Getting Started (Admin Setup)

This is the end-to-end checklist for a tenant admin standing up the Helpdesk for the first time. Work through it top to bottom — each step builds on the last, and the defaults are designed so a small team can be live quickly.

You'll need an admin role (or the helpdesk:config:manage permission) for the configuration steps.

1. Grant Access to Your Team

Helpdesk permissions live alongside the rest of your role permissions. In Settings → Roles & Permissions, grant the keys your staff need:

• View / Create / Edit / Delete Tickets — core ticket work for agents
• View / Manage Knowledge Base — for whoever writes help articles
• View / Review AI Approvals — for whoever supervises AI actions
• Manage Helpdesk Settings — admin-only; controls teams, SLA, portal, and AI policy

A typical Support Agent role gets View/Create/Edit Tickets and View Knowledge Base. A Support Lead additionally gets Review AI Approvals. Admins get everything. See Roles & Permissions for the full key list.

2. Create Your Support Teams

Teams are the routing unit for tickets. Open Helpdesk → Teams and create at least one:

1. Click New team and give it a name (e.g. "Front Line", "Billing").
2. Add members — the staff users who work its tickets.
3. Choose an assignment strategy:
   • Manual — new tickets wait in the queue for someone to pick up.
   • Round-robin — new tickets rotate across members automatically.
4. Optionally set it as the default team (the catch-all when no rule matches), or as the default for specific channels or ticket types.

If you skip this, tickets simply land in a shared, unassigned queue — which is fine to start.

3. Define an SLA Policy

SLA policies set response and resolution targets so nothing slips. Open Helpdesk → SLA Policies:

1. Click New policy and name it (e.g. "Standard").
2. Set first response and resolution targets per priority (in minutes). Start simple — e.g. Urgent 60/480, Normal 480/2880.
3. Optionally enable business hours (timezone, working days, holidays) so clocks only run when you're open.
4. Leave Pause while waiting on the customer on — it stops the clock when the ball is in their court.
5. Mark it the tenant default.

See SLA Policies for the full detail, including per-company (VIP) policies.

4. Configure Helpdesk Settings

Open Helpdesk → Helpdesk Settings. This is your control panel:

• Customer portal — turn it on, set the portal name, subdomain label (e.g. acme → acme.<your portal domain>), logo, and primary color. See Customer Portal for DNS.
• Support email — set the local part (the name before the @) for your inbound support address, so emails to it become tickets. See Channels.
• Intake defaults — the default ticket visibility and the default SLA policy / team for new tickets.
• AI governance — decide what AI agents may do on tickets: Allowed, Needs approval, or Forbidden per action, plus a confidence threshold and sensitive topics. Start conservative. See AI & Governance.
• CSAT & auto-close — whether to survey customers on resolution, and how many days after "solved" a ticket auto-closes.

Save. Every section can be revisited any time.

5. Seed the Knowledge Base

Even a handful of articles pays off twice — customers self-serve, and your AI agents cite them. Open Helpdesk → Knowledge Base:

1. Click New article, write it in Markdown, choose Public (customers + AI) or Internal (staff + AI) audience, and assign a category.
2. Click Publish. Publishing syncs the article into your AI knowledge store automatically.

See Knowledge Base for the full workflow.

6. Connect a Channel

Pick how tickets will come in first (you can add the rest later):

• Email — the fastest start. Point or forward your support address to the helpdesk inbound address (see Channels). Replies thread back onto the ticket automatically.
• Portal — once enabled and DNS is set, customers open tickets directly.
• Chat / SMS / Voice agents — give your existing agents the ticket tools so they can open tickets mid-conversation (see Channels).
• Forms — mark a form to open a ticket on each submission.

7. Go Live

1. Create a test ticket — send an email to your support address, or open one from Helpdesk → Tickets → New.
2. Confirm it lands, routes to the right team, and starts its SLA clock.
3. Reply to it, mark it Solved, and confirm the customer notification (and CSAT prompt) look right.
4. Check Helpdesk → Reports to see it counted.

You're live. From here, Tickets covers day-to-day operation for your staff.

Setup Checklist

• Helpdesk permissions granted to staff roles
• At least one team created (and a default set)
• A default SLA policy defined
• Helpdesk Settings configured (portal, support email, defaults, AI policy, CSAT)
• A few knowledge-base articles published
• At least one channel connected
• A test ticket run end to end