> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.protodesk.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Configure SLA policies

> Set response and resolution targets, configure business hours, and understand matching, alerts, and current limits.

SLA policies define first-response and resolution targets for customer conversations. Owners and admins manage them in **Settings → SLA Policies**. If the page shows a plan restriction, check your workspace's entitlement before depending on SLA management.

## Set business hours first

1. Open **Settings → General**.
2. Find **Business Hours** and select its **Edit** button.
3. Choose the workspace **Timezone** and configure the **Weekly Schedule** with the days and time windows you work.
4. Select **Save Schedule**, then confirm the saved timezone and hours.

This schedule is workspace-wide and separate from your personal notification quiet hours. An absent or empty schedule means **24/7**, not closed all week. Use valid same-day windows with an end later than the start. Do not clear every day to pause SLA enforcement.

## Create a policy

1. Open **Settings → SLA Policies → New policy**.
2. Enter **Policy name** and an optional **Description**.
3. Set **First response (minutes)** and **Resolution (minutes)**. Each target must be at least one minute.
4. Choose a **Team scope**, or leave **All teams (no filter)**.
5. Select **Count only business hours toward SLA timer** if this policy should use the workspace schedule.
6. Use **Set as default policy for new tickets** only for your broad fallback policy.
7. Select **Create policy** and confirm the policy in the list.

Keep one unscoped default and avoid overlapping non-default policies. The first matching non-default policy is selected; otherwise the default is used. The default acts as a fallback rather than a team-filtered exception. A conversation with no applicable policy has no policy target to enforce.

## How time is counted

Targets are measured from conversation creation, not from the most recent customer message. First-response evaluation applies while the conversation has no recorded agent or AI response. Resolution evaluation applies while it remains open or pending.

With business-hours mode enabled, only scheduled open time counts. Without it, elapsed clock time counts. Missing hours mean 24/7; an unusable schedule can fall back to clock time rather than pause enforcement indefinitely.

The periodic SLA check excludes conversations marked as tests and merged conversations. Snoozing does not itself pause SLA time. Policy or schedule changes can affect existing eligible conversations, so review active work before changing targets.

## Alerts and current limits

An unanswered conversation can be flagged at risk after 85% of its first-response target. A missed first-response or resolution target can be flagged as breached. Checks are periodic, not second-by-second delivery guarantees.

The alert path addresses the current assignee; an unassigned conversation can be flagged without sending a personal alert. Warning and breach flags are not a recurring escalation schedule or a separate notification for every missed target.

The form exposes **Escalate after** and escalation recipients, but automated escalation from those fields is not currently implemented in the enforcement path. Leave them out of your operational escalation plan. The dashboard's live SLA countdown is also not currently supplied; a missing countdown does not prove that no policy applies.

## Review and troubleshoot

Search the policy list and open a policy to review it. Before saving an edit, confirm that its name, targets, team, and business-hours settings loaded correctly; cancel if values are blank or unexpected.

For unexpected timing, check conversation creation time, status, team, applicable policy, and workspace schedule. For a missing alert, check assignment and [notification delivery](/guides/configure-notification-delivery). Keep a manual queue-review process until your workspace's timing and delivery have been confirmed; the displayed settings alone are not a contractual compliance report.


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