Tickets

Manage your business using Tickets feature in CommitCRM.

Service Management Flow

The basic flow includes the following steps (click each step to learn more about it):

1. Open the Account Window: Find an existing Account or create a new one
2. New ticket: A Customer creates a Ticket via the Web Interface or a Technician creates a Ticket via the Application or the Web Interface
3. Dispatch (optional): If the Ticket requires an Appointment (i.e. an on-site visit). Dispatch the Ticket to the correct technician
4. Resolve: Add Charges describing the work done and Resolve the Ticket
5. Bill the customer: If the Charge is Billable – create Charges reports or Invoices

New Ticket Flow

This section will demonstrate how to create a new Ticket for an Account, and how to easily dispatch it to the relevant technician.

Before you start

This guide assumes you already have some Accounts in the system. You can create Accounts by importing Accounts from Outlook, QuickBooks or any other data source. You can read more about how to import Accounts into Commit in the Commit Setup Guide.

You can also create an Account manually from within Commit:

1. From the Accounts Window, click the New icon .
2. Fill in the Account details.
3. Click OK to save.

Open the Account Window

At the top of the Account window, there is a Search pane. Using the Find field, you can search for an Account by any keyword, or you can search according to specific fields, such as phone numbers, company name, etc.

Once the search word has been typed, hit the Enter key or click Refresh. You will now see a filtered list of Accounts which includes only those who match the search criteria.

http://www.commitcrm.com/docs/gettingstarted/tutorial_accounts_window.gif

Note that you can also do a quick search by type, by selecting the [all types] drop down list and selecting the relevant type.

Once the desired Account appears in the search results list, double-click it to see its complete details.

Note that the Accounts list has several possible Views: Complete Details, List and Details, List, Business Cards, List and Complete Details. You can select the display using the View menu on the top right-corner of the window

http://www.commitcrm.com/docs/gettingstarted/tutorial_accounts_view_menu.gif

Also note that the blue Accounts on this tool bar is a menu which contains options which are relevant for Accounts only, this menu is also available in the Main menu > Accounts.

Create a New Ticket

From the Account window, you can create a new Ticket in the following ways:

1. From the Tickets, tab, click the New icon on the bottom of the tab.
2. Click the More Actions button on the tool bar and select New ticket for Account.
3. From the Main menu, select File > New > Ticket... Note that this option will not automatically use the selected Account - you need to use one of the Account options (the first two) for this.

Repeat the first step (click the new icon from the Tickets tab).

The New Ticket window opens:

http://www.commitcrm.com/docs/gettingstarted/tutorial_ticket_new_window.gif

New Ticket window

• Account - The Account is already selected since the Ticket was opened from within a specific Account. Note: If you wish to open a Ticket for a new Account, you can click the '+' in the Account field to add a new Account.
  
  
  • The Account's Description
    In the box beneath the Account name, you will see a summary of the Account's Description and the Service Internal Description. You can use the Account's Internal Description in order to keep special comments regarding the service level for this customer, which should be displayed to the user whenever opening a Ticket.
  • Other Open Tickets for the Account
    In the box beneath the description, you can see a list of other Tickets which already exist for this Account. By reviewing this list before creating new Tickets, you can make sure that duplicate tickets are not created for reported issues. If you do find a matching Ticket during the process of creating a new one, you can simply double-click the existing ticket, and the new Ticket creation will be aborted and the existing Ticket's details will be displayed.
    
    
• Contract - If no other contract was defined for the Account, the Global System Contract will be used as the default contract. At this stage, we will use the default contract to demonstrate a simple scenario.
  
  
• Show ticket in Dispatcher - When this flag is set, the Ticket will be available for dispatching in the Dispatcher window tickets list. Note that Tickets that should not be dispatched for appointments should be set with an un-checked flag.
  
  
• Manager - The manager is the person who is in charge of the Ticket. This is not necessarily the same person who will actually perform the work for the Ticket. Each Ticket can later be dispatched to several technicians to perform the actual work in several appointments/tasks.
  
  
• Ticket Description - The Ticket Description should be entered in this field.
• Click OK to Save

The New Ticket is now displayed with all the other Ticket details. You can now fill in the rest of the Ticket information as follows:

http://www.commitcrm.com/docs/gettingstarted/tutorial_ticket_details_window.gif

• You can set a different Ticket Priority (the default is Normal)
• You can set the Due Date for the Ticket. When the Due Date is reached, it will appear in Red.
• In the Details Tab you can update details about the cause, source and category for this Ticket.
• The Estimated Work Duration is there to help when dispatching. For example, when you set it to 120 minutes, and drag/drop the Ticket from the Tickets list on to the Dispatcher window, the duration of the scheduled on-site visit is automatically set for 120 minutes, rather than the default of 30 minutes.
• You can also add additional Notes in the Notes field.
• Save your changes once done.

