---
sourceDocument: Australia IT Service Management
sourceDocumentLink: https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/r/it-service-management

 Release :

    - australia

ft:locale :

    - en-US

ft:publication_title :

    - Australia IT Service Management

ft:clusterId :

    - itsm

bundleId :

    - itsm

workflow :

    - Technology


---

# Use SLA timeline to understand SLA stage change

# Use SLA timeline to understand SLA stage change {#ariaid-title1}

Release version: Australia  
Updated March 12, 2026  
![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 1 minute to read  
Describes how you can understand SLA stage changes using SLA timeline.

Using Task SLA-2 as an example, you can see a period of retroactive and out of schedule time
preceding the task update that caused the SLA to attach to INC0010001. The task update is
represented by the first triangle. When this event is selected, the detail pane displays and the
Start tab has a blue check and is highlighted indicating this is the SLA Definition condition
this event met and the task values which matched the SLA Definition start condition.

When the second task update represented by the second black triangle, which triggered an SLA
stage change occurs, you can see that it triggers a pause condition. If you select this event in
the timeline, the detail pane displays the highlighted Pause that contains a blue check
indicating a match. Once again, the task values which match the SLA Definition condition are
displayed so you easily know why the stage change occurred.

Similarly, when the third task update which triggers a stage change occurs, you can see this
resumes the SLA. When that update is clicked, the Stage details section highlights the Resume tab
which now contains a blue check and provides detailed information about the task update that
occurred and the SLA conditions those updates matched.

The SLA continues to accumulate time, until it is breached and this is visually represented by
the yellow, orange, and the red colors. Eventually, another task update occurs which triggers the
SLA's cancel conditions that is represented by the white diamond. The Stage details section
highlights the conditions for the task SLA cancellation. In this case, the SLA Definition is
defined to cancel when the 'Start conditions are not met'.