Ticket setup and SLAs

Settings > Ticket setup holds the lists tickets are sorted with and the rules for SLA clocks. Service desk settings at the bottom of the Service desk sidebar opens it. It is one page with a row of tabs; on a narrower screen the last ones are under More:

Each list shows how many tickets use each entry. Drag an entry by its handle, or use the arrows, to change the order: the order here is the order in the pickers on a ticket. The ... menu on each entry edits or removes it.

Queues#

A queue is where tickets wait to be picked up, such as Service desk, Projects or Alerts. Each queue gets its own view in the Service desk sidebar, opening to its statuses.

To add one:

1. Press Add queue.
2. Enter a Name and a Description. The description shows beside the queue when choosing one.
3. Turn on Default queue if new tickets should land here unless someone chooses another.
4. Press Add queue.

A support mailbox and an alert rule can each send their tickets to a particular queue.

Click a queue to open its own page. It has five parts:

• Details: its name, what New tickets get (the type, priority and status when nothing else chooses; a ticket type's own defaults come first), the New ticket email someone gets when they email in a new ticket for this queue (the mailbox's, its own wording, or none), Reply from (the mailbox the requester wrote to, or its own mailbox), and its Members.
• Automatic assignment: how it hands out new tickets, the Limit per person, the Queue lead and whether the first public reply takes a ticket (see The ticket inbox).
• Status rules: what a reply, a note, an assignment or a move into the queue does to a ticket's status, the Statuses this queue uses and its Reopen window. See What a queue does to a ticket's status.
• Chasing and Closing resolved tickets: whether tickets waiting on the requester are chased, how often and in what words, and when resolved tickets close. Each follows Settings until you choose otherwise; a customer's own choice comes before the queue's.
• OLA: the queue's internal targets (see SLA policies and escalations).

Statuses#

Statuses are the steps a ticket goes through. Each has a category, which decides how it counts:

To add a status:

1. On the Statuses tab, press Add status.
2. Enter a Name and choose the Category.
3. Turn on Pause the SLA clock if time in this status should not count towards SLA targets. It is useful for waiting on the customer. Clocks it pauses can keep some clocks running: for example, pause Resolution while parts are on order but keep the Next update to the customer due.
4. For a Pending status, turn on Waiting on the customer if that is what it means. The portal then shows it as "Waiting on you" once you have replied, and the Send button offers it as "send and wait". Leave it off for on hold or waiting on a supplier: those read as "Open" to the customer. A pending status can also ask for more when a ticket is put in it: Asks until when (No, If you like or Always), Comes back by itself at that time, and Asks for the supplier (see On-hold reasons and paused SLAs).
5. Choose a Colour for its icon in lists, pickers, the ticket and the portal.
6. Set anything you need under What customers see, What it does and Rules (below).
7. Turn on Default status if new tickets should get it.
8. Press Add status.

The same form, when you add or edit a status, gives you more control:

• What customers see: turn off Show this status in the portal to show customers just Open (or Closed once it is done), or set a Name for customers, such as "Waiting for parts" for a status your team calls Parts on order.
• What it does: Counts as the first response, Stops the SLA clock without closing, No time can be logged, or No automatic emails to the customer (replies you write still go).
• Rules: limit where a ticket can move from this status with A ticket in it can move to, and list the fields it Needs before a ticket can be put in it, such as a category before closing.

Under the list, Automatic statuses set the status a ticket moves to after a public reply from staff (for example Waiting on customer) and when the customer replies. They apply to every queue that has no status rule of its own for those events. Show customers only open or closed makes the portal show every ticket as Open or Closed, whatever its status. Chasing waiting tickets gives each status that waits on the customer its own reminders and closing note; chasing itself is switched on on the Automatic closing tab.

Note: A customer reply reopens a ticket in a pending, resolved or closed status, unless its queue says to leave it where it is (useful for a supplier wait).

Priorities and SLA targets#

A priority says how urgent a ticket is and carries the targets of the default SLA policy: how soon someone should first reply, and how soon it should be fixed. Other SLA policies set their own targets per priority on the SLAs tab. The default set is:

To add or change one:

1. On the Priorities tab, press Add priority (or Edit in an entry's ... menu).
2. Enter a Name.
3. Choose the Level, from 1 (most urgent) to 9 (least urgent). The inbox sorts by it.
4. Choose a Colour for its icon.
5. Set First response within and Resolve within, each in Minutes, Hours or Working days. Leave either blank for no target.
6. Turn on Default priority if new tickets should get it.
7. Press Add priority.

