Business-hours SLAs

By default, SLA timers run around the clock. Switch to business-hours mode and the clock only ticks during the hours your team actually works — nights, weekends, and holidays stop counting against your targets.

Nothing changes unless you opt in Business-hours mode is off by default. Every organization keeps the original 24/7 behaviour until an admin deliberately switches it on. If you change nothing here, your SLA targets and compliance numbers stay exactly as they are today.

Why business hours matter

On a 24/7 clock, a ticket raised at 4pm Friday with an "8-hour resolution" target breaches by Monday morning — even though nobody was working over the weekend. Business-hours mode makes your SLAs honest: the timer only counts time your team is actually open, so your targets and compliance numbers reflect reality.

The two clock modes

You'll find both modes in Settings → Tickets → SLAs, in the Operating hours section.

ModeHow the clock counts
Calendar (24×7) — the defaultRuns continuously, including nights and weekends. Every minute counts. Nothing changes from the original behaviour.
Business hoursCounts only your working hours and skips holidays. Overnight and weekend time doesn't count against targets.

Switching to business hours

This is an admin task in Settings → Tickets → SLAs → Operating hours.

  1. 1 Open Settings → Tickets → SLAs and scroll down to the Operating hours section.
  2. 2 Choose Business hours. (The other option, Calendar (24×7), is the default and keeps the around-the-clock behaviour.)
  3. 3 Under Your working hours, set a Start and End time (for example, 08:00 AM to 05:00 PM).
  4. 4 Pick your Timezone from the dropdown.
  5. 5 Choose your Working days by tapping each day your team is open (for example, Mon–Fri).
  6. 6 Click Save operating hours. The change takes effect immediately.
The Operating hours section: the Calendar (24×7) and Business hours mode cards (Business hours selected), with the "Your working hours" panel showing Start/End time fields, a Timezone dropdown, and Mon–Sun working-day toggles. sla-operating-hours.png
Your working hours are organization-wide The hours, timezone, and working days you set here are shared across your whole organization — changing them also affects anything else that uses your working schedule. They only change how SLA timers behave when business-hours mode is on.

Keep urgent tickets on a 24/7 clock

Even in business-hours mode, you can keep specific priorities running around the clock — useful when a Critical outage shouldn't wait until Monday. In the Always-on priorities row, tick any priority that should ignore working hours and keep counting 24×7.

The "Always-on priorities" row with Critical, High, Medium, and Low checkboxes (Critical ticked), shown only when Business hours mode is selected. sla-always-on-priorities.png

Adding holidays

In business-hours mode, SLA timers also skip the days your team is closed. Add those days in the Holidays section, just below Operating hours.

  1. 1 Pick a Date.
  2. 2 Optionally add a Label (for example, "New Year's Day").
  3. 3 Tick Repeats every year if it's an annual holiday, then click Add holiday. Each holiday saves on its own — there's no separate Save step. Remove one anytime with the × next to it.
The Holidays section: a list of added holidays each with a date, optional label, and a "Yearly" badge for recurring ones, above the Date / Label / "Repeats every year" / Add holiday controls. sla-holidays.png
Holidays are shared with the Calendar The holidays you add here are the same ones shown as non-working days on the Calendar, so your calendar and your SLA timers always agree on what counts as a closed day.

What changes for your team

  • The ticket progress bar freezes overnight and on weekends. For business-hours orgs, the SLA progress bar won't creep toward a breach while you're closed — it picks up again when you reopen.
  • It's daylight-saving and timezone aware. An org in London and one in Chicago each get correct timing, and clocks adjust automatically across DST changes.
  • Paused time and non-working time don't double-count. If you also pause SLAs on certain statuses, an overnight pause is handled correctly — the same hour is never subtracted twice.

Frequently asked questions

Did my SLAs change when this feature shipped?

No. The default is unchanged 24/7 (Calendar) behaviour. Your SLA numbers only change if an admin deliberately switches your organization to business-hours mode.

Why did my SLA timer stop moving overnight?

You're on business-hours mode, and the clock correctly pauses outside your working hours. It resumes at the start of your next working period.

Can urgent tickets still run 24/7 while everything else follows business hours?

Yes. Use Always-on priorities to keep Critical (or any priority) on the around-the-clock clock while the rest of the organization follows your working hours.

Do holidays affect 24/7 mode?

No. Holidays only change how timers count in business-hours mode. In Calendar (24×7) mode, every day counts the same.

Can different teams have different working hours?

Not yet. Today the working schedule is organization-wide. Per-team calendars and timezones are on the roadmap.