Help center Core configuration Account setup Configure account policies Updated Monday, October 26, 2026 · Marc Staine Account Policies set shared rules for agent sign-in, passwords, case retention, regional formatting, and editor defaults. Use them to give teams a consistent starting point while allowing supported personal preferences to take precedence. Applies to: Supportbench Core. Location: Settings → Account → Policies. You need permission to edit account policies to save changes. Interface defaults and naming have their own availability and edit controls. Before you begin Record the current values and agree who will be affected. Account policies can affect the whole account.Test your identity provider and a second administrator's access before requiring SSO. This page enforces SSO; it does not create the identity-provider connection. The Core Authentication page exposes the separate Require 2FA policy.Agree retention periods with the people responsible for your records. Purging trash removes case history and attachments; extending a period cannot restore content already purged.Use the values currently displayed in your account as your starting point. Existing accounts can have different saved values; examples in this guide are not universal defaults. Configure account policies Open Settings → Account → Policies.Select the relevant section in the page's navigation, such as Login Policy or Regional Settings.Change the required settings. Review related settings before saving—for example, maximum login attempts together with the lockout period.Use Save changes for the policy form. The default agent interface and naming overrides use their own save controls.Reopen the section and confirm the saved values. Test the affected experience with a suitable test user or test case.For date/time format changes, ask affected agents to sign out and back in before checking the result. Login Policy SettingWhat it controlsHow to choose Max login attemptsThe failed-login threshold. Available choices are 1, 3, 5, and 10 attempts.Consider accidental password mistakes as well as unwanted repeated attempts. Review this together with the lockout period. Lock out periodThe lockout duration after the failed-login threshold is reached: 5, 10, 30, 60, or 1,440 minutes.Choose a period your support process can handle. Record how a locked-out user should get help. Automatically mark agents Away afterThe inactivity period used for automatic Away status. The picker offers values from 1 minute through selected intervals up to 180 minutes. Away pauses automatic chat assignment.Use a period that reflects how your agents work. This is separate from signing out and from manual chat availability changes. TimeoutThe session-timeout setting, presented as labeled hours or days.Select by the displayed duration. Verify the effective sign-in behavior in your environment, especially when SSO or personal authentication requirements also apply. Allow only SSO loginsRequires users to use an available SSO sign-in method.Enable only after the identity-provider setup and required users' access have been tested. Enabling this switch does not create or repair an SSO connection. Password Policy These settings concern Supportbench passwords. An external identity provider can have its own password and session policies; configure those in that provider. SettingAvailable choicesRecommendation Password expiry30, 90, 180, or 365 days.Follow your organization's authentication requirements and communicate changes before they affect users. Password historyNo history; the previous 5, 10, 25, or 50 passwords; or Any previous password.Choose the reuse restriction your policy requires. Reopen the page after saving and verify that the chosen option remains selected. Minimum password length6, 8, 10, 15, or 25 characters.Choose a length consistent with your organization's policy and supported sign-in method. Global Case Settings SettingPurpose and behaviorRecommendation Trash purge periodControls how long deleted cases are kept before purge. Choices are 7, 14, 30, 60, 90, or 180 days. Purging includes the case's history and attachments.Allow enough time to identify accidental deletion. Review a proposed reduction before saving. Audit retentionRetention for system/case audits, page views, and notifications. Choices include 365, 547, 730, 1,095, 1,460, or 1,825 days and Unlimited.Choose the period your records policy requires. Verify the saved value, especially after choosing Unlimited. Customer case re-open windowOffers an Always choice, bounded day windows, and two Never re-open choices.Choose according to your support process and test a customer reply to a closed test case. The guide does not assume that all customer entry points handle the Never choices identically. Split inbound email sent to multiple Supportbench addressesAllows separate processing branches when one email targets multiple registered Supportbench addresses. Routing and workflows still determine queue and assignment.Enable when each address represents independent work. Test an email sent to two registered addresses and inspect the resulting cases before relying on it. Email security checksRuns spam/phishing evaluation and can add security-related tags for use by workflows.Review how your workflows handle the tags. Enabling