Departments
A department is an internal team that can receive tickets. Think of it like a folder plus an owner group: Billing tickets go to Billing, technical tickets go to Technical Support, HR tickets go to HR.
Why Departments Matter
- Tickets require a department, so every ticket has a team owner.
- Users can belong to a department, which helps filtering and assignment.
- Categories can automatically route tickets to departments.
- SLA policies can be scoped to one department.
- Reports and dashboards can group work by department.
Department Fields
| Field | Plain Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Department Name | The team name shown in ticket forms, filters, and reports. | Billing Support |
| Department Email | Optional shared email address for the team. | billing@example.com |
| Default Assigned Agent | The fallback person when the department receives a ticket and no more specific assignee is chosen. | Send unclassified Billing tickets to Ayesha Khan. |
| Sort Order | Display order. Smaller numbers appear earlier. | 10 for Support, 20 for Billing. |
| Assignment Strategy | How the app chooses an agent when there is no fixed category assignee. | least_loaded chooses the agent with fewer open tickets. |
| Active Department | Whether this department is available for new routing. | Turn off an old department after a reorganization. |
| Description | Internal note explaining what the department handles. | Handles invoices, payments, refunds, and contract billing questions. |
Assignment Strategy Examples
| Strategy | How It Behaves | Use It When |
|---|---|---|
| Default Assignee | Uses the department fallback person. | A small team has one triage owner. |
| Round Robin | Rotates work across eligible users. | You want fair distribution across a similar team. |
| Least Loaded | Prefers the eligible user with fewer open tickets. | You want to avoid overloading one agent. |
Example: Billing Department
- Create department
Billing Support. - Set email to
billing@example.com. - Choose a default assigned agent, such as the billing lead.
- Set assignment strategy to
least_loadedif multiple billing agents share the work. - Mark it active.
- In Ticket Setup, create categories such as
Invoice QuestionandRefund Request, then point those categories to Billing Support.
Department vs Category
| Concept | Simple Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Department | Who owns the work. | Technical Support |
| Category | What type of work it is. | Bug Report |
A ticket can be in the Technical Support department and have category Bug Report. The department tells the system which team owns it; the category tells staff what kind of issue it is.
Delete Rules
A department cannot be deleted while users, tickets, issue groups, SLA policies, or category automation still reference it. This protects history. If you no longer need a department, deactivate it first. Deleting is safest only before the department has been used.
Permissions
Users need view departments to see the list, create departments to add one, edit departments to change one, and delete departments to remove one.
Screenshots To Add
These placeholders are intentionally kept in the docs so release screenshots can be dropped in later without changing the written guide for Departments.