Work a ticket

Select a ticket on Helpdesk › Tickets to open it. The inbox stays on the left, the conversation fills the middle, and the ticket's properties sit on the right. Links to a ticket from anywhere in schoolOS, such as notifications or a device page, open it here.

To reply and change a ticket you need Work tickets (tickets.update). Internal notes and internal files need Work as helpdesk staff (tickets.staff).

The layout#

Open tickets become tabs across the top, like a browser. Select a tab to switch, or its × to close it. Tabs stay while you move around the helpdesk.

The + after the tabs opens a menu:

• New Ticket. Opens the new ticket form.
• Duplicate Ticket. Makes a copy with "(copy)" after the subject, the same requester, description, status, priority, type, assignee and device, and opens it.
• Merge… See Ticket actions.
• Open a ticket. Type a number or words from a subject to open another ticket as a tab. An imported ticket's number from your old helpdesk finds it too.

The inbox on the left lists tickets with the requester, how long ago it came in, status, number, subject and the latest message. A red count means unread replies.

• It follows the view and filters you pick above it, newest first, Solved and Closed included. More tickets load as you scroll to the end, or select Load more. The count at the bottom is every matching ticket, for example "Showing 50 of 312 tickets".
• Search tickets... at the top searches every ticket you can see, not just the ones loaded: subject, description, number, requester, assignee, status, priority, type and team, and an imported ticket's number in your old helpdesk.
• An imported ticket says where it came from under its message, like Imported from Zendesk.
• If the inbox can't load, it says so, with Try again, rather than showing an empty list.
• The collapse button tucks the inbox away for more room. Expand inbox brings it back.

On a phone, the ticket fills the screen. Use the back arrow to return to the list, and the panel button to open the ticket's details.

The ticket header#

From left to right:

• The number and the subject. The department shows too when your account has more than one.
• Where it came from, on a ticket brought in from your old helpdesk: its name and the number it had there, like Zendesk #48213. Select it to open the original in a new tab. One imported from a CSV shows Imported. See Import ticket history.
• Faces. Who else has this ticket open right now, then everyone on the ticket. Select the people to open Users.
• Status. Select it to pick another. See Change the status.
• Priority. Select it to pick another.
• SLA. How the ticket stands against its first response and resolution targets.
• A sparkle means AI set the priority. Point at it to see why, and how sure it was.
• Private means only its private topic's access list, the requester, the assignee and the people let in can find it. Select it to see who, and to let someone into this one ticket.
• Ticket actions (the ⋮ menu). See Ticket actions.
• The list icon at the left of the tab row goes Back to tickets. An open ticket always takes the whole page; there is no list beside it.
• Close ticket (×) closes the ticket, not its status. It only shows when there are no tabs.

Under the header, Created by names the requester (select them to see their profile) and how it came in, such as "via Email". A ticket filed for someone else goes on: "Created by Rich Watson · via schoolAgent · for Julie Park · LIN-0042", with the person it's for and, when their device is linked to the ticket, its asset tag. See Requested for.

Approvals on a ticket#

A ticket's approval steps (from a Request topic's checklist, or one applied by hand) are tasks, so they live in two places, not across the top of the ticket:

• The Tasks panel. A checklist's task ("TSK-0082 Device request approval") lists its steps under it: each step's number and name, who decides or does it with their picture (or the team), and where it stands. An approval step shows Waiting, Approved by or Denied by the person who decided, or Skipped; any other step shows its status. The steps are open when one is waiting on you; otherwise they're folded, showing how many are done ("1/3"), and the arrow beside the count opens or folds them. Select a step to open its task, with the whole request and Ask a question and Hand to someone else. When a step is waiting on you, the Tasks icon in the rail shows an amber badge with how many.
• The conversation, in order with the messages, as a record of what happened: "Approval requested from Grace Miller (Principal) and Rich Watson (IT director)" when the approvals start, with each approver's picture (or their team's name), the checklist's task (its name in full, with its number, "TSK-0082 · Device request approval") and who applied it, or Automatically when a topic or workflow did. A long list names the first few and "+2 more". Then one entry for each decision ("Grace Miller approved (Principal)", with their picture, the time and their note), and for each step that was skipped, each with the step's own task ("TSK-0083"). Select a task number to open that task, the same as from the Tasks panel; if you can't open Tasks, it's plain text. Events shows the same entries.

