Part 2 · Clients, sales and relationships

Helpdesk (tickets)

Receive, sort and resolve support requests from clients and your team in a single ticket queue linked to projects and the hour bank.

Symbifox 18.0 (September 2026 catalogue) · Modules: Helpdesk, Customer experience: help desk bridge, Timesheet from the chatter · Base applications: Helpdesk Management, Helpdesk Project · Revised 2026-09-12

The Helpdesk application (Helpdesk Blue Fox in the main menu) receives support requests, from clients and from your team alike, and tracks them in a single ticket queue, from receipt to resolution. Each ticket belongs to a team, moves from stage to stage, carries a priority and can be linked to a project, to its knowledge matrix and to the client's hour bank. A branded public form, portal tracking and automatic emails replace scattered exchanges. The application serves the people who answer requests, the people who supervise them and, through the portal, clients.

Overview#

A ticket (the French interface also says “billet”) is a numbered request, HT00001 for example, with a title, a description, a partner (the person or organization asking), an assigned user and a priority from zero to three stars. It belongs to a team: the Boréal demo has two, Soutien (support) and Plaintes (complaints). It moves through stages: New, In Progress, Awaiting, then Done, Cancelled or Rejected, three closing stages that send an email to the requester. It also carries a channel (Web, Email, Phone, Other, Expérience client), a category and tags.

On top of this Odoo base, Symbifox adds an État d'attente (waiting state) that is independent of the stage (waiting on the client or on an external party). It also adds a link to a project and to the team's hour bank, service deadlines (SLA, service level agreement), macros (ready-made replies) and a public support form per team. An acknowledgement of receipt, a satisfaction survey at closing, triage by the Gen assistant and the contact's persona card complete the layer. The links lead to Project, Timesheets, Hour bank, Knowledge base, Meetings, Surveys and Customer experience.

The list of all tickets is the most telling view. In the demo, it shows thirteen tickets with the priority, waiting state, number, title, partner, assigned user, project, tag, dates and stage.

Configuration#

Access and permissions#

The application has four levels, set on each person's form in Settings › Users: own tickets only, team tickets, all tickets, and manager. The manager level also opens the Configuration and Macros menus. A client with portal access sees their own tickets on the portal and can submit a new one there.

Settings#

Under Helpdesk Blue Fox › Configuration › Settings, the New ticket form (portal) section sets up the form that a client signed in to the portal sees. It holds Select team in Helpdesk portal (shows the team selector), Required Team and Required Category, checked in the demo.

Two settings live elsewhere. The AI provider used for triage is chosen in Settings › LLM Gateway (see Gen, the assistant). The address of the push notification relay, used for critical tickets, is set once per installation by your administrator.

Base data#

Before you receive tickets, create or check:

• the teams (Configuration › Teams), with their members, hour bank, service deadlines and, if needed, their public form;
• the stages (six in the demo) and the closing email tied to them;
• the channels, categories and tags you want to offer;
• the macros for frequent replies;
• a satisfaction survey in Surveys, to link to the team;
• the client's hour bank in Hour bank, if support time is deducted from it.

Getting started#

This walkthrough handles a call from Clinique dentaire Rosemont: its network printer no longer responds.

1. Open Helpdesk Blue Fox › Tickets › Tous les billets (all tickets), then select New.
2. Enter the title “Network printer not responding”, then choose the Soutien team and the partner Clinique dentaire Rosemont.
3. Choose the “Phone” channel, give it two priority stars and describe the problem in Description.
4. Choose yourself in Assigned user, then select Save. The ticket gets its number and the New stage.
5. Move the ticket to In Progress in the form's stage bar.
6. In the chatter (the message thread at the bottom of the form), select Send message to tell the clinic you are on it.
7. Once the printer works again, open the Feuilles de temps (timesheets) tab, enter the time spent, then move the ticket to Done.

The clinic receives the closing email; if the team has a satisfaction survey, it goes out too. The demo's ticket form shows the buttons and tabs this walkthrough uses.

Common tasks#

Create a ticket#

You create a ticket by hand when the request arrives by phone, in person or through an email you pass on.

