A helpdesk ticket can be measured against two separate deadlines: one for the first reaction and one for finishing the job. Singu shows both on the ticket and on the tickets list, counts them from the rules set for your complex, and marks each one as on time or overdue.
Permissions
Reading the deadlines needs no permission at all: everyone who opens a ticket sees them. Setting the rules that produce them is a different matter and needs ComplexSlaEdit, and switching the whole feature on needs access to the application settings. The table at the end lists everything.
Turn the feature on
The second deadline appears only once the MultipleHelpdeskTicketSla application setting is on. You will find it in the Admin module, in Application settings, in the General section rather than among the ticket settings. Until it is switched on, tickets carry the completion deadline alone.
Response time and resolution time
The table explains both deadlines. The first column is the name you see on the ticket, the second says when the clock starts and stops, and the third says where the deadline comes from.
Deadline | Counted from and to | Source |
Planned response | From the moment the ticket is created until it reaches the In progress status. Handing the ticket over to someone who then starts work also stops the clock. | Filled in automatically when the ticket is created. It cannot be edited by hand. |
Planned completion | From the moment the ticket is created until the ticket is finished, which means closed or done. | Filled in automatically as well, but you can overwrite it on the ticket if you hold |
Note
A ticket that is closed without ever passing through In progress has its closing time treated as the response. Cancelled tickets are left out of the count entirely.
Where you see them
Both deadlines travel with the ticket rather than living in one screen:
as the Planned response and Planned completion columns on the tickets list, as long as you have them switched on in the columns panel
in the ticket details, next to the remaining dates
on the ticket card on a phone, and in the mobile app, which reads the same data
in the XLS export of the tickets list
on the ticket PDF, as Planned Response Date
Each date carries a label that says whether the time was met. The first column is the label, the second explains what it means.
Label | Meaning |
On time | The deadline was met. |
Overdue | The deadline passed and the ticket did not reach the required status in time. |
{duration} remaining | The deadline is still ahead. Under 24 hours the label turns amber. |
{duration} late | The deadline passed and the clock is still running. |
Where the deadlines come from
Deadlines are not typed in per ticket. They come from the rules of the complex the ticket belongs to, which you set in the Buildings module: open Complexes, open a complex, and go to its SLA tab. Rules live on three lists there: priority, category and locations. On each of them you enter the response time and the resolution time separately, in hours and minutes. A location means a building or a single building section.
A ticket can match several rules at once, and then the strictest one wins, not the first one on the list. A priority rule promising 24 hours and a category rule promising 8 hours give the ticket 8 hours. On the location list a rule set for a specific building section beats the rule set for the whole building.
Note
Two cases produce no deadline in the usual sense. A ticket with the no SLA priority is left out on purpose. A ticket that matches no rule at all gets a deadline equal to its own creation time, so it looks overdue from the first minute. If deadlines in a complex behave like that, the rules for it are missing rather than wrong.
Working days and calendar days
Each priority rule also decides which calendar the hours are counted on: calendar days count every day, business days skip weekends and public holidays, and the working hours variants also stop outside the working hours set for your organization. You pick the calendar in the service calendar column of the priority rule. Leave it empty and the complex setting applies.
Note
The category and location rules carry hours only, with no calendar of their own. A deadline that comes from one of them is still counted on the calendar picked for the priority. Eight hours from a category rule can therefore run out on Monday, when the priority counts business days and the ticket arrived on Friday afternoon.
Public holidays
Public holidays come from a holiday calendar loaded into Singu, and that calendar covers one country. An organization with buildings in several countries therefore works on a single set of holidays rather than one set per country. There is no screen for it: the calendar is loaded by your implementation team, so ask them when holidays are missing or a new year has to be added.
What the deadlines do not cover
Other ticket types. Response deadlines are calculated for helpdesk tickets only. Support tickets, projects, bids and inspections have no Planned response.
Tickets created earlier. Tickets that existed before the setting was switched on keep an empty response deadline, and nothing fills it in later. You will see a dash instead of a label.
Time spent on hold. Neither clock stops while a ticket waits. The planned completion date moves only when the
OnHoldUpdatesTicketSLAsetting is switched on.Editing the response deadline by hand. You cannot type that date in anywhere. The system recalculates it only when the
AlwaysCalculateSlaDeadlinesetting is on and the priority, category or building section changes.
Permissions
The permissions below are what you need to set the SLA rules and to change a deadline on a single ticket. Seeing the deadlines needs none of them. The first column is the Admin module section, the second is the permission name, and the third says what it allows.
Admin module section | Permission name | Description |
Admin |
| Opens Application settings, where |
Building |
| Opens a complex, which is where the SLA rules are. |
Building |
| Shows the SLA tab and saves the rules for priorities, categories and locations. |
Ticket |
| Overwrites the planned completion date on a single ticket. |
Ticket |
| Sends the overdue ticket reminder to the members of the responsible department instead of one person. |
Frequently asked questions
Why does a ticket show no planned response?
A response deadline is only calculated for helpdesk tickets created after the MultipleHelpdeskTicketSla setting was switched on. Older tickets keep an empty field and nothing fills it in for them, and other ticket types, such as support tickets or inspections, never get one at all. A dash in that column is normal in those cases. If the column itself is missing from the list, switch it on in the columns panel.
Several rules fit my ticket. Which one counts?
The strictest of them counts. Singu compares the priority, category and location rules that match and takes the shortest time of the three, so a category rule of 8 hours overrides a priority rule of 24 hours. On the location list itself, a rule for a specific building section wins over the rule for the whole building.
Does putting a ticket on hold stop the clock?
The clock never stops, but the planned completion date can be moved for you. That is what the OnHoldUpdatesTicketSLA application setting does, and it is off by default. With it on, setting the status to Suspended together with a date in Suspended until moves the planned completion date to the end of that day, so the ticket collects no delay for the waiting time. With it off, the date stays as it was and the time on hold counts towards the delay. The response deadline moves in neither case.
Will anyone be told when a deadline is missed?
Only for the completion deadline. When it passes and the ticket is still unfinished, a reminder goes to the responsible person, or to the responsible department when its members hold DepartmentNotification. A missed response deadline is shown on the ticket as an overdue label, but it sends no message and appears in no report.
Can I change a deadline on a single ticket?
The planned completion date can be overwritten on the ticket by anyone holding ExpectedResolveDate, and your entry replaces the calculated one. The planned response date cannot be typed in anywhere. Only the system changes it, and only in one case: with AlwaysCalculateSlaDeadline on, changing the priority, category or building section recalculates both deadlines.
Why is the deadline the same as the ticket creation time?
That happens when no rule matches the ticket, because the calculation then adds no time at all. Open the SLA tab of the complex and add a rule for that priority, category or location. It is not a sign that the deadline has already passed.
Are the deadlines visible on a phone?
Yes. The ticket card in the mobile view shows both dates with the same labels as the desktop list, and the mobile app reads the same values through the API. The deadlines also reach the XLS export and the ticket PDF.