Who this is for. Super Admins configuring an Agent Co-worker. No other role has access to the setup wizard. Managers still own the decisions these settings record, and are the people to ask when a setting is wrong. Requires the AP Helpdesk function enabled on the agent. See the Roles and Access.
Task SLA is the last capability group on the AP Helpdesk tab under Governed Autonomy. It “sets when an open task is flagged as approaching or past its SLA in the analyst queue metrics”, the At-Risk and Overdue counters on Home.
Figure 1. Task SLA.
Navigate to Task SLA
On the Define capabilities step, select the AP Helpdesk tab.
In the left navigation, select Task SLA.
Settings
These settings decide when an open task is flagged; note that Timezone appears only while Exclude weekends is selected.
The step states the constraint plainly: At-Risk should be lower than Overdue. For example, the values may read At-Risk 36 Hours and Overdue 48 Hours, with Exclude weekends selected.
Both thresholds are measured against task age, not priority. Raising a task’s priority does not move it toward Overdue, and lowering it does not hold it back.
Configure the thresholds
Select Exclude weekends if weekend days should not age toward the SLA.
If you selected Exclude weekends, select a value in the Timezone list, which is searchable. This sets which time zone the weekend rule uses. Leave it blank to use each viewer’s browser time zone.
Enter the At-Risk value and select its unit: Hours, Days or Weeks.
Enter the Overdue value and select its unit, from the same list.
Select Next.
Field descriptions
The Required and Default columns tell you what you must set; the Notes explain consequences, such as a blank Timezone giving managers in different regions different figures for the same queue.
Table 1. Task SLA field descriptions
Field |
Description |
Required |
Default |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Exclude weekends |
Weekend days do not age toward the SLA. |
Optional |
On |
Uses the configured time zone to decide when the weekend falls. |
Timezone |
Sets which time zone the weekend rule uses. |
Optional |
Browser timezone |
Left blank, each viewer’s browser decides when the weekend was, so managers in different regions can see different figures for the same queue. |
At-Risk |
How close to the SLA age a task must be before it is flagged as approaching. |
Required |
36 Hours |
The unit list offers Hours, Days and Weeks. The value accepts 1 to 999. |
Overdue |
How far past the SLA age a task must be before it is flagged as late. |
Required |
48 Hours |
The unit list offers Hours, Days and Weeks. |
Set At-Risk below Overdue
At-Risk should be lower than Overdue. A task ages from the At-Risk state into the Overdue state, so an At-Risk value above the Overdue value produces metrics that cannot be read sensibly. The At-Risk count would exceed the Overdue count for tasks that are already late.
Choose values
The gap between the two thresholds is your warning window. A narrow gap means the queue flags problems late but rarely cries wolf. A wide gap gives more notice at the cost of a longer-standing At-Risk list.
Without Exclude weekends, a task created on a Friday afternoon can appear Overdue on Monday morning purely from elapsed calendar time.
What these thresholds do not affect
Task assignment. Who receives a task is governed by your processing rules and by Assignee Hold. For more information, see Assignee Hold for Threaded Message Tasks.
Task priority. Priority says how important a task is; these thresholds say how long it has been waiting. A Low priority task can be Overdue, and a High priority task can be within target.
Agent processing. Nothing about how the Agent Co-worker handles email changes.
Only open tasks age
Only open tasks are evaluated against the thresholds. A task that reaches DONE stops ageing.
Related information
- For the counters these thresholds drive, see Read the Homepage.