Table of Contents

Merged Tickets: Overview & Best Practices

Jennifer Trower Updated by Jennifer Trower

Read Time: 5 mins

Merging combines two tickets when they cover the same issue. This commonly happens when a subscriber emails twice about one problem, replies by starting a new message instead of responding to the existing thread, or when a second ticket arrives on an issue your team already tracks.

Sonar keeps the ticket you merge. It receives a Merged status, stays reachable at its original URL, and displays a banner linking to the ticket it was merged into. That ticket is called the host ticket, and it lists every ticket merged into it.

Prerequisites

  • Two existing tickets that cover the same issue.
  • Both tickets assigned to the same account or network site. If the host ticket is not assigned to an account or network site, you can only merge other unassigned tickets into it.

Permissions

Before merging tickets, your user roles need to be adjusted to account for the permissions required.

If you are a Super Admin, you already have full access and no changes are needed. To learn more, see the User Role Creation & Best Practices documentation.
Entity
Permission
Reason
Ticket
View all non-private tickets
Open a merged ticket and its host ticket.
Ticket
Update a ticket
Merge a ticket from the Edit dropdown.

How to Merge a Ticket

Use these steps when two tickets cover the same issue and you want to consolidate them.

  1. From the Ticketing interface, locate the ticket you will use as the host ticket.
  2. Expand the dropdown next to the Edit button and select Merge Ticket. You can do this from the ticket list or from the ticket details page.
  3. In the Merge Ticket modal, open the Ticket to be merged dropdown and select the ticket you want to merge.
    Filter the list by typing either the ticket ID or the ticket name.
  4. Click Merge.

The dropdown lists tickets assigned to the same account or network site as the host ticket, excluding the host ticket itself. You merge one ticket at a time.

If the host ticket is not assigned to an account or network site, the list displays other unassigned tickets in your instance, up to a maximum of 50. Enter search terms to refine the list.

Best Practices

  • Merge into the ticket your team is actively working on. Direction matters. The ticket you merge becomes read only, so choose the ticket with the fuller history, the assigned user, and the subscriber correspondence as the host.
  • Confirm both tickets cover the same issue before you merge. A merge cannot be reversed. If two tickets share an account but describe different problems, keep them separate.
  • Merge as soon as you spot the duplicate. While both tickets stay open, two users can reply separately and send the subscriber conflicting answers.
  • Check recipients before merging a public ticket. Confirm the host ticket carries every recipient who needs the reply so no one drops out of the correspondence.
Merging removes a ticket from the main ticket list but does not resolve the underlying issue. Work the issue to completion on the host ticket.

When to Merge and When to Use a Parent Ticket

Merging and child tickets fill similar roles, so the deciding question is whether each ticket requires its own reply and resolution.

Merge when the conversations belong together in one place:
  • A subscriber starts a new ticket with every reply, either by sending a new message instead of replying or by copying a different mailbox.
  • You maintain an internal tracking ticket for a network outage and want alert emails or notices captured in one master ticket rather than spread across separate tickets.
  • Multiple subscribers report the same underlying issue, and each one requires their own reply.
  • Each ticket requires its own owner, status, or resolution reason.
To learn more, see the Using Parent Tickets documentation.

Working With the Host Ticket

The host ticket displays a Merged Tickets panel listing every ticket merged into it. Each entry is a link to that ticket. The conversation history also records an entry for each merge, naming the merged ticket by ID and title. The host ticket keeps its own description, status, and priority.

Click an entry in the Merged Tickets panel to open a quick view of that ticket, showing its description, status, priority, and the host ticket it was merged into. Click “Manage” in the quick view to open the merged ticket in full.

Working With a Merged Ticket

Open a merged ticket directly, or navigate to its URL, and it displays with a Merged status and a banner linking to the host ticket. Links your team shared before the merge keep working, and ticket IDs your team recorded still resolve.

Merged tickets are read only. The Edit button is not available on them, so you work the issue on the host ticket.

Merging also sets a closed date and time on the merged ticket, matching the moment the merge completed. The merged ticket records the host ticket in a Merged Into Ticket field.

What Carries Over

Item
Behavior after the merge
The merged ticket
Kept and set to a Merged status. Sonar no longer deletes it.
The merged ticket URL
Still resolves, and opens the ticket with a banner linking to the host ticket.
Description
Stays on the merged ticket. View it in the quick view from the Merged Tickets panel.
Title and ticket ID
Recorded in the conversation history entry that logs the merge.
Host ticket description
Unchanged. Merging no longer overwrites it.
Closed date and time
Set on the merged ticket at the moment the merge completes.
Editing
The Edit button is not available on a merged ticket.
Main ticket list
Merged tickets are excluded.

Considerations When Merging Tickets

  • Sonar keeps the merged ticket and sets it to a Merged status. It remains accessible at its original URL.
  • The merged ticket becomes read only. The Edit button is not available, so neither editing nor deleting is possible from the ticket.
  • Merged tickets do not appear in the main ticket list. Reach them from the Merged Tickets panel on the host ticket.
  • Sonar applies the Merged status itself. You only see it when you open a merged ticket. It is not available in the status dropdown, in mass editing, or as a status you can set or clear.
Once a ticket is merged, the merge cannot be reversed. Confirm both tickets cover the same issue before you merge.

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