Ticket Templates:  What are they, how can they help your productivity?

Anything and everything recurring can be helped with a Ticket Template.  Recurring common meetings, troubleshooting steps, checklists, or really anything else that happens within your workplace on a regular basis that you want to log time against deserves a ticket template.

There are two parts to creating Ticket Templates.

1. Create a system master template which will be used to create templates at a company level.
2. Create a Ticket Template at the Company level, using a system master template.

System master templates should be generic enough but contain enough information to decrease the build time at the company level.  System Masters = Generic details, Company Ticket Templates = extreme detailed.

Step 1:  Create a System Master Ticket Template

Navigate to System > Setup Tables > Ticket Template List > Create a new Ticket Template

The required fields are:

• Template Name
• Ticket Summary
• Ticket Board
• Ticket Status

All other fields are optional, however fill as many out as possible as this information will be copied when creating a Ticket Template for a client company.

Some of the optional fields are:  Service types, sub-types, and items; Discussion note, internal notes, resolution, tasks, scheduled resources, budget time, attachments (Attached documents or URL Links) and finance information.

Note:  Ticket templates can be applied manually, automatically being tied to a ticket type item, or on a recurring basis.

Once you have created and saved your ticket template 5 tabs will appear across the top, the information in each of these tabs can be modified and all or part of that information can be applied to recurring tickets.  The following are links to ConnectWise University for a more detailed review of each tab.

• • Template tab
  • Tasks tab
  • Attachments tab
  • Resources tab
  • Finance tab
  • Audit Trail tab

STEP 2:  Create a Ticket Template for a Client

The easiest way to create Ticket Templates in Manage is via the Company Record.  Open a company (Company > Companies > Search), navigate to the tab called Ticket Templates.

Create a new Ticket Template, selecting a System Master Template.  Complete filling in all the required details.

When creating a Ticket Template, note the Auto Generation Options!

• Generate Scheduled entries x days prior to resource scheduled date
  This creates a scheduled record on the calendar system, preventing double booking without a ticket being generated.
• Generate Service Ticket x days prior to resource scheduled date
  This creates a ticket using the settings from the Ticket Template.  How many days prior to the ticket needing processed would you like it to hang out on one of your boards?

What if you Don’t need a ticket template to generate automatically?

Simply create the Ticket Template but leave the resources empty.  This enables the Ticket Template to be used manually.  When needed on an open ticket, use the “More” action menu to apply any template.

Some common examples of when to use ticket templates:

1. Team Meetings
2. Client Quarterly Business Reviews
3. Employee reviews
4. Scheduled system maintenance
5. To automatically block out time for employee lunches
6. Auto apply tasks, documentation (Docs or URL links to documentation systems) for specific ticket types
7. To set the budget information of a ticket based on a very common and often support issue
8. Commission reports
9. Anniversaries
10. Processing Payroll
11. Metric reconciliation
12. Submit Time & Expense
13. Marketing functions
14. Year-end tasks