Autotask Ticket Management

Overview

Autotask tickets are the core unit of service delivery in the PSA. Every client request, incident, problem, and change flows through the ticketing system. This skill covers comprehensive ticket management including business logic, SLA calculations, escalation rules, and performance metrics.

Anti-triggers

• The status, priority, and queue IDs configured in your tenant —

the tables below are Autotask defaults and are routinely customised; fetch the real values with autotask-picklists.

• Note bodies, attachments, or charges hanging off a ticket — use

autotask-ticket-notes-attachments.

• Structured multi-phase work — project Tasks are a separate entity

from Tickets; use autotask-projects.

• Tickets in Kaseya's other PSAs — BMS

(kaseya-bms-api-patterns) and VSA (kaseya-vsa-api-patterns) each have their own ticket objects that do not sync with Autotask.

• A ticket in a non-Kaseya PSA, or in an RMM's own helpdesk —

"ticket", "status", "queue", and "SLA" mean the same thing in all of them and none of them read Autotask. Confirm the system of record first, then use connectwise-psa-tickets, halopsa-tickets, atera-tickets, syncro-tickets, superops-tickets, or ninjaone-tickets.

Ticket Status Codes

Based on the Autotask API, these are the standard ticket status values:

Status Transition Rules

NEW (1) ──────────────────────────────> COMPLETE (5)
   │                                        ↑
   ↓                                        │
IN_PROGRESS (2) ──────────────────────────>─┤
   │         │                              │
   │         ↓                              │
   │    WAITING_CUSTOMER (6) ──────────────>─┤
   │         │                              │
   │         ↓                              │
   │    WAITING_MATERIALS (13) ────────────>─┘
   │
   ↓
ESCALATED (14) ─────> IN_PROGRESS (2) ────> COMPLETE (5)

Validation Rules:

• Completing directly from NEW generates a warning
• COMPLETE requires resolution field
• ESCALATED requires escalation reason
• IN_PROGRESS should have assigned resource

Ticket Priority Levels

Note: In Autotask, lower numbers = lower priority. Priority 4 is most urgent.

Ticket Field Reference

Core fields to know: title, companyID, status, priority, queueID (all required on create); contactID, issueType/subIssueType, assignedResourceID + assignedResourceRoleID (must be set together), dueDateTime, and resolution (required when completing).

See references/fields.md for the complete field reference (core, classification, assignment, SLA/timeline, contract/billing, and resolution fields).

SLA Calculation Logic

Default SLA Times by Priority

const SLA_DEFAULTS = {
  CRITICAL: { response: 1, resolution: 4 },   // hours
  HIGH:     { response: 2, resolution: 8 },
  MEDIUM:   { response: 4, resolution: 24 },
  LOW:      { response: 8, resolution: 72 }
};

Contract SLA terms override these defaults when present. See references/examples.md for the due-date calculation function.

SLA Clock Behavior

Escalation Rules

Escalation Levels

Automatic escalation triggers: an SLA violation (overdue dueDateTime), a stale WAITING_CUSTOMER status (no activity for 7+ days), and CRITICAL-priority tickets with no assignedResourceID. See references/examples.md for the rule-check implementation.

Ticket Metrics & KPIs

Key metrics: average resolution time (completedDate − createDate for COMPLETE tickets), SLA compliance rate (completed-on-time or still-within-SLA, divided by tickets with a due date), and escalation count. See references/examples.md for the calculation function and a sample status/priority distribution report.

MCP Tool Reference

Create a Ticket

Tool: autotask_create_ticket
Args: {
  "companyID": 12345,
  "title": "Unable to access email - multiple users affected",
  "description": "Sales team (5 users) reporting Outlook showing disconnected since 9am.",
  "queueID": 8,
  "priority": 3,
  "status": 1,
  "contactID": 67890
}

Required: companyID, title, status, priority, queueID

Update a Ticket

Tool: autotask_update_ticket
Args: {
  "ticketId": 54321,
  "status": 2,
  "assignedResourceID": 29744150,
  "assignedResourceRoleID": 29683459
}

Only fields provided will be changed. Common update scenarios:

Search Tickets

Tool: autotask_search_tickets
Args: {
  "companyID": 12345,
  "status": 1,
  "assignedResourceID": 29744150,
  "pageSize": 25
}

Filters: companyID, status, priority, queueID, assignedResourceID, pageSize

Get Ticket Details

Tool: autotask_get_ticket_details
Args: { "ticketID": 54321 }

Get Ticket History (Audit Trail)

Use this to answer status transition and change attribution questions — e.g. "when did this ticket move from In Progress to Waiting Customer?", "who changed the priority?", "how long did it sit in NEW before someone picked it up?". Each row is one audited field change on the ticket.

