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Using Parent Tickets

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Within Sonar's ticketing interface it is possible to assign a parent ticket to link tickets together in a parent/child relationship. A parent ticket can have multiple child tickets attached to it and provides you with the ability to easily track related tickets, mass update the ticket statuses, and also have any comments and/or public replies automatically populate to all child tickets. This is particularly helpful in situations where you have a primary issue that is the root cause for multiple accounts, such as a network outage or a bug that multiple customers are reporting.

For example, as customers send in tickets you might notice that many of these tickets are referring to the same issue - such as multiple customers experiencing issues accessing the customer portal, or customers experiencing issues due to a tower outage. You could handle the tickets on a one by one basis, which would involve manually updating the status of each ticket as well as posting any necessary comments and/or replies to each individual ticket. However, using the parent ticket functionality will allow you to do this, but in a quicker and more efficient way. You can designate one ticket as the parent and add the rest of the related tickets as children. This way you can easily inform all reporting customers of any updates regarding the issue, and once it is resolved, can quickly send out a reply to all tickets at once and update all of the ticket statuses to closed.

How To Add A Parent Ticket

To add a parent ticket, first, navigate to the ticket that you want to make the child. Once you have found your desired child ticket from within your ticketing interface, open up the Edit Ticket menu. To get the Edit Ticket menu opened, follow the steps below:

  1. Click on applicable ticket title to open up the ticket.
  2. With the ticket populated, click on "Edit".
  3. From the Edit Ticket modal, select which ticket you would like to assign as the parent from the "Parent Ticket" dropdown menu.
Internal tickets can also be used for the parent ticket.

Once you have linked the tickets, you will be able to see the parent ticket listed now when you navigate to the details of the child ticket, both within the sidebar menu and also on the ticket screen (ticket screen is pictured below).

After the child/parent relationship has been established between tickets, you will also be able to see the child tickets listed from within a parent ticket.

Comments, Replies & Status Changes

With parent tickets you can push any comments and/or replies out to all child tickets under that parent, and also mass change the statuses of all the tickets at once.

How To Post Comments

To post a comment to all child tickets, navigate to the screen of the parent ticket that the children are attached to. The "Add Internal Comment" tab is open by default – under that tab, enter in the text you wish to add to all related tickets. Ensure the "Add comment to child ticket(s)" box is checked, and click "Create". This will add an internal comment to the parent ticket and all child tickets that are attached to it.

The comment will now be visible under the Conversation History header on the parent ticket and all associated child tickets.

How To Send Replies

To send replies out to all recipients listed on the parent ticket as well as all child tickets, first navigate to the screen of the parent ticket. Click into the "Add External Reply" tab and fill out the text you wish to send within the Body section of the email. Next, make sure the "Add reply to child ticket(s)" box is checked and then click "Send External Reply".

The reply will be sent out to all child tickets that are under the parent, and will now be visible from within each ticket's conversation history.

How To Change Statuses

To change the status of the parent ticket and all associated child tickets, first, navigate to the screen of the parent ticket. You can update the status of all tickets to Closed through the use of comments, or you can update the tickets to any available statuses through the use of sending replies.

Using A Comment To Update Status: Ensure you are in the "Add Internal Comment" tab and fill out the text you wish to post as a comment. Make sure the "Close ticket" and "Update status on child ticket(s)" boxes are both checked – you can only update the status of tickets to Closed through the use of posting a comment. If you only have the "Close ticket" box checked, it will only change the status of the parent ticket – not the children tickets. If you want the comment to be posted to all children tickets, also select the "Add comment to child ticket(s)" box. When ready to close out the tickets and post the comment(s), click "Create".

Using A Reply To Update Status: Ensure you are in the "Add External Reply" tab, and fill out the Body section of the email. Then, choose the status you want to update all the tickets to from the dropdown menu "Update ticket status". Add a checkmark alongside the "Update status on child ticket(s)" box – if it is not checked, only the status of the parent ticket will be updated. If you want the reply to be sent out to all child tickets, ensure the "Add reply to child ticket(s)" box is checked as well. When ready to send out your reply and update the ticket status, click "Send External Reply".

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