Help desk settings is where you decide how tickets are numbered, what happens to replies on closed tickets, how long attachments are kept, who can read the knowledge base, and which statuses, priorities and categories your team picks from.

Overview

Help desk settings is its own page under Administration. Its cards, in order:

• Help desk address: the address that turns email into tickets, with how to forward your own help desk mailbox to it. Forwarding has its own guide: Email and forwarding.
• Client addresses: each client's own address. Shown only if your company manages clients.
• Tickets, attachments and the knowledge base: the settings form described below.
• Knowledge base: the address of your help desk portal and knowledge base, and how many pages are published. Publishing pages has its own guide: The knowledge base.
• Sending address: the address requesters get help desk mail from. It has its own guide: The sending address.
• Statuses, Priorities and Categories: the lists your team picks from on every ticket.

Ticket number prefix

Every ticket has a number. A Ticket number prefix of up to 10 capital letters and digits, starting with a letter, goes in front of it: with IT, tickets read IT-1042. Leave it empty and tickets read #1042. Changing the prefix relabels every ticket, old ones included.

Under the form, "Tickets read" shows how the next ticket will be numbered.

Replies to closed tickets

When someone emails a reply to a closed ticket decides what happens to it:

Choice	What happens
Reopen the ticket (the default)	The ticket opens again with the reply on it, and keeps who has it.
Add it to the closed ticket	The reply is added to the ticket, which stays closed.
Refuse it and ask for a new ticket	The reply is not added. The sender is emailed to open a new ticket, once a day at most.

Attachment retention

Delete attachments on tickets closed more than a number of months, from 1 to 120, deletes the files attached to tickets closed longer ago than that. It is checked every night. A deleted attachment keeps its name on the ticket, so the conversation still shows what was sent. Leave it empty to keep attachments.

Under the form, the Help desk storage line shows how much your help desk's attachments use of your company's limit, or that it is unlimited.

Who can read the knowledge base

Who can read the knowledge base is Anyone with the link (the default) or Only people signed in. Signed in means your TekStacks users and the employees signed in to your help desk portal. Either way, only the pages you publish from Documentation are shown. See The knowledge base.

Statuses

Every ticket has a status. New companies start with New (the default for new tickets), In Progress, On Hold and Closed.

Each status is in one of three roles, and the role decides where its tickets are listed:

Role	What it does
Open	Tickets are in All tickets, and in Pending while nobody is assigned.
On hold	Tickets stay with the open ones but are listed last.
Closed	Tickets move to Closed.

New tickets get the default status, which is always an open one. Use for moves a status to another role.

Priorities

New companies start with Low, Medium (the default), High and Urgent. The list runs lowest first; drag a row to reorder it. Sorting tickets by priority puts the highest first. New tickets get the default.

Categories

Categories say what a ticket is about, such as Hardware or Accounts. There are none at first, and a category is optional on every ticket.

Lists are archived, never deleted

Statuses, priorities and categories are archived, never deleted. Archiving an entry stops it being offered; tickets that have it keep it. The default status and the default priority cannot be archived. If your company manages clients, the lists are shared by every client.

Requirements

• Permission: Manage ticket statuses, priorities, categories, the number prefix and the sending address.
• The help desk turned on for your company. See Getting the help desk.

Set the ticket number prefix

1. In the sidebar, open Administration, then Help desk.
2. In Ticket number prefix, enter up to 10 capital letters and digits starting with a letter, such as IT. Leave it empty for numbers alone.
3. Click Save. "Tickets read" shows the new numbering.

Choose what a reply to a closed ticket does

1. Open Administration, then Help desk.
2. Under When someone emails a reply to a closed ticket, choose Reopen the ticket, Add it to the closed ticket or Refuse it and ask for a new ticket.
3. Click Save.

Set how long attachments are kept

1. Open Administration, then Help desk.
2. In Delete attachments on tickets closed more than, enter a number of months from 1 to 120, or leave it empty to keep attachments.
3. Click Save.
4. If the new number would delete attachments, Delete old attachments? says how many go tonight. Click Save and delete tonight to save it, or cancel to change the number.

Choose who can read the knowledge base

1. Open Administration, then Help desk.
2. Under Who can read the knowledge base, choose Anyone with the link or Only people signed in.
3. Click Save.

Add a status, priority or category

1. Open Administration, then Help desk.
2. In the list, click Add status, Add priority or Add category.
3. Enter a name. For a status or priority, pick a color; for a status, pick its Role.
4. Save.

Edit an entry

1. In the list, click the edit icon on the entry.
2. Change the name or color, and save.

To move a status to another role, click its Use for icon and choose the role. The default status cannot be moved.

Make an entry the default

Click the Make default icon on a status or priority. New tickets get it from then on. Only an open status can be the default.

Archive or restore an entry

1. Click the archive icon on the entry and confirm. It stops being offered; tickets that have it keep it.
2. To bring it back, click Restore on the archived entry.

Notes

Note: Every change on this page is recorded in the activity log.

Note: If your company manages clients, the statuses, priorities and categories are shared by every client.

Troubleshooting

There is no Help desk link under Administration. You need Manage ticket statuses, priorities, categories, the number prefix and the sending address, and the help desk must be turned on for your company.

"Use 1 to 10 capital letters and digits, starting with a letter, such as IT or HD." The prefix starts with a letter and holds only capital letters and digits, no spaces or dashes.

"Choose 1 to 120 months, or leave it empty to keep attachments." Enter a whole number of months from 1 to 120, or clear the box.

There is no archive icon on an entry. It is the default. Make another entry the default first.

"New is the only open status. Add another before archiving or moving it." Each role keeps at least one active status. The message names your status and its role, such as Closed and closed. Add another status in that role first.

FAQ

Can I delete a status nobody uses? No. Archive it instead: it stops being offered, and the list stays complete for tickets that used it.

Does changing the prefix change old ticket numbers? No. Old tickets keep their numbers. The new prefix is shown in front of every ticket's number, old ones included, so IT-1042 becomes HD-1042.