Ticket Management
Tickets are the core unit of work in PSA. Every support request, incident, service request, and project task flows through the ticketing system.
Creating Tickets
Manual Creation
Click + New Ticket from the service desk toolbar. Fill in the required fields:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Subject | Short summary of the issue |
| Description | Detailed explanation — supports rich text formatting |
| Client | The company this ticket belongs to |
| Contact | The specific person who reported the issue |
| Priority | P1 (Critical), P2 (High), P3 (Medium), or P4 (Low) |
| Category | Ticket type — Incident, Service Request, Problem, or Change Request |
| Queue | Which service desk queue to place the ticket in |
| Assignee | The technician responsible for the ticket |
| SLA | Automatically set based on client and priority, or manually overridden |
From Email
When a client emails your support address, PSA automatically:
- Matches the sender to an existing contact (by email address)
- Creates a ticket with the email subject as the ticket subject and body as the description
- Attaches any email attachments to the ticket
- Assigns a default priority and routes to the appropriate queue
See Email Integration for setup details.
From the Client Portal
Clients submit tickets through Portal (my.theonestack.com). Portal tickets include:
- Subject and description entered by the client
- Automatic client and contact association
- Optional category selection (if enabled for the client)
From Other Products
Tickets can be created automatically by other Stack products:
- RMM — device alerts create tickets with device context attached
- Defend — security threats escalate to tickets for incident response
- Voice — inbound calls can generate tickets with call recordings linked
Ticket Fields
Standard Fields
Every ticket includes these built-in fields:
| Field | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ticket number | Auto-generated | Format: ABC-1234 (org prefix + sequential number) |
| Subject | Text | Required |
| Description | Rich text | Supports formatting, images, and code blocks |
| Status | Select | Configurable workflow states |
| Priority | Select | P1–P4 or custom levels |
| Category | Select | Incident, Service Request, Problem, Change Request |
| Client | Reference | Links to company record |
| Contact | Reference | Links to contact record |
| Assignee | Reference | Links to team member |
| Queue | Reference | Links to service desk queue |
| SLA policy | Reference | Determines response and resolution targets |
| Tags | Multi-select | Freeform labels for filtering and reporting |
| Due date | Date | Optional manual override of SLA resolution target |
Custom Fields
Add custom fields to tickets through Admin → Custom Fields. Supported types:
- Text, Number, Date, Checkbox
- Single-select dropdown, Multi-select dropdown
- URL, Email
Custom fields appear in the ticket properties panel and can be used in filters and reports.
Ticket Statuses and Workflow
Tickets move through a configurable status workflow:
New → In Progress → Waiting on Client → In Progress → Resolved → Closed
→ Waiting on Vendor ↗
"Waiting on Client" and "Waiting on Vendor" statuses pause the SLA clock. When the ticket returns to "In Progress", the clock resumes.
Configure statuses and transitions at Service Desk → Admin → Ticket Statuses.
Comments and Internal Notes
The ticket conversation thread supports two types of entries:
- Client replies — visible to the client in Portal and sent via email notification
- Internal notes — visible only to your team, never shown to the client
Toggle between reply and internal note in the composer. Internal notes display with a distinct background color.
File Attachments
Attach files to tickets via drag-and-drop or the attachment button in the composer.
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Max file size | 25 MB per file |
| Max total per ticket | 50 MB |
| Blocked types | .exe, .bat, .cmd, .ps1, .vbs, .scr and other executable formats |
Attachments are stored securely and accessible from the ticket detail and activity log.
Ticket Merging
When duplicate tickets come in for the same issue (e.g., multiple emails about the same outage):
- Open one of the duplicate tickets
- Click Actions → Merge
- Search for and select the target ticket
- The duplicate's conversation history and attachments move to the target ticket
- The duplicate ticket is closed with a merge note
Merging is irreversible. The source ticket's conversation entries are added to the target ticket and the source is closed permanently.
Parent/Child Tickets
Break complex issues into subtasks using parent/child relationships:
- Open the parent ticket
- Click Actions → Create Child Ticket
- The child ticket links back to the parent and inherits the client and SLA
- The parent ticket shows all child tickets in its task panel
- Optionally configure the parent to auto-resolve when all children are resolved
Ticket Templates
Save time on recurring ticket types by creating templates:
- Go to Admin → Ticket Templates
- Define pre-filled values: subject pattern, description template, category, priority, default assignee, and checklist items
- When creating a new ticket, select a template to auto-populate the fields
Common templates for MSPs:
- New employee onboarding
- Workstation setup
- Password reset
- Server maintenance window
- Monthly patch cycle
Bulk Operations
Select multiple tickets from the ticket list to perform bulk actions:
| Operation | Description |
|---|---|
| Reassign | Move selected tickets to a different technician |
| Change status | Update status on all selected tickets |
| Change priority | Bulk priority update |
| Add tag | Apply a tag to all selected tickets |
| Close | Close all selected tickets |
| Merge | Merge selected tickets into one |
Access bulk operations from the toolbar that appears when multiple tickets are selected.
AI Features
PSA uses AI to assist with ticket management:
- Auto-classification — AI analyzes the ticket description and suggests a category and priority
- Suggested categorization — A banner appears on new tickets with AI-recommended fields
- Smart routing — AI can suggest the best queue or technician based on historical patterns
AI suggestions appear as banners on the ticket detail page. Click to accept the suggestion, or dismiss to keep the current values.
Next Steps
- Service Desk Queues — Organize tickets into queues
- SLA Tracking — Monitor response and resolution targets
- Email Integration — Set up automatic ticket creation from email
- Automation Rules — Automate ticket routing and escalation