ServiceNow SLA - Complex Business Hours, Holidays and Weekend Rules
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an hour ago
Hi everyone,
I'm implementing SLAs for the Incident table in ServiceNow and I'm looking for the best practice for handling complex SLA calculations.
Our SLA rules depend on:
- Business service
- Priority
- Business hours
- Off-business hours
- Fridays
- Holidays
- Saturdays
- Variable end time for Saturday/Holiday (depending on the season)
One important requirement is that Holiday schedules cannot simply be excluded using a Schedule, because SLA time should sometimes continue counting during holidays.
For example:
- An Incident is opened on Holiday Eve at 3:30 PM.
- The SLA is 4 hours.
- The expected Due Date is 7:30 PM, even if the holiday starts at 4:00 PM.
On the other hand, for some services the requirement is different:
- If an Incident is opened between Friday 4:00 PM and Saturday holiday/weekend end, the SLA should start only after Saturday ends, and then count the required SLA hours.
Saturday ends at:
- April – October: 8:00 PM
- November – March: 6:00 PM
Some SLAs also have a target of End of the Next Working Day, where a working day is defined as any day that is not Saturday or a Holiday, ending at 6:00 PM.
Has anyone implemented a similar requirement?
Would you recommend:
- Multiple SLA Definitions?
- Relative Duration Scripts?
- Custom SLA Calculator / Script Include?
- Another best-practice approach?
Below is the business matrix we need to implement.
Business Service Ticket Type Priority Business Hours (07:00-18:00) Off Hours (18:00-07:00 / Saturday End → 07:00) Friday / Holiday Eve (07:00-16:00) Saturday / Holiday (From 16:00 until Saturday/Holiday End)
| Personal Computing | Incident | P1 | 3 Hours | 3 Hours | 3 Hours | 3 Hours |
| Personal Computing | Incident | P2 | 8 Hours | 8 Hours | 8 Hours | 8 Hours |
| Personal Computing | Incident | P3 | 12 Hours | 12 Hours | 12 Hours | 12 Hours |
| Multimedia | Incident | P1 | 4 Hours | 4 Hours | 4 Hours | 4 Hours from Saturday/Holiday End |
| Multimedia | Incident | P2 | 6 Hours | 6 Hours | 6 Hours | End of Next Working Day |
| Multimedia | Incident | P3 | 24 Hours | 24 Hours | End of Next Working Day | End of Next Working Day |
| Telephony | Incident | P1 | 3 Hours | 3 Hours | 3 Hours | 3 Hours from Saturday/Holiday End |
| Telephony | Incident | P2 | 8 Hours | 8 Hours | 8 Hours | 8 Hours |
| Telephony | Incident | P3 | 12 Hours | 12 Hours | 12 Hours | 12 Hours |
Notes:
- End of Next Working Day = the nearest working day that is not Saturday or a Holiday, ending at 6:00 PM.
- Saturday End:
- April – October: 8:00 PM
- November – March: 6:00 PM
I'd appreciate any recommendations or examples of how you would implement this in ServiceNow while following best practices.
Thank you!
