Tickets and Replies

How Email Becomes a Ticket

When a client emails one of your support addresses (Helpdesk Settings), Helpdesk files it on its own:

• A reply joins its ticket. Helpdesk first matches the email to the conversation it answers. Then it looks for the ticket number, written as [T-12] in the subject or as the Reference line at the end of every reply you send, when the email comes from that ticket's requester. Last, it joins a ticket from the same sender with the same subject in the last 30 days.
• Anything else starts a ticket. The new ticket gets the next number, the status Open, the sender as requester, and the address it came in on. If the sender's email matches a contact in CRM, the ticket links to that contact and their company.
• A closed or waiting ticket opens again when the client writes.
• Receipts: a new ticket, or one opened again, gets a receipt from addresses set to send one, at most once a day per sender.
• Sender not verified: when the sender's address fails the checks that prove it is really theirs, the ticket is still made and marked "Sender not verified". It never joins another ticket by number or subject, is never linked to a CRM contact, and gets no receipt.
• Automatic mail (out-of-office replies, mail robots, bulk mail) joins the sender's latest ticket from the last week, never opens a ticket again, and never gets a receipt. So does a burst of three new tickets from one sender within an hour. This keeps two automatic responders from emailing each other forever.
• Files the client attaches are kept with their message, up to 20 files, 20 MB each, and 25 MB together. Anything past that is listed by name as too large to keep. Small images that are part of an email signature are kept but not shown.
• Admin-only addresses: mail to an address set for owners and admins only makes a ticket that only owners and admins see, anywhere in the workspace.
• The spam list: mail from a sender on it is set aside and never becomes a ticket (The Spam List).
• Your team hears about it: the ticket's assignee, or whoever Helpdesk Settings names for unassigned tickets, gets an email about a new ticket, a reply, or a ticket opened again. Automatic mail tells nobody.
• Mail from one of your own support addresses is never filed, and the same email is never filed twice.

If Tickets or Messages are turned off, or a field your company made required cannot be filled from an email, the email is refused and the sender is told it could not be delivered. Nothing is changed.

Each record's history shows changes made by email as coming from email.

The Ticket Screen

Open a ticket from Tickets to see its conversation, oldest first: client messages with their files, replies sent, receipts, follow-ups, and internal notes, each with who sent it and when (action helpdesk.ticket.get). The top shows the ticket number, requester, and company, a Status menu, and Details to change any of the ticket's fields. Owners and admins also see Assigned to and Mark as Spam.

Select a file's name to open it. Images open in a new tab; anything else downloads.

Emails as They Were Designed

A client's email shows as they designed it, with its formatting, colors, tables, and the pictures placed in it, in a frame that grows to fit. Messages brought over from the hub that were kept as HTML show the same way.

• Safe to open: nothing in an email can run or act on its own. Scripts, forms, and anything that could reach your workspace are taken out, and the frame is sealed off from the rest of the workspace.
• Show Images: pictures from the internet are held back until you select Show Images, so the sender cannot tell when you opened the email. Pictures sent inside the email always show.
• Show as Text switches to the plain words of the email, and Show as Designed switches back. The plain words are what search, notices to your team, and AI agents use.
• Links open in a new tab.
• When you reply, the client's last message is quoted as plain words.

Replying

Write in the reply box, choose Waiting on Customer or Not Waiting, and select Send Reply (action helpdesk.reply).

• The reply waits one minute before it goes out, shown as "Sends in" with a countdown. Until then, the person who wrote it can select Undo (action helpdesk.reply.undo), which puts the text back in the reply box.
• It goes out from the address the ticket came in on (or your first address), to the requester, with the subject "Re:" and the ticket's subject, so it lands in the client's existing conversation. It is signed with your name and your company's signature, ends with the ticket's Reference line, and quotes the client's last message.
• When it goes out, it appears in the conversation, and the ticket's status becomes Waiting on Customer or Open, as you chose.
• If the email service refuses it, it shows as Not sent with the reason. Nothing is tried again on its own; select Copy to Reply to put it back in the reply box.
• A ticket needs a requester email to reply to, and your company needs at least one address in Helpdesk Settings.
• If the reply does not go out, the person who wrote it gets an email saying so, with their reply.
• Waiting on Customer starts the automatic follow-ups when they are on (Automatic Follow-Ups); Not Waiting ends them.

Upload Links

Check Include a file upload link with a reply to give the client a link for sending large files, such as photos or videos, without signing in. A reply can be just the link.

• The link works for 14 days (change it in Helpdesk Settings), for this ticket only. The conversation notes that a link was included, without the link itself.
• The client's page shows the request number and subject, and takes up to 10 files at a time, 20 MB each and 25 MB together, with an optional note.
• What they send arrives as a message from them with the files, opens the ticket again if it was waiting or closed, and tells your team.
• Upload Links on the ticket lists each link sent, how many files came with it, and until when it works. Turn Off ends a link at once (action helpdesk.upload.off). Undoing a reply, or a reply that could not be sent, turns its link off.

Anyone in your company can reply, add notes, move messages, and turn off upload links. AI agents never reply, because a reply emails the customer and nothing emails a customer without a person. An AI agent can read tickets, add internal notes, move messages, and turn off upload links, as the person who connected it. Assigning and the spam list stay with owners and admins.

Internal Notes

Select Internal Note, write it, and select Add Note (action helpdesk.note). Notes are for your team only and are never emailed.

Assigning

Owners and admins choose a person in Assigned to (action helpdesk.assign), or Not Assigned. The person gets an email, and from then on they alone hear about the ticket's replies. An admin-only ticket can be assigned only to an owner or admin. Assigning yourself sends nothing.

Moving a Message to a New Ticket

When a client writes about something new on an old ticket, select Move to New Ticket on their message (action helpdesk.split). Give the new ticket a subject, or keep the message's own. The message, its files, and any later replies to it move to a new ticket with the next number and the same client, address, and assignee. A note on each ticket says where it went. A ticket's only message from the client stays where it is.

The Close Rule

When Close tickets only with a project or a Not Applicable reason is on in Helpdesk Settings (it is off at first), a ticket can be closed only once it has a Project (such as CWSA-1042) or a Not Applicable reason of at least 8 characters, both in Details, or is marked as spam. The ticket screen says so until one is added. Imports of closed tickets are never blocked.