Ticket lifecycle and resolution
This reference explains what changes a ticket's status and what closure means. IT Support uses the four stored statuses; employees see friendlier labels as described in Submitting and following tickets.
Status reference
| Status | Meaning | Typical next action |
|---|---|---|
| New | Logged work not yet moved into active human handling. An assistant can still be troubleshooting. | Read, classify and assign; take over when a person is needed. |
| In Progress | Work is active with IT or has resumed after a response/reopening. | Continue investigation or ask the requester for information. |
| Waiting on Requester | IT is waiting for the employee. | Monitor for a reply; use an explicit eligible auto-close rule only if appropriate. |
| Completed | The ticket is recorded as resolved/closed and has a completion date. | Monitor confirmation or reopened work. |
Status and holder are separate. New does not mean an assistant has not answered. Setting In Progress alone does not assign a person. Setting Waiting on Requester alone does not write a question to the employee; send the question as well.
Events that change status
| Event | Result |
|---|---|
| Employee sends a new request | New, Normal priority, reported date and initial message recorded. |
| Ordinary IT reply to New | In Progress; sender becomes assignee only if no human assignee exists. |
| Explicit Take over from assistant | Human owner becomes the acting agent; New or Completed becomes In Progress. |
| IT selects a status | Selected valid status saves, subject to completion requirements. |
| Requester-role reply while Waiting on Requester | In Progress. |
| Requester-role reply while Completed | In Progress if a human assignee exists, otherwise New; completion date clears. |
| Original requester answers No to Did this fix it? | In Progress, completion date clears, satisfaction Not fixed and responsible person/team notified. |
| Original requester answers Yes to Did this fix it? | Satisfaction Fixed; it does not itself perform a new closure transition. |
| Assistant resolves following confirmation | Completed, Resolved by Assistant, satisfaction Fixed and resolution text recorded. |
| Eligible auto-close rule runs | Completed, Resolved by Agent and a closure line recorded. |
A looped-in employee's reply has requester-role behavior, so it can resume or reopen work, but that colleague does not receive the original requester's resolution buttons. A looped-in IT colleague's ordinary reply does not take over assignment. IT-only notes do not perform these public-message status transitions.
Complete a ticket as an agent
- Open the conversation and check the latest requester response.
- Write the final explanation using Reply.
- Open Details and fill Resolution Details, your diagnosis and the classifications required by your process.
- Ensure human assignment meets any Assigned to requirement. Check requirements before completion; automatic assignment on completion does not satisfy an empty required field in advance.
- Select Status → Completed.
- Read any missing-field message, complete the named fields and retry.
- Confirm the completion date and Did this fix it? card. The status change and question are added to the conversation. If no human assignee existed and no assignment was included in that edit, manual completion assigns the acting agent.
The Yes/No answer is feedback, not an IT-only satisfaction edit. Employees should test the result before answering. No reopens and notifies; Yes records Fixed. An ordinary reply after completion also reopens the ticket and should be used to report a recurrence.
Reopen as an agent
- Open the ticket from Completed, expanding Show all if necessary.
- Change Status to New, In Progress or Waiting on Requester as appropriate.
- Confirm its completion date cleared and review the owner.
- Tell the requester what will happen next.
- If an assistant should resume, reopen first, then assign an enabled front-line assistant or use Hand back.
Reopening does not automatically erase the old diagnosis, resolution, resolved-by or satisfaction history values. Review them in context; a previously recorded Fixed result is not proof that a reopened problem is currently fixed. The application retains the conversation rather than creating another ticket.
Mandatory fields and automatic paths
Required before Completed rules are checked by the ordinary agent update path, which is also used by card edits, batch actions and accepted close proposals. They are not currently enforced by assistant resolution or time-rule auto-close. If mandatory completion data must be guaranteed, keep those automatic closure paths disabled or use a human completion process. See Rules and ticket classifications.
Auto-close requires Waiting on Requester, nonblank resolution, a last agent reply old enough, and no later requester-role response. Merely leaving a ticket idle or adding an IT-only note does not qualify it. It adds a closure line, not the manual resolution question. Completion is not deletion and is not a data-retention setting.
Keep responsibility clear
Assignment, assistant ownership, status and participation solve different problems. Reassigning work does not automatically send a public explanation or change its status. Looping in a colleague does not make that colleague the owner. Read the current header and latest conversation after any change. See Working the ticket queue and Collaboration and internal notes.