Tool: autotask_search_ticket_history
Args: { "ticketId": 54321, "pageSize": 100 }

Required: ticketId (Autotask does not support unscoped history queries — there is no way to ask "show me every status transition across all tickets" without enumerating ticket IDs and looping). pageSize defaults to 50, max 500.

Returns an array of history entries. Field set is picklist-dependent; common fields include id, ticketID, resourceID (who made the change), dateChanged, and field-specific before/after columns. For status transitions, look for changes where the audited field is status and compare the before/after picklist IDs against the status codes table above.

Workflow for "find tickets that went from status X to status Y":

1. autotask_search_tickets with the relevant filters (company, date range, current status) to get candidate ticket IDs.
2. For each candidate, call autotask_search_ticket_history and look for a status-field change where old=X and new=Y.
3. This is a fan-out pattern. On large tenants, scope the initial search tightly (by company, date, or assigned resource) before looping.

To fetch a single history entry by its ID:

Tool: autotask_get_ticket_history
Args: { "historyId": 987654 }

Add a Ticket Note

Tool: autotask_create_ticket_note
Args: {
  "ticketId": 54321,
  "title": "Status Update",
  "description": "Identified root cause as KB5034441 update. Applying fix.",
  "noteType": 1,
  "publish": 0
}

noteType: 1=Internal, 2=External. publish: 0=No, 1=Yes (visible to client portal).

API Patterns

Creating a Ticket with Business Validation

POST /v1.0/Tickets
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "companyID": 12345,
  "title": "Unable to access email - multiple users affected",
  "description": "Sales team (5 users) reporting Outlook showing disconnected since 9am. Webmail working.",
  "queueID": 8,
  "priority": 3,
  "status": 1,
  "issueType": 5,
  "subIssueType": 12,
  "contactID": 67890,
  "dueDateTime": "2024-02-15T17:00:00Z"
}

Query Builder Patterns

Open tickets for company with includes:

{
  "filter": [
    {"field": "companyID", "op": "eq", "value": 12345},
    {"field": "status", "op": "noteq", "value": 5}
  ],
  "includeFields": ["Company.companyName", "AssignedResource.firstName", "AssignedResource.lastName"]
}

Tickets created today (CORRECT — must use gte + lt range):

{
  "filter": [
    {"field": "createDate", "op": "gte", "value": "2026-04-13T00:00:00Z"},
    {"field": "createDate", "op": "lt", "value": "2026-04-14T00:00:00Z"}
  ]
}

Warning: Using only today's date returns zero results. You MUST use a range: gte today AND lt tomorrow. See the api-patterns skill for the full explanation and dynamic date computation.

See references/api.md for additional query patterns (SLA-breached tickets, date-range queries) and the full status-update / note-creation request bodies (complete-with-resolution, escalate-with-reason, internal vs external notes).

Common Workflows

Ticket Creation Flow

1. Validate company exists and has active contract
2. Check for duplicates - search open tickets with similar title
3. Auto-set defaults:

• Status → NEW (1)
• Priority → MEDIUM (2) if not specified

1. Calculate SLA based on priority and contract
2. Route to queue based on issue type
3. Send acknowledgment to contact

Status Transition Validation

Before transitioning a ticket, validate required fields per target status: COMPLETE requires resolution (and warns if skipping the IN_PROGRESS step), ESCALATED requires escalationReason, and IN_PROGRESS warns if no assignedResourceID is set. See references/examples.md for the validation function.

Error Handling

Common API Errors

Validation Errors

Best Practices

1. Validate before creating - Search for duplicates, verify company/contract
2. Use descriptive titles - Include who's affected and symptoms
3. Set accurate priority - Use impact/urgency matrix, not everything is Critical
4. Log time immediately - Don't batch at end of day
5. Update status promptly - Keeps queues accurate for reporting
6. Use internal notes for technical details - Keep external notes professional
7. Monitor SLA metrics - Address breaches before they escalate

Related Skills

• Autotask CRM - Company and contact management
• Autotask Contracts - Service agreements and billing
• Autotask Time Entries - Time tracking and billing
• Autotask API Patterns - Query builder and authentication