ticket created on Friday at 4:00 PM has only 2 business hours remaining that day (4:00 PM–6:00 PM).
  2. The remaining 2 hours roll over to Monday starting at 9:00 AM, making the response due time 11:00 AM Monday.
If business hours are not defined in the SLA, the system defaults to using calendar hours, meaning the timer runs continuously including weekends and after hours. This is why it is critical to link SLA policies to Business Hours — without this linkage, you may see false SLA violations and unnecessary alerts for tickets received outside working hours.
4. How does the SLA due date calculation work when resolution time is set in hours versus days?
The calculation differs depending on whether you set the resolution time in hours or days:
  1. Resolution time in hours — The system counts only business hours. For example, with business hours of Monday–Friday 9:00 AM–6:00 PM and Saturday 9:00 AM–1:00 PM, a 50-hour SLA on a ticket created at 10:00 AM Monday would be due the following Monday at 11:00 AM. This is calculated as: 8 hours remaining Monday + 36 hours (Tuesday–Friday, 9 hours × 4 days) + 4 hours Saturday + 2 hours Monday = 50 hours.
  2. Resolution time in days — The due date is set based on exact business days, regardless of working hours within that day. A 1-day SLA means the ticket is due at the same time the next business day. For example, a ticket created at 10:00 AM Monday is due at 10:00 AM Tuesday. A ticket created at 10:00 PM Friday is due at 1:00 PM Saturday (the next business day with partial hours). If created during after-hours on Saturday or Sunday, it is due at 6:00 PM Monday.
5. What is the SLA Execution Time, and when does the SLA timer actually start?
SLA Execution Time is the moment when the system begins SLA tracking after ticket creation. The SLA timer starts only after a ticket is created and assigned to a department — it does not start when a message is merely received.

For example, in the context of Instant Messaging (IM) channels, SLA timers do not start when a message arrives in the IM channel. They only start when a bot or automation rule creates a ticket from the incoming IM message and assigns it to a department. At that point, the SLA policy configured for that department is triggered, and the timer runs based on the Business Hours assigned in the SLA settings.

When an SLA is applied to a ticket, the response and resolution times are reset, regardless of any prior SLA activities. Any response sent after the SLA is triggered will be considered as the first response time.
6. How is response time calculated when a customer sends multiple emails for the same request?
If a customer sends two consecutive emails for the same request, the response time is calculated based on the first email that initiated the ticket. For example, if a customer sends an email at 10:00 AM and a follow-up email at 11:00 AM for the same issue, and the agent responds at 12:00 PM, the total response time is 2 hours (12:00 PM − 10:00 AM), not 1 hour.

The agent response time is calculated from the moment the ticket is assigned to them, not from the customer's initial email.
7. How is response time calculated when an agent sends multiple replies to a single request?
If an agent sends multiple consecutive replies to a request, the response time is calculated based on the first reply only. For example, if a customer sends an email at 10:00 AM, the agent replies at 12:00 PM, and then sends a follow-up reply at 2:00 PM, the response time is 2 hours (12:00 PM − 10:00 AM). The subsequent reply at 2:00 PM does not affect the response time calculation.
8. How is response time affected when a ticket is in the "On Hold" status?
The overall response time calculation includes the duration the ticket was in the On Hold status — this time is not excluded from the total response time. However, the agent response time excludes the period when the ticket was On Hold.

For example, a ticket is received at 10:00 AM, placed On Hold at 12:00 PM, moved back to Open at 2:00 PM, and the agent responds at 2:00 PM. The overall response time is 4 hours (10:00 AM to 2:00 PM). The agent response time is 2 hours, because the 2 hours the ticket was On Hold (12:00 PM to 2:00 PM) are deducted.
9. How is resolution time calculated when a ticket is moved to another department?
When a ticket is transferred from one department to another, the resolution time is still calculated from the original ticket creation time, not from the time of transfer. For example, a ticket raised at 10:00 AM in the Billing department is transferred to Technical Support at 1:00 PM and resolved at 5:00 PM the same day. The resolution time is 7 hours (10:00 AM to 5:00 PM), not 4 hours.

The agent resolution time is calculated based on the time the ticket was assigned to the agent in the receiving department.
10. How is resolution time calculated when tickets are merged?
When two tickets are merged, the system treats the earliest ticket as the reference point for resolution time. For example, if Ticket 1 is created at 9:00 AM and Ticket 2 at 11:00 AM, and they are merged at 12:00 PM, the resolution time is calculated from 9:00 AM (Ticket 1's creation time) to when the merged ticket is closed.

If both tickets have multiple open/close cycles before merging, the resolution times of both tickets are summed up. After the merge, any further open/close cycles add to this combined total. If the tickets have different ownership, the assigned time is reset to the time of merging.
11. What happens to response and resolution time when a ticket is created and closed outside business hours?
If a ticket is created and closed during out-of-business hours, with no business hours occurring between those times, the resolution time is considered immediate (1 minute). For example, if a ticket is received at 7:00 PM Monday and replied to and closed at 9:00 PM the same evening — both outside business hours — the resolution time is 1 minute. The agent resolution time is also 1 minute.

