Service Level Agreement (SLA)
A Service Level Agreement (SLA) defines the expected response and resolution timelines that a service provider commits to delivering for customer support requests.
SLAs focus on when a service should be delivered rather than how the service is provided, ensuring consistent and measurable customer support.
How to Access Service Level Agreement
Go to:
Home > Support > Service Level Agreement > Service Level Agreement
1. Prerequisites
Before creating a Service Level Agreement, complete the following setup:
- Create a Holiday List.
- Enable Track Service Level Agreement in Support Settings.
2. How to Create a Service Level Agreement
- Open the Service Level Agreement list and click New.
- Enter a name for the SLA.
- Select the Employee Group responsible for handling issues under this SLA.
- Select a Holiday List to exclude holidays from SLA calculations.
- Enable the SLA using the Enable checkbox.
- Optionally enable Default Service Level Agreement to apply it when no customer-specific SLA exists.
- Select the Entity Type (Customer, Customer Group, or Territory).
- Select the corresponding Entity.
- Specify the Start Date and End Date to define the agreement’s validity.
- Configure response and resolution timelines for different issue priorities.
- Select the Default Priority.
- Define the organization’s Support Hours.
- Save the Service Level Agreement.
The SLA determines response and resolution deadlines based on issue priority, support hours, and holidays.
3. Features
3.1 Automatic Application to New Issues
After an SLA is enabled, ERPNext automatically applies it to new Issues based on the configured Entity Type and Entity.
Issues automatically inherit the appropriate SLA according to the assigned Customer, Customer Group, or Territory.
3.2 Resetting an SLA
Support agents can reset an SLA before its response or resolution deadline has been exceeded.
For example, if an SLA allows three days for resolution, it can only be reset within those three days. Once the SLA expires, it is marked as failed.
3.3 Response and Resolution Timers
ERPNext displays the calculated response and resolution deadlines directly within the Issue document.
These deadlines are automatically calculated using the timelines configured for each priority level.
3.4 Pause SLA on Selected Statuses
From Version 13 onwards, ERPNext allows SLA timers to be paused when an Issue enters specific statuses, such as waiting for customer input.
Configure Pause Statuses
Add the Issue statuses that should pause SLA tracking in the Pause SLA On table.
While the SLA is Paused
When an Issue enters one of the configured statuses, the response and resolution timers are paused and the dashboard indicators are updated accordingly.
Resume SLA
Once the Issue returns to a normal working status, ERPNext records the Total Hold Time and recalculates the remaining response and resolution deadlines.
Pausing the SLA ensures that waiting periods outside the support team’s control do not count toward SLA commitments.
Note
Starting with Version 13, the older Service Level DocType was removed, and all SLA functionality is managed exclusively through the Service Level Agreement DocType.
Summary
- Create SLAs based on Customers, Customer Groups, or Territories.
- Define response and resolution targets for multiple issue priorities.
- Configure support hours and holiday calendars for accurate SLA calculations.
- Automatically apply SLAs to new Issues.
- Pause and resume SLA timers based on Issue statuses.
- ERPNext continuously tracks SLA compliance using configured priorities, support schedules, and hold durations.