If a step is yours to decide, it waits for you at the bottom of the conversation, just above the reply box, apart from the timeline: Waiting on you, "IT director approval · requested 2:30 PM", with Approve and Deny, one row for each step waiting on you. It's there in Events too. The same buttons are on the step in the Tasks panel. Either asks once: Approve can carry a note for the requester, and Deny needs the reason they'll read. Once you've decided, the row goes away and your decision shows in the conversation, in its place in time. Older tickets show their past requests and decisions there too.

Only the person a step waits on sees it pinned. The requester sees the same entries in their conversation, so they know their request is waiting for approval or was approved, but never the buttons. See Approvals.

The conversation#

Each message shows who wrote it, an Agent or End User tag, what they did and when. Messages written by your AI agent are tagged AI, with the knowledge it used under Based on:.

• Internal notes are amber and tagged INTERNAL. Requesters never see them.
• CC: under a reply lists who else got it. Select × by a name to take them off the ticket.
• Events such as status changes and tags added sit between messages as a thin strip. Select it for details.
• Files show under their message. Select one to preview it. New files are checked for viruses first, and show Checking until they can open. Blocked means the check failed them.
• Save as verified answer appears on agent replies. It opens a dialog to turn the reply into a reusable answer, saved as a draft for an admin to approve.

Above the conversation:

• Messages shows the conversation. Its arrow filters to All activity, Replies or Internal notes.
• Events shows the ticket's full history instead. Each entry names who did it, with their picture: a person, a workflow, or Otto for AI work. System means nobody did it by hand, and Someone means a person whose account is no longer in your district. Dates and times, such as when something happened or a changed due date, read in your district's date format and in your own computer's time zone ("09/05/2026 · 1:29 PM"), so someone in another time zone sees their own clock. A date with no time, like a due date, is the same day for everyone. Until your browser says its zone, and for a browser that doesn't, your district's time zone stands in.
• The sort button switches between oldest first and newest first.

The privacy screen#

On a private ticket, every message and internal note is blurred, with Hidden for privacy and a Show button on each. It keeps what's said off a screen someone walks past, or one you're sharing in a meeting.

• Show on a message reads that one. Hide under it blurs it again.
• Show all reads the whole conversation; it becomes Hide all.
• Hide everything now blurs the whole ticket at once. So does ⌥⇧H on a Mac, Alt+Shift+H on Windows or a Chromebook.

What you show blurs again by itself after the time the ticket's topic sets (5 minutes unless an admin changed it), when you switch to another tab or window, and when you open another ticket. An admin can have a private topic's messages show by default instead. See Privacy.

Each time someone shows a private ticket's messages, it's recorded in the audit log with who, when and which message (or "all"). It never stops anyone who can open the ticket from reading it.

Reply or add a note#

The bar at the bottom has Internal note, Reply and a status button. Select Reply or Internal note to open the editor.

• Reply goes to the requester, and to the CCs and followers shown next to the tabs. Remove someone from this reply, add a follower, add a CC or type an outside email address there. An outside address is checked as you type; one that can't be an address is named and can't be added.
• Internal note is only for helpdesk staff. It goes to followers, never to the requester or CCs.