However, if business hours occur between creation and closure, the resolution time is calculated only for the business hours that fall within that period. For example, a ticket received at 7:00 PM Monday and closed at 11:00 AM Tuesday would have a resolution time of 2 hours (9:00 AM to 11:00 AM Tuesday).
12. Where does SLA fit in the execution hierarchy of Zoho Desk automations?
When an event occurs, Zoho Desk processes automations in a specific sequence:
  1. Direct Assignment Rules
  2. Workflow Rules
  3. SLAs
  4. Round Robin Assignment
  5. Blueprints
  6. Notification Rules
  7. Automation Studio
SLAs are evaluated after workflows and before round-robin assignment. This means that by the time an SLA is applied, assignment rules and workflows have already processed the ticket. The SLA then sets the response and resolution due dates based on the ticket's current state and the configured Business Hours.
13. How do SLAs interact with Support Plans and Contracts?
SLAs are closely interlinked with Support Plans and Contracts. A support plan outlines the service usage information — such as plan type (unlimited or ticket-based), credit cycle, and credit limit — and must always be linked to an SLA. The contract defines the timeline until which the plan is valid, while the SLA delineates measurable expectations for response and resolution times.

For example, a tech company can create an SLA with targets that state response and resolution times for different user license tiers (e.g., respond in 3 hours and resolve in 1 day for 50–100 licenses; different targets for 500+ licenses). Support plans are then created for each license tier with appropriate ticket-based limits (e.g., 5 tickets/month for 50–100 licenses, 50 tickets/month for 500+ licenses). These support plans are associated with the SLA, and contracts link accounts to the appropriate support plan.

When a ticket is created, the system automatically applies the appropriate support plan, contract, and SLA based on criteria such as product type or account association.
14. What insights does the SLA Dashboard provide?
The SLA Dashboard helps managers check whether their team is adhering to SLA policies and ensure customers receive quality service. It can be filtered by SLAs, violation type, agents, and time frame. The dashboard includes:
  1. SLA overview report — Displays the number of SLA violated tickets, SLA violations, residual time, and violation time as cards for a quick glance at SLA health.
  2. SLA violated tickets — A bar chart showing the number of tickets that breached SLA targets over a period of time, helping identify complex tickets requiring significant time.
  3. Achieved vs Violated tickets — A donut chart showing the proportion of tickets that achieved versus violated the applied SLAs.
  4. Achieved vs violated count — A donut chart showing the number of times an SLA target was achieved versus violated.
  5. Violations by SLAs — A tabular view of how many times each SLA was applied, attained, and violated, helping analyze and optimize SLA policies.
  6. Violations by Agents — A tabular view showing how many times an SLA target was applied to each agent's tickets and how many times they achieved or violated them.
  7. Violations by time — A line chart showing SLA violations at every hour of the current day, helping identify peak violation times.
  8. Violations by status — A bar chart showing violations in each ticket status, helping pinpoint which statuses contribute most to violations.
  9. Violations by channels — A bar chart showing violations in each support channel, helping determine which channels need more agent resources.
15. How do SLAs work with Holiday Lists?
Business hours can be associated with holiday lists to ensure that SLA timers, escalations, and time-based rules do not run on holidays. The days marked as holidays are excluded when setting due dates and triggering escalations for SLAs, Blueprints, and time-based rules.

Key points about holiday lists:
  1. A business hour can be associated with up to two holiday lists
  2. A holiday list can be associated with more than one business hour
  3. You can create holiday schedules for multiple regions or time zones (e.g., US holiday list, UK holiday list, Australia holiday list) and associate them with the respective business hours
  4. Holiday lists can be recurring (e.g., New Year's Day on January 1st every year) or year-specific (marking specific calendar dates for the current and next two years)
  5. Once a holiday type is selected and the holiday list is created and associated with business hours, the dates cannot be modified
  6. If a holiday list is deactivated, the associated business hours are not suspended during any holidays with which they were affiliated.
16. What are Supervisor Rules (Time-based Automations), and how do they relate to SLAs?
Supervisor Rules, also known as time-based automations, are rules that trigger actions based on elapsed time rather than immediate events. While workflow rules execute instantly when a ticket is created or updated, supervisor rules are triggered only when a specified time condition is met.

Time-based conditions relevant to SLAs include:
  1. Hours since status updated
  2. Hours since due date
  3. Hours to due date
  4. Hours since assigned
  5. Hours since first response pending
  6. Hours since agent response pending
  7. Hours since requestor response pending
For example, you can create a supervisor rule to notify agents when their tickets stay unresolved for a certain number of hours, or notify queue managers when tickets remain unassigned for a specified duration. These rules complement SLAs by providing proactive escalation before SLA targets are breached.

Key points about supervisor rules:
  1. They run automatically once every hour.
  2. The system checks only tickets that have received a customer response within the last 30 days.
  3. Time values must be whole numbers (decimal values like 1.5 are not supported).
  4. They support three types of actions: alerts, tasks, and field updates.
  5. They are applicable only for the Tickets module.
  6. Time is calculated based on the Business Hours chosen during rule setup — the timer pauses after hours, weekends, and holidays.
17. Can SLA policies be applied directly to Instant Messaging (IM) channels?
No, user cannot directly map SLA policies to IM channels. Instead, SLA behavior is indirectly managed through the Business Hours assigned to an IM channel.

Here is how it works:
  1. When setting up an IM channel, you assign a Business Hours schedule created in Desk.
  2. SLA policies are defined in Desk settings and linked to specific departments, along with their associated Business Hours.
  3. When a bot or automation rule creates a ticket from an incoming IM message, the ticket is assigned to a department.
  4. The SLA policy configured for that department is triggered.
  5. The SLA timer runs based on the Business Hours assigned in the SLA settings, not the IM channel.
During business hours, SLAs begin and run normally. Outside business hours, the SLA countdown is paused (if SLAs are mapped to Business Hours). If SLA policies are not linked to Business Hours, the timer continues even outside working hours, leading to false SLA violations and unnecessary alerts.