Statuses
In this guide we will cover:
- Status Configuration
- Automatically Change a Ticket's Status after Updates
- Changing the Status of Tickets (Manually)
- Set the Default Status of New Tickets
- Workflow Status Restrictions
For a detailed list of all settings along with their descriptions for Statuses and Ticket Types click on these links:
Statuses are the easiest way to track the whereabouts of a ticket in its lifetime.
When editing or deleting, remember that the status will be tracked. Hence, there may be tickets that have used a status that when edited or deleted, will be affected and not suitable for audit trails. It is imperative to have thought the change through, and better that it is inactivated instead.
Status Configuration
Navigate to Configuration > Tickets > Statuses to see a list of existing Ticket Statuses. Click the "New" button in the top right to create one.
When adding a new status you'll need to choose a Status Name and an icon text. The name will appear in status selection drop downs, etc. and the icon text will show up on the ticket list and the actions on the ticket, once the status has been changed. To avoid confusion, it's best to keep these the same, or very similar. You may just want to change the tense e.g. escalate/escalated.
Translations can be added to the status name and the icon text
Fig 1. Status Name, Icon Text, Colour
Status Name: This is the name that will appear on the "Status" field in the "Ticket information" in the Ticket Type.
Icon Text: This is a shortened name that will appear on Actions that have changed the Status of a Ticket. The character limit here is 11 or less.
Sequence in lists: This sets the order the Status appears within dropdowns and lists.
Status Colour: This sets the colour the Status uses as a background.
The next section configures whether using that Status puts the Ticket "On Hold". If so, the timer on the SLA will pause until taken off hold.
SLA Settings
Statuses can be set up to have an effect on the SLA of the ticket e.g. putting the ticket on/off hold.
Fig 2. SLA Settings
There are three behaviour options here:
No Action: The Status will not change whether the Ticket is on hold or not. If already on hold, it will stay so. If off hold, it will stay so.
Put on hold (if not on hold already): The Status will put the ticket on hold, or keep it on hold if already so.
Remove from hold (if on hold): The Status will take the take off hold, or keep it off hold if already so.
You can also configure email notifications for a Status in the "Email Settings" section.
Email Settings
If a Status does not change for a set amount of time, an email can be sent out automatically to notify someone, useful for notifying incident managers about major incidents that have not been actioned in a certain amount of time, for example.
Automatic notification can be configure separately for agents, teams, mangers and users.
Fig 3. Email Settings
The template used to send emails to users and agents is set using the "Email Template for User emails" and "Email Template" field respectively. A default email template is provided (which can be customised), however, you can also select any custom email templates you have created here too. For information on customising and creating email templates checkout "Email Templates".
Automatically Move from one status to another after a set amount of time
You can also change the Status of a Ticket to another after a certain number of hours via the "Change Status after this many hours (does not recur)" settings. Useful for preventing leads from going stale, for example, this can update the status of a opportunity and prompt action if the ticket has stayed in the same status too long.
Fig 4. Automatic status change configuration
Set the number of hours, if they are working hours or 24 hours, and the Status the Ticket should change to. In this example, the Ticket will close after 16 working hours.
Miscellaneous Settings
You can also restrict the status from appearing in the status drop-down on a ticket (if the ticket status drop down is enabled). This is achieved by turning off the following option:
Fig 5. Restrict the status from appearing in the status drop-down
There are certain status values that are used in specific parts of Halo, such as “With Supplier”, used for logging tickets to third party companies.
Statuses can be restricted by Ticket Type, so if you have a set of status values that you specifically wish to use for Projects, specify them for “Tickets” in the Status area, but in the Ticket Type(s) used for Projects, restrict the status values to only appear on those Ticket Types. All others will not appear, and the ones you have selected will not appear anywhere else.
Setting the status of calls can also be specified at the Action button level, so when the action button is used, the status changes to a predefined setting.
The status can also be predefined for when an end-user updates the ticket with more information, and this is set at the Request Type level also.
There are also Quote, Sales Order, Purchase Order, Change Request, Adding New Ticket, Release, Contract statuses, but these are discussed in their relevant areas for advanced use.
Prevent Tickets in this Status being Load Balanced
Include in Load Balance calculations - When enabled tickets that have this status will be included in load balance calculations. This means they will be counted towards any load balance counts, and be able to be load balanced out.