1. Open Helpdesk Blue Fox › Tickets › Tous les billets, then select New.
2. Enter the Title and the Description.
3. Choose the Team, then the Partner; the partner's name and email carry over.
4. Set the Priority, the Channel, the Category and the Tags.
5. Select Save.

The ticket appears in the team's queue at the New stage, with its number.

Assign a ticket and move it forward#

The dashboard flags unassigned and unattended tickets; assigning is the first triage step.

1. Open the ticket, or select its card in Helpdesk Blue Fox › Tickets › My Tickets.
2. Choose the person in Assigned user.
3. Adjust the Priority: three stars flag a critical ticket.
4. Drag the card to the stage you want in the kanban, or select the stage in the form's stage bar.

The Stage column and the last update date change at once.

Put a ticket on hold for a third party#

When the ball is in the client's or a vendor's court, the ticket leaves your active pile without changing stage.

1. Open the ticket.
2. In État d'attente, choose waiting on the client or waiting on an external party.
3. Select Save.

The waiting state appears in the list's État d'attente column and works as a filter. Clear it when the answer arrives.

Reply with a macro#

A macro is a ready-made reply, restricted to certain teams or not, that you post in the ticket's chatter.

1. Open the ticket and select Appliquer macro (apply macro).
2. In the dialog, choose the macro, then select Appliquer (apply).

The macro's content is posted in the chatter; reread it and complete it as needed.

Send an update to the client#

The update email carries your branding and the ticket number, and it never goes out without your review.

1. Open the ticket and select Envoyer une mise à jour (send an update).
2. In the composer, prefilled with the update template, adapt the text.
3. Select Send.

The email goes to the ticket's partner and stays in the chatter.

Give the client access to their ticket#

A client with portal access finds their ticket at the address shown on the form.

1. Open the ticket and read Client a un accès portail (client has portal access) and Lien portail client (client portal link).
2. Select Abonner le client (subscribe the client) so the client receives the thread's messages without an invitation email.
3. Send the client the portal link in your next update.

The client follows progress on the portal, in your colours, and can reply there.

Log time spent on a ticket#

Time logged on a ticket lands on the ticket's project, so it is deducted from the team's hour bank.

1. Open the ticket and its Feuilles de temps tab.
2. Add a line: date, description, duration.
3. Select Save.

Temps total (h) (total time) updates, along with Solde banque (h) (bank balance); a ribbon flags Solde bas (low balance).

Link a ticket to a project and the knowledge matrix#

The project link charges the time to the right engagement; the matrix link checks that the request falls within the engagement's scope.

1. Open the ticket.
2. Choose the Project and, if needed, the Task.
3. Choose the matching Élément matrice (matrix item) in the project's matrix.
4. Select Save.

Validation scope (scope check) shows Dans le scope (in scope), Élément en attente (item pending), Hors scope (out of scope) or Non vérifié (not checked). État de l'élément (item status) repeats the item's status in the matrix.

Convert a ticket into a meeting#

When the request calls for a meeting, create the meeting report from the ticket.

1. Open the ticket and select Convertir en rencontre (convert to meeting).
2. Complete the draft report, prefilled with the ticket title, in Meetings.

The ticket counts its Rencontres liées (linked meetings) in Nb. rencontres (number of meetings), and the report keeps its Ticket d'origine (source ticket).

Ask Gen to triage a ticket#

Triage proposes a category, a stage, a person and a draft first reply; it changes nothing by itself.

1. Open the ticket and select Triage IA (AI triage).
2. Open the Triage IA tab and read the Suggestion IA (AI suggestion).
3. Apply what suits you: stage, assigned user, reply.

Dernier triage (last triage) keeps the date. With no provider configured, the button only shows a notification and the ticket stays untouched. A temporary error is noted on the ticket, and you can try again.

View the contact's persona card#

The persona card sums up how to address the contact: style, greeting, tone and payment reliability.

1. Open the ticket and its Persona tab.
2. Read Style d'adresse (form of address), Salutation préférée (preferred greeting), Formule de clôture (closing line), Ton du contact (contact's tone), Notre ton (our tone) and Qualité de paiement (payment reliability).
3. Select Ouvrir la fiche persona (open the persona card) to edit it, or Créer maintenant (create now) if the contact does not have one yet.

These cues help before you write an update or apply a macro.

