---
title: "Setting Up a Service Agreement (SLA/SLM)"
slug: "modify-agreement"
description: "Routing rules allow you to have specific service records automatically assigned to administrators or admin groups without having to even look at them."
tags: ["SysAid Spaces"]
updated: 2026-08-12T12:09:22Z
published: 2026-08-12T12:09:22Z
canonical: "documentation.sysaid.com/modify-agreement"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://documentation.sysaid.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Setting Up a Service Agreement (SLA/SLM)

A service agreement, configured under **SLA/SLM** in Settings, automates how service records are handled based on who submits them. You can use agreements to give different groups of users different response times, priorities, assignees, and operating hours.

> [!NOTE]
> Available for:
> 
> Customers using SysAid Spaces. If you're using SysAid Classic, see [Modify Agreement Classic](https://documentation.sysaid.com/classic/docs/modify-agreement).

## How it works

Creating a service agreement means giving it a title. That title appears in the service agreements table, and everything else hangs off it.

What the agreement actually does comes from the rules that point at it. You can create those from their own pages in Settings or from the tabs on the agreement itself, and it's the same rule either way. Build them on the dedicated pages, where you have the full set of options and more room to work, and use an agreement's tabs to review what it's carrying:

- **Routing Rules**, the rules that use the agreement as a condition
- **Priorities**, priority rules and priority matrix entries
- **Due Dates**
- **Escalation Rules**
- **Operating Times**
- **Related Items** you've linked to the agreement

This means there's no single screen where you configure an agreement from start to finish. Create the agreement first, then build each piece of behavior and point it at the agreement.

## Setting up an agreement

Create the agreement first. Every step after that asks you to select it from a list, so it has to exist before you can attach anything to it. You can create more agreements at any time and build them up the same way.

Each step sends you to the page where that rule is configured.

### Step 1: Create the agreement

1. Go to **Settings** > **SLA/SLM** > **Service Agreements**.
2. Click **Create New**.
3. On the **Details** tab, enter a **Title** for the agreement.
4. Click **Apply** to save and stay on the agreement, or **OK** to save and close.

Give each agreement a title that describes who it applies to or what it guarantees, for example, Gold Support or Midnight Shift. You'll select this title from a drop-down list every time you attach a rule to it, so it needs to be recognizable out of context.

Your account already includes a default agreement, listed as **DEFAULT SLA**, which you can edit like any other.

### Step 2: Set operating times

Operating times define the days and hours your service desk runs. Due dates, escalation rules, and timers are all calculated against them, so setting these first means every rule you build afterward calculates correctly.

Operating times can be defined for an agreement, for a company, or left at the out-of-the-box default. Go to **Settings** > **Administration** > **Operating Times** > **Operating Times Settings**. For the full procedure, including excluding holidays, see [Modify Operating Times](https://documentation.sysaid.com/docs/modify-operating-times).

### Step 3: Add routing rules

Routing rules assign service records automatically to the IT agents or groups that handle them, without anyone having to look at them first. This is useful when you already know who handles a given type of request.

Routing can be based on:

- **Company**, the company the request user belongs to
- **User group**, the user group the request user belongs to
- **Category**, the category of the service record

Rules that use the agreement as a condition appear on the agreement form once created. For the full procedure, see [Routing Rules Form](https://documentation.sysaid.com/docs/routing-rules-form).

### Step 4: Add priority rules

Priority rules set a service record to a priority other than the service desk default, based on conditions such as company, department, individual user, asset group, or individual asset. You can also use the priority matrix to calculate priority from impact and urgency.

For the full procedure, including the priority matrix and how SysAid resolves multiple matching rules, see [Priorities](https://documentation.sysaid.com/docs/priorities).

> [!NOTE]
> Please note:
> 
> Priority matrix entries appear on the agreement form only if they're attached to that specific agreement. Entries attached to all agreements don't appear here, even though they still apply.

### Step 5: Add due date rules

Due date rules assign due dates to service records automatically. A service record that matches all the conditions in a rule receives the due date that rule specifies.

A due date rule with no agreement selected applies generally. Select an agreement, and the rule applies only when that agreement is on the Request User's profile.