Fig 6. Load Balance Restriction On Statuses
Note: This is only available if the incoming service is turned on, which will be enabled automatically in all hosted Halo instances. You can check is this on under Configuration > Advanced Settings > Use Incoming Service.
Automatically Change a Ticket's Status after Updates
Statuses can be changed automatically after certain ticket updates, this is set per ticket type in Configuration > Tickets > Ticket Types > *Go To The Ticket Types Settings Tab* ( May be located in a different Tab if you are on an older version of Halo)
Fig 7. Status After Actions
Changing the Status of Tickets (Manually)
Statuses show in the "Ticket information" area on a ticket. They can be changed from the ticket details, or through Actions.
Change Status from the Ticket Details
The first way is to set the Status is manually via the Ticket information dropdown, highlighted in Figure 8. Clicking on the currently set Status will show a list of available Statuses.
Fig 8. Set Status from Ticket Details
Agents will need the permission "Can always update Ticket Statuses and re-assign Tickets outside of actions" to be able to change a ticket's status from this dropdown.
If you wish to prevent your Agents from being able to set the Status this way, navigate to Configuration > Tickets > General Settings > "Changing of Status outside of an Action", set this dropdown to "Not allowed".
Fig 9. Allow Changing of a Status Outside an Action
Change Status using an Action
The second method of changing Status is through an Action, and this can be done either automatically or via a Action field. This is the most common way to set a Status.
If you would like an Agent to choose the Status through an Action, the "Status" field will need to be added to the Field List on the Action.
Fig 10. Status Field on Action Field List
Now, when using the action, agents can set the status via a dropdown on the action. This field will always be mandatory.
Fig 11. Action containing Status Field
If you want to set the status automatically after an action is used, set the "Status After Action" field in the "Details" tab of the action.
This can be a pre-set choice, one the agent must choose, or no change. If set to "No Default (Must Choose)", the "Status" field must be added to the action field list.
Set the Default Status of New Tickets
The status a ticket has when it is initially logged is determined by the "Initial Status" setting against the ticket type. Found under Configuration > Tickets > Ticket Types > select a Ticket Type > Defaults tab. This is a mandatory setting for all ticket types, so must be set and allows you to set the status a ticket has when it is first logged.
Fig 12. Ticket Type initial Status
Note: If applying a template to the ticket when logging the status assigned to the template will override the ticket type initial status.
Choose the Status of New Tickets when logging (v2.244+)
From v2.244+ the "Status" field can be added to ticket types and set to show on the new ticket screen. This allows agents to set the status of a ticket when logging the ticket from the new ticket screen.
Fig 13. Set Status when Logging Ticket
Note: Setting a status in this way is classed as setting the status 'within an action' so agents will not need the permission "Changing of Status outside of an Action" to be able to set this.
To allow a status to be set on the new ticket screen add the "Status" field to the ticket type under Configuration > Tickets > Ticket Types > select a Ticket Type > Field List.
Fig 14. Status Field on Ticket Type Field List
Note: The status field will always be visible on a ticket after it is logged even if the "Status" field is not in it's field list.
Then edit the field here, and use the option "Agent New Ticket Screen Visibility" to control if the status shows on the new ticket screen or not.
Fig 15. Configure the visibility of the Status Field on the new ticket screen
Dynamic field visibility can also be configured for the field, this will control whether the field shows on the new ticket screen or not, only. The status field will always show in the ticket details after being logged.
Workflow Status Restrictions
Within a workflow step, you can restrict which statuses are allowed during that step. In Configuration > Tickets > Workflows, choose a workflow, and edit the step.
Scrolling down, there is a "Statuses" section. By default, "Allow All Values" will be enabled. Disabling this will bring up the "Allowed Statuses" table, which is where you can set the restrictions.
Fig 16. Allowed Statuses table on a workflow step
Any status that is added to this table will be allowed, and any that are not contained here will not appear in the dropdowns on actions/ticket details. Below, only the two added to the table are options within the action's status field.
Fig 17. Status restricted on an action used on that workflow stage
If the workflow is moved onto another stage that does not allow that status, the workflow will still move on with that status. Once changed to another however, it cannot be set again afterwards.