Close a ticket#

Closing sends the stage's email and, if the team has one, the satisfaction survey.

1. Open the ticket and check that the solution is recorded in the chatter.
2. Move the ticket to Done, Cancelled or Rejected.

The partner receives the stage's “Helpdesk : Ticket fermé” (ticket closed) email. When the survey comes back, Réponse CSAT (CSAT response, the customer satisfaction score) and État CSAT (CSAT status) show it on the ticket.

Open a public support form#

Each team can expose a branded form, with no account or password, at /support/<slug>.

1. Open Helpdesk Blue Fox › Configuration › Teams, then the team.
2. In the Public form tab, enter the Slug (the identifier in the address) and check Public form enabled.
3. Write the Public form intro and the Public form success message.
4. Optional: choose the Public form tags offered to the visitor (a department selector, for example), their Public form tag label and Public form tag required.
5. Check Accusé réception auto (automatic acknowledgement) to confirm receipt by email right away.
6. Select Save, then open the address shown in Public form URL.

Each submission creates a ticket in the team, marked with the chosen tag, and the visitor sees the thank-you page.

Set service deadlines and automatic tagging#

Service deadlines (SLA) set the time for a first response and for resolution; tagging rules add a tag based on the text of the request.

1. Open the team and its SLA & auto-tag tab.
2. Enter the first response deadline and the resolution deadline, in hours; 0 turns the deadline off.
3. In Règles auto-tag (auto-tag rules), add a line: the Regex (i) expression to look for in the subject and description, and the Tag à appliquer (tag to apply).
4. Select Save.

Each new ticket gets Échéance première réponse (first response due) and Échéance résolution (resolution due). A SLA réponse dépassée (response SLA missed) or SLA résolution dépassée (resolution SLA missed) ribbon appears when a deadline slips, and a follow-up activity is scheduled.

Link a team to an hour bank and to alerts#

The hour bank balance shows on every ticket of the team, and a critical ticket triggers a push notification.

1. Open the team and its Hour bank & alerts tab.
2. Choose the bank in Hour bank and the threshold in Low balance threshold (h).
3. Check ntfy on critical and choose the ntfy priority threshold: High or Very High.
4. Choose the Sondage CSAT (CSAT survey) sent at closing.
5. Select Save.

The team's tickets show Banque d'heures (hour bank) and Solde banque (h). A ticket created at, or raised to, the chosen priority sends the notification.

Create a macro#

You write a macro once and reuse it on every ticket, or only on those of certain teams.

1. Open Helpdesk Blue Fox › Macros, then select New.
2. Enter the Name and the Contenu (content), exactly as it will be posted in the thread.
3. Optional: limit the Équipes applicables (applicable teams); left empty, the macro works everywhere.
4. Select Save.

The macro appears in the Appliquer macro dialog of the tickets concerned.

The menus, one by one#

Helpdesk Blue Fox: the main menu.

Helpdesk Blue Fox › Dashboard: one card per team, in kanban. In the demo, Plaintes and Soutien, each with a To Do button (6 for Soutien) and the Unassigned, Unattended and High Priority counters. Kanban, list and pivot views. This is the morning screen: it shows where the orphan tickets are.

Helpdesk Blue Fox › Tickets: a grouping menu.

Helpdesk Blue Fox › Tickets › My Tickets: the tickets assigned to you, in a kanban by stage: New, In Progress, Awaiting, then Done, Cancelled and Rejected, folded. Stage adds a column. In the demo, Camille has none. Kanban, list, pivot and form views.

Helpdesk Blue Fox › Tickets › Tous les billets: the list of all tickets your permissions let you see, described in Overview. Group by team, stage or assigned user, and filter on the waiting state.

Helpdesk Blue Fox › Reporting: a grouping menu.

Helpdesk Blue Fox › Reporting › Tickets: a pivot table of tickets, with teams in rows and creation months in columns. Measures changes the indicator, and buttons flip the axes, expand everything and download. A graph view is also available.

Helpdesk Blue Fox › Configuration: a grouping menu, for managers only.

Helpdesk Blue Fox › Configuration › Settings: the page described in Settings.

Helpdesk Blue Fox › Configuration › Channels: the list of incoming channels, which you can reorder. In the demo: Web, Email, Phone, Other and Expérience client.

