The ticket screen is where you handle a single request from start to finish: read the conversation, see who the requester is, reply, and track the ticket until it's done.
Open a ticket by clicking its card on the board or its row in the table. The screen has four areas:
| Area | Where | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Sidebar | Left | The linked record and its data, then the ticket details: priority, status, assignee, due date, tags and files |
| Conversation | Center | Every message on the ticket, oldest to newest, with the ticket's change history between them |
| Composer | Below the conversation | Where you write replies, internal notes and forwards, and choose who receives them |
| Side panels | Right, one at a time | The AI assistant, the record's full details, or all of the ticket's files |
This article walks through each area. The AI assistant has its own article, AI in Desk.
Status and priority
Priority and Status sit side by side at the top of the ticket details. Change either one from its dropdown.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Unassigned | New ticket, no one owns it yet |
| To do | Assigned, not started |
| In progress | Someone is working on it |
| On hold | Paused, for example waiting on an internal answer |
| Waiting for reply | Waiting for the requester to respond |
| Done | Resolved. A new email from the requester reopens it |
Priority has three levels: Urgent, Medium and Low. Your team's rules can set the priority of new tickets automatically.
The top of the screen shows the ticket title and its ticket number, for example #AR-1042. The ⋮ menu (More options) next to it has two actions:
- Move to another team: moves the ticket to another Desk team. Only Owners of both teams can move a ticket. The ticket arrives in the new team as Unassigned, and any scheduled replies on it are canceled.
- Delete ticket: removes the ticket and its data. Desk asks you to confirm, because a deleted ticket can't be recovered.
Assignment
Each ticket has one Assignee, the team member who owns it. Team Owners assign tickets; Editors can't assign, reassign or unassign.
- Assign: pick a team member in the Assignee field. An Unassigned ticket moves to To do.
- Unassign: clear the field. The ticket goes back to Unassigned.
- Automatic assignment: your team's rules can assign new tickets as they arrive, to a fixed person or in rotation (round robin). Rules are set up in Team Settings.
An Editor sees a ticket only once it's assigned to them. Assigning a ticket to an Editor puts it on their board.
Tip: If you set the status yourself while you assign, Desk keeps the status you chose.
Followers (CC and BCC)
Followers are people who stay copied on a ticket's email replies, so you don't have to add them to every message. A follower can be a colleague or anyone outside your organization.
| Followers (CC) | BCC followers | |
|---|---|---|
| On every reply you send | Copied in cc, visible to all recipients | Copied in bcc, hidden from the other recipients |
| Where you manage them | The cc: row in the composer | The bcc: row in the composer (click Bcc to show it) |
BCC followers are never copied on a forward. A forward goes only to the people you put on it.
How followers are added:
- From the email. Anyone in CC on the requester's email is added as a follower automatically.
- By you. Type a name or an email address in the cc: or bcc: row and select it, or choose Add new email for an address Desk doesn't know yet.
- By your team's rules. A rule can add followers to new tickets. The ticket's history then shows added followers via rule.
To remove a follower, click the X on their chip. Internal notes never go to followers: they stay inside Desk.
Note: On each sent reply, the conversation shows who was BCC'd. Only your team sees that line. Recipients don't.
Tags and due date
Tags group tickets so you can filter the board by them, for example refund or W-9 request.
- In the Tag field, pick one or more tags, or type a new name and choose Add "<name>" as tag.
- Remove a tag by clicking the X on its chip.
- Tags belong to your team. Other teams have their own.
- Your team's rules can add tags to new tickets automatically.
Due date is the day the ticket should be resolved. Pick it in the Due date field, or let a team rule set it. Overdue tickets are flagged on the board and in the table, so they stand out when you plan your day.
The conversation and audit trail
The center of the screen is one timeline: every message on the ticket, with the ticket's change history between them, oldest first.
Messages
| Message | Header | Who sees it |
|---|---|---|
| Email from the requester | <name> sent an email, with the sender's address | Your team |
| Your reply | <name> replied, with the recipients | Your team and the recipients |
| Forward | <name> forwarded, with the recipients | Your team and the recipients |
| Internal note | <name> with an internal note badge | Your team only |
- Click a message header to fold or unfold it.
- Long messages show Show more / Show less.
- Earlier emails quoted at the bottom of a reply are hidden. Click Show quoted history to see them.
- A sent reply shows its delivery state: Delivered, Pending or Failed.
Audit trail
Every change to the ticket is recorded in the timeline as <who> <what>, for example Dana changed status with the old and new values. Changes made by rules or by Desk itself show System as the actor. The audit trail records:
- Status, priority, assignee and team changes
- Due date and linked-record changes
- Tags and followers added or removed (including by a rule)
- Scheduled replies created, edited, canceled or failed
To keep the conversation readable, changes that happen between two messages fold into one line, such as 3 updates. Click it to expand. The floating button at the side of the timeline expands or collapses everything at once.
