Reply to a ticket and set its status
Answer a client on a ticket and move its status forward in the same action, then see the reply, the time it logged, and the status change on the record.
What you will have
- Answer the client and advance the ticket in one action, instead of writing a reply and changing status as two separate steps.
- Leave a record behind: a timestamped reply, a status change, and the time it took, all attached to the same ticket.
Why it works this way
A reply banks whatever time is loaded in the composer's timer field when it's sent, whether that is the background Auto value this instance was already tracking or a Manual amount typed in for on-site work, so sending it can log billable time without a separate timer step.
The status a ticket shows the client is worded in the client's own list of statuses, not the tech's internal one: statuses like AI Triage, On Hold, and Locked never reach the portal at all.
Internal Note and Email are two different doors on the same composer, one that never leaves the building and one that lands in the client's inbox and portal at once, and the card's title and the send button change to say which is armed before you click.
Every status change, from any door, a reply included, writes the same TICKET_STATUS_CHANGED audit row with the old status, the new status, and why, so there is one place to see who moved a ticket and when.
Steps
Open Service Desk > All Tickets and click ticket #27, "Front desk PC will not wake from sleep."
All Tickets lists open work across every board, newest first. Ticket #27 is Priya Shah's original report for Bluebird Dental, still on status New. A second ticket, #28, carries the same subject and sits just above it in the list; open #27 by its number, since that is what the reply and status change land on, not the subject line.
Open Service Desk > All Tickets and click ticket #27, "Front desk PC will not wake from sleep." Look at the reply composer's mode dropdown, next to the "Email reply" title.
The dropdown reads Internal Note, Public Note, Email, or Escalate. Email sends the reply to the contact by mail and posts it in the client portal. Internal Note posts to the thread for staff only; the contact never sees it and gets no notification. The composer opens on Email by default, and the card title, the To line, and the send button all say so before you type a word.
Look at the reply composer's mode dropdown, next to the "Email reply" title. Write the reply to Priya Shah in your own words.
Write as if you are talking to her directly. This reply says what you are doing and what still needs confirming, since the ticket is not fixed yet: "I'm on-site at the front desk now. The PC's sleep/wake power setting was misconfigured, which is why it never woke up on its own. I'm correcting it and running it through a couple of sleep cycles to confirm before I call it fixed."
Write the reply to Priya Shah in your own words. Open Set status and pick In Progress.
Set status defaults to Waiting on Client whenever the reply mode is Email, since the assumption is you're handing the question back to the contact. This time you're still doing the work, so open the dropdown and pick In Progress instead. The menu only offers moves the status workflow allows from New: AI Triage, In Progress, Waiting on Client, Waiting on Equipment, On Hold, or Closed. This screenshot also shows the composer's time toggle switched from Auto to Manual with 24 minutes entered for the on-site work; sending the reply in the next step banks that logged time.
Open Set status and pick In Progress. Click Send email.
Send email posts the reply to the thread, mails it to Priya Shah, and moves the ticket to In Progress in the same click. The button's label always matches the reply mode chosen above; picking Internal Note would show Add Internal Note here instead.
Click Send email. See the reply on the ticket's timeline and the time it logged.
The reply lands at the top of Communication, tagged Email, with the time it logged shown next to it. The Time Entries card shows the same block: 24 minutes logged. This time the composer was switched from Auto to Manual with 24 minutes entered for the on-site work, so sending the reply banked that logged time directly; the same card would show a background-tracked value instead if the composer had been left on Auto.
See the reply on the ticket's timeline and the time it logged. Open Settings > System Logs > Audit Log and find the status change.
The row reads TICKET_STATUS_CHANGED, with the old status, the new status, and the reason, reply:email, plus who did it. The row above it, TICKET_REPLY_CREATED, records the reply itself. Every status change on every ticket writes one of these rows, whichever door made the change.
Open Settings > System Logs > Audit Log and find the status change. Sign in as the client to see what changed on their side.
