Alps

Understanding SLA Policies and Deadlines

1 min readAug 21, 2026

In this article

Learn how SLA policies set response and resolution deadlines per inbox, and how the countdown and breach warnings work in the conversation view.

An SLA, or service level agreement, is a deadline your team commits to for responding to or resolving a conversation. Alps tracks these deadlines automatically and shows a live countdown right inside the conversation, so nothing quietly slips past its due date.

Where SLA policies live

SLA policies are set per inbox, not workspace-wide. Open Settings, go to Inboxes, choose the inbox you want to configure, and open its SLA Policy tab. This lets different inboxes carry different expectations, for example a faster response time for a priority support inbox than for general enquiries.

What you will see in a conversation

  • A countdown showing time remaining before the deadline.

  • A warning state as the deadline approaches.

  • A breach indicator once the deadline has passed, so it is immediately obvious a conversation needs attention.

Automating this
SLA breaches are also a common trigger for automations, for example automatically raising priority or notifying a team lead when a conversation is about to breach.

Tips

Set realistic deadlines your team can actually hit. An SLA that is breached constantly stops being a useful signal and starts being background noise.

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