Dispatch the Ticket

The Commit Dispatcher allows you to easily view tickets pending and the technicians calendars in order to dispatch tickets for on-site visits. Once the Ticket is entered into Commit, it appears in the Dispatcher window as "Waiting for Dispatching". Note that you can set the Ticket to not appear in the Dispatcher, for example when there is no need to set any appointments for this Ticket.

The Dispatcher lets you appoint the relevant technicians to the Appointments set for this Ticket.

http://www.commitcrm.com/docs/gettingstarted/tutorial_dispatcher_window.gif

Dispatch the Ticket

1. Open the Dispatcher Window, and on the bottom you will see the Tickets Marked for Dispatching tab.
2. Above this list you can see the Dispatcher window which consists of a daily view of Appointments per technician. You can view technicians' calendars using the magnifying glass tutorial_magnifying_glass
3. Select the Ticket in the list using the mouse and drag it to the Dispatcher view above, dropping it on the relevant technician calendar in the desired time for the Appointment.
4. A new Appointment window opens.
   
   http://www.commitcrm.com/docs/gettingstarted/tutorial_dispatcher_appointment.gif
   
   
5. Most of the relevant information is already there since it is taken from the Ticket – the Ticket Description, the Account, the Ticket, the owner (who is the employee which you dropped the ticket onto in the Dispatcher window), the date and the duration (taken from the Ticket).
6. Add details to the description if needed, such as describe what is the purpose of the appointment for the technician.
7. You can optionally set different background colors to represent different technicians' appointments, priority levels, etc.
8. Click OK to save the Appointment.

Tip You can easily add Account details, such as Name, Phone Number, etc, to Appointments set in the Dispatcher window by clicking the yellow arrow next to the Account name in the Appointment window. You can also set Appointments to automatically contain the Account details in the Appointment description. To do this, go to Tools > Options > Calendar > Miscellaneous and check the Attach Account Details to Description box.

At this point, technicians can view their new Appointments in their Calendars using the Application or the Web Interface - See the On-Site Visits section.

You can also view the Ticket scheduled appointments in the Ticket's Pending tab (see Viewing Ticket History).

Add Tasks for Tickets

Other than Dispatching a Ticket and setting Appointments to the technicians, you can also manage Tasks for the Ticket.

You can set reminders to Tasks so this may help you set reminders to perform certain actions before going on site (e.g. remember to take an additional cartridge for the Printer).

You can also use the Tasks in order to track complex Tickets which require several on-site visits and should be coordinated and actively tracked. For example, a technician may need to install a new network at a customer site, which involves buying parts and then installing them over a series of on-site visits. You may set a daily reminder to follow up on the project's status by adding a recurring task over the duration of the project.

Another helpful option is adding tasks and appointments from activity templates. This allows you to add a predefined group of common tasks and appointments to the ticket at once. You can read more about activity templates in the Activity Templates user guide here.

Once you create a Task that is linked to a certain Ticket, you can view all the tasks for a Ticket in the Ticket's Pending tab.

http://www.commitcrm.com/docs/gettingstarted/tutorial_ticket_pending_tab.gif

Create a New Ticket from the Web Interface

The Web Interface allows employees and customers to open new Tickets which will be added to the database.

It is recommended to read the Web Interface manual.

The following steps assume the Web Interface is installed and that Web users were defined for the relevant employee (Learn more about the Commit Web Interface).

1. To open a new Ticket, login to the Web Interface
2. Go to the Accounts tab and click View for a certain Account.
3. From the Account window, click Create for Account, and select Ticket.
   http://www.commitcrm.com/docs/gettingstarted/tutorial_web_ticket_new_menu.gif
   
4. In the New Ticket window, the Account is already selected , as we created the Ticket from within the Account (you can click +/- to expand the Account details). The System Global Contract will already be selected. All you need to do is enter the Description and you are done. You can set also other values such as the Ticket Type, Cause, Due date, etc. Note that the Web Interface New Ticket window contains more information than the Client Application. Not all the information is mandatory, and you may fill it in now or at a later stage.
5. Click Save to add the Ticket.
   http://www.commitcrm.com/docs/gettingstarted/tutorial_web_new_ticket_window.gif

Create New Tickets from the Web Interface as a Customer

Your customers may use the Web Interface for Customers module which allows them to view, edit and create data in Commit.

Customers can create new Tickets from the Tickets window.

1. In the Tickets tab, click the New Ticket link or click Create New and select Ticket.
2. The new Ticket window will open.
   http://www.commitcrm.com/docs/gettingstarted/tutorial_web_ticket_new_window_customer.gif
3. Fill in the Description. You may also enter the Cause and Type.

Tip You can set a default Type to be used when creating new Tickets. To do this, use the Client Application, double-click on the "Type:" field label, and the field setting window will open. Go to the Field Behavior tab and set the Default Value.