SLA calculator for business hours
An SLA clock runs only during business hours, so a message received on Friday afternoon is not due on Saturday morning. Enter when it arrived, your targets, your hours and holidays, and get the due time for the first reply and the resolution. It also works as a plain business hours calculator for any deadline.
How it works
- Enter the received time. Enter the date and time the message arrived. The form starts at now, so a message that just landed needs no change.
- Set the targets. Set the first reply and resolution targets in hours or minutes, as your policy states them.
- Set the hours. Set the business hours, tick the working days and paste holidays one per line. Switch on around the clock for a policy that never pauses.
- Read the due times. Read the due time for each target and the breakdown of how the hours were counted. Switch to the second mode to measure how long a reply took.
What a service level is
A service level is a promise about time: how long a customer waits for a first reply, for the next reply and for a resolution. A service level agreement (SLA) writes that promise down, with the hours it is measured in. The target is a number of hours; the clock decides which hours count.
A policy carries three targets. First reply is the time from the customer's message to the first answer from a person. Next reply is the time from any later customer message to the team's response. Resolution is the time from the first message to the conversation being closed.
How business-hours counting works
A business-hours clock runs only inside the hours you set, on the days you set. It pauses at the end of the day and resumes at the start of the next working day. Weekends and holidays are skipped whole.
- A message received before opening time starts the clock at opening time, not at arrival.
- A message received after closing time starts the clock at the next working day's opening time.
- Hours left at the end of a day carry over, so a 4-hour target set at 4 PM on a 9 to 5 day is due at noon the next working day.
- A holiday on the list counts as a non-working day, whatever weekday it falls on.
- Around the clock means every hour counts, including nights and weekends. Use it for a policy that promises calendar time.
Worked examples
| Received | Target | How it counts | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday 10:00 AM | 4 business hours | 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, same day | Monday 2:00 PM |
| Friday 4:30 PM | 4 business hours | 30 minutes on Friday, 3.5 hours on Monday | Monday 12:30 PM |
| Saturday 11:00 AM | 1 business hour | Nothing on Saturday or Sunday; the clock starts Monday 9:00 AM | Monday 10:00 AM |
| Wednesday 3:00 PM, Thursday a holiday | 8 business hours | 2 hours on Wednesday, 6 hours on Friday | Friday 3:00 PM |
| Friday 4:30 PM | 4 hours around the clock | Every hour counts | Friday 8:30 PM |
How Sektra applies service levels
In Sektra, a service level policy sets targets for first reply, next reply and resolution, counted in business hours or around the clock. Business hours and holidays are set per inbox, so a support inbox in one time zone and a sales inbox in another keep their own clocks.
The clock pauses while the team waits on the customer. The assignee is warned before a miss, and a report shows hit rates by policy, teammate and tag. A rule applies the policy when a message matches, such as every email to a named inbox or every message an AI check reads as a refund request. Email response time benchmarks and policy covers which targets to set.
Questions, answered
Definitions, counting rules and what the tool stores. If your question is not here, ask us.
What is an SLA calculator?
A calculator that takes the time a message arrived, a target in hours and a set of business hours, and returns the date and time the reply is due. This one also measures how many business hours passed between two timestamps.
How do you calculate SLA time with business hours?
Count only the hours inside the working day. Start at the arrival time, or at opening time if the message came in outside hours. Use up the hours left in the day, skip to the next working day and keep counting until the target is spent. Weekends and holidays are skipped whole.
Can I use this as a business hours calculator?
Yes. It counts the hours inside the schedule you set and skips weekends and the holidays you list, so it works for any deadline, not only an SLA. Enter the start time and the number of business hours, and read the date and time it lands on.
What is a good first response time SLA?
It depends on the channel and the promise you make to clients. Set a target the team hits nine times in ten in business hours, write it down and measure it. The response time benchmarks post has the published numbers by channel and industry.
Does the calculator handle time zones?
It uses your browser's time zone for every date and time. For a policy measured in another zone, enter its opening and closing times converted to yours.
Is anything I enter saved or sent?
No. The calculation runs in your browser, and nothing is stored or sent to Sektra.
Put the clock on every conversation
Sektra's service level policies count first reply, next reply and resolution in your business hours, warn before a miss and report by policy, teammate and tag.