Ticket fields & SLA

Two things shape how tickets behave beyond the built-in fields: your own columns, and SLA targets.

Ticket fields

Tickets have their own set of custom columns, separate from the ones on your chats. A Stage column on chats and a Stage column on tickets are two different things and don’t share values.

Creating a ticket column

From the Tickets page, open the views panel and click the + at the end of the Columns row (Create new column). You choose:

Name
Type - Text, Long text, Number, Date, Select, Multi-select, Checkbox
Options - for Select and Multi-select, each with a colour
Icon, optional icon or emoji

The types behave exactly as they do on chats. See Columns & custom fields for the details of each type.

Editing values

Inline in the ticket table.
In the Custom Columns section of the ticket details panel.
In bulk from the ticket selection toolbar.

Options can be added from a cell while you’re working, so you don’t have to stop and open settings.

Required fields

Mark a ticket column Required when it must be filled before a ticket can be created or resolved. Required columns show a * after their name. The rule applies to every way a ticket is written: the create panel, creating a ticket from a message, the Public API and MCP.

Creating a ticket. If a required field is empty and the column has a default value, the ticket gets the default. Without a default, the ticket is not created: the empty fields turn red and the message names them, for example “Fill in required fields: Customer”.
Resolving a ticket. Moving a ticket to Solved or Closed is refused while a required field is empty, wherever you change the status: the table, the board, the bulk toolbar or the details panel. The status goes back to what it was and the message names the fields. Defaults are used only when a ticket is created, never when it is resolved.
Other changes are never blocked. Moving a ticket to another status (for example Pending) or editing other fields works as usual.

A field counts as empty when it has no value, only spaces, or no selected option. For a Checkbox, unchecked is a real answer and counts as filled; only a checkbox that was never set is empty. Checkbox columns start unchecked, so new tickets save them as unchecked.

Deleting a column

Deleting removes the column and every value stored in it, permanently. Entergram warns you before it happens.

Column and option changes are audited - you’ll see Ticket column created, Ticket column updated, Ticket column deleted, Ticket option created and friends in Log history.

Design tips

Keep the built-ins (Status, Priority, Assignee, Due date) doing their job, don’t recreate them as custom fields.
Add one routing field (Team, Product area) before adding anything else.
Prefer a Select with five options over five checkboxes.

SLA

An SLA gives a ticket a deadline. Entergram then tracks whether you hit it, how late you were when you didn’t, and which people and hours breach most.

Turning it on

Settings → Privacy Settings → SLA Configuration (owners and admins).

Global SLA (hours), “Default SLA for all new and existing tickets without manual SLA override.” Pick a preset or enter a Custom number of hours.
The section shows Enabled or Disabled.
Saving confirms “Global SLA set to {n}h.”; clearing it confirms “Global SLA disabled.”

A value must be a positive number of hours.

Per-ticket override

Any ticket can carry its own SLA value, set from the ticket details panel. A manual value always wins over the global default.

Reading the badge

Every ticket shows an SLA badge:

Badge	Meaning
Due in `{duration}`	Still within target
Overdue `{duration}`	Past target and unresolved
Met	Resolved before the deadline
Met late (`{duration}`)	Resolved, but after the deadline
`{duration}` late	Small overrun
Not set	No SLA on this ticket

Hovering shows the exact SLA target date.

Filtering by SLA state

The ticket table filters on SLA state: On Track, At Risk, Breached, Met, Met Late, Not Set. “Breached open” is the list you want on a morning triage view.

SLA analytics

Analytics → Tickets carries the SLA reporting:

Card / chart	What it tells you
Tickets With SLA	How much of your work is even being tracked
Open SLA Tickets	Unresolved within the selected range
Breached Open	Open tickets already past target, your fire list
SLA Met Rate	How many resolved tickets met their SLA
SLA State Mix	Distribution of states across the range
SLA Events Trend	Opened vs Breached vs Resolved On Time vs Resolved Late
SLA Met Rate Trend	Met-rate by period
SLA Breach Heatmap	When breaches happen most often (UTC day/hour)
Member SLA Performance	Per member: Created SLA, Assigned Open, Breached Open, Resolved SLA, Met, Late, Met Rate, Median Resolve

SLA Risk Owners shows members currently owning breached SLA tickets, the fastest route to “who needs help right now”.

See Ticket & SLA analytics.

How to use SLA without it becoming theatre

Start with one global SLA, a single realistic number beats a matrix nobody maintains.
Watch Breached Open, not Met Rate. Met Rate is a lagging average; breached-open is the queue that’s on fire today.
Read the breach heatmap before hiring. Breaches clustered in a few UTC hours are a coverage problem, not a headcount problem.
Check Median Resolve, not just the mean. The panel shows median, average and P90 - the gap between them tells you whether you have a long tail or a systemic delay.