Choose the clock the agreement requires
Some commitments run continuously. Others count only during the service team’s configured working time. SLApulse supports both approaches: a continuous clock counts elapsed time, while a business-hours clock counts only time inside the project calendar.
The correct choice comes from the contract and operating model, not from a desire to make a report look better. The same policy should be clear to the people configuring the project, working the queue and reviewing completed results.
What can affect the calculation
- Working hours: the days and times that count towards a business-hours SLA.
- Holidays: configured non-working days that do not consume a business-hours SLA budget.
- Project timezone: the local timezone that gives working hours and holidays their intended meaning.
- Workflow pauses: statuses that stop time only when the agreement allows it, such as waiting for a customer.
- Start and stop events: the observed source events that begin a phase, record a response, resolve an issue or close it.
A practical example
Consider an issue that starts at 15:30 on a Friday. If its project counts Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 17:00, only the remaining working time on Friday counts before the clock continues on the next open business day. A configured holiday or a permitted pause can change that result further. A continuous policy would count the weekend instead.
Timezone is part of the policy: a teammate’s personal display timezone changes how they read a deadline, but it does not change the shared project calendar used by the SLA calculation.
Set rules once, then check real issues
- Set the project’s timezone, working hours and holiday calendar to match the service commitment.
- Choose continuous or business-hours measurement for the relevant SLA rules.
- Map only the source statuses that genuinely start, pause or stop SLA time.
- Check several real issue timelines and their explanations before relying on the reports.
For the detailed setup, read status mapping and SLA rules and understanding SLA results. When the policy is reliable, use the SLA reporting guide to make outcomes easier to discuss.