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When someone submits a ticket template, MSPortal writes their answers into the ticket description in your PSA. The Ticket description layout card in Settings > Tickets controls how those answers look. A field’s Short label for tickets in the template editor lets technicians read “Desk phone: No” instead of the full question. Audience: MSP staff who manage ticket settings and ticket templates.

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Before you start

  • You need the write or manage Tickets settings permission to change the layout or edit templates. With read access only, the card’s controls are disabled and Save layout does not appear.
  • The layout applies to tickets created from a ticket template after you save it. Tickets that already exist keep their description.

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How the layout changes the description

Until you change it, the description lists every question and its answer, separated by blank lines:
With the structured layout and its starting choices, the same answers are grouped under the template’s section titles, with short labels and bullets. In Autotask it reads:
HaloPSA, ConnectWise and Syncro get the same grouping as formatted text, with bold labels and a bulleted list. See How each PSA shows it.

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Choose the layout

1

Open the card

Go to Settings > Tickets. On the General tab, scroll to Ticket description layout.
2

Turn on Use a structured layout

Off keeps the layout shown first above. Turn it on to show the other choices.
3

Group answers under section headings

On, each template section’s title becomes a heading over that section’s answers. Sections with no answers are left out. Off, answers follow one another with no headings.
4

Use short labels

On, fields that have a Short label for tickets show it instead of the full question. Fields without one keep the question. See Add a short label to a field.
5

Pick the styles

6

Check the preview

The Preview beside the settings updates as you change them. It uses sample answers from a new employee request and shows them the way the PSA selected in PSA Integration on the same tab displays the description. The hint under the preview names that PSA.
7

Select Save layout

Save layout is available once you change something. “Ticket description layout saved.” confirms the save. Leaving the page without saving discards your changes.

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Add a short label to a field

Template questions are written for the person asking for help, so they are often long. A short label gives the technician a compact name for the same answer.
1

Open the template

Go to Settings > Tickets > Templates and open the template, or select New Template.
2

Open the field

Under Sections & Fields, select the field to open its editor.
3

Enter the short label

Type a label in Short label for tickets, for example “Desk phone”. It is optional and holds up to 255 characters. Label (display text) and Embedded Template fields do not have one.
4

Save the template

Select Save Template. The short label is kept only when you save.
Template field editor with the question "Does the new employee need a desk phone?" and the short label "Desk phone" in Short label for tickets.

A field with a short label, in a MSPortal Demo template editor.

The form your users fill in still shows the full question. The short label appears only in the ticket description, and only while Use a structured layout and Use short labels are both on.

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Preview a template’s description

In the template editor, select Preview and enter sample answers. Under the form, Ticket description shows the description those answers would produce with your saved layout. Pickers such as User or Device show “(details of the selected record)” in place of the record’s details. Preview does not create a ticket. The preview uses the saved layout. After you change the layout in Settings > Tickets, select Save layout before checking a template.

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What goes into the description

  • Answered questions, in template order. Blank questions are left out.
  • Questions hidden by a template’s conditional logic are left out, even if they had an answer before they were hidden.
  • Label (display text), PSA Classification and Embedded Template fields do not add a line. Each embedded template creates its own ticket.
  • Acknowledged notices are listed at the end as “Acknowledged:” with the notice text.
  • A label that already ends with ”?”, ”!” or ”:” gets no extra colon.

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How each PSA shows it

The layout you choose is the same for every PSA. How it looks depends on the PSA that receives your tickets: The settings preview and the template editor’s Ticket description preview both follow the PSA selected in PSA Integration, so you can check the result before you save. With the structured layout off, every PSA gets the default layout.

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Troubleshooting

Ticket settings

Delivery, defaults and the other cards on the General tab.

Create and preview a ticket template

Add sections and questions, then try the form in Preview.

How to create a ticket template

Field types, conditional logic and embedded templates.

Show or require a field conditionally

Rules that hide questions, and their answers, from the ticket.