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Service Level Agreements (SLAs) help your team maintain consistent service quality by automatically monitoring response times, resolution times, and closure deadlines. Set time-based commitments, receive early warning alerts before breaches occur, and track performance through comprehensive reporting to ensure you never miss a commitment to your customers.
Key capabilities:
  • Automated monitoring that continuously checks SLA compliance in the background
  • Multiple target types for response, resolution, and closure times
  • Business schedules that limit SLA measurement to your team’s working hours
  • Pause statuses that stop the timer while a ticket is waiting on someone else
  • Early warning alerts before SLA breaches occur
  • Flexible filtering to apply SLAs to specific ticket types
  • Visual indicators showing SLA health at a glance
  • Priority ordering when multiple SLAs could apply to the same
Learn more about SLA analytics and ticket priorities

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SLA components

SLAs consist of targets that define time-based commitments and alerts that provide early warnings before breaches occur.

SLA targets

Each SLA can contain multiple targets that define different time-based commitments for handling.Time to first response
  • Measures time from ticket creation to first team response
  • Ensures customers get timely acknowledgment
  • Maintains customer satisfaction with prompt initial contact
Time to resolution
  • Measures time from ticket creation to resolution
  • Tracks overall issue resolution performance
  • Serves as a key metric for service quality
Time to close
  • Measures time from ticket creation to final closure
  • Includes any follow-up or verification steps
  • Provides complete lifecycle tracking
Configure targets using flexible time units including minutes, hours, and days.
Alerts provide early warning before SLA breaches occur, giving your team time to take action.Time to first response alerts
  • Warn before response deadline is missed
  • Give your team time to provide initial customer contact
Time to resolution alerts
  • Alert before resolution deadline
  • Allow for escalation or resource reallocation
Time to close alerts
  • Notify before final closure deadline
  • Ensure proper ticket completion
Configure alerts using the same flexible time units as targets (minutes, hours, days).How alert time is interpretedThe alert time is the amount of time before the breach deadline that the alert fires — not the elapsed time from ticket creation. For example, take a Time to first response target of 4 hours with an alert configured for 1 hour. The alert fires 3 hours after the ticket is created, which is 1 hour before the 4-hour deadline.If the alert time is greater than or equal to the target time, no alert is scheduled — there is no window in which an early warning makes sense.
Attach a business schedule to an SLA to measure time against your team’s working hours instead of wall-clock time. Nights and weekends outside the schedule are excluded from response, resolution, and close calculations.What a schedule defines
  • Timezone: The IANA timezone the schedule is anchored in (for example, America/New_York).
  • Weekly hours: One or more working time ranges per day of the week, in 24-hour HH:MM format. A day with no ranges is treated as fully off.
How it works
  • When an SLA has a schedule attached, its timers only advance during the schedule’s working windows.
  • When a ticket is created or transitions outside working hours, the timer waits to start (or resume) until the next working window opens.
  • A ticket’s SLA badge shows Resumes at outside business hours, indicating when the timer will next pick up rather than ticking down.
  • An SLA without a schedule continues to use wall-clock time (24/7).
Create and manage schedules under Settings → Business Schedules, then select one in the Settings tab of an SLA. The same schedule can be shared across multiple SLAs.
Pause statuses stop the SLA timer while a ticket sits in a state your team is not actively working on, so waiting time does not count against your targets.Common use cases
  • Pause while waiting on the requester (for example, a “Waiting on customer” status)
  • Pause while a ticket is blocked by an external dependency
  • Pause during scheduled change windows or planned downtime
How it works
  • Select one or more that should pause the SLA timer
  • When a ticket enters a pause status, that SLA’s timers stop
  • When the ticket leaves the pause status, timers resume from where they left off
  • Time spent in a pause status is excluded from response, resolution, and close calculations
Terminal statuses in the Done and Closed status groups cannot be selected as pause statuses. Reaching a terminal status already stops the SLA timer for good — the target is either met or breached. The pause status picker hides them, and the API rejects them on save.

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How SLAs work

By default, SLAs apply to all in your . To target only certain tickets, turn off the “Apply to all tickets” toggle and add filter criteria based on , , , , assignee, , or other attributes.

