Work a support ticket

Personas: Support agent (anyone in the Agent group; as the ticket's Assignee also sees it under My Tickets) · Modules: Services A customer (or supplier, or anyone else) has an issue. You log it as a ticket, triage it, hold the conversation right on the ticket as a chat thread, and close it with a reusable solution.

Before you start: the requester should be on file as a Customer or Supplier if you want to link them (a plain contact name/email works otherwise); you are in the Agent group so the tasks reach your Inbox; to see My Tickets in the Personal shell, an Employee record with your Username must exist.

1. Log the ticket — Support agent

1. In the Services sidebar group, open Tickets and click + New top-right.
2. Fill the Date, a Subject and the Description (the initial request text). Link the requester: pick the Customer or Supplier (either, both, or neither), or just type a Contact name and Contact email; classify them with Requester type (defaults to Customer). Set Priority (defaults to Normal) and Category.
3. Pick yourself as Assignee to own it — the ticket then also appears under My Tickets in your Personal shell.
4. Save. The ticket number (prefix CASE, from the shared "Ticket" number series) is stamped immediately, and the status pill shows NEW.

2. Triage — Support agent (Inbox)

1. A Triage task appears in the Agent group's Inbox (and inline on the ticket). Its form shows Number, Subject, Customer, Supplier, Priority, Category, Status with Confirm / Reject buttons.
2. The 1-day SLA: if the triage sits untouched for one day, the ticket's read-only Escalation field is stamped SLA BREACHED — a flag for the team lead; the task itself stays in the Inbox, claimable as before.
3. Click Confirm. The ticket flips to CONFIRMED and immediately to IN PROCESS, and a Work task opens. (Reject ends the ticket as CANCELLED.)

3. Work it — Support agent (chat + Inbox)

1. On the ticket page the messages child is a chat thread, not a table: each message is a bubble with its author and time, and a composer box to type the next one. Tick Internal to post a memo the requester is never meant to see (tinted and badged differently); leave it off for a real reply.
2. The Work task form shows Number, Subject, Assignee, Priority, Status with three buttons: Resolve, Request info, Reject. It carries a 3-day SLA — a work stint open past three days stamps Escalation = SLA BREACHED the same non-cancelling way.
3. Need something from the requester? Click Request info. The ticket flips to AUTHOR ACTION and the flow really parks — there is no open task while the ball is in the requester's court.
4. The moment a non-internal chat reply is posted on the ticket, it resumes by itself: status back to IN PROCESS and a fresh Work task in the Inbox. An Internal memo does not wake it.

4. Resolve and close — Support agent (Inbox)

1. Click Resolve on the Work task. The Resolve task form opens with Number, Subject, Solution, Status — and here, uniquely, the Solution field is editable (it is read-only everywhere else). Write the reusable fix.
2. Click Resolve. The ticket closes as CLOSED; the solution feeds the Solutions Knowledge Base report for the next similar ticket.

What happened behind the scenes

• Number series Ticket (CASE...), stamped at create — no placeholder phase.
• Status path: NEW → CONFIRMED → IN PROCESS (↔ AUTHOR ACTION while waiting on the requester) → CLOSED; Reject at triage or work ends it CANCELLED.
• SLA timers (triage 1 day, work 3 days) only stamp Escalation; they never cancel the task.

Variations and refusals

• Reject at triage: the ticket goes straight to CANCELLED — no work phase.
• Reject from the Work task: same, CANCELLED mid-work.
• Several Request info / reply rounds are fine — each external reply re-creates the Work task.
• Requester not on file: leave Customer/Supplier empty, use the contact fields and set Requester type to Other (or Employee for internal requests).

See also

• Services module