Why SLA tracking decides help desk evaluations
A service-level agreement is a promise with a deadline: "Critical tickets get a first response within 30 minutes." Without tracking, promises live in someone's head and die in a busy queue. With tracking, every ticket carries a visible countdown, the team sees amber before red, and leadership gets an honest compliance percentage instead of anecdotes.
That's why SLA support is one of the first things buyers screen for — and why most vendors put it behind their mid-tier pricing. It's also why Kora ships it free: a promise-tracking feature shouldn't cost more than the salaries making the promises.
What Kora's SLA tracking includes
- Per-priority targets: first-response and resolution minutes for Critical, High, Medium, and Low — configure only the priorities you promise on.
- Multiple policies: different rules per category (e.g. tighter SLAs for "Payment Issue"), with the specific policy winning over the default.
- Business-hours calendars: your timezone, working days, daily hours, and holidays — a 1-hour promise made at 5 PM Friday becomes a 9:30 AM Monday deadline.
- Pause while waiting: clocks freeze when a ticket waits on the customer or another team, and resume when work continues.
- Breach alerts: the assignee and owners are notified once per breach, and a
ticket.sla_breachwebhook fires for your integrations. - Compliance reporting: first-response % and resolution % on your dashboard, with a breached-tickets list one click from the queue.
- Everywhere badges: green → amber → red countdowns on every ticket row and detail view.
SLA tracking: Kora vs the per-seat vendors
| Capability | Kora | Typical per-seat vendor |
|---|---|---|
| SLA policies per priority | Free, all workspaces | Growth/Professional tiers ($15–115/agent) |
| Business-hours calendars | Free, with holidays | Mid-tier or Enterprise |
| Pause while waiting on customer | Free | Often Enterprise-only |
| Breach alerts + webhook | Free, once per breach | Higher tiers |
| Compliance reporting | Free, on every dashboard | Mid-tier+ |
| Team of 10 monthly cost | Credits only (~$0.10/ticket) | $150–1,150 in seats |
How teams actually use it
A typical setup: respond to Critical in 30 minutes and High in 60; resolve Critical in 4 hours and High in 24. Business hours 9–6 local, Monday to Friday, with public holidays loaded once a year. Agents see countdowns on every ticket and work the amber ones before the green. Managers review the compliance percentage weekly — and when it dips, the breached-tickets list shows exactly which promises slipped.
Because Kora bills per ticket instead of per agent, better SLAs don't cost you more seats — they just cost attention. That alignment is the point.
Frequently asked questions
What is SLA tracking in a help desk?+
SLA (service-level agreement) tracking measures whether your team keeps its response and resolution promises. You set targets — e.g. "respond to High-priority tickets within 1 hour, resolve within 24" — and the help desk runs a countdown on every ticket, warns you before deadlines, and reports your compliance rate. Kora includes SLA tracking free on every workspace.
How much does help desk SLA tracking cost?+
In most help desks, SLA tracking is gated to mid-tier plans: Freshdesk requires Growth ($15/agent, limited) or Pro ($49/agent); Zendesk requires Suite Professional ($115/agent); Zoho Desk Standard is $23/agent. Kora includes SLA policies, business-hours clocks, pause-on-waiting, breach alerts, and compliance reports free — no per-agent fees.
Do SLA clocks pause when waiting on the customer?+
In Kora, yes. When a ticket moves to "Waiting for User" or "Waiting for Team", both SLA clocks pause automatically and resume the moment work continues — so your team is never penalized for time spent waiting on a customer reply.
What are business hours in SLA tracking?+
Business hours define when the SLA clock actually runs: your timezone, working days, working hours, and holidays. A 1-hour response promise made at 5 PM on Friday with 9–6 Mon–Fri hours becomes a 9:30 AM Monday deadline. Kora lets each workspace configure its own calendar.
What happens when an SLA is breached?+
Kora marks the ticket as breached, alerts the assignee and workspace owners by email, fires a ticket.sla_breach webhook for your integrations, and lists the ticket in a breached-tickets view so it gets prioritized first. Each breach is alerted exactly once — no spam.
Does Kora charge per agent for SLA tracking?+
No. Kora has no per-agent pricing at all. SLA tracking — like members, comments, automation, and the knowledge base — is free. You only pay credits for outcomes: 1 credit per ticket created and 1 per AI Analyst answer.
Comparing vendors? See Kora vs Freshdesk, Kora vs Zendesk, or how Kora's credits work.