Service Level Agreement Template For IT Helpdesks And MSPs

A service level agreement template is a fill-in outline of what your helpdesk promises: services, priorities, and targets for response, restoration, and resolution. It also sets the hours that count, the clock rules, escalation, reporting, and what happens on a miss.

Copy or download the template below. It comes from the team behind SherpaDesk, a helpdesk and professional services automation (PSA) tool a small IT team can run alone. It's a practical outline, not legal advice; have a lawyer review the wording before a client signs.

What Is A Service Level Agreement?

A service level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a service provider and its customers, external or internal, that documents the services and the standards the provider must meet. NIST lists responsibilities, expected performance such as response times, and requirements for reporting, resolution, and termination.

CISA advises organizations hiring an MSP to ask for "specific performance-related service level agreements" before the contract is signed.

The SLA is often incorporated by reference in the provider's master service agreement. The template also works for an internal SLA, between an IT department and its internal customer, such as another department or site.

The Service Level Agreement Template

This simple service level agreement template has 12 fields. Brackets mark what you fill in; most hold a hint; empty ones take a number or time.

SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT TEMPLATE
Outline for discussion with your lawyer, not a contract
Provider: [MSP or IT team]
Client: [client company, department, or school]
Term: [own dates, or follows the MSA term]
Next review: [date]

1. SERVICES COVERED
   Included: [services, in plain words]
   Excluded: [services you don't cover]
2. PRIORITIES
   P1 [Whole company stopped]
   P2 [Team stopped, or one user with no workaround]
   P3 [One user stopped, workaround exists]
   P4 [Request or question, nobody stopped]
   Set by: [who assigns priority at triage]
   Change request: [how the client asks to change it]
3. TARGETS (business hours unless marked)
   Priority  Response  Restoration  Resolution
   P1        [ ]       [ ]          [ ]
   P2        [ ]       [ ]          [ ]
   P3        [ ]       [ ]          [ ]
   P4        [ ]       [ ]          [ ]
   Sample: [tickets closed, or logged, in the month]
   Count: [each target separately, or all three]
   Goal: [__]% on time, per priority, per month
4. COVERAGE HOURS
   Business hours: [days, hours, time zone]
   Holidays: [named calendar]
   After hours: [priorities] via [phone line]
5. CLOCK RULES
   Start: [ticket logged or call received]
   Response stops: [first technician reply or call]
   Restoration stops: [client confirms it works]
   Resolution stops: [fix done, cause recorded]
   Pauses: [waiting on client, vendor, or access]
   Reopened ticket: [clock restarts or continues]
6. HOW TO REPORT AN ISSUE
   [Portal, email address, phone]; P1 by [phone]
7. CLIENT RESPONSIBILITIES
   [Named contact, access, approvals]
8. ESCALATION
   Target at risk: [role] at [__]% of target
   Target missed: [role]
   Client side: [role]
9. EXCLUSIONS
   [Third-party outages, delays the client causes,
   planned maintenance window, force majeure]
10. REPORTING AND REVIEW
   Report: [how often], showing [results]
   Review meeting: [how often], with [roles]
   Changes: [how a change is agreed and signed]
11. MISSED TARGETS AND SERVICE CREDITS
   Remedy: [review and fix plan, credits, or both]
   Targets with a credit: [list]
   Trigger: [each missed ticket, or goal missed]
   Credit: [__]% of monthly fee per trigger
   Cap: [__]% of monthly fee
   Claim window: [__] days · Earn-back: [yes/no]
   Relation to other remedies: [wording by counsel]
12. SIGNATURES
   [Name, role, date] for each side, or signed
   with the MSA

How To Fill In Each Field

The service level agreement contract template stays short, but three fields need more than a line.

Three clocks. Response means a technician has acknowledged the ticket and started work. Restoration means the service works again, possibly through a workaround. Resolution means the cause is fixed or the request is done. As one r/msp member put it: "We responded, not solve the problem, which are two different things…"

Measurement. Pick the monthly sample, logged or closed tickets. Excluded tickets leave it, and each ticket counts only for measures that apply. Decide whether measures are scored separately. A closed-ticket count can't show misses on tickets still open, so list those too. Counsel words the final clause.

Credits. Typically, a percentage of the monthly fee is put at risk, and credits come out of it on a miss.

One r/msp thread asked about a client who wanted a five-minute response at about 140 inquiries an hour. A member said it might work for simple tickets you can template, then added: "If they're issues that require troubleshooting and thought, no chance."

The example column fills each field for an MSP supporting a 30-person architecture firm in Denver.

Filled-In SLA Example For A Small Office

Field 3, filled in. A business day is 9 coverage hours.

Scoring a month: say 40 P2 tickets close in March and 3 miss response. That's 37 of 40, or 92.5%, above the 90% goal. Credits are separate from that goal: each eligible P1 ticket that misses response or restoration earns one.

For an internal SLA without a service fee, a review item can replace credits.

Track The SLA Where The Tickets Are

About the author

Patrick Clements Co-founder & CEO, SherpaDesk

Patrick co-founded SherpaDesk and has led it as CEO since 2013. He has worked with IT service providers since 1998, first on network projects for schools and government offices, then on the helpdesk software their technicians use every day.

All Articles