checks alone does not define your team's quarantine, assignment, or review process. Different configuration: Account Policies are not the Case Policy editor. To control which case fields are shown, required, or ordered, use Settings → Cases → Policy. Interface & Editor Defaults SettingBehaviorRecommendation Default agent interfaceChoose Classic or Tabbed when the control is available. This setting saves independently. An agent's personal choice takes precedence; changing the account default does not close an active workspace.Set the preferred starting experience for agents who have not chosen their own preference. Editor font sizeSystem default or 8–16 pt. Personal editor preferences take precedence over account defaults. The platform fallback is 12 pt.Use a readable size and verify outbound messages in the mail clients your customers use. Editor font familySystem default or a family from the picker. Personal preferences take precedence; the platform fallback is Arial.Choose a widely available font. Recipient devices may substitute a font they do not have. Regional Settings SettingWhat to knowRecommendation Date formatSelect the account's preferred date presentation. Sign out and back in after a change.Use an unambiguous format for international teams. Time formatChoose 12-hour or 24-hour display. Sign out and back in after a change.Use the convention your team expects; include a timezone when communicating deadlines across regions. TimezoneSelect the account timezone from the available list.Review related schedules separately. Do not assume this choice replaces a workflow's explicit timezone or a UTC schedule. Phone country codeSelect a country/region or Use browser default.Choose a fixed country for a primarily local team, or browser defaults where individual regions are appropriate. Interface naming The naming area lets authorized administrators set singular and plural terms for Company, Contact, Asset, and Linked Asset, by locale. For example, a team may call a Company an Organization. Use the naming area's own Save or Reset controls; these are separate from the main policy save. Choose terms your agents and customers recognize. Changing terminology does not change the underlying relationship between records. Guides use the standard labels, so tell your team when a locally renamed item has the same function. Recommended configurations A centrally managed team: agree a default interface, fonts, timezone, and naming convention during onboarding. Explain which personal preferences override the account settings.A team introducing SSO: configure and verify the supported SSO connection first, test representative users and administrator access, then apply the SSO-only policy in a planned change window.A team reviewing retention: review trash purge and audit retention separately. A recoverable deleted case and a retained audit entry serve different purposes.A shared support mailbox team: test multi-address splitting and security-tag workflows together with inbound Routes. Check for duplicate work and unexpected routing. Example: standardize a new support team's workspace Agree that agents will start in Tabbed mode, use 12 pt Arial in the editor, and see dates in the team's agreed format.Save the interface default with its own control. Leave individual interface preferences available to agents where supported.Set the account editor defaults and regional formats, then save the policy form.Sign in with a test agent that has no personal overrides and inspect the interface, a new message editor, and date/time presentation.Set a personal font preference on the test agent and confirm that it overrides the account default. Explain this precedence in onboarding. Troubleshooting ProblemCheckNext step I can view policies but cannot save.Your account-policy edit permission and the separate permission for interface defaults or naming.Ask an administrator to review the relevant access; do not assume access to Settings grants every edit permission. An agent's fonts or interface did not change.Personal preferences and whether the separate interface-default save was used.Test with an agent without personal overrides. Do not discard an active workspace to force a refresh. Dates still use the old format.Whether the user signed out and back in after the change.Repeat the check in a fresh session. A saved selection returns to another value.Reopen the form and record the exact option and result.Contact Supportbench before depending on that policy. In particular, verify No history and Unlimited after saving. Away status changed but the agent stayed signed in.Automatic Away and Timeout are separate settings.Test each behavior separately; Away is not a sign-out command. A timezone cannot be saved.The validation message shown by the page.Keep the current saved value and provide the message to Supportbench; do not substitute an unrelated timezone. Related configuration Account → Authentication: the separate Require 2FA policy.Organization → Roles and Agent Status: editing access and agent availability.Cases → Policy: case-field visibility, requirements, and order.Email configuration → Routes: inbound mailbox behavior.Configuration → Workflows: responses to case events and security tags. Was this article helpful? Yes No Thank you for your feedback.