The Outage That Waited Like a Billing Question
A support desk that promises the same response time for “my whole estate is offline” and “can I have last month’s invoice again” has made one promise too generous and one impossible. Since 14 October targets are set by priority, overridden by category where it matters, and every ticket says which rule it took.
The short version
Set a workspace default for each priority first — that alone separates urgent from routine. Then override only the categories that genuinely differ: an outage that must be answered in ten minutes, a billing desk that works a business day. Leave every other cell empty and let it fall through.
A fibre internet provider in Nairobi runs one helpdesk for homes and businesses. Until this release its SLA lived on the category: Outages had one target, Billing another, Installations a third. An outage reported by a residential customer at 9 pm and an outage that took down a hospital’s connection got the same clock, because they were in the same category. Priority changed the colour of the ticket and nothing else.
One grid, two dimensions
Settings → Support & Helpdesk → SLA by Priority — also reached from a button on Categories & SLA — is a grid of targets in minutes, for first response and for resolution, with a column for each priority: low, normal, high and urgent. The first row, Workspace default, applies to every ticket. Below it each category has its own row, and a cell there overrides the target for that category at that priority.
| First response, minutes | Low | Normal | High | Urgent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workspace default | 480 | 240 | 60 | 15 |
| Outages | — | — | — | 10 |
| Billing | — | — | — | — |
| Installations | — | — | — | — |
The provider set four workspace defaults and one override. Every empty cell falls through. The greyed placeholder in an empty category cell shows that category’s own default from Categories & SLA, so whoever edits the grid can see what a ticket would get without opening another screen.
Which target a ticket takes
-
The category’s cell for the ticket’s priority
An urgent Outages ticket takes 10 minutes.
-
Otherwise, the category’s own default
Billing keeps one business day for everything, set on Categories & SLA, so an urgent billing ticket takes that.
-
Otherwise, the workspace default for the priority
A normal ticket in a new category nobody configured takes 240 minutes.
The ticket page states which rule applied, under SLA — Urgent · Outages category, Billing category default, or Normal priority default. When an agent disputes a breach, the first question is always which target the ticket was on, and now the ticket answers it.
Priority says how much it hurts. Category says who can fix it and when they work. A target needs both.
When the deadline moves, and when it does not
Targets are applied when a ticket is created and again whenever its priority or category changes. When an agent raises a normal outage ticket to urgent because the caller turns out to be the hospital, its deadlines are recalculated on the spot, from 240 minutes to 10.
Saving the grid does not re-date tickets that are already open. That is deliberate: tightening urgent targets on a Monday morning should not turn twenty open tickets into instant breaches for a promise that did not exist when they were raised. New tickets take the new targets; open ones keep theirs unless their priority or category changes.
Which clock runs
The category still decides whether the SLA clock counts elapsed time or working hours. A ticket with no category runs on elapsed time. If Billing works a business day, its tickets pause overnight and at weekends; Outages, on elapsed time, does not. Two clocks, one promise explains the difference.
Changing the grid needs the permission to manage helpdesk settings. For the wider question of what first-response and resolution targets should mean, see SLAs that mean something; for what happens when a target is missed, the escalation ladder on the SLA engine page.
What AWRA OpsHub does today
- An SLA by Priority grid of first-response and resolution targets in minutes, by low, normal, high and urgent.
- A Workspace default row for every ticket and a row per category whose cells override it, with empty cells falling through.
- Resolution in order: category and priority cell, then category default, then workspace default for the priority, with the applied rule shown on the ticket.
- Deadlines recalculated when a ticket’s priority or category changes, and open tickets left as they were when the grid is saved.
- The category’s choice of elapsed or working-hours time kept, and elapsed time for tickets with no category.
More we can add to your workspace
- SLA targets by customer, so a contract customer’s urgent ticket runs on its own clock.
- Re-dating open tickets to a tightened grid, as an explicit choice when saving.
Where we point you to a specialist
- What you promise a customer is a commercial decision written into your contracts. The grid enforces the targets you set; it never suggests one.
Targets that follow the contract
Priority and category cover most desks. Providers with signed service agreements usually ask for one more dimension.
SLA by customer
A customer’s contract carrying its own targets, taking precedence over the grid for that customer’s tickets.
Re-date on request
When a grid change should apply to tickets already open, a choice at save time to recalculate them.
Send us your service agreement schedule and we will return a written scope and cost.
Scope contract SLAsAsk your helpdesk vendor
Can an urgent billing ticket and an urgent outage have different targets?
A good answer sounds like
Yes — a category override on one priority.
What it tells you
Otherwise one of the two promises is fiction.
Which target is this ticket on, and why?
A good answer sounds like
The rule, printed on the ticket.
What it tells you
A breach nobody can trace to a rule will be argued, not fixed.
What happens to open tickets when targets change?
A good answer sounds like
They keep their deadlines unless their priority or category changes.
What it tells you
Retroactive targets manufacture breaches.
Set your SLA grid
The Academy course walks through the grid, ratings, the knowledge base, WhatsApp and asset links, with a certificate at the end.
Take the helpdesk courseFrequently asked questions
How does AWRA decide which SLA target a ticket gets?
It uses the category’s cell for the ticket’s priority if one is set, otherwise the category’s own default, otherwise the workspace default for the priority. The ticket page shows which rule applied.
Do open tickets change when I edit the SLA grid?
No. Saving the grid does not re-date open tickets. Targets are applied when a ticket is created and again when its priority or category changes.
Does raising a ticket’s priority shorten its deadline?
Yes. Changing a ticket’s priority or category recalculates its deadlines straight away.
Do SLA targets count business hours or elapsed time?
The category decides. A ticket with no category runs on elapsed time.
Who can change SLA targets?
People with the permission to manage helpdesk settings.