Tools under the editor:

• Attach files. Turned off if attachments aren't enabled for your account. A reply's email carries about 6 MB of files in all, the most one email can hold. Past that, the reply box says so before you send: the email attaches what fits and names the rest, and every file stays on the ticket.
• Show formatting. Bold, lists, links and more.
• The emoji picker and Mention someone (@): type @ and pick a person or team. They're notified if they can open the ticket; the requester sees only @Name. See Notifications and @mentions.
• AI writing assistance: Suggest response, Refine response, Make concise, Add more detail and Adjust tone. Refine, concise, detail and tone rewrite your draft in place.
  • Suggest response opens Otto's suggested reply above the editor. Otto writes it from the ticket and from what your district already knows: the published help articles you can read, its verified answers, and similar solved tickets in this ticket's department.
  • Under the reply, Based on lists what it used: each article (select it to open it), the verified answer, and Related ticket #123 for each past ticket. Links open in a new tab, so your draft stays. When nothing matched, it says the reply was written from this ticket only.
  • Use response puts the reply in the reply box, after anything you've already written, for you to edit and send. Regenerate writes another. Nothing is sent until you send it.
  • Before past tickets reach Otto, the people are taken out of them: names, email addresses, phone numbers, student and employee IDs, street addresses, Social Security and card numbers, and passwords. The problem and how it was fixed stay, and so do your district's own contact details listed in schoolOS (your departments' contact cards that everyone may see, your schoolAgent's route phone lines and your help desk's email addresses), so Otto can point people to your help desk's number. Anyone else's number or email is still removed, even on your district's email domain. Only tickets you could open yourself are used, never private or FERPA-protected ones.
  • If the ticket says too little to answer, Otto says so instead of guessing.
• Insert variable ({ }), or type {{: add a value filled in from the ticket when you send, like {{requester.first_name}} or {{asset.serial}}. In a reply, staff-only variables aren't offered, and Preview shows what the requester will read. See Variables.
• Macros. Insert a saved response, its variables filled in from the ticket. A macro that also sets fields shows "On send, … also sets" with the changes; select Don't to skip them. A macro with no text applies its changes right away.
• Also save as a verified answer (replies only). Saves the reply as a draft answer for an admin to approve.
• Also save as a help article (replies on a ticket that came from a chat, or on any solved or closed ticket, for people who can write help articles). Otto drafts a help article from the question and your reply, without anyone's personal details, and opens it in the editor as a draft. See From a ticket.

If a reply would reach anyone outside your email domain, schoolOS lists them and asks you to confirm with Send anyway.

Replying by email. Answering a ticket's email adds your reply to the ticket when you're its requester, assignee, a follower or CC, or on a task with access to it. Agents and admins can also answer by email a ticket they aren't on, but only when your district's email domain proves the message is really from you (DMARC); otherwise the email starts a new ticket instead. An agent who isn't on a restricted ticket can't answer it by email, just as in schoolOS.

Send with the status button (below), or with the send button for a note.

Change the status#

The status button reads Update as and a status. Its arrow picks the status.

• With a draft, it sends the reply or note, then sets the status. If the send fails, the status doesn't change.
• With no draft, it only changes the status.

Moving a ticket to a solved or closed status asks for a Resolution summary and a Closure code first. Your helpdesk settings can make either required. People who can write help articles also see Save as help article, which drafts one from the resolution (see From a ticket). The ticket won't close while it has open blocking tasks or open child tickets, at any depth: a child of a child that's still open holds the original ticket too. The message lists them, and Open Linked tickets takes you to them.

Your account can also require time on a ticket before it closes. If none is logged, Log time to close this ticket opens: enter the Minutes and an optional Note, and the ticket closes once the time is logged. If your account sets Default minutes on close, those minutes are logged for you instead. See Time when a ticket closes.

Moving a Closed ticket back to an open status needs Reopen closed tickets (tickets.reopen_closed). So does reopening a Solved ticket after its reopen window has passed.

Properties#

The Ticket panel on the right, top to bottom. Every change saves as you make it and shows in Events.

• Department. Shown when your account has more than one. Moving a ticket asks for a Reason for move, saved as an internal note. Then the ticket fits itself to the new department, and Events says what changed and why:

  • Its topic is cleared, since topics belong to a department.
  • Its status and priority become the new department's matching ones: the same status or priority if that department uses it too, its copy of it, one that means the same (another "Open"), one with the same name, or else the new department's default.
  • A team that doesn't work in the new department lets the ticket go, and an assignee who can't work there is unassigned. The new department's routing then fills them, the way it does for a new ticket.
  • Its SLA targets are worked out again, keeping the time already used.
  • A status, priority, team or assignee you set in the same change stays as you set it. An assignee you pick must work in the new department.
  • Ticket field values from the old department stay saved but don't show, and don't count as required, while the ticket is in another department. They're back if it moves back.

