Why does the SLA timer look wrong?
In most cases the clock is doing exactly what it was configured to do, and the surprise is in the configuration. Check these in order.
1. The ticket has already been answered
Response-overdue only flags a ticket where no first reply has been sent and the deadline has passed. If someone has already answered, the ticket stays clean even though the response due time is behind you. That is intended, and it is the single most common reason a ticket "should" be red and is not.
2. Overdue and SLA breach are not the same thing
Overdue means the ticket is still open, past its resolve-due date, and the timer is not paused. SLA breach means it is past its response-due date, still unassigned and not closed. One is about resolution, the other about first response - a ticket can be one and not the other.
3. The status has paused the clock
The timer follows the status. It runs on Open and Re-opened, pauses on Pending and On Hold, and stops on Resolved and Closed. A ticket sitting in a pending status is not accruing time, which is correct if you are genuinely waiting on someone else and misleading if the status was set and forgotten. Which custom statuses pause the timer is configurable in your settings.
4. The policy is counting calendar hours
If a ticket that arrived at 11pm is nearly due by the morning, the policy is almost certainly running on calendar hours rather than your operating hours. Attach the policy to your business hours so overnight and weekend time is not counted against you.
5. Holidays are not being excluded
Holidays are excluded only if you tick the holidays option and select the dates. Without that, a public holiday counts as working time and every ticket over that day looks late.
6. The priority is not the one you assumed
Targets are set per priority inside the policy. A ticket that came in on the default priority rather than the one you would have chosen gets the default target. Check the priority on the ticket itself before checking the policy.
7. The policy was matched when the ticket was created
A ticket carries one SLA, matched at creation from the sender's address or domain. Changing a policy afterwards does not retro-apply to tickets already open - which is worth knowing before you explain a report to a customer.
