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Use Ticket settings to choose where new tickets go, set their default routing, and control which tickets and fields each role sees. This page is for MSP staff. Company users ask their IT provider to change these rules.

Before you start

  • You need the write or manage Tickets settings permission to change anything. With read access only, the controls are disabled.
  • Deleting a ticket category or a display group needs the manage permission.
  • To route tickets to a PSA, connect it first under Integrations. The board, status, priority and type lists come from your PSA’s synced data. If a list is empty, sync the integration.
  • Open Settings > Tickets. The tabs are General, Companies, Display Groups, Approvals, Escalation and Templates. When co-managed support is turned on for your portal, a Co-managed tab appears before Templates: see Co-managed support.

Choose where tickets are delivered

1

Open Settings > Tickets > General

The Ticket Delivery & Defaults card is at the top.
Ticket delivery settings with Delivery Method and PSA Integration selectors
2

Set Delivery Method

Choose PSA Integration to create tickets in your PSA. Choose Email (SMTP) to send them to an email address. The change saves immediately.
3

For PSA delivery, pick the PSA Integration

Select the connected PSA that should receive tickets. If you have more than one, the page tells you how many it found. The change saves immediately.
4

Enter a Fallback Email Address

Under PSA delivery, enter an address that receives the ticket by email if the PSA connection fails. It saves when you click out of the field.
5

For email delivery, enter the Email Address

The Email Address (for email delivery) field is only editable when Delivery Method is Email (SMTP). It saves when you click out of the field. If the save fails, an error message appears instead of the saved confirmation, so fix the address and click out of the field again.

Set ticket defaults

The Ticket Defaults card appears under the delivery settings once a PSA is selected. Templates and company overrides can supply their own values and take priority over these defaults.
1

Open Settings > Tickets > General

Scroll to Ticket Defaults.
2

Pick the routing values

The fields depend on your PSA.ConnectWise and Autotask require a board or queue and a status. Halo requires a category and a status. Status and type lists narrow to the board you pick.Autotask Work Type and Source list the active values in your Autotask instance. Leave either on None to create tickets without it, as before. If a saved value is later made inactive in Autotask, the field turns red and reads Unavailable, and tickets are created without that value until you choose another.Source is set on every ticket MSPortal creates in ConnectWise, Autotask and Halo PSA. To tell portal tickets apart from email, phone or another portal in your PSA, add a Source such as MSPortal to your PSA’s ticket sources, then choose it here. The list loads live from your PSA, so a Source you just added appears the next time you open the page. Leave Source on None to let your PSA apply its own default. Syncro tickets have no Source. If a saved ConnectWise or Halo Source is deleted in the PSA, the field turns red: choose another so new tickets get a valid Source.
3

Click Save Defaults

Save Defaults stays disabled until you change at least one value. A confirmation toast appears when the defaults are saved.

Requester field

Use Requester field to record, in your PSA ticket, the name of the person who created each ticket through MSPortal. It works with ConnectWise, Autotask and Halo PSA. Syncro has no ticket UDFs, so the field does not appear for it. The picker lists the free-text ticket UDFs (user-defined fields) in the PSA connection you selected for ticket delivery. Create the UDF in your PSA first, as a text field on tickets. In Halo PSA, add it to the ticket types your tickets use, or Halo drops the value. MSPortal reads the list of UDFs from your PSA once a night, so a UDF you just created appears after the next sync.
1

Open Settings > Tickets > General

Scroll to Ticket Defaults. The Requester field sits beside Default Source. Changing it needs the write or manage Tickets settings permission.
2

Pick the UDF

Open Requester field and choose the UDF that should hold the requester’s name, such as “Submitted By”. Choose Not recorded to stop recording it.
Requester field list open in the Autotask Ticket Defaults card, offering Not recorded and SurveyEmail.

The Requester field list in an Autotask Ticket Defaults card.

3

Click Save Defaults

The help under the field reads “Every ticket someone creates through MSPortal records their name in this Autotask PSA ticket UDF. Templates can’t change it.” With ConnectWise or Halo PSA selected, it names that PSA instead.
Autotask Ticket Defaults card with Requester field set to SurveyEmail and its help text below.

The Requester field set to an Autotask ticket UDF, before Save Defaults.

