SLAs

How SLAs work in Plain, including types, statuses, and business hours configuration.

SLAs (Service Level Agreement) give your team a clear framework for response times, along with the visibility and alerts needed to meet them consistently.

Note: SLAs in Plain are only applied when a thread requires action from your internal support team. If a customer message doesn’t need a response, for example, a confirmation or thank-you, no SLA will be active.

SLAs are configured at the Tier → level, in Settings → Tiers & SLAs. Within each tier, you can set different targets per priority, so higher-impact customers and more urgent issues get faster response times. For example, an Enterprise customer with an Urgent thread can have a tighter SLA than a Free customer with a Low priority thread.

SLA types

• First response time: Tracks how long it takes your team to send the first reply to a new thread.

• Next response time: Tracks how long it takes to reply after a customer responds.

SLA statuses

Each SLA moves through a series of statuses as time progresses and your team responds. You’ll see these in the thread view and when setting up workflow triggers.

Status	What it means
Pending	The SLA timer is counting down. The deadline hasn’t passed and no alert threshold has been crossed.
Imminent breach	A pre-breach alert window is active. The deadline hasn’t passed yet, but you’re approaching it. This only appears if you’ve configured an alert threshold on the SLA.
Breaching	The deadline has passed and the SLA condition still isn’t met. For example, no first reply has been sent inside the first response time window.
Achieved	The SLA condition was met in time. For example, a first reply was sent before the deadline.
Breached	The SLA passed through Breaching without being met, but the underlying condition has since been resolved, for example a reply was eventually sent.
Canceled	The SLA no longer applies. For example, a thread was marked as Done without a reply being sent.

SLAs and snoozed threads

What happens to the SLA timer when you snooze a thread depends on which snooze status you use.

Snooze status	SLA timer behavior
Waiting for customer	The timer is canceled. You’ve replied and are waiting on the customer, so no SLA applies.
Paused for later	The timer keeps running. You’ve paused the thread, but the customer is still waiting on a response.

Business hours

By default, SLA timers run 24/7. You can configure them to count only during business hours instead.

To set your working schedule, go to Settings → Business hours.