How to Automate SLA and Ticket Resolution Reporting for MSP Clients

Proving SLA (service level agreement) compliance is crucial for MSPs (Managed Service Providers). This is more than just a reporting exercise; it’s essential for maintaining client trust and validating good performance. Moreover, clients expect transparency, especially when meeting contractual obligations.

To achieve this, it would be an excellent idea to automate SLA and ticket resolution. Automated reporting for clients will remove the manual process and deliver a consistent and repeatable process. This will allow MSPs to track performance trends, catch issues early, and present reports without the usual heavy workload.

This guide will help you go through the tools, scripts, and workflows required to create accurate SLA reports at scale.

How to automate SLA and ticket resolution reporting

📌 Prerequisites:

• You will need an active PSA platform, like NinjaOne, Autotask, or ConnectWise.
• The SLA policies have to be assigned to each client so the systems know what timeframes apply.
• The ticket timestamps and categories should be correctly recorded for reporting accuracy.
• Administrator permissions are required for PowerShell and scripted data queries.
• You will need access to event logs or local system data to confirm incident timelines.

Define SLA metrics and resolution benchmarks

Before setting up automated reports for clients to show compliance with SLA benchmarks, you need to first define what you’re measuring.

📌 Use Cases:

• This will help standardize SLA tracking across all clients.
• Forms the baseline for creating automated reports and dashboards.
• Allows you to show metrics/performance goals you’re required to meet in your contract.

📌 Prerequisites:

• These require SLA policies assigned per client via PSA.
• Proper timestamp logging for ticket status changes (created, acknowledged, resolved).
• You should have defined ticket types or categories to group SLA data.

Here are the SLA compliance metrics you need to include in your reports:

• Time to acknowledge (TTA)
• Time to resolve (TTR)
• SLA response compliance percentage
• Resolution success rate by category (hardware, software, network)
• Number of escalated vs resolved tickets
• Number of missed or reopened SLA tickets

Extracting SLA and ticket data using PowerShell or API

After you’ve defined your metrics, the next step is pulling ticket data from your PSA. Most platforms support API (Application Programming Interface) queries or exports that can be filtered and scheduled through PowerShell.

📌 Use Cases:

• This method will help you automate SLA tracking across multiple clients.
• It will help reduce manual effort in monthly ticket reviews.
• This supports dashboarding and reporting by SLA category or breach status.

📌 Prerequisites:

• You’ll need an API token with permission to query tickets.
• Your PowerShell version should be 5.1 or later.
• RMM or Task Scheduler should have access to automate script runs.

Here’s a sample PowerShell snippet that pulls resolved tickets from a PSA API and exports them to CSV:

$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $token" }
$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://api.ninjaone.com/v2/tickets" -Headers $headers
$response | Where-Object { $_.resolved -eq $true } | Export-Csv "C:\Reports\SLAReport.csv" -NoTypeInformation

To filter the report by client, date range, or SLA status, you will need to modify the script. Add query parameters to the API URL or use conditions in PowerShell.

Using Registry to track local SLA or agent events (optional)

📌 Use Cases:

• Adds a local audit trail of script-based responses tied to ticket IDs.
• Helps you validate when an alert or remediation action was triggered.
• This supports RMM dashboards with per-endpoint ticket context.

📌 Prerequisites:

• This method requires administrator permissions to write to the Registry.
• You will need an RMM or script to update the registry values.
• A standard naming format for mapping tickets across systems.

To mark SLA-related events locally, create custom registry values. Here’s how:

1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to this path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE
3. Next, right-click the SOFTWARE folder, choose New > Key, and name it Org.
4. Right-click the Org key and select New > Key. Name it: SLAEvents
5. Inside the SLAEvents key, right-click the right-hand pane and choose New > String Value.
6. Name it LastAcknowledgedTicket. Double-click it and enter a ticket ID (e.g., TKT-10129) as the value data.
7. Create another string value in SLAEvents. Name it LastActionTime. Double click and set the value data to the timestamp of the event (e.g., 2025-08-15T14:23Z)

After this has been created, these values can be read later using scripts or collected by your RMM.

💡 Tip: This step is a manual way to track SLA. However, NinjaOne’s ticketing system can track SLA compliance automatically.

Running CMD scripts for endpoint context or service monitoring

You can use Command Prompt scripts to gather basic system data from Windows devices. This helps you verify what was happening on an endpoint at the time a ticket was created. This will let you check uptime, failed services, or events tied to system issues, making your ticket resolution reporting process smoother.

📌 Use Cases:

• This can help confirm if an issue was tied to a reboot, crash, or downtime.
• You can use this to support your root cause analysis task by correlating endpoint behavior with tickets.
• Useful when PowerShell is not available.

📌 Prerequisites:

• You will need administrator access to run an elevated version of the Command Prompt.
• The endpoints need to have logging and event history enabled.
• Your reporting process should allow logs to be saved or uploaded.

Here are some sample Command Prompt codes:

Check system uptime

systeminfo | findstr "System Boot Time"

This will return the last time the system was rebooted, helping you confirm whether a device was restarted before or after an issue was reported.

List of failed or stopped services

sc query type= service state= all | findstr "STOPPED"

This method identifies which services are not running. You can then compare this with the reported issue to see if a critical service was down when the ticket was created.