  AI triage moves a new ticket the same way, except that a team a person or the way the ticket came in chose stays for you to change.

• Type. Issue, Outage, Question or Request. When the topic sets it, From the topic says so. Changing it never moves the SLA clocks. Who chose it, a person or AI triage, is in Events. See Ticket types.

• Topic. Shown once the department has topics. Search by any part of a topic's path; a ticket takes the most specific topics. When the new topic has required fields the ticket doesn't have yet, Moving to Broken screen needs: asks for them; Save changes the topic and saves them together, and Cancel leaves the topic as it was. A macro that sets a topic asks the same way. When AI triage or a routing rule gave the ticket its topic without them, each such field says Needed under it, below, until someone fills it in.

• Assignee. One box for a person and a team. Pick Unassigned, anyone under Agents (you're listed first), No Team or a team under Teams.

• Location. The location, or a room inside it (AHS › 104): open the location's rooms from the menu and pick one. Changing the location clears a room that isn't in it.

• Tags. Search, pick or create tags.

• SLA. The first response and resolution clocks, when a target applies.

• Combined progress. Tasks and child tickets done, once the ticket has either. The tickets themselves are in the Linked tickets panel.

• Scheduled start, Scheduled end, Estimated cost and Actual cost. Facilities work orders only.

• Your ticket fields for this topic, in the order the topic lists them (then the department's order).

• Compliance. Safety escalation flags the ticket as a safety concern. (A ticket that holds student records is kept private by its topic; see Who can see it.)

People on the ticket#

The Users panel lists the Requester, Assignee, Creator (when someone else logged it), CC and Follower. Select a person to see their profile. It opens across most of the page, with Profile, Devices, Tickets, Timeline and Notes down its right edge and Open full profile on the left. Notes are for agents: what helps the next person who picks up a ticket from them, such as how they like to be reached or what's been tried. Only helpdesk staff see them; the person never does. Anyone on staff can add one, and the author or an admin can remove it.

Add people adds someone as:

• Follower. Gets every reply and internal note. Only agents and admins can follow.
• CC. Copied on every public reply. You can also type an outside email address.

Requested for#

A ticket can be filed for someone else: a teacher reports a student's broken iPad from schoolAgent ("Someone else's"), or an agent logs a call about another person with Requested for on the new ticket form. The requester is still the person who asked, and replies still go to them and their CCs; the person it's for isn't emailed unless you add them.

When a ticket has one, Requested for shows under the Requester in the Users panel: their picture, name, and their role, grade and school ("Student · 4th grade · Lincoln Elementary"). Select them to see their profile. With Work tickets (tickets.update) and Work as helpdesk staff (tickets.staff), the ⋯ beside them offers:

• Add as follower. They get replies too, and the requester stays the requester. Someone who works tickets becomes a Follower; anyone else is added as a CC, since followers also see internal notes.
• Make requester. Replies go to them from now on. The requester before them gets replies too, as a follower or CC.
• Change person. Search for someone else in your account.
• Remove. The ticket is no longer for anyone else.

Each one goes on the ticket's timeline ("Dana Moss made Julie Park the requester; Rich Watson now gets replies") and can be undone from the message that confirms it. A ticket that isn't for anyone else doesn't show Requested for.

Devices, tasks and time#

The icon rail on the far right switches panels: Asset, Tasks, Time and Linked tickets. Time needs time tracking turned on.

Apps on a linked device#

Each linked device's card in the Asset panel has Apps right under its Actions: a card for each tool that is connected for your district, that you're allowed to use, and that works with that device. Each app shows the tool's logo, its name and a line on where things stand, such as "Online · 2 min ago", "3 lockers free" or "5 commands". Select an app to open it in place and see what it can do; opening another app, on this device or another, folds the first, so one is open at a time. A tool that isn't connected, or that you can't use, doesn't show, and a device with no apps has no Apps section.

