--- description: "When a client has an agreement for a 2-hour response on urgent tickets, you don't want the SLA clock ticking at 3 AM on a Sunday unless they pay for 24/7…" --- # How to configure SLA calendars & escalation ladders > **Audience:** admin — SLA policy is a settings-owner responsibility; > staff consume the result but cannot bend it. When a client has an agreement for a 2-hour response on urgent tickets, you don't want the SLA clock ticking at 3 AM on a Sunday unless they pay for 24/7 coverage. In Marula, **business-hours calendars** control when the SLA stopwatch runs, and **escalation ladders** automatically notify leads when a ticket approaches or breaches its deadline. ## Prerequisites - Admin access to **Settings → SLA** (under **Delivery**). - The IANA timezone name for each support office or region you cover (for example, `America/New_York` or `Europe/London`). - Your target response and resolution times for each priority level (`P1` through `P4`). ## 1. How calendars and escalation ladders fit together The **Settings → SLA** page is built around two rules: > "Business-hours calendars govern every SLA clock; escalation ladders > fire once per ticket when consumed budget crosses an offset." In practice: - **Calendars** define *when the clock ticks*: your open hours for each day of the week, observed holidays, and timezone. Outside those hours (or when a ticket sits in a `Waiting` status column), the SLA timer pauses automatically. - **Escalation ladders** define *who gets alerted and when*: threshold offsets against the ticket's SLA budget, firing once per threshold on a ticket. ## 2. Create a business-hours calendar Click **New calendar** and enter: 1. A descriptive name (for example, `Standard Business Hours — Eastern` or `24x7 Critical Coverage`). 2. The **IANA timezone** (`America/New_York`, `UTC`, etc.). Because the SLA engine calculates deadlines directly from this timezone, double-check that it matches your contractual hours. 3. The open start and end times for each day of the week, plus any company holidays. ## 3. Set priority targets and escalation steps In the policy section below the calendar, set your response and resolution targets for `P1` through `P4` tickets and configure the escalation offsets that fire as time runs low. ## 4. Test on a live ticket Open a test ticket on your board and check the **SLA ring** in the ticket header. Move the ticket into a `Waiting` column to verify the countdown pauses, then move it back to `In progress`. When a ticket crosses an escalation threshold, it surfaces at the top of `/today` and breaks through staff notification quiet hours automatically. ## What you learned - SLA countdowns run only during the open windows on their assigned business-hours calendar and pause automatically when a ticket is waiting on the client. - Escalation steps fire once per threshold and route into your alert and automation queues ([see Author automation rules](https://getmarula.com/docs/psa/next/how-to/admin-automation-rules)).