Export recent system log entries

wevtutil qe System /q:"*[System[(EventID=7034)]]" /f:text /c:20

This will pull the last 20 system log events for services that stopped unexpectedly. It can help you confirm when a device experienced a critical error.

💡Note: You can use these commands to check endpoint behavior around the time a ticket was opened or resolved.

How to build report templates for client delivery

Once you’ve collected SLA compliance and ticket data, the next step is exporting tickets and presenting them to your clients in a way they can easily understand. Your reports should summarize key metrics and missed SLAs and point out where improvements can be made.

📌 Use Cases:

• Helps you deliver consistent branded reports to clients.
• This lets you simplify recurring reporting and SLA reviews.
• You can use this to communicate trends, progress, and risks in plain English.

📌 Prerequisites:

• You will need the collected SLA and ticket data.
• A tool that lets you create charts or tables (MS Excel, Google Sheets).
• A defined and standardized report structure that you can reuse across clients.

Be sure to place these core elements in your report:

• Executive summary – Should contain SLA compliance percentage, along with key statistics.
• Ticket trends – This contains ticket volume, types, and resolution patterns.
• Missed SLA analysis – Ticket IDs and reasons why they were raised.
• Technician performance (optional) – This should contain average response and resolution times.
• Recommendations – Service gaps, root causes, and improvement areas, especially with regard to missed SLA analysis and technician performance.

Here are the recommended format options:

• Microsoft Excel, exported via PowerShell. For example, you can use this sample filtered ticket data command:

$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://api.psa.com/v2/tickets" -Headers @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $token" }
$filtered = $response | Where-Object { $_.resolved -eq $true }
$filtered | Export-Excel -Path "C:\Reports\SLA_Report_July.xlsx" -WorksheetName "ResolvedTickets" -AutoSize

You can also use a PDF version, though you have to save the file manually as a PDF.

• Power BI (Business Intelligence) for other dashboards for live metrics.
• HTML-based report with charts and tables.
• PSA-native scheduled report.

Ensure these reports are segmented per client and aligned to their specific SLA thresholds and targets.

Automate report generation and delivery

The last step in building automated reports for clients is to deliver them to your clients. To do this, you can schedule scripts to export reports and send emails.

📌 Use Cases:

• Helps you deliver SLA summaries and ticket resolution reports without manual effort.
• Ensures timely and “never tardy” reporting across clients.

📌 Prerequisites:

• You will need a working report script that generates CSV, XLSX, or PDF outputs.
• Your clients’ mail server or file destination credentials.
• An RMM or PSA platform that supports scheduled scripts or reports.

You can automate your report delivery in several ways:

• Schedule scripts to export SLA data and email it to the client.
• API push to SharePoint, S3, or a secure FTP folder.
• Utilize PSA-native scheduling tools. A good example is NinjaOne’s export reports.
• You can also trigger automation through your RMM.

Here’s a PowerShell email example:

Send-MailMessage -From "[email protected]" -To "[email protected]" `
-Subject "Monthly SLA Performance - July" `
-Attachments "C:\Reports\SLAReport_July2025.pdf" `
-SmtpServer "smtp.msp.com"

⚠️ Things to look out for

Additional considerations when automating SLA and ticket resolution reporting

Map SLAs to each client

Clients have different response and resolution time requirements. Ensure each ticket is linked to the appropriate SLA policy in your PSA system.

Standardize ticket data across environments

Use the same ticket categories, status names, and workflows across all clients. This will make the data easier to filter, chart, and compare SLA performance over time.

Retain raw data for audits

It would be best to keep exported ticket logs and resolution timestamps for at least 12 to 24 months. This will support you in contract reviews, billing disputes, and external audits.

Separate data by client

This is extremely important in multi-tenant environments. Always filter and export tickets per client ID, which will prevent data leakage and keep reports clean and accurate.

Troubleshooting SLA and ticket resolution reporting issues

Missing timestamps

Ensure that your ticketing system is logging all the required status changes, like:

• Created
• Acknowledged
• Escalated
• Resolved

Without these, SLA metrics in your report will be incomplete.

Incorrect SLA mapping

Ensure your PSA automation rules and ticket queues are applying the right SLA policies per client. A misrouted ticket can affect stats and skew your numbers.

PowerShell script failures

If your scripts are not exporting or sending reports, be sure to check API permission issues, expired tokens, or errors in the script.

Inconsistent time zone displays

If timestamps in the report do not line up with ticket history, normalize everything to UTC or, better yet, convert to the client’s local time.

NinjaOne services

With NinjaOne, MSPs can automate SLA reporting and streamline ticket resolution tracking across all clients. Its features are highlighted in the table below:

Automating SLA and ticket reports keeps MSPs and clients in the loop

Automating SLA and ticket resolution reporting helps MSPs stay accountable, transparent, and efficient. It reduces the time spent on manual exports, improves reporting accuracy, and ensures that service commitments are met and visible.

We covered how to define the right SLA metrics, extract ticket data using PowerShell or API, validate resolution events with registry and CMD tools, and format reports for client delivery. With these methods in place, MSPs can deliver reliable, policy-aligned SLA reporting at scale.

Related topics:

• Essential NinjaOne Ticketing Automations to Get You Started 
• What is an MSP Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
• 6 Help Desk Reporting Tips for Modern IT Management
• Moving Beyond Troubleshooting, IT Reports Best Practices