• Remote session. On a Chromebook that Google Devices manages with device management on, Start remote session opens a Chrome Remote Desktop session to its screen. Needs Update assets.
• Google Admin, Jamf and Intune. The same commands as the device's MDM section, each judged against what the device last reported: one the device can't take is grayed out, with the reason when you point at it. Intune shows only with device management on and approved in Microsoft. Commands that erase or release a device (Wipe Users, Powerwash Device, Deprovision Device, and Jamf's and Intune's erase and wipe) ask you to type ERASE and the asset tag first, exactly as on the device. Need Update assets.
• PDQ Connect. On a computer PDQ Connect knows: whether it's online, when it was last seen, its OS, Reboot needed, free disk and vulnerabilities, then Deploy package (search PDQ's packages), Reboot, Refresh, Open in PDQ, Remote and Check fixes and updates, with the deployments already started on it. When a deployment finishes, Otto adds an internal note with how it went ("Google Chrome 129 deployed to LIB-204: succeeded"). Check Solve the ticket when it succeeds when deploying to have a success solve it.
• LocknCharge. Reserve locker bay for this device (Reserve a bay from a ticket), or the ticket's open reservation once there is one.

Everything you do from Apps goes on the ticket's timeline under your name ("Sent Reboot Device to CB2815 with Google Admin"), and a message at the top right confirms it, such as "Sent Reboot Device: CB2815 · logged on #4821". The device's own history records it as before. Device commands are queued: a device that is off gets the command when it next checks in.

Linked tickets#

The Linked tickets icon's badge counts the tickets linked to this one. Its panel shows the ticket's whole chain as a tree: its parent (and the parent's parent, up to the first ticket), this ticket, highlighted, and its child tickets with their own children below them. Each row has the ticket number (select it to open that ticket), the subject, the department, the status, who it's assigned to and how long ago it was opened. A ticket in a department you don't work in shows its number and department, with its subject hidden. If this ticket was merged, Merged into names the ticket it went to. The ⋮ menu's Linked tickets… opens the panel too.

Create child ticket hands part of the work to a department as a ticket of its own. It's offered once the account has more than one department, and the department list is every department that's turned on, whether or not you're on it: a projector ticket in IT can hand taking the projector off the mount to Facilities. With no linked tickets yet, the panel explains this next to the button. Create a child ticket asks for:

• Department. The one that owns the work. The child gets that department's statuses, priorities and SLA, and lands in its queue.
• Subject. Starts as this ticket's subject and the department, such as "Projector won't turn on — Facilities". Picking another department updates it until you type your own.
• Description. Starts with where the work is: this ticket's number and subject, its school, the room and the linked device.
• School. This ticket's school; pick another if the work is elsewhere.
• Linked device. The device linked to this ticket, such as the projector, carried to the child. Don't link the device leaves it off.
• Team. The department's team, if any. An assignee picked later must work in that department.
• Let [requester] see this ticket. Off unless you turn it on. See below.

You're the child ticket's requester, not the person who asked for this ticket. Its replies and emails come to you, so the teacher doesn't get Facilities' questions about ladder access. The child links back here; open child tickets stop this ticket from closing, and when the last one is done, this ticket's timeline says so.

A child ticket can have child tickets of its own: Facilities can hand the electrical part to Maintenance from theirs. The whole chain shows in each ticket's panel, and the first ticket can't close while any ticket below it is open.

Let the requester see it. Turn on Let [requester] see this ticket to let the person who asked for the first ticket in the chain follow the child ticket: its status and public replies, never its internal notes. They're added as a CC, so they also get its public replies by email, and on their own ticket they see a short list of the child tickets they can follow, with the number, department and status. Change it later with the switch on the child's row in Linked tickets. It's never offered on a private or FERPA-protected ticket; there the box is grayed out and says why.

