Automating your service desk

Create automation rules to perform actions in your service desk based on specific triggers and conditions. For example, you can set an automation rule that alerts an agent when a high-priority issue is created. Or, service desk can reopen an issue if your customer comments on it after its been resolved.

Set up a preset automation rule

To set up an automation rule:

1. In your service desk project settings, click Automation and select Add rule.
2. Select a preset rule from the list (see the table below for the available options) and then select Next. The rule configuration screen appears.
3. Edit the rule name and description as needed. The rule name appears on the main automation settings page, so changing the name helps you more easily reference what each rule does.
4. Edit and update any fields that appear in red text in the rule's WHEN, IF, and THEN conditions.
5. Select Save and you're done.

Your service desk project comes with preset rules that you can use to set up automation. Here are the preset rules that come out-of-the-box to help your team and your customers:

Edit preset automation rules

If you want to edit a preset rule, select Edit next to the rule in your automation list to see how it's configured.

To edit a rule, select the WHEN, IF, or THEN fields to change your rule's trigger, conditions or resulting actions. Use Tips for customizing this rule for suggestions on what to enter in these fields.

If you make changes to the rule, be sure to click Save to confirm your edits.

Create a custom automation rule

To create a custom automation rule:

1. In your service desk project settings, click Automation and select Add rule.
2. Select Custom rule from the list and then select Next. The rule configuration screen appears.
3. Configure your rule by selecting and defining WHEN, IF, and THEN fields. See the table below for the available options.
4. Select Save and you're all set.

Here are the rules sets that are allowed in the automation engine:

Rule options

Choose Options in the rules configuration page to change the behavior of how a rule runs, as shown in the image below:

Run rule as: By default, rules run as the person who created the project. Alternatively, you can run rules as the person who triggers the rule. For example, if a rule responds to a customer, then you might want the comment to be from the agent who is working on the request, not from the person who created the project. In this case, you would want to set the Run rule as to User who triggered the rule. Make sure the person you choose has permission to complete all the actions taken by the rule.

Triggered by other rules: By default, rules can trigger other rules. In some cases, you might need to disable this to prevent two rules from triggering each other infinitely.

To change the default Run as user, go to Automation > Change default event user. Make sure the person you choose has permission to perform all the actions that you might try to automate in all your rules.

Disable an automation rule

To disable an automation rule:

1. In your service desk project settings, click Automation.
2. Select Edit next to the rule in your automation list. The rule configuration screen appears.
3. Untick the Enable rule checkbox and click Save.

Disabled rules appear in your automation list with a DISABLED badge.