The default SLA policy in Freshservice will be applicable to all tickets coming into your helpdesk. It will define the due by time on your ticket based on the priorities of your tickets. Once you have configured it in your system, it will control the way your agents work everyday by telling them what ticket they have to work on next in sequential order.


Order of policy execution

The policy follows the below order of execution:

  1. Client-level Policy

  2. Global Policy

  3. Default Policy (Global)

Create a default SLA policy

  1. Click on Admin > Service Management > Service Desk Settings > SLA and OLA Policies.
    If your account has more than one workspace: 

    To modify global workflows, navigate to Admin > Global Settings > Service Management > Service Desk Settings > SLA and OLA Policies

    To modify workspace-level workflows, navigate to Admin > Workspace Settings > {Workspace Name} > Service Management > Service Desk Settings > SLA and OLA Policies.

  2. Under the Default SLA Policy, click on the Edit button. 

  3. Optionally, rename the Default Policy and provide a brief description.

  4. Complete the time-priority matrix.

  5. SLA Policies are determined by the ticket priority. You can define what constitutes a high, or low priority ticket manually, or automate it using the Workflow Automator.

  6. Remember to choose whether the SLA times must be calculated based on Business or Calendar hours.

  7. If you would like to enable escalations when service levels are violated, toggle the Escalation Email button to On.

  8. Next, set up your escalation hierarchy by defining when a ticket must be escalated, and to whom. You can set up to four levels of Escalations, for ticket resolution and one level for ticket response.

  9. Click on the Save button to finish setting up your SLA Policy.



You can also create multiple SLA policies in Freshservice for different customer tiers, products, agent groups, etc. For example, you could have an "Express Support" SLA policy for high-value clients.