What gets recorded:
  • Every ticket a person creates through MSPortal gets the signed-in submitter’s name in the UDF. That covers ticket forms and templates, the AI assistant, released approvals, the new-ticket page and the browser extension.
  • MSPortal fills the value in when it creates the ticket, so a requester cannot type a different name.
  • It wins over a template field mapped to the same UDF. For that reason, template editors do not offer the requester UDF, and a template field still mapped to it shows “name (records the requester, from Ticket Defaults)”.
  • Tickets that no person submits, such as automation and compliance tickets, are not affected.
  • The ticket’s PSA contact is still the submitter, as before.
  • If the PSA refuses the value, for example because the UDF was deleted or renamed, the ticket is still created without it.
The setting belongs to the selected PSA connection. If you switch PSA Integration to another PSA, the Requester field is cleared: pick a UDF again for the new PSA. The same field appears in the PSA connection’s Configure tickets step under Settings > Integrations. To record a different person, such as the employee a request is for, map a template field to its own UDF. See Send template answers to PSA fields.

Set an Autotask status after a client reply

Open Settings > Integrations > Autotask PSA > Configure tickets and choose Status after a client comment. This is a setting on the Autotask connection, separate from the defaults for new tickets above. None disables it. It applies only after a company user’s public note; staff and internal notes do not trigger it. Replies on closed tickets defaults to Keep closed or resolved. Select Change to reply status to apply the chosen status to closed tickets too. Each selection saves immediately. These reply settings have no company overrides in this release. Follow Set the status after a client comment for permissions, screenshots and troubleshooting.

Choose how the new-ticket page looks

1

Open Settings > Tickets > General

Find the New Ticket View card.
2

Set the options

  • Default to AI sidebar open: on, users start with the assistant visible. Off, they start at manual template selection. The setting is off until you turn it on.
  • Manual template selection: choose Cards or List.
  • Form section layout: choose Tabs or All sections for templates with several sections.
Each choice saves immediately.
Default to AI sidebar open disabled, with manual template and form layout choices in Ticket settings.
These options change the new-ticket page only. Users can still start a request from the Home assistant or the manual ticket form.

Let users email ticket notes

When this is on, MSP staff and company users can email a public ticket note to people straight from the ticket. It is off by default and works on service tickets from HaloPSA, ConnectWise, Autotask and Syncro.
1

Open Settings > Tickets > General

Find the Email ticket notes card.
2

Turn on Allow emailing ticket notes

The change saves immediately, and “Emailing ticket notes is on.” confirms it. Public notes then show an Email to field under the editor.
3

Set a reply mailbox for ConnectWise, Autotask or Syncro

HaloPSA sends the email itself, so it needs nothing more. For ConnectWise, Autotask and Syncro, MSPortal sends the email, and replies need somewhere to land. Go to Settings > Integrations, open the PSA connection, and select Configure tickets. Under Emailing contacts from notes, enter your PSA’s inbound support mailbox in Reply mailbox, such as support@example.com. Replies go to that mailbox with the ticket number in the subject, so your PSA adds them to the ticket. Changing the reply mailbox needs permission to manage the integration.
Until a reply mailbox is set, staff see “To email notes, set a reply mailbox in this PSA connection’s ticket settings.” in place of Email to on that PSA’s tickets, and company users see no Email to field. How emailing works:
  • Anyone who can add notes to a ticket, MSP staff or company user, can email its public notes. Project tickets are not included.
  • A note can go to up to 10 people. The ticket’s company contacts are suggested as you type, and any full email address can be added.
  • The people on a note stay in Email to for the ticket’s next notes until someone removes them.
  • Internal notes, private notes, and ConnectWise Internal and Resolution notes are never emailed.
  • Under each emailed note, a status line shows Emailed to, Emailing, or Could not email with the people’s names. Hover over a line to see the addresses.
See Find and follow up on a ticket for the steps on a ticket.

Tell managers about new tickets

Branch preview: the Manager notices rule, the Managers button and the screenshots below show an upcoming Settings > Tickets update. Until it is released, the switch is on the General tab, next to Allow emailing ticket notes, and your live portal may differ.
Manager notices is the first rule in the table on Settings > Tickets > Approvals. When it is on, a person’s manager hears about each ticket that person submits through MSPortal. It is for the manager’s information only: nothing waits for the manager, nothing needs approving, and who can see the ticket does not change. To have a manager approve requests instead, use a The requester’s manager approval step. To let managers see their reports’ tickets, give their role Own and All Reports’ Tickets.
Approvals tab in Ticket Settings with the Manager notices rule first in the table and a Managers button in the toolbar, both outlined in red

Branch preview: the Approvals tab lists Manager notices first. The Managers button sits beside New approval chain.

