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Set Up Your Helpdesk

This guide takes you from an empty instance to a working helpdesk: tickets created from incoming emails, distributed to the right agents, with deadlines your team can act on. Follow the steps in order β€” each step links to the reference page with all the details. If you haven't yet, read How the Helpdesk Works first.

1. Define Your Working Hours

Go to Settings β†’ Workflows β†’ Time groups and create a time group with your support hours. SLA deadlines only run during these hours.

See Time Groups for details.

2. Create an SLA

Go to Settings β†’ Tickets β†’ SLA and set how long agents have to reply (Response) and to solve the ticket (Solution) for each priority.

See SLA for how deadlines are calculated and what counts as a response.

3. Create a Category

Go to Settings β†’ Tickets β†’ Categories and create a category for your first team or topic (e.g. "Support"). Select the SLA from step 2 and the Working hours from step 1, and pick the default outgoing email, call and SMS queues if you already have them.

See Categories for all category settings.

4. Give Agents Access and Set Distribution

In the category list, click Change in the Rights column. Check the user rights that should work with the category, toggle Access to Yes for those who should see its tickets, and set Distribution if unowned tickets should be assigned automatically.

See Categories – Select Rights for how distribution picks the agent.

5. Connect Your Email Channel

Tickets are typically created by an email queue. If you don't have one yet, follow Set Up Email first. Then make sure the queue's Category is set to the category from step 3.

Warning

Tickets are automatically distributed only to agents that are logged in to the email queue. Active pauses don't prevent tickets from being distributed.

See Email Queue for the queue fields.

6. Add Statuses

Go to Settings β†’ Workflows β†’ Statuses and create the statuses your process needs (e.g. "Waiting for customer", "Order received"). Then connect them to the category in the category's Relations β†’ Statuses.

See Statuses for details.

7. Build the Ticket Form

In the category's Relations β†’ Form, define the fields agents fill in when working with tickets β€” order numbers, issue types, anything your process tracks.

See Custom Fields & Forms for the form builder and field types.

8. Create Views for Agents

Go to Settings β†’ Tickets β†’ Views and create the filters agents will work from β€” e.g. "My open tickets", "Unassigned", one view per category or status. Assign the views to user rights in the View list.

See Views for filtering, sorting and colour settings.

9. Add Macros (Optional)

Go to Settings β†’ Tickets β†’ Macros and create one-click buttons for repetitive actions β€” e.g. "Solve and close" (status + close + back) or "Waiting 1 week" (reopen + back). Connect them to your categories.

See Macros for the available actions.

10. Test Your Helpdesk

  1. Send an email to the mailbox connected in step 5.
  2. Check that a ticket is created in the right category and appears in your views.
  3. Check the deadline tooltip in the ticket β€” it should match your SLA and working hours.
  4. If distribution is on, check the ticket is assigned to a logged-in agent.
  5. Reply from the ticket and verify the First answer time turns green.

Go Further

  • Email notifications per user and event β€” category Relations β†’ Notifications, see Categories.
  • Auto-archive closed tickets after a set number of days β€” category settings.
  • External comments for communicating with people outside your team β€” category settings and External Users.
  • Automation β€” trigger actions on ticket events with Events.
  • Measure satisfaction with CSAT Forms.
  • Quality control with QA Forms.