Query on the SLA definition

[Learner10]

Hello Community,

Can anyone let us know what is the main difference between business left time vs actual left time in the SLA definition with example.

Thanks,

Learner 

[Sai Shravan]

Hi @Learner10 ,

Below is the difference between Business Left Time vs Actual Left Time

	Business Left Time	Actual Left Time
Definition	The remaining time available for a business to meet the SLA	The actual time left until the SLA breach
Calculation	Calculated based on business hours and working calendar	Calculated based on the current time and SLA breach schedule
Example	A ticket has an SLA resolution time of 8 business hours	Ticket received at 4 PM on Monday, SLA breach time is Tuesday
Calculation	Business Left Time: 4 business hours (considering Monday)	Actual Left Time: 20 hours (until SLA breach at 12 PM Tuesday)

To elaborate further:

Business Left Time: It calculates the remaining time based on business hours, excluding non-working hours, weekends, and holidays defined in the working calendar. For example, if a ticket has an SLA resolution time of 8 business hours and it is received at 4 PM on Monday (considering business hours until 5 PM), the Business Left Time would be 4 business hours remaining until the SLA breach, considering only the remaining working hours on Monday.

Actual Left Time: It calculates the actual time left until the SLA breach based on the current time and the SLA breach schedule. It does not exclude non-working hours, weekends, or holidays. Using the same example, if the ticket is received at 4 PM on Monday and the SLA breach time is set for 12 PM on Tuesday, the Actual Left Time would be 20 hours (until 12 PM on Tuesday).

For more info : KB0623502

Regards,

Shravan

Please mark this as helpful and correct answer, if this helps you

[Riya Verma · Accepted solution]

Hi @Learner10 

Hope you are doing great.

The main difference between business left time and actual left time in the SLA definition lies in their respective approaches to time calculation.

Business left time refers to the remaining time within the SLA calculation that excludes non-business hours, such as weekends and holidays. It considers only the time during which the business is operational. 

On the other hand, actual left time takes into account all elapsed time, including both business and non-business hours. It considers every passing minute from the start of an SLA until the present moment, regardless of whether it falls within regular working hours or outside of them. 

Here's an example to illustrate the difference:

Let's say we have an SLA with a resolution time of 4 hours. The SLA starts at 9:00 AM on a Monday and ends at 1:00 PM on the same day. Assuming the business hours are from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, we can calculate the business left time and actual left time:

Business Left Time:

• SLA Start Time: 9:00 AM
• SLA End Time: 1:00 PM
• Non-business Hours: 5:00 PM to 8:00 AM (next day)
• Business Left Time = SLA End Time - SLA Start Time - Non-business Hours
• Business Left Time = 1:00 PM - 9:00 AM - 3 hours (non-business hours)
• Business Left Time = 3 hours

Actual Left Time:

• SLA Start Time: 9:00 AM
• Current Time: 11:00 AM
• Actual Left Time = Current Time - SLA Start Time
• Actual Left Time = 11:00 AM - 9:00 AM
• Actual Left Time = 2 hours

In this example, the business left time is 3 hours because it excludes the non-business hours, while the actual left time is 2 hours because it includes all elapsed time.

[Learner10]

Thanks for the reponse in this case can we say below statement correct as per servicenow documentation.

Actual and business elapsed times

Utah

Task SLA records contain two sets of timing information: Actual elapsed and Business elapsed.

The difference between these two sets of timing is vital when you create and report on SLA definitions.

• Actual elapsed values are calculated on a 24x7 basis.
• Business elapsed values are calculated based on the schedule specified in the task SLA. The schedule is taken from the SLA definition by default.

[Riya Verma]

Yes @Learner10 ,

The above statement provided in documentation are correct