The rule reads Every company under Applies to, Every ticket submitted in MSPortal under Templates, and Requester’s manager with For information only under Steps. Its Status shows On or Off.
1

Connect Microsoft 365 for the company

Managers come from Microsoft 365. The users sync records each user’s manager. See Manager data issues for users whose manager could not be synced.
2

Open Settings > Tickets > Approvals

Select the Manager notices row, or open its ⋯ menu and choose Edit. The Manager notices editor opens.
3

Turn it on or off

Use the Send manager notices switch beside Save and click Save. You can also turn the rule on or off straight from the row’s ⋯ menu, without opening the editor.
Manager notices editor showing where managers come from, the count of people with a manager, a warning count, who is told, and the Send manager notices switch beside Save

Branch preview: the Manager notices editor, with the See who reports to whom button outlined in red.

The editor explains the rule and shows:
  • Where managers come from. A person’s manager is the Manager field on their Microsoft 365 account. MSPortal reads it every time a client’s Microsoft 365 users sync, and nothing in MSPortal overrides it. To change who is told, change the manager in Microsoft 365.
  • A count such as “25 of 32 people have a manager in Microsoft 365”, and a warning count for people whose manager is not among the client’s synced users, so nobody is told for them.
  • Who is told. The manager of whoever submits the ticket, once per ticket. Tickets created by automations and compliance tickets send no notice, and a manager who already approved the request is not told again.
  • The email. Its wording is under Settings > Email, in Manager Ticket Notice.
What the manager gets:
  • An email from your organization’s ticket sender with who submitted the ticket, its title, the company and the ticket number. It says no action is needed.
  • When the manager can sign in to MSPortal as a user of the same company, an in-app notification too, and both link to the ticket. What opens follows the manager’s own ticket visibility.
  • When the manager exists only in Microsoft 365, the email alone, without a link.
When no notice is sent:
  • The requester has no manager in Microsoft 365, or the manager’s account is disabled there.
  • The manager is the requester.
  • The manager was asked to approve the request in an approval chain, so they already know about it.
  • The ticket came from an automation, a compliance or remediation action, or an embedded template inside another request (the main request covers it).
  • No PSA ticket was created, for example when the PSA was down and the request went to the fallback email address.
  • The manager’s address belongs to a user of another company. A manager only ever hears about their own company’s requesters.
Each manager hears about a ticket once, even if it is submitted again or the email is retried. To change the email’s wording, create a Manager Ticket Notice template in Settings > Email and set it as the default. Without one, managers get the built-in email in their language. The in-app notification always uses the built-in wording.

See who reports to whom

Click Managers in the Approvals toolbar to open Who reports to whom. It lists every synced Microsoft 365 person with these columns: Filter by Person, Company, Manager or Manager status, and sort by person, company or manager. Filter Manager to a name to list that manager’s reports.
Who reports to whom list with Person, Company, Manager and Manager status columns and filters above each column

Branch preview: Who reports to whom, with a status for each person's manager. The people shown are sample data.

The same list opens from See who reports to whom in the Manager notices editor, and from an approval chain step set to The requester’s manager. It is read-only: to change a manager, change it in Microsoft 365, and the list updates after the next users sync.

Manage ticket categories

The Ticket Categories card lists each category with its name, icon and color.
1

Open Settings > Tickets > General

Scroll to Ticket Categories.
2

Add a category

Click Add Category. Enter a name, pick an icon and a color, then click the save icon on the row. Click the X to cancel.
3

Edit or delete a category

Click the pencil icon on a row to edit it, then save or cancel. Click the trash icon to delete it and confirm. Deleting needs the manage permission.

Create a display group for a role

A display group controls which tickets a role sees, which boards and statuses it can use, and which ticket fields appear. Each group applies to one PSA provider.
1

Open Settings > Tickets > Display Groups

The table lists each group with its PSA provider, assigned roles and created date. You can copy, edit or delete a group from its row.
Display Groups list showing group name, PSA provider and assigned roles
2

Click Create Group

The Create Display Group dialog opens.
3

Enter a Name and Description

For example, “Standard Technician” or “Manager View”. The description is optional.
4

Choose Ticket Visibility

  • All Tickets: every ticket in the companies the user can already access.
  • Same Location Only: tickets at the user’s assigned location. Set the user’s location first, or they see no location-scoped tickets.
  • Own Tickets Only: only tickets the user opened or is the contact on.
  • Own and All Reports’ Tickets: the user’s own tickets plus the tickets of everyone who reports to them in Microsoft 365, directly or through other managers. Needs the Microsoft 365 integration; manager relationships sync with users.
  • Own Department’s Tickets: the user’s own tickets plus the tickets of everyone in their department (from Microsoft 365 or the PSA contact).
A role with several display groups gets the union of their modes: All Tickets wins outright, and the other modes add to each other.None of these add companies. A user at a parent company reaches child companies through the Parent Admin role.
5

