Skip to content

Categories

Set up your ticket categories in Settings β†’ Tickets β†’ Categories. Every ticket in Daktela has to be in a category β€” the category decides which agents can work the ticket, which SLA applies, and which statuses, macros and form fields agents use. See How the Helpdesk Works for the bigger picture.

Create a New Category/ Edit a Category

Fill in the category Title, then set up the category settings below:

Settings Description
SLA Select the SLA for the category, or leave it empty if you don't want to track deadlines for tickets in this category. You can manage your SLAs using the blue button next to the drop down list of your SLAs or by going to Settings β†’ Tickets β†’ SLA. When no SLA is selected, tickets in this category get no deadline and no SLA countdown icons in the ticket header (see Tickets). A Deadline can still be set manually on an individual ticket β€” once set, it's treated like a normal deadline and won't be recalculated automatically when the ticket moves through Waiting or Closed. Warning: If an Account has an SLA set, it will override the category's SLA settings when a ticket's owner is a Contact from the given Account. The category's working hours will not be affected.
Working hours Select a working time from your time groups for your SLA calculation. You can manage your Time groups using the blue button next to the drop down list of your Time groups or by going to Settings β†’ Workflows β†’ Time groups. Example: your SLA is 4 hours to solution and your working hours are 9 AM – 5 PM daily. If you receive a new ticket at 4 PM, you meet your SLA if you provide a solution by 12 noon the next day.
Outgoing Email, Call and SMS queues Select the default queues that will be used for outgoing activities from a ticket in the category.
Status required Select when agents will be required to enter a status when saving tickets in this category.
Multiple statuses Turn on to allow agents to select more than one status in tickets in the category.
Check child tickets on close When turned on, it will not be possible to close or delete tickets in the category if there are any open child tickets.
Auto Archive Tickets Set the number of days after which closed tickets should automatically be archived.
Allow external comments Allows internal users to flag a ticket comment as an external. Also allows external users to comment on tickets in this category and view external comments from internal users.
Waiting requires reopen time When turned on, agents must enter a Reopen date and time when saving a ticket to the Waiting state. The ticket cannot be saved to Waiting without it.
Autofocused tab Select which tab will be autofocused when you open a ticket.
Default CRM Database Your default database is pre-selected when you create a new CRM Contact or Account. If you don’t want a database to be pre-selected, uncheck the default database. When you create a new contact from a ticket in a category with a different default CRM database, it will override this setting. Note: When you select a default database, it will replace any previous default database you have selected.

Save your category.

Tip

Next steps to finish setting up your category:

  • Choose which profiles can work with the category in the Profiles column.
  • Set up the category's Groups, Statuses, Tabs, Notifications and Form in the Relations column.

Choose Which Profiles Can Work the Category

Agents can work with a category only if their profile includes it. Click Change in the Profiles column of the category β€” or set the same thing from the profile, in the Tickets area of Access & scope.

  1. Tick the profiles that can work with the category.
  2. Access: if you want agents to see the category's tickets, turn Access on. Users whose profile includes the category but without access can use the category – e.g. create a ticket in it – but they will not see the ticket once it is saved.

  3. Distribution: when a ticket with no assigned user is created in the category using an email queue, you can choose when to distribute it to agents who hold this profile. Select the maximum number of open tickets that an agent can have in order for the ticket to be assigned to them. If several agents hold this profile, the ticket will be assigned to the one with the fewest open tickets in the category. If all agents have more than the selected number of open tickets, distribution will stop and restart once at least one agent's number of open tickets drops below the selected number. Select None to disable automatic ticket distribution.

    This is a pull-style mechanism of its own: it caps how many open tickets an agent may hold and assigns unowned tickets created from an email queue. It is separate from β€” and coexists with β€” push-style distribution through Ticket Distribution Rules, ticket queues and Priority Flows, which offer tickets to the agents of a ticket queue and order them by score. Neither replaces the other.

Warning

This applies to the category's Distribution setting only. The category needs to be selected in an email queue for it to work, and tickets are distributed this way only to agents that are logged in to that queue. Active pauses don't prevent tickets from being distributed. Tickets pushed by a ticket distribution rule are offered to the agents of the destination ticket queue instead, whoever is logged in there.

Note

Only tickets in the Open stage count towards an agent's distribution limit. Tickets in the Waiting, Closed or Archived stage are not counted, so moving a ticket to Waiting frees up a slot. Whether the agent is on a pause makes no difference – only being logged in to the queue matters.

Save your changes.

How Are Categories Linked to Views?

A view is a saved ticket filter. A user sees a view if their profile includes it, and sees a ticket in that view only if their profile also includes the ticket's category. See How Views, Categories and Profiles Work Together.

Set up Relations

Click the Relation that you want to set up in the Relations column and follow the instructions below:

Relation Description
Groups Check the category groups that the category should be a part of. You can add a new group or manage your groups here, or you can go to Settings β†’ Workflows β†’ Groups to manage your groups. Save your group settings.
Statuses Check the statuses that agents will be able to select in tickets in the category. You can add a new status or manage your statuses here, or you can go to Settings β†’ Workflows β†’ Statuses to manage your statuses. You can click Multiple save to save the settings for multiple categories at once.
Tabs Check the tabs with an external URL that will be displayed in tickets in the category. You can add a new tab or manage your tabs here, or you can go to Settings β†’ Workflows β†’ Tabs to manage your tabs. Save your tab settings.
Notifications Configure email notifications related to ticket events, separately for each user. Notifications are sent to the notification email address specified in the user detail β€” see Notification Settings below.
Form Set up a form for agents to fill in tickets in this category β€” see Set up Form Layout below.
Macros Check the macros you want to use with the category. You can add a new macro in Settings β†’ Tickets β†’ Macros. You can click Multiple save to save the settings for multiple categories at once.

Notification Settings

Setting Description
Owner Send if the user is the owner of a new ticket or if there is a new activity in one of the user’s existing tickets in this category.
Followed Send if the user is following a ticket in this category and the ticket has a new activity.
New Send when a new ticket is created in this category or when a ticket’s category is changed to it.
Edit/New activity Send if there is a new activity in a ticket in this category.

Set up Form Layout

The ticket form defines which fields agents fill in when working with tickets in this category. The form builder and custom fields work the same across Daktela β€” see Custom Fields & Forms for the complete guide: layout, default values, field types and option editing. To use the same layout in several categories, click Multiple save.

Create a New Field/Update Field

See Custom Fields & Forms – Create a New Field/Update Field.

Editing Custom Field Options

See Custom Fields & Forms – Editing Custom Field Options.