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SLA status indicators

Ravenna uses a color-coded system to show SLA status at a glance on cards and dashboards.

🟢 Green (Met)

Action completed within the SLA timeframe and target successfully achieved.
SLA is active but no action taken yet. Still within the allowed timeframe with no alerts triggered.
Alert threshold has been crossed and breach is imminent without action. Provides early warning to take preventive action.
SLA deadline has passed and the service level target has been missed. Requires immediate attention.

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Creating SLAs

Set up service level agreements to automatically monitor response and resolution times.
1

Navigate to SLA settings

Go to Settings → SLAs to access SLA management.
2

Create new SLA

Click the + SLA button to open the SLA creation form. Provide a descriptive name, description, and icon for your SLA, then click Save.
3

Access SLA configuration

Click your newly created SLA from the list to open the detailed configuration page.
4

Add targets

Set up your service level commitments by adding targets for Time to First Response, Time to Resolution, or Time to Close with specific time limits.
5

Configure alerts

Add alerts that warn before SLA breaches occur by setting alert timing for each target type.
6

Select a business schedule (optional)

On the SLA’s Settings tab, select a if you want SLA timers to honor your team’s working hours instead of running 24/7. Leave this blank to keep wall-clock measurement. Business schedules are created under Settings → Business Schedules.
7

Select pause statuses (optional)

Select any that should pause the SLA timer, such as “Waiting on customer” or “Blocked”. Time spent in a pause status is excluded from your SLA calculations. Terminal statuses in the Done and Closed groups are not selectable, since reaching them already stops the timer.
8

Set ticket filters

By default, your SLA applies to all . To target specific tickets, turn off the “Apply to all tickets” toggle and configure filter criteria based on , , , , assignee, , or other attributes.To target tickets by user group, use the Assignee, Requestor, or Author filter with the is member of or is not member of operator. Select one or more to scope the SLA. Use this to define SLAs that follow a team rather than a specific user, for example, “Tier 1 Support” or “Security On-Call”.
9

Save configuration

Save your SLA configuration to activate monitoring for matching .

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Managing multiple SLAs

When multiple SLAs could apply to the same , Ravenna uses priority ordering to determine which SLA is applied.

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Priority evaluation

  • SLAs are evaluated in the order they appear in your list
  • The first matching SLA is applied to each
  • SLAs higher in the list take precedence over those lower in the list

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Best practices for ordering

  • Order SLAs from most specific to most general
  • Place urgent or critical SLAs at the top of the list
  • Use “Apply to all tickets” SLAs as fallbacks at the bottom
  • Review SLA order regularly to ensure proper precedence

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Notifications and alerts

SLA notifications are automatically sent to relevant stakeholders when alerts trigger or breaches occur.

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Notification recipients

Notifications are sent to the following recipients based on assignments:
  • (if assigned)
  • auto-assignees (if no specific assignee)
  • administrators

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Notification timing

  • Alerts: Sent when alert threshold is crossed, providing early warning before breach
  • Breaches: Sent when SLA deadline passes, requiring immediate attention
Learn more about configuring notifications

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Monitoring SLA performance

Track SLA compliance through visual indicators and comprehensive dashboards.

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Visual indicators

SLA performance is displayed through:
  • Color-coded SLA badges on cards
  • Progress indicators showing time remaining
  • Clear visual status at a glance in ticket lists

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Filter and export by SLA

In any , filter tickets by:
  • SLA: The SLA policy attached to the ticket
  • Status: SLA outcome — Met or Breached
  • Target: The SLA target type — Time to First Response, Time to Resolution, or Time to Close
SLA filters are grouped under a single SLA entry in the filter menu. Exported CSVs include the assigned SLA name and its current status alongside other ticket data, so you can run compliance reporting offline.

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Dashboard metrics

dashboards provide comprehensive SLA performance tracking:
  • Compliance rate: Percentage of meeting SLA targets
  • Average response time: How quickly your team responds to new tickets
  • Breach trends: Patterns in SLA violations over time
  • Performance by category: SLA success broken down by , , or
Learn more about SLA analytics dashboard
Last modified on July 27, 2026