Select the PSA Provider

With one PSA connected, it is selected for you. Changing the provider clears the boards, ticket types and fields you picked.
6

Pick Assigned Roles

Select one or more roles. A role can have one display group per PSA provider, so check existing assignments before you move a role.
7

Optional: narrow the tickets

  • Restrict to Boards / Queues: leave empty to allow every board.
  • Allowed Ticket Statuses: leave empty to allow every status. The list follows the provider and the boards you selected.
  • Hide Ticket Types: leave empty to show every type. New types in your PSA stay visible.
For Autotask, a Show recurring tickets switch lets the role see tickets generated from recurring ticket templates.
8

Choose Field Visibility

Check the fields to show. Use Select All Fields or a section’s All in… checkbox to select many at once.
9

Click Create Group

When you edit an existing group, the button reads Update Group. Check the result by signing in as, or asking, a user with the assigned role.

Hours and billing fields for company users

Company users see only the fields their group selects. These fields are off until you select them. Select Hours Worked to show a ticket’s worked hours and the hours on each time entry. MSP staff always see these fields. Internal notes, project budget and billable hours, and PSA reference IDs stay hidden from company users whatever the group selects.

Example: most users see only their own tickets

1

Create a Standard User group

Set Ticket Visibility to Own Tickets Only and assign the role most company users hold.
2

Create a Company Admin group

For the same PSA provider, set Ticket Visibility to All Tickets and assign the role your trusted contacts hold.
3

Move users between roles

Change a user’s role to change what they see. No per-user ticket setting is needed.

Example: let company users escalate open tickets

Company users can escalate an open ticket by changing its status to your escalation status, such as Escalated. The change is written to your PSA, so your board’s workflow can alert the team.
1

Limit the statuses first

In the display group for the role, set Allowed Ticket Statuses to your escalation statuses only, such as Escalated on each board the role can use. If you leave the list empty, the role can pick every status, including closed ones.
2

Grant Update statuses

In Settings > Users & Roles > Roles, open the Company role and turn on Update statuses under Tickets.
3

Check every board

A board that has no escalation status in your PSA offers nothing to pick. Add one in your PSA and sync, or leave that board’s users to add a note instead.
Every role that can update statuses needs a display group. A role without one can pick any status.

Set company routing overrides

The Companies tab shows each company’s PSA routing values. These apply when a ticket is created for that company and override the General defaults.
1

Open Settings > Tickets > Companies

The grid lists each company with its company types and its board or queue, priority, status and type. Halo adds Category, Impact and Halo Urgency. The Last Updated column shows when the row last changed.
2

Change a value

Click a cell and pick a value. Each change saves immediately and shows Saved. Choose None (use default) to clear an override and fall back to the default.
3

Optional: edit several companies at once

Tick the checkbox on each company row, click Bulk Edit (N), check the fields to change, set their values and click Update N Companies.
4

Optional: set defaults by company type

Click Manage type mappings to set routing defaults for a company type. They apply to companies that have one matching type and no company override. Use Apply to all companies of this type to overwrite the overrides on every company with that type.

Set compliance ticket defaults

Tickets created from the Compliance page use their own defaults instead of the General ones.
1

Open Settings > Tickets > Compliance

You need delivery set to PSA Integration with a PSA selected on the General tab. Otherwise the tab tells you to select one first.
2

Pick the routing values

The Compliance Ticket Defaults card shows the same fields as Ticket Defaults for your PSA. A blank field falls back to the general defaults. For Autotask, Work Type and Source read Default when they use the general defaults. ConnectWise and Halo compliance tickets always use the Source from Ticket Defaults. ConnectWise and Autotask require a board or queue and a status. Halo requires a category and a status.
3

Click Save Compliance Defaults

The button turns on once you change a value.

