SLA Tracking

SLA (Service Level Agreement) tracking lets you measure how long tasks spend in different stages of your workflow. Add an SLA column to any board table to start tracking time — whether you need a simple stopwatch, a goal-based countdown, or automatic elapsed-time measurement driven by status changes.

Timer Modes

When you create an SLA column, you choose one of three modes. Each mode serves a different tracking goal.

Stopwatch

Stopwatch is a fully manual timer. You control it by clicking the play, pause, stop, and reset buttons directly on the cell.

• Play — starts or resumes the timer, counting up from the last saved time
• Pause — halts the timer and saves the elapsed time so far
• Stop — permanently records the final elapsed time
• Reset — clears all data and returns the timer to zero (requires confirmation)

The display counts up in H:MM:SS format. The timer turns green while running, amber while paused, and bright white when stopped.

Use Stopwatch when team members need to log time manually on ad-hoc work, such as a support call or a design review.

Countdown

Countdown is a goal-based mode. You set a target duration (for example, 4 hours or 2 business days), and the timer counts down toward that deadline. The display changes color to signal how close you are to the limit:

Color	Meaning
Green	On track — elapsed time is below the warning threshold
Amber	Warning — elapsed time has passed the warning threshold (default: 75% of goal)
Red	Critical — elapsed time has passed the critical threshold (default: 90% of goal)
Red pulsing	Breached — the goal time has been exceeded
Dark green	Met — the timer was stopped before the goal was reached

Countdown mode runs automatically based on the status conditions you configure (see Configuring SLA Conditions below). When the timer is stopped before the goal is reached, it shows a "Met" state so you can see at a glance which tasks completed on time.

Use Countdown for customer-facing SLAs with contractual time limits, such as first response within 4 hours or resolution within 2 business days.

Countup

Countup is an automatic elapsed-time tracker with no goal. It measures how long a task took from start to finish, driven entirely by status changes.

• Starts automatically when a row enters the configured "start" statuses
• Pauses automatically when a row enters the configured "pause" statuses
• Stops automatically when a row enters the configured "stop" statuses

The display counts up in H:MM:SS format. Because there is no goal, there are no color thresholds — the timer simply accumulates time.

Use Countup to measure cycle time: how long tasks take end-to-end through your workflow. Over time, the data helps you identify where work is getting stuck.

Configuring SLA Conditions

For Countdown and Countup modes, you configure automatic triggers that tell the timer when to start, pause, and stop based on changes to a Status column. You set these conditions when creating or editing the SLA column.

Start Condition

Defines when the timer begins running.

Option	Behavior
On Create	Timer starts automatically the moment the row is created
Status Change	Timer starts when the row enters one of the selected status values
Manual	Timer does not start automatically — a team member must start it manually

Pause Condition

Defines when the timer temporarily stops accumulating time.

Option	Behavior
Status Change	Timer pauses when the row enters one of the selected status values
None	Timer never pauses automatically

Stop Condition

Defines when the timer permanently records its final value.

Option	Behavior
Status Change	Timer stops when the row enters one of the selected status values
None	Timer never stops automatically

tip

When a status matches multiple conditions at the same time, the priority order is: Stop takes precedence over Pause, which takes precedence over Start. This prevents conflicting transitions and ensures the timer always lands in the most definitive state.

Example: Customer Support SLA

A typical support workflow might look like this:

• Start condition: Status Change — starts when the row enters "Open" or "In Progress"
• Pause condition: Status Change — pauses when the row enters "Waiting for Customer"
• Stop condition: Status Change — stops when the row enters "Resolved" or "Closed"

With this setup, the SLA clock only counts time while your team is actively responsible, automatically pausing when you are waiting on the customer.

Goal Duration and Thresholds

These settings apply to Countdown mode only.

Goal Duration

Enter the target time as hours and minutes. The countdown timer will measure elapsed time against this goal. For example:

• 4 hours 0 minutes — 4-hour SLA
• 24 hours 0 minutes — 1-day SLA
• 48 hours 0 minutes — 2-day SLA (or configure a business calendar to count only working hours)

Warning and Critical Thresholds

Thresholds control when the timer color changes from green to amber to red. You configure each threshold as a percentage of the goal time.

Threshold	Default	Behavior
Warning	75%	Timer turns amber when 75% of goal time has elapsed
Critical	90%	Timer turns red when 90% of goal time has elapsed

Adjust these sliders in the column configuration to match your team's escalation policy. For example, if you want earlier warnings, set the warning threshold to 50%.

Business Calendars

By default, SLA timers count all clock time — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you connect a Business Calendar to your SLA column, the timer only counts working hours.

What a Business Calendar Configures

Setting	Description
Name	A label for the calendar (e.g., "Support Team — EST")
Timezone	All working hour calculations respect this timezone
Weekly Schedule	Select which days are working days and set the start and end time for each day
Holidays	Add specific dates that should not count — either one-time or recurring annually

The default schedule for a new calendar is Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

How Business Calendars Affect Timers

When a Business Calendar is attached to an SLA column:

• Countdown: The goal deadline is calculated in business time. A 4-hour SLA that starts at 4:00 PM on a Friday (end of day at 5:00 PM) will not expire until 8:00 AM on Monday — after 1 business hour carried over from Friday plus 3 business hours on Monday.
• Countup: Elapsed time only accumulates during business hours.
• Outside-hours indicator: When a timer is running but the current time is outside business hours, the timer display dims and shows a moon icon. Time is not being counted.

note

Business Calendars are workspace-level resources. Any admin can create and manage them from the Board settings. Once created, a calendar can be attached to multiple SLA columns across different boards.

Creating a Business Calendar

1. Open any board and click the Business Calendars option in the board settings or SLA column configuration.
2. Click Create Calendar.
3. Enter a name and select your timezone.
4. Toggle each day of the week on or off, and set the working hours for each enabled day.
5. Add any holidays using the Add Holiday button — mark holidays as recurring if they repeat every year (such as national holidays).
6. Click Save.

Session Audit Trail

Every SLA timer keeps a detailed log of sessions. A session is one continuous period of running time — from when the timer started or resumed to when it was paused or stopped.

The session log is available in the Row Detail view. Click the notes icon on the SLA cell to open the session log popover, which shows:

• The session number
• Who started the session
• The start time and end time
• The duration of that session

The session log is available for all three timer modes — Stopwatch, Countdown, and Countup.

tip

Use the session log to understand how much time different team members spent on a task, or to verify that SLA pauses were correctly triggered during waiting periods.

Tips

• Connect SLA columns to your Status workflow so timers start, pause, and stop automatically without any manual intervention.
• Configure a Stop condition for "Done" and "Cancelled" statuses. Without a stop condition, timers will keep running even after work is complete.
• Use Countdown for contractual SLAs where breaching a deadline has business consequences. The color indicators give the whole team instant visibility.
• Use Countup for process analytics to measure cycle time across your workflow and surface bottlenecks.
• Set up a Business Calendar so SLA timers do not count overnight, on weekends, or on public holidays. A timer that starts at 4:30 PM should not expire by 5:30 PM when your team works 9–5.
• Review SLA data regularly to identify which stages of your workflow are slowest, and use that data to improve your process.

Next Steps

• Learn about Automations to trigger additional actions when SLA timers breach or statuses change.
• Explore Field Types to see all available column types for your boards.
• Review Board Permissions to control who can manage SLA columns and business calendars.