Support & Helpdesk Guide
Turn scattered emails and "can you look at this?" requests into tracked tickets — routed to a department queue, owned by a real person, and kept on an SLA clock. This guide covers intake, queues, working tickets, SLAs, and the self-service portals.
The Helpdesk module runs your internal and customer support desk. Every request becomes a ticket with a reference, a status, a priority, a category and an owning department. Because it shares the same identity, roles, departments and records as the rest of AWRA, a ticket can be tied back to the customer, project, or asset it concerns — and the same people, permissions and approvals apply.
How Tickets Come In (Intake)
| Channel | Who uses it | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Public portal | Customers & the public | Each organization has its own branded portal link. Requesters submit without an account and receive a tracking reference to follow progress and reply. |
| Anyone | Inbound messages become tickets and land in the routed queues. | |
| In-app (My Tickets) | Staff with a login | Employees raise and follow their own tickets from inside AWRA. |
Turn the public intake portal on from Helpdesk → Settings. Share the portal link on your website, email signatures, or a "Contact support" button.
Queues, Categories & Assignment
- Categories classify a ticket (e.g. Billing, Technical, Access) and drive routing. Manage them under Helpdesk settings.
- Department queues collect tickets so the right team sees their work in one place.
- Assignment gives a ticket a single owner. Agents pick up tickets or a lead assigns them; the reassignment queue helps balance load.
- Priority (from low to urgent) sets expectations and, together with the category, feeds the SLA clock.
The SLA Clock
Every ticket runs on an SLA with a first-response target and a resolution target. Timers show what is due and what is at risk, escalate automatically on breach, and give managers a live view of service performance so nothing quietly slips.
Working a Ticket (Agents)
- Open the Tickets queue or the agent Dashboard to see incoming and at-risk work.
- Assign the ticket to yourself (or the right owner) and set the correct category and priority.
- Reply to the requester with a public reply, or leave an internal note for teammates that the requester never sees.
- Attach files, watch the ticket to get updates, and escalate or reassign if it needs another team.
- Move the status through its lifecycle to resolution, then close. The requester can leave a satisfaction rating.
Self-Service (Staff & Requesters)
- Staff raise a ticket from My Tickets → Raise a ticket and follow status, comments, attachments and their resolution rating.
- Public requesters use the tracking reference from their submission to check status and reply — no account needed.
Common Mistakes
- Leaving tickets unassigned — no owner means no SLA accountability.
- Marking everything "urgent", which makes real emergencies invisible.
- Putting sensitive detail in a public reply instead of an internal note.
- Opening a new ticket for an existing issue instead of updating the same thread.
- Resolving without a reply, so the requester never learns what happened.
Need help with this topic?
Capture the module, record number, branch or warehouse, user, visible message, and what you expected to happen before contacting support.