Helpdesk Blue Fox › Configuration › Categories: the list of ticket categories; empty in the demo. The category is required on the portal form when Required Category is checked.

Helpdesk Blue Fox › Configuration › Stages: the stages, with Stage Name, Email Template and Helpdesk Teams (empty means all). In the demo, Done, Cancelled and Rejected send “Helpdesk : Ticket fermé”.

Helpdesk Blue Fox › Configuration › Teams: the list of teams, with Name, Category and four ticket counters. The form carries the three tabs added by Symbifox: Public form, SLA & auto-tag and Hour bank & alerts.

Helpdesk Blue Fox › Configuration › Ticket Tags: the list of tags; empty in the demo. Tagging rules and the public form's selector use these tags.

Helpdesk Blue Fox › Macros: the list of ready-made replies, with Name and Équipes applicables; empty in the demo.

Reference#

Fields of the Helpdesk Ticket form#

Fields of the Team form#

Fields of the Macro form#

Reports and exports#

• Reporting › Tickets: pivot table and graph, with a spreadsheet download.
• Dashboard: the counters per team, also in list and pivot views.
• Ticket lists export like any list (see Common actions in every application).
• A Helpdesk tile (open, unassigned, critical and waiting tickets, by team) appears in My desk, Dashboard and Progress.

Automations#

• When a ticket is created, the team's tagging rules add their tags and the service deadlines are calculated.
• A ticket received through the public form triggers the acknowledgement of receipt, if the team has it checked.
• A ticket created at, or raised to, the threshold priority sends a push notification, if the team has it checked.
• Twice a day, a follow-up activity is scheduled on tickets whose service deadline has just been missed.
• When a ticket reaches a closing stage, the stage's email goes out, then the team's satisfaction survey.
• Automatic replies, bulk mailings and bounces received by email do not open a ticket.
• Time logged on a ticket is charged to the ticket's project and deducted from the hour bank.

Public pages and portal#

• /support/<slug>: the team's public form, in your colours, and its thank-you page.
• /my/ticket/…: the ticket on the client portal, in your colours, with its message thread. The portal also offers the client's list of tickets and the new ticket form set up in Settings.

Modules that extend this application#

The base application is the Odoo Community Association (OCA) helpdesk, with its extension that links a ticket to a project and a task. Symbifox adds its own layer.

Complaints collected in Customer experience join the same queue.

Logging time from the chatter comes from a module shared with Projects.

Understanding#

A community base, a Symbifox layer. Tickets, teams, stages, channels, categories and tags come from the OCA helpdesk. Symbifox does not change its logic; it connects it to its own building blocks (hour bank, matrix, meetings, persona, Gen). That is why the screens mix languages: the labels of the added layer do not follow the translation of the base.

Why the waiting state is not a stage. A stage says where your work stands; the waiting state says who you are waiting for. Keeping them apart keeps the kanban honest: an In Progress ticket that waits on the client stays in progress, but leaves the pile of what you can do today.

Why nothing goes out without you. The macro is posted in the thread, the update opens a composer, and triage only suggests: the decision stays human. The only automatic sends are the acknowledgement of receipt, the closing email and the survey, all set per team.

Why the time lands on the project. The hour bank is deducted by project. A time line logged on a ticket is therefore posted to the ticket's project, which avoids any double entry and shrinks the balance in plain sight.

The public form and its safeguards. A form open to everyone is a target: hence the trap field, the email check, the limits on attachments and the cap of five submissions per address every ten minutes. Anything beyond that gets the same thank-you page, so the bot learns nothing and a visitor in a hurry is not confused.

What Abonner le client does. It adds the partner to the ticket's followers without sending an invitation, unlike the usual way of adding a follower. The client then receives the thread's messages, not the internal notes.

Troubleshooting#

See also#

• Project, Timesheets and Hour bank: where support time goes.
• Knowledge base: the matrix that says whether a request falls within the engagement's scope.
• Meetings: the meeting report created from a ticket.
• Surveys: the satisfaction survey sent at closing.
• Customer experience: complaints that become tickets.
• Gen, the assistant: the provider behind triage.
• My desk, Dashboard and Progress: the tickets tile.
• Common actions in every application: kanban, lists, filters, chatter.