Impersonating Bluebird Dental and opening the same ticket in the client portal shows the status pill reading In Progress and the reply in the thread, tagged Email, in the tech's own words back to Priya Shah. The client never sees an Internal Note; only Email and Public Note replies, and statuses marked visible to the client, reach this screen.
Sign in as the client to see what changed on their side. Type a reply, then pick Closed from the status pill instead of sending it.
The status pill in the ticket's field row changes the status and nothing else. With text still sitting in the reply box, picking a closed status asks first: This reply will not be sent, with Cancel and Discard reply and close. Only Send & Close in the reply box itself sends what you typed. Cancel was clicked here, so ticket #27 stayed on In Progress and the typed reply stayed in the box.
Type a reply, then pick Closed from the status pill instead of sending it.
Other ways to do this
Ticket toolbar Status field
Open the ticket and use the STATUS dropdown in the toolbar at the top of the page, separate from the reply composer. It changes the status alone, with no reply attached.
Client Portal
The client (or an admin viewing the portal as that client) opens the ticket and writes in the reply box at the bottom, then clicks Send Reply. There is no internal-note choice and no status picker; only a Close on send toggle.
Email reply from the tech's own mailbox
A tech replies from their company email account to the ticket's notification thread instead of opening the portal. The reply posts as a public reply on the ticket, the same as the composer's Email option, since a reply from a company-domain address is read as staff answering, not the client writing in.
Elise
A tech asks Elise, in chat, to reply on the ticket or to move its status; Elise's ticket.reply and ticket.change_status capabilities post the reply or change the status the same way the composer does, sanitized and audited the same way.
Automations
A workflow or automation rule with a Set Ticket Status step moves the status on its own when its trigger condition fires, through the same status machine the composer uses. Automations move status; they don't write a free-text reply the way a person does.
Bulk actions on the list
Select several tickets in All Tickets and choose a bulk status action. Every selected ticket moves to the new status at once, through the same status machine, with no reply attached to any of them.
If it did not work
- If the contact has no email on file, or the board's client-notify setting is off, Send email still posts the reply and still changes the status; only the email itself is skipped.
- If the ticket is on a status marked to block public replies, such as Locked, Email and Public Note are refused; only an Internal Note can be added until the ticket is unlocked.
Questions this page answers
What are the reply types?
There are four. Internal Note is seen by your team only. Public Note shows to the client in the portal, but sends no email. Email sends the reply to the client and shows it in the portal. Escalate flags the ticket, keeps your text as the reason, and hands the ticket to a new tech. You cannot log time on an Escalate reply.
What do the ticket statuses mean?
Your instance ships with ten. New: it just came in. AI Triage: it came in by email or from the portal and the AI has sorted it. In Progress: a tech is on it. Waiting on Client: the tech needs an answer. Customer Reply: the client wrote back. Waiting on Equipment: it is held for parts. On Hold: it is parked for some other reason. Resolved: the fix is in. Closed: it is done. Locked: it is closed and shut to edits. Add or rename statuses at Settings > Service Desk > Status Workflow.
How do I log time on a ticket?
There are two doors. A timer starts on its own when you open a ticket. You can stop it from the chat widget in the corner. The other door is the time control in the reply box. Auto uses the slices the timer caught. Manual lets you type the minutes, with a date and a window if you want one. Time is logged per tech and feeds both reports and billing. The Time Entries card only edits or deletes time that is already there.
How do SLA settings work?
Configure SLA response and resolution targets per priority level in Settings → Service Levels → SLA Policies. SLA timers are tracked on tickets and violations are flagged.
What can I do on a ticket page?
The top of the page holds the ticket facts. You get the number, board, status, priority, SLA, client, contact and assigned tech. Below that is the thread of replies. You can send a reply and log time. You can attach product items for billing. You can change the status, priority or board. You can hand the ticket to another tech. You can also ask the AI assistant about the ticket. If you close the ticket from the Status field with a reply still typed, the portal asks first. Only Send & Close sends that text.
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