Set up change approvals

Branch preview: the Ticket change requests editor shown here is an upcoming layout. Until it is released, the dialog is titled Ticket change approvals and has an On switch and an Approver company role field, without the Steps section.
1

Open Settings > Tickets > Approvals

The Approvals table lists every rule that makes a ticket wait for a decision, plus the Manager notices rule, which only informs. Ticket change requests is the built-in rule for changes technicians request from a ticket; approval chains for request forms sit beside it. The ? in the table header explains how approvals work.
2

Open Ticket change requests

Select the row, or choose Edit from its menu. The Ticket change requests editor opens, laid out like the approval chain editor.
3

Choose where the decision is made

Under Decided in, select MSPortal or Autotask. With MSPortal, approvers get an email and an in-app notification and decide in MSPortal. With Autotask, MSPortal opens the approval in Autotask and follows the decision made there. Pick the Autotask integration for Autotask. Tickets from other PSAs always use MSPortal approvals.
4

Pick the Approver company role

The Steps section has one step. Everyone who holds the Approver company role at the ticket’s client is asked, and the first answer decides. A client with nobody in the role cannot be asked.
5

Turn on Use this rule and click Save

Use this rule sits beside Save. The row shows On with the role as its step. Turn off in the row menu, or switching Use this rule off, pauses the rule without losing its settings. See Change management for requesting and approving changes.
Ticket change requests editor with Decided in set to MSPortal, one step with an Approver company role field, and the Use this rule switch beside Save

Branch preview: the Ticket change requests editor, with Decided in, one step and Use this rule beside Save.

Change requests always use a single step. Extra steps, named approvers, the requester’s manager, reminders and expiry belong to approval chains, which cover requests from ticket templates.

Let clients escalate tickets

Use Escalation to give clients an Escalate button on their open tickets. A client must say why the ticket is urgent. Their reason is added to the PSA ticket as a note, and the ticket moves to the escalation status you choose for its board.
  1. Turn on Let clients escalate open tickets.
  2. Under Escalation status by board, choose a status for each ConnectWise board, Autotask queue or HaloPSA team that clients may escalate. Syncro has one All tickets row. Boards left at No escalation do not show the button.
  3. Optionally, under Email alert, choose up to 10 people in Send the alert to. They get an email with the client’s reason whenever a ticket is escalated. Leave it empty to skip the email.
  4. Click Save.
Choose which client roles can escalate in Settings > Users & Roles > Roles, under Tickets > Can escalate: None, Own tickets, My site or All tickets. By default, company admin roles can escalate all of their company’s tickets, and client roles that can add ticket notes can escalate their own.
Escalation tab in Ticket settings with the escalation switch and the escalation status chosen for each PSA board.

The Escalation tab with an escalation status chosen for each team or queue.

See who escalated

Open Settings > Audit > Escalations for every escalation: when it happened, who pressed Escalate, the company and ticket, the reason, and whether the note and status change reached your PSA. Filter by person, company, date or result, and click Export CSV for a report. The list follows the company selector. You need the Audit: Ticketing permission to see it.

Manage request templates

Open Settings > Tickets > Templates to see the template catalog. Click New Template to create one. The ticket-template guide covers fields, conditions, routing, company access and embedded requests.

Troubleshooting

Frequently asked questions

PSA Integration and Email (SMTP). Portal visibility is controlled by display groups and roles.
Delivery Method, PSA Integration, New Ticket View, Allow emailing ticket notes, category rows and the Companies grid save immediately, and the email fields save when you leave them. Ticket Defaults uses Save Defaults. Compliance uses Save Compliance Defaults. Ticket change requests and Manager notices use Save in their editors, and each editor has its own on and off switch beside Save. Display groups use Create Group or Update Group.
In the display group, under Allowed Ticket Statuses, next to the board and ticket-type restrictions.
Yes. Give their Company role Update statuses and allow only your escalation statuses, such as Escalated, in the display group. They then pick that status in the ticket details. See Example: let company users escalate open tickets.
No. A company user sees only their own company unless they hold the Parent Admin team role for a parent company, which adds its child companies. See Give a parent-company user access to child companies.
Yes, when you allow it. Open the display group for their role, select Hours Worked and click Update Group. They then see the ticket’s worked hours and the hours on each time entry. Internal notes stay hidden.
No. Field visibility and ticket visibility are separate. Use Ticket Visibility to control which tickets a role can reach.
Only when a compliance field is blank. Set the Compliance tab to route those tickets differently.
Check that Allow emailing ticket notes is on, that the note is a public note, and that the ticket is a service ticket from HaloPSA, ConnectWise, Autotask or Syncro. For ConnectWise, Autotask and Syncro, the PSA connection also needs a Reply mailbox.
Check that the Manager notices rule on the Approvals tab is On, that the requester’s company is connected to Microsoft 365 with the manager synced, and that the ticket reached the PSA. Open Managers on the Approvals tab and look for the person: Manager not synced or No manager means nobody is told. See When no notice is sent for the other cases.
No. It changes how the new-ticket page looks. A user still completes and submits the request.