Out of hours on the same tab raises a ticket a customer logs (by email, the portal, chat or phone) while their business calendar is closed to the priority you choose. It is never lowered, and a priority a technician chose is kept.

How the SLA clock works#

• Targets count working time only, in the business hours below. A 4 hour target on a ticket opened at 16:00 on a Friday, with hours of 09:00 to 17:30, is due at 11:30 on Monday.
• Time spent in a status that pauses the SLA clock does not count. A status can pause only some of the clocks, and the others keep running.
• The response target is met by the first public reply from your team, unless the ticket's SLA policy counts something else. Internal notes do not count by default.
• The resolution target is met when the ticket reaches a resolved or closed status.
• What happens at a warning and when a target is missed is set by the SLA policy's escalations. By default the assignee is told.

On each ticket the SLA section of the details panel shows each target: when it is due, met or missed and by how much. The inbox has SLA breached and SLA at risk views, and the SLA filter picks tickets that are Breached, At risk, On track, Paused, Met or have No SLA.

Types#

Types say what kind of work a ticket is, for reporting and routing. The default set is Incident (the default), Service request, Problem, Change and Alert. Add more with Add type on the Types tab.

Each type can work its own way. Open its ... menu and choose Edit:

• Defaults: the priority, queue and status a new ticket of this type gets, before the queue's and the usual defaults.
• Statuses: Statuses it uses (every status, or only these). Pickers, bulk edit, automation rules and the portal then offer only those. The type can also have its own status after a reply from staff, when the customer replies, and when it is merged away, and its own answer to Time required when resolving.
• Who can use it: all customers or only some, and all staff roles or only some.
• Fields: set each built-in field to As usual, Required (staff must fill it in when they log the ticket or change its status), Hidden (left off the ticket) or Read-only (set when it is logged, then locked).
• Ticket page layout: the order of the sections beside the conversation and which show, and the order of the properties at the top.
• References: follow Settings > Numbering, or give the type Its own format, such as CHG-{yyyy}-{seq:3} for changes, counting its own tickets and starting again each year or month.

Under the list, Workflow by type lets a type assign its own way, ask for resolution details its own way and offer a knowledge base article after resolving.

Email, the portal and the system are never held to required fields; the rules apply to your team. A ticket keeps the reference it was given, and replies quoting any reference it has had still thread onto it.

Categories#

The Categories tab holds what tickets are about, three levels deep: category, sub-category and item, for example Hardware > Laptop > Battery. Add the starter categories puts in a ready-made tree you can change. Categories work as filters, in SLA policies, macros, AI triage, automation rules and the report builder. A category is needed chooses when a ticket must have one, and a queue or a ticket type can say otherwise. See Ticket categories.

Business hours#

SLA clocks only run in business hours and stop on public holidays. The Business hours tab holds your Business calendars: the default one is for everyone, and you can give a customer another calendar where their hours or holidays differ.

1. Open the Business hours tab.
2. Edit the default calendar, or press Add calendar for another, such as one for customers in Scotland.
3. Give it a Name and choose the Time zone. The hours are in this time zone, wherever the team is.
4. Under Public holidays, choose the country and region whose holidays close the calendar all day.
5. Turn each day on or off, and set its start and end time.
6. Check the summary underneath, for example "Mon to Fri 09:00 to 17:30. 42 h 30 min a week. A working day in SLA targets is 8 h 30 min."
7. Save.

Each calendar shows who uses it. A customer follows the default calendar unless you choose another on the customer (Business hours on the customer form). Changes apply to targets worked out from now on. Due dates already set stay as they are. See Public holidays and business calendars.

Tip: The length of a working day matters when a target is set in Working days. With the hours above, 2 working days means 17 hours of working time.

Canned responses#

Settings > Canned responses holds replies your team sends often, ready to insert into a ticket with the customer's details filled in. The list shows each response with its folder, its keyword (such as ;;toner), a Macro badge when it also changes the ticket, whether it is Shared or Personal, how often it has been used and when it last changed. Switch between All, Shared and Personal at the top.

To add one:

1. Press New response.
2. Enter a Name. It is what you search for when replying, for example "Password reset done".
3. Write the Text. Click a placeholder to insert it at the cursor; the Preview shows it with example values.
4. Turn on Shared with everyone for the whole team, or leave it off to keep it personal (only you can see and use it).
5. Press Save response.

The placeholders are:

Anything else in double braces stays as typed.