Ticket Lifecycle

Every ticket moves through a defined set of statuses. Understanding these transitions is foundational to using ForsetiDesk effectively.

Creating Tickets

Click New Ticket in the sidebar or navigate to Tickets → New Ticket. The creation form accepts:

• Title — concise description of the issue (required)
• Description — full details, steps to reproduce, error messages
• Priority — Critical / High / Medium / Low
• Category — select from the configured category tree
• Assigned To — assign to a specific technician, or leave blank for a dispatch queue
• Client Name / Email — for tickets raised on behalf of end users
• Tags — freeform labels for filtering and reporting
• Custom Fields — any fields configured for the selected category (Pro)

Priority Levels

SLA targets are configurable per priority in Admin → Settings → SLA Targets.

SLA Management

SLA (Service Level Agreement) enforcement is a Pro feature. When enabled, each ticket receives a response and resolution deadline calculated from creation time and the configured targets.

SLA Deadlines

• Response Deadline — target time for first meaningful update on the ticket
• Resolution Deadline — target time for the ticket to reach CLOSED status

SLA Breach

When a deadline passes without the ticket reaching the appropriate status, it is flagged as SLA Breached. A red indicator appears on the ticket list and detail views. QA users can Acknowledge a breach to confirm it was noted, which clears the active alert.

Enabling SLA

1. Go to Admin → Settings and enable the SLA Enabled toggle.
2. Navigate to the SLA Targets tab and set response and resolution hours per priority.
3. Click Save SLA Targets. New tickets created after saving will use the updated targets.

Custom Fields

Custom fields extend the ticket form with organization-specific data capture. This is a Pro feature.

Field Types

• Text — single-line input
• Textarea — multi-line input
• Dropdown — single selection from a list
• Multi-select — multiple selections from a list
• Date — date picker
• Checkbox — boolean toggle
• Cascade — dependent dropdowns (e.g., Region → Site → Building)

Scoping Fields to Categories

Custom fields can be scoped to specific ticket categories. When a user selects that category on a ticket, only the relevant fields appear. This keeps the form clean for different ticket types.

Creating Custom Fields

1. Go to Admin → Custom Fields.
2. Click New Field, select entity type TICKET, choose a field type, and set the label.
3. For Dropdown/Multi-select, enter the option values (one per line).
4. Optionally scope to a category and mark as required.
5. Click Save. The field appears on the ticket form immediately.

QA Review Workflow

The QA workflow ensures ticket resolutions are verified before closure. It is enabled by default and can be disabled per organization.

1. When a TECH believes a ticket is resolved, they click Submit for QA. The status changes to PENDING_QA.
2. QA reviewers see the ticket in the QA Queue (Tickets → QA Queue).
3. The QA reviewer reads the resolution notes and either Approves (ticket closes) or Rejects (ticket returns to IN_PROGRESS with rejection notes).
4. If rejected, the TECH revises the work and resubmits.

Canned Responses

Canned responses are pre-written reply templates that technicians can insert into ticket comments with one click. This is a Pro feature.

Creating Canned Responses

1. Go to Admin → Communications → Canned Responses.
2. Click New Response, enter a title and body (Markdown supported).
3. Optionally link to a category so the response only appears for relevant tickets.
4. Set sort order and activate. The response is immediately available to all technicians.

Using Canned Responses

On a ticket detail page, click the Canned Responses button in the comment editor toolbar. Select a template — its body is inserted into the comment field. Edit as needed before posting.

Internal Notes

Internal notes are private comments visible only to staff (ADMIN, TECH, QA). CLIENT users never see internal notes. This is a Pro feature.

On any ticket detail page, switch the comment mode from Reply to Internal Note. Internal notes appear in the timeline with a distinct background color and a lock icon to distinguish them from public replies.

Time Tracking

Time tracking lets technicians log time spent on each ticket. This is a Business feature.

Timer Bar

Click Start Timer on any ticket. A persistent timer bar appears at the top of the application showing the elapsed time and ticket reference. The timer continues while you navigate to other pages. Click Stop to save the time entry, or Cancel to discard it.

Manual Time Entries

On the ticket detail page, scroll to the Time Entries section and click Add Entry. Enter minutes, optional notes, and whether the entry is billable. Admins can view all time entries globally at Admin → Time Entries.

Ticket Linking

Link related tickets to track dependencies and relationships. This is a Pro feature.

To add a link, open a ticket, scroll to Linked Tickets, click Add Link, search for the target ticket, and select the relationship type.

Merging Tickets

Merging combines duplicate tickets into a single parent. This is a Pro feature. The merged ticket's history and comments are preserved; its status becomes MERGED and it is locked. All future work tracks on the parent.

1. Open the ticket you want to merge (the one to be absorbed).
2. Click Merge Into… and search for the parent ticket.
3. Confirm the merge. The absorbed ticket receives MERGED status and a link to the parent.

Email-to-Ticket (IMAP)

ForsetiDesk can poll an email inbox and automatically create tickets from incoming messages. This is a Pro feature.

1. Go to Admin → Communications → Email Inbox.
2. Enter your IMAP server details (host, port, username, password, SSL/TLS mode).
3. Set the poll interval (e.g., every 5 minutes) and the default assignee/category for inbound tickets.
4. Click Test Connection to verify credentials, then Save & Enable.

Each email creates one ticket using the email subject as the title and body as the description. Replies to the same email thread are attached to the original ticket using the emailMessageId header for deduplication.