SLAs
SLAs let you set response time targets for support threads so your team stays accountable and customers get timely replies.
How it works
When SLAs are enabled, every incoming thread is matched against your SLA policies top to bottom. The first matching policy applies - the rest are ignored. Each policy defines up to three time targets:
First response - How quickly your team should send the initial reply to a new thread.
Next response - How quickly your team should reply after each subsequent customer message (resets every time the customer sends a new message).
Time to close - How long until the thread should be fully resolved.
SLA clock pauses after a reply
The response SLA clock only runs while your team owes a reply. As soon as a team member replies to a thread, the SLA badge is hidden and no breach is recorded for that response window. The clock restarts if the customer sends another message.
This means:
A thread your team has already answered will not show a breach badge, even if the original deadline has passed.
The SLA breached inbox view only shows threads where the team has not yet replied.
If the customer follows up again after your team replied on time, the clock restarts for the new response window, but the deadline your team already met stays achieved. The follow-up message alone does not flag that thread as breached.
SLA statuses
Every thread with an active SLA shows a status badge:
On track - More than 60 minutes remain until the deadline.
At risk (yellow) - 60 minutes or less remain.
Breached (red) - The deadline has passed and the team has not yet replied.
Hover over the badge to see a tooltip with the exact deadline.
Note: The SLA badge's clock icon is not the same as the snooze clock icon in the thread header. A thread showing the yellow "at risk" badge is not snoozed, so it will not show up if you filter the inbox by Snoozed. See Snoozing for that feature.
The clock icon in the thread list
A clock icon next to a thread in the inbox list marks that thread's due-response time, the same status covered above (At risk or Breached). It shows how much time is left, or how overdue the reply is, based on the SLA policy matched to that thread.
Note: This clock icon is about the SLA deadline, not snoozing. A snoozed thread uses a separate clock icon in the thread header (see Snoozing) and does not appear in your default inbox list at all. Seeing the clock icon on a thread in your list does not mean that thread is snoozed.
Two known issues are being tracked for this icon:
It doesn't yet show a tooltip on hover explaining the deadline, so the icon alone can be hard to interpret.
Its interaction with the Snoozed filter is inconsistent in some cases.
Until these are fixed, treat the clock icon purely as a due-response indicator and use the SLA status badge or the SLA breached view if you need a clearer read on a thread's deadline.
Policies and conditions
Each policy can either apply to all threads (catch-all) or use conditions to target specific threads. Conditions can match on:
Thread fields: Pain level (High/Medium/Low), origin (Widget, Email, Slack, Portal, Live Chat, API, etc.)
Company fields: Name, size, revenue, tier, status
Contact fields: Email
Conditions support operators like equals, not equals, contains, starts with, greater than, less than, etc. You can combine multiple conditions with ALL (every condition must match) or ANY (at least one must match) logic.
Default policies
When you first enable SLAs, four policies are created:
Policy | First response | Next response | Time to close |
|---|---|---|---|
High Priority | 1 hour | 4 hours | 1 day |
Medium Priority | 4 hours | 8 hours | 2 days |
Low Priority | 8 hours | 1 day | 1 week |
Default (all threads) | None | None | None |
You can edit, reorder, add, or remove policies at any time.
Office hours
When Use office hours is enabled, only time during your defined office hours counts toward SLA deadlines. Time outside office hours (nights, weekends, holidays) is not counted. If a deadline would fall outside office hours, it's pushed to the start of the next office hours window.
Configure your office hours and timezone under Settings > Office hours.
How to enable
Go to Settings > SLAs
Toggle Enable SLAs on
Optionally toggle Use office hours to only count business hours
Configure your policies using Add Policy or edit the defaults
Manual overrides
You can manually set or remove an SLA deadline on any individual thread. Manual overrides are preserved - the system won't overwrite them with auto-calculated deadlines.
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