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Ticket Category Families & Ticket Categories: Overview

Mitchell Ivany Updated by Mitchell Ivany

Read Time: 4 min

The introduction of Ticket Category Families adds a new layer of organization to the ticketing system. This allows for a structured hierarchy, improving how tickets are categorized and managed across teams.

What are Ticket Category Families?

A Ticket Category Family is a broad grouping of related support topics. It serves as the parent or top-level classification. Think of it as the general theme or department under which more specific issues fall ( for example, Billing, Technical Support, Installation).

What are Ticket Categories?

A Ticket Category is a more specific issue type that falls within a broader Category Family. It helps further narrow down the purpose of the ticket (for example, Account Overcharge (under Billing), Modem Not Working (under Technical Support)).

Why use Ticket Category Families and Ticket Categories?

When creating or managing a ticket:

  1. You first select the Category Family.
  2. Then, you choose a Ticket Category from a filtered list tied to that Family.

This two-tiered system allows different teams to maintain workflows that are organized and tailored to their specific types of support issues.

Permissions

Before getting started with the feature, your user roles will need to be adjusted to account for the permissions required to use the Ticket Category Family and Ticket Resolution Reason features.

If you're a Super Admin, you already have full access and no changes are needed. To learn more, see the Roles and Permissions article.
  1. Ticket Category permissions include access to category families.
    Permission Details
    1. View all ticket categories: Allows you to view all ticket categories and ticket category families.
    2. Create a ticket category: Allows you to create a ticket category and ticket category family.
    3. Update a ticket category: Allows you to update a ticket category and a ticket category family.
    4. Delete a ticket category: Allows you to delete a ticket category and ticket category family.

How to Create a Ticket Category Family and a Ticket Category

Creating a Ticket Category Family

  1. Navigate to Settings → Ticketing → Ticket Categories. Click Create Ticket Category Family.
  2. Enter a name for your category family (for example, Technical Support) within the Create Ticket Category Family window. Ensure the Enabled box is checked.
  3. Click Create.

Creating a Ticket Category

  1. Go to Settings → Ticketing → Ticket Categories. Find the Ticket Category Family you want to add the category to, then click Create Ticket Category on that row.
  2. Enter a name for your category (for example, Reported Outage) within the Create Ticket Category window. Ensure the Enabled box is checked.
  3. Click Create.

How to Edit a Ticket Category Family and a Ticket Category

Editing a Ticket Category Family

To edit a Ticket Category Family, click the down arrow next to Create Ticket Category and choose Edit or Delete.

In the Edit window, you can either rename the Category Family or disable it.

Disabling a Category Family removes all Ticket Categories within that family from being available for selection.

Editing a Ticket Category

  1. To edit a Ticket Category, click the gray icon to the left of the Category Family Name.
    1. This expands a dropdown showing all categories in that family.
  2. Click Edit Ticket Category to rename or disable the category.
  3. Click the down arrow for options to Delete Ticket Category or Reassign Category Family.
    Reassigning a Category Family moves the ticket category to a new Category Family within the system. It will no longer be linked to the original Category Family, including in any menus or tickets where the ticket category is currently assigned.

How to Edit Ticket Categories on a Ticket

You can add Ticket Categories to both new and existing tickets, whether they’re public or internal.

  1. When editing a ticket, you’ll find a section at the bottom of the window where you can select one or more categories.
  2. Use the filter area to choose which Category Families you want to display.
  3. Selecting a whole Category Family will add all of its ticket categories to the ticket.
  4. You can also pick individual categories from different families if needed.

You can add or change Ticket Categories by editing a ticket:

  1. From the Ticketing List View.
  2. From within the Ticket Management View.

Viewing Ticket Category Families and Ticket Categories on the Ticket.

Once you’ve added the categories you want and saved the ticket, you can view the assigned categories in several places.

  1. From the Ticket Management view, you can see assigned categories in the Ticket Information section and in the ticket’s Conversation History.
  2. From the Ticketing List view, you can quickly see assigned categories and their Category Families in the Overview column on the ticket’s second row.

Using Filters

When you need to search for specific Category Families or Categories, you can use the system’s built-in default filters. These make finding what you need much faster and easier.

Common Examples of Ticket Category Families and Ticket Categories

Some helpful categories and matching Category Families include:

  1. Escalations: Keeps the ticket with the original group but makes it easy for leads and supervisors to find escalated items.
    1. Category Family Example: Quality Assurance or Management Review
  2. Pending Bug Fix: Groups tickets related to known bugs so they can be tracked without changing their assigned group.
    1. Category Family Example: Product Issues or Software Bugs
  3. Pending Network Upgrade: Marks tickets that can’t be resolved until a planned network upgrade is completed.
    1. Category Family Example: Network Operations or Infrastructure Changes

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