Exclude Auto-Replies from SLA Timers in Help Desk

[MJSchaefer]

Can we get functionality to exclude auto-replies (like out-of-office or confirmation emails) from SLA tracking in Help Desk?

Most SaaS/IaaS businesses (ours included) support other service organisations, so auto-responses are constant. Right now, these reset the SLA timer and skew our metrics, even when no real action is needed.

It makes it hard to track performance accurately or manage escalations properly.

Is this on the roadmap? Curious if others are running into the same issue.

[antivirustales]

Yeah, we’re seeing the same issue it really messes with our SLA reporting. Would be great to have a way to filter out auto-replies. Not sure if it’s on the roadmap, but definitely something that needs attention.

[ArisudanTiwari · Accepted solution]

Hello @MJSchaefer ,

Currently, HubSpot’s SLA timers do not distinguish between auto-replies (e.g., "OOO", "Out of Office", "Automatic reply"  notifications) and manual responses, all inbound emails are treated the same for tracking purposes.

To better manage auto-replies in your SLA reporting, you can:

1. Identify Auto-Responses

   • Use workflows to tag automated messages

   • Filter by common subject lines (e.g., contains "Automatic Reply", "Out of Office")

   • Check for patterns in email headers

2. Flag Auto-Replies

   • Apply a custom ticket property (e.g., "Auto-Response Detected = Yes")

3. Adjust Reporting

   • Exclude flagged tickets from SLA reports or workflows using this property

While this isn’t a perfect solution, it can help mitigate skewed metrics until native functionality becomes available. Let me know if you’d like help setting this up!