• Asset. Link an asset searches by tag, serial, name or assigned user, and suggests the requester's own devices first. Each linked device shows as a card: its picture, name, asset tag and model, its status in the status's color, who it's assigned to (their name opens their profile), and where it is. Older tickets with one device also show that device here when they have no newer asset links; Remove from ticket works for those devices too. It also notes a warranty that has ended or ends within 30 days, and, when a health check is failing or warning on the device, a red or amber Failing / Warning pill that opens the device's Device Health section (only for people with View device health). The name (with its arrow) and the picture open the device. Its Actions menu has Link part, Add linked assets, Add repair, Change status, Reassign (Assign to user while nobody has it) and Remove from ticket, and, on a Chromebook that Google Devices manages with device management on, Request Remote Session, which opens a Chrome Remote Desktop session to its screen. Some need asset permissions, and you only see the ones you can use.
• Tasks. Add task or Link existing. Each task shows its status (change it here), assignee and department; a checklist's task lists its steps under it, and an approval step shows Waiting, Approved by, Denied by or Skipped instead, with Approve and Deny when it's yours (Approvals on a ticket). Select a task to open it in Helpdesk › Tasks. If you can't open Tasks, its name is plain text. Task actions has Unlink and Delete. Delete doesn't ask first. See Tasks.
• Time. Log time spent on the ticket. Entries logged automatically on close say so in their note.

Ticket actions#

The ⋮ menu in the header:

• Add task. Opens the Tasks panel.
• Link device. Opens the Asset panel.
• Merge ticket… Pick the ticket to merge this one into. Its conversation and tasks move over, and this ticket closes. Search by number or words: it searches every ticket in this ticket's department that you can see, not just the inbox. Both tickets must be in the same department; move one first if they aren't. An admin who sees every department can merge across departments: the ticket you merge into keeps its department, and its note says so.
• Copy link.
• Save as help article (a solved or closed ticket from any channel, for people who can write help articles). Otto drafts a help article from what the requester asked and the public staff replies, never internal notes and without anyone's personal details, and opens it in the editor as a draft. See From a ticket.
• Link to outage… and Report a problem… See Outages. You see these with Declare and manage outages (outages.manage).
• Archive ticket The ticket leaves every list and its tab closes. The message that follows has Undo, which brings it straight back. Later, restore it with the Archived filter on Helpdesk › Tickets (see Archived tickets). You only see this with Archive tickets (tickets.delete).

Tickets are never deleted. Archiving is the only way to remove one, and it can always be undone. Archiving and restoring show on the timeline as Archived and Restored.

Outages#

When something is down for many people at once (Canvas, the Wi-Fi at one school, the phones), declare an outage once and link everyone's tickets to it, instead of answering each ticket on its own. An outage is a problem on your district's status page.

On a ticket, a banner under the header shows:

• Part of an outage, when the ticket is linked to one, with the outage's latest update. Open outage shows its linked tickets and lets you post an update or resolve it. The unlink button takes this ticket off it.
• A product's status, when the ticket is about a product on your status page that has a problem right now, for example Canvas: Degraded (reported by Instructure). A ticket is about a product when its subject or description names it, by its name or one of its other names (Canvas, Gmail, myON, "PS" for PowerSchool), whatever the ticket's topic. With it come Link to outage, when one is open, and Report a problem.

Report a problem from a ticket's ⋮ menu, the banner, several tickets selected on Helpdesk › Tickets (Report a problem from selected...), or Admin › Tickets › Status Page. Every problem is an outage that tickets can join. Fill in:

| Field | What it's for | | --- | --- | | What's affected | A product on the status page, or a district system you name, like "Wi-Fi at Lincoln High" | | How bad | Degraded, Outage or Maintenance | | Where the work is | Investigating (you know something's wrong), Identified (you know the cause), Monitoring (a fix is in and you're watching it). Resolving is its own step | | Title and Update | What the status page and everyone on its tickets are told | | District message | What schoolAgent tells anyone who asks about it, in chat and in its email replies, word for word. Say what to do in the meantime, like "Use paper passes until 10am. No need to open a ticket." | | Who to tell | People to follow it. Your district's outage responders are added automatically | | Department and Locations affected | Who works it and where it is (optional) | | Show on the public status page | Off from a ticket, on from the status page. Needs Manage the status page |

The tickets you reported it from are linked to it. Link more later from each ticket, or select several on Helpdesk › Tickets and choose Link to outage....

