Suggestions for ticket workflow improvements

Hello
I'd like to suggest some workflow improvements to your ticket module. We spend 99% of our time in the ticket module and I would love to point out some time saving changes.

1. We use labor charges for every ticket. Right now, we have to select a ticket, then use the drop down box to add a new labor charge. If we had a labor charge button in the toolbar or in the right click context, it would eliminate the need to access the drop down box. In my opinion, I'd rather have the "More Actions" items in the right click context, then the "Sort by" items.

2. We have to select the item (labor). While we do use different labor items (e.g. printer maintenance, server maintenance) it would be nice to have a default item (e.g. Labor) already selected.

3. We are an MSP and our clients pay a fixed monthly service fee. Therefore we do not add a dollar amount in our labor charge. However, every time we enter a charge we are prompted with an alert that no Price/Rate was entered. I wish there was an option to disable this prompt.

4. At this point all my techs will change the status of a ticket to completed. (I do not want them to use the Completed button, because I need to read over their notes before closing the ticket). This requires them them to open the ticket to change the status. I would love to see the status field incorporated into the labor charge window to eliminate this step.

5. If I now complete this ticket, I receive another warning prompt that no resolution description was entered. I think the logic should look at whether a resolution OR labor charge exists and close the ticket. Only when no resolution and no charge is entered, should the prompt appear.

Bugfix:
My default view is a List view. (I am viewing list view as well as set the option in Tickets-1). When I am in list view and create a new ticket (or Complete an existing ticket) the view changes to "List and Details". It does this every time and does not remain in List view.

I hope you will take some of these into consideration for an upcoming release ofCommitCRM.

Thank you

Araphael, Thank you so much for this great feedback. Much appreciated.

Please find some comments on several of the items you listed:

#2 - You can select a default Labor Item (as well as Part and Expense Items) under the Contract. Then, we entering the Charge under this Contract the default Labor Item will be selected automatically (see the Contract's Details tab).

#3 - You should consider using your default rates here. As I assume you do not actually charge your clients for this labor, it still helps and analyzing the profitability of your Contracts. You can easily compare the amount paid by the customer to the value of the labor logged. Anyway, your feedback is relevant and naturally we logged it.

#4 - Changing the Ticket status to "Completed" and saving the ticket record has the same result as clicking the Complete button. It's actually the same action performed in a different way.

Re "bugfix", well, this is on purpose. The new Ticket window doesn't give access to all of the Ticket fields and therefore the system automatically display the new Ticket details after it was added (while keeping the list view, yet shorter as the details are now display). To switch back to List View click Ctrl-L.

Thanks again,
Dina

Hi Dina

Thanks for the reply.

I will definitely take a look at #2

I understand the reasoning behind #3 but all my employees are salary, so it's hard to quantify an hourly rate. Also, we don't use the billing feature currently, but I would imagine this would create a lot of erroneous charges for the client.

As for #4, I needed to change my ticket status values to accommodate what I needed. My "Complete" status is actually your system's "Other" and therefore does not close the ticket. It just puts it in the bottom of my ticket list so I can look at it. The main purpose here is that I do not want my techs to close any tickets and we have trained them to use the status value, rather than actually closing the ticket. (I would even like the option of removing the rights to close a ticket for users)

As for the bug fix, I suppose I see the reasoning to switch to detailed mode when adding a new ticket, but it also does this when I click the Complete button to close a ticket. Quite frankly, I wish it wouldn't do that, because I press CTRL-L all day long.

Andy

Hi Andy,

Thank you for the clarification re #4, it makes more sense now as your "Complete" status is customized value and the RangerMSP default.

We'll have a look re the last point, I feel that it shouldn't switch to details view, though there may be a reason for this that I'm not aware of at this time.

Thanks,
Dina

I understand the reasoning behind #3 but all my employees are salary, so it's hard to quantify an hourly rate. Also, we don't use the billing feature currently, but I would imagine this would create a lot of erroneous charges for the client.

Actually it doesn't create erroneous charges. You setup a contract for the client as a "block of money" (or time, if you track that way). In that "block of money" you put in the amount of your recurring monthly revenue that you have allocated for "labor hours" (for instance, you may have backup services, anti-spam/virus, etc bundled with your monthly bill). Now, you can track profitability against those agreements. Your client will not be billed for these charges because CommitCRM knows that this is a contract. When you exceed your block of money that you setup, then you will get alerted, but you can continue to charge to it.

To Commit: One point on the above is that it would be really nice to have a report that would give a better idea of contract performance over time... Right now it is a manual process of running a couple reports and figuring out if you are making money. A lot of us are MSP's and our business revolve around a fixed monthly rate. We really need to know if we are making money on those agreements, and we look to CommitCRM every day to help us make that decision. I personally vote for a nice report showing Contract profitability. Does that make sense? (if it already exists, point me in the right direction!)

Thanks for adding useful information from the way you handle this.

Besides, there are several reports that shows relevant information though they may be room for more. For example, have a look at the 'Detailed Account Charges by Contracts' report under the Charges reports Category. Anyway, thanks for providing details for your exact requirements for such a report.

Thanks,
Dina