3-Strike Rule for Incident Closure – Business Hours Based

nameisnani · 3 weeks ago

We have a client requirement to implement a 3-Strike rule for incidents moved to On Hold – Awaiting Caller.

Requirement

When an incident is updated to On Hold – Awaiting Caller to request additional information or closure confirmation:

Strike 1 – Applied if no response is received by the next business day
Strike 2 – Applied after one additional business day with no response
Strike 3 – Applied after one more business day with no response
Auto-Closure – Incident is automatically closed on the next business day after Strike 3 if there is still no response

Business Rules

Strikes must be applied only during business hours
If the incident is moved to On Hold – Awaiting Caller outside business hours, strike calculation starts from the next business day
Weekends and public holidays must be excluded
Time zone to be considered: AEST

Example Timeline

Incident moved to On Hold – Awaiting Caller: 9 Feb, 6:00 PM AEST
Strike 1: 11 Feb, 8:00 AM
Strike 2: 13 Feb, 8:00 AM
Strike 3: 17 Feb, 8:00 AM (weekend excluded)
Incident Auto-Closure: 18 Feb, 8:00 AM

Notifications

Strike 2 and Strike 3 email notifications must be sent automatically
Recipients:
- End User
- End User’s Line Manager

What is the recommended approach in ServiceNow to implement this accurately considering:

Business hours & holidays
Time-zone handling
Automated strike tracking
Notifications and auto-closure

can any one please hlep me with implemenation steps . so that i can complete this .

if possible can any one please proivide configuation steps and screenshots for better understanding .

Thanks

NityaB161013953 · 3 weeks ago

Hi @nameisnani ,

Use SLA + Business Schedule + Flow Designer
Do NOT use custom Business Rules for date calculation.

🔧 Implementation Steps

1️⃣ Business Schedule

Create AEST Business Schedule
Time zone: Australia/Sydney
Working hours only
Exclude weekends & public holidays

2️⃣ Custom SLA

Table: Incident
Start:

State = On Hold
On Hold Reason = Awaiting Caller

Pause:

State ≠ On Hold OR caller responds

Schedule: AEST Business Schedule
Duration: 4 Business Days

3️⃣ SLA Milestones (Strikes)

Day Action

1 Business Day	Strike 1
2 Business Days	Strike 2 → Email
3 Business Days	Strike 3 → Email
4 Business Days	Auto-Close

4️⃣ Strike Tracking

Add field u_strike_count (optional)
Update via SLA milestone actions or Flow

5️⃣ Notifications

Trigger emails on Strike 2 & Strike 3
Recipients:
- Caller
- Caller’s Manager

6️⃣ Auto-Closure

On SLA breach (Day 4):

State = Closed
Close code = No response from caller

nameisnani · 3 weeks ago

@NityaB161013953 chatgpt response i tired not worked out for me

could you please provide me the configuration screenshots

nameisnani · 3 weeks ago

@Ankur Bawiskar

@Matthew_13

@Aditya_hublikar

Please help me with this requriment .please provide me the configuration steps

Matthew_13 · 3 weeks ago

Hi Buddy,

The easiest and I would say is most reliable is to implement this to let ServiceNow handle the time logic for you. Set up a business schedule for AEST that includes working hours and public holidays. This ensures weekends, holidays and after hours updates are handled correctly.

When an incident is moved to On Hold – Awaiting Caller, use a small Business rule to record the start time and reset the strike count. Don’t calculate any dates here.

Create an SLA that runs while the incident is in this state and uses the AEST business schedule. Define milestones at 1, 2, and 3 business days for Strike 1, 2, and 3 and a final milestone for auto closure.

Use Flow designer to react to those milestones::

Send notifications at Strike 2 and Strike 3
Automatically close the incident after the final milestone if there’s still no response

This approach handles business hours, holidays, time zones, notifications, and auto-closure cleanly without complex scripting. I hope this helps without writing 10 paragraphs..

@nameisnani - Please mark Accepted Solution and Thumbs Up if you found Helpful!

MJG