Open an outage to change Where the work is, edit its District message, or add and remove the people following it. Each saves on its own, without posting an update.

Post an update in the outage: change the severity and write what's new. With Email it to the requesters on (the default), each open linked ticket gets your update as a reply, so its requester gets your district's usual ticket email and the thread shows what they were told. Its owner, the people following it and the agents assigned to linked tickets hear it in the notification bell.

Resolve the outage when it's fixed. With Solve its open tickets and tell each requester on (the default), each open linked ticket gets one message and moves to its department's Solved status, with the resolution summary "Resolved with the outage". Edit the message first if you like: {{outage.title}} is the outage's title, and ticket variables like {{requester.first_name}} and {{ticket.number}} fill in for each ticket. Tickets you can't change (a restricted ticket, one that needs time logged first) are skipped and named.

When many tickets mention the same system at once, schoolOS notices. Every new ticket, including one schoolAgent hands off from a chat, is checked for the products on your status page it names. When a number of them mention the same product within a few minutes (5 in 20 minutes unless your district changed it in Admin › Tickets › Status Page), from any department and under any topic, your outage responders and the agents who can manage outages in those departments hear it in the bell: "Possible PowerSchool outage: 7 reports in 12 minutes". Selecting it opens Report a problem with the reports ready to link and Show on the public status page on (when you can manage the status page). When an outage for that product is already open, Link reports adds them to it instead. When the vendor is reporting a problem too, the notice says so. The same spike is announced once. Within one department, a burst of tickets with the same topic or location gets a notice too: "7 Wi-Fi tickets in 20 minutes. Report a problem?"

When the vendor says it's fixed, the outage's owner hears in the bell: "Instructure says it's fixed. Resolve and notify the 12 affected people?" Selecting it opens the outage, ready to resolve.

schoolAgent knows too. When someone tells schoolAgent about something that's part of an open outage, it says the helpdesk already knows, shares the latest update, and offers to add them to the people affected instead of opening a separate request. If they agree, their request is linked to the outage, so they hear each update and the fix. The website widget only mentions outages that are on the public status page. Ask Otto "What outages are active?" for the list.

Which should I choose?#

More work from one request.

| Choose | When | Example | | --- | --- | --- | | Merge ticket… | Two tickets are the same request. The conversation moves over and this ticket closes. | A teacher emails, then calls, about the same dead projector. Merge the call into the email ticket. | | Create child ticket | Another department has to do part of the work, on its own queue and clock. In the Linked tickets panel, once the account has more than one department. The parent can't close until every child ticket below it is done. | A classroom move needs IT to move the display and Facilities to move the furniture. The IT ticket gets a Facilities child ticket. | | Add task | Someone should do a step, but it stays part of this ticket. | "Order a replacement screen" and "Swap the screen" on one Chromebook repair ticket. | | Duplicate Ticket | A new, separate request that starts like this one. | The same broken charger cart is reported in two buildings. |

Who hears about it.

• Reply when the requester should read it. Internal note when only staff should: a password you had to reset, a guess at the cause, "waiting for the vendor to call back".
• CC someone outside the helpdesk who should see the replies, like the principal on a safety ticket. Follower for an agent or admin who should also see internal notes, like a lead watching an escalation.

Who can see it.

• Private when most helpdesk staff shouldn't see it: a student's records (a grade-book export, an IEP document, a discipline note), a records request, an HR matter. There's no switch for this on the ticket: a ticket is private when its topic is private, so give it that topic. It then stays private, even if its topic changes, and Private in the header shows who can find it. Tickets marked FERPA protected before that switch was retired stay limited to helpdesk staff and the requester.

When you can only read a ticket#

• A private ticket you can see but not work shows "You can view this private ticket, but not reply to it."
• A merged ticket can't be changed.