Due dates are calculated against the operating times of the agreement, not against the clock. If a service record is submitted with a due period of 6 hours but only 3 hours of operating time remain in the day, the due date falls 3 hours after the start of the next operating day.

For the full procedure, see [Due Date Form](https://documentation.sysaid.com/docs/due-dates-form) and [Adding Dynamic Due Dates to Service Records](https://documentation.sysaid.com/docs/adding-dynamic-due-dates-to-service-records).

### Step 6: Add escalation rules

Escalation rules act on service records that pass a threshold, such as a due date, and are calculated against the agreement's operating times.

For the full procedure, see [Creating a New Escalation Rule](https://documentation.sysaid.com/docs/new-escalation-rule).

### Step 7: Assign the agreement to users and companies

An agreement has no effect until it's assigned. You assign it through the **Agreement** field on the user or company profile.

See [Editing User Profiles](https://documentation.sysaid.com/docs/editing-user-profiles) and [Managing Companies](https://documentation.sysaid.com/docs/managing-companies).

> [!NOTE]
> Please note:
> 
> If a user has an agreement on their own profile and their company has a different one, the agreement on the user's profile applies

If neither the user nor their company has an agreement, the default agreement applies. The agreement follows the Request User, so if the Request User on a service record changes, so does the agreement applied to it.

If you use a single agreement across your whole service desk, you can leave everything on the default agreement and skip assigning users and companies entirely.

## Managing an agreement

Once an agreement exists, you can review what's attached to it, adjust its rules, and export or delete it.

### Linking related items

The **Linked Items** table shows everything you've related to the agreement. Click any item to open its details.

Links are bidirectional. If you add a company to the **Linked Items** table on an agreement, the agreement appears in that company's **Linked Items** table too.

Linked items are informational. They don't change how service records are handled, and they don't affect the linked items themselves.

To add linked items:

1. Select the type of item from the **Type** drop-down list.
2. Choose the relationship type of the linked item.
3. Click **Link**. A list of items of the selected type opens.
4. Select one or more items using the checkboxes at the left end of the rows.
5. Click **Select**. The list closes, and the items are attached.

To remove linked items:

1. Select one or more linked items using the checkboxes.
2. Click **Delete** from the list of actions.

### Editing agreement rules

Routing, priority, and due date rules all use the same row controls.

To modify a rule, click the edit icon. The row becomes active, and the icons change to **Save** and **Cancel**. Make your changes, then click **Save** to keep them or **Cancel** to discard them.

To delete a rule, click the delete icon.

> [!NOTE]
> Please note:
> 
> There's no delete confirmation on these rows. Check that you've selected the correct line before deleting.

Clearing the checkbox on a rule disables it without deleting it. A disabled rule has no effect.

### Deleting an agreement

1. Go to **Settings** > **SLA/SLM** > **Service Agreements**.
2. Select the checkbox next to the agreement you want to delete.
3. Click **Delete** in the menu at the bottom of the page.
4. Confirm the deletion.

> [!NOTE]
> Please note:
> 
> Deleting an agreement also deletes every rule attached to it. This can't be undone.

Users who had the deleted agreement assigned fall back to the next agreement that applies to them, following the order above: their company's agreement if it has one, and the default agreement if it doesn't.

### Exporting agreements

1. Select the checkboxes next to the agreements you want to export.
2. Click **More Actions** in the menu at the bottom of the page.
3. Select **Export selected to PDF** or **Export selected to Excel**.

## Next steps

With your agreements in place, SysAid's prebuilt AI agents can help you work against them. You run them from the Agent Chatbot in the Service Desk, not from a settings page. Just ask for what you need in your own words, and the chatbot picks the right AI agent for the job. You can also type **/** to see the AI agents available to you, filtered by your permissions.

Three that pair well with service agreements:

- **Find Unassigned Service Records** surfaces open service records that have gone unassigned for longer than a set number of hours, grouped by admin group, so you can catch them before a due date passes.
- **Filter and Retrieve Service Records** pulls service records by due date range, priority, urgency, and assignee, among other fields.
- **AI Triage Agent** reviews new incidents and adjusts the category, assignee, urgency, impact, and priority.

For the full list, including external AI agents and how to activate them, see [Prebuilt AI Agents Overview](https://documentation.sysaid.com/docs/prebuilt-ai-agents-overview).