The composer
The composer under the conversation is where you write. Choose what you're writing from the dropdown on its left:
| Mode | Goes to | Use it to |
|---|---|---|
| Reply | The recipients you choose, by email | Answer the requester |
| Forward | New recipients, by email | Share the conversation with someone outside the ticket, such as a colleague in another department. A forward forks off the main thread: replies to it open a new ticket |
| Internal note | No one outside Desk | Leave context or a question for your team |
Recipients
- To: the requester is filled in for you. You can choose someone else, or type an address and select Add new email.
- cc: and bcc: hold the ticket's followers (see Followers). Click Bcc to show the bcc row.
- Internal notes have no recipients.
Formatting
Click Aa (Formatting options) to show the toolbar: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, text color, highlight color, bulleted and numbered lists, and clear formatting.
Forwarding
- To forward the whole conversation, choose Forward in the mode dropdown.
- To forward up to a certain point, open the ⋮ menu (Message actions) on that message and choose Forward. Desk includes that message and everything before it.
- The forwarded text is added to the composer, and you can edit it before sending. Internal notes are never included.
- The original attachments are added to the forward automatically, as in Gmail. Remove any you don't want to send.
- A forward forks off the ticket's main thread. When a recipient replies to it, the reply opens a new ticket instead of joining this one.
- The email subject starts with Fwd: and keeps the ticket number.
The same ⋮ menu has Reply, to answer that specific message.
Improve your text with AI
Click the ✦ icon (Edit or improve text with AI) to rewrite your draft, or just the text you selected: Rewrite, Make it friendly, Make it professional, Shorten, Expand, Simplify, or Fix spelling and grammar. If you don't like the result, undo it. See AI in Desk for details.
Drafts are saved
Unsent text is saved automatically for each ticket. If you leave the ticket or reload the page, your draft is still there when you come back. Saved drafts are kept in your browser, so they don't follow you to another computer.
Sending options
A reply or forward can go out now or at a time you choose.
- Send now: click Send.
- Schedule: click the arrow next to Send and pick Tomorrow at 09:00 AM, Next Monday at 09:00 AM, or Custom to choose any date and time.
Scheduled messages are sent as plain text, without formatting. Internal notes are always added right away.
Managing scheduled messages
When a ticket has scheduled messages, a line above the composer shows how many there are and when the next one goes out. Click See all scheduled to open the Scheduled messages list, where you can:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Edit message | Change the text. Save with Save, or send right away with Send now |
| Reschedule | Pick a new date and time |
| Send now | Send immediately instead of waiting |
| Cancel | Cancel it. The message isn't sent |
Scheduled messages are visible to everyone with access to the ticket. If a scheduled message is canceled automatically (for example, because the ticket was moved to another team) or fails to send, the timeline says so. Click Show message to bring its text back into the composer and send it again.
Attachments and the Files panel
Attaching files to a reply
Click the paperclip (Attach file) in the composer and choose Upload from computer or Upload from workspace, or drag a file into the composer. You can also paste a screenshot: take a screenshot on your computer, click in the composer and paste it (Ctrl+V), and Desk adds it as an attachment.
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Size | 20 MB per file, 20 MB in total per message (25 MB on a forward) |
| Number of files | 20 per message (15 on a forward) |
| Not allowed | Program and script files (such as .exe, .bat, .js, .msi) and files without an extension |
Files on the ticket
The Files section of the sidebar lists the files on the ticket: attachments received from the requester and files you sent. Click a file name to preview it, or Attach to add it to the reply you're writing.
Click All files to open the All files panel on the right:
- Files are grouped into Received (attachments from the requester) and Sent (attachments on your replies). Each shows who sent or uploaded it and its size.
- Search by file name, or click Filters to filter by File type (PDF, Image, Document), Source (Received, Sent) or Date range.
- Each file has Preview, Download and Attach.
If a received attachment couldn't be added, for example because it was too large or its type isn't accepted, the panel lists it with the reason.
The record card and More details
The top of the sidebar shows the record the requester is linked to (a customer or a vendor) and its key financial data. For example, an AR ticket shows the account name, invoice number, invoice amount, amount due, invoice status and due date. How Desk links the record is explained in Desk Overview.
- Change the linked record: click the pencil icon next to the record name.
- No record linked: a warning says This requester is not linked to any record. Click Click to assign to pick the right one.
- More details: opens the record's full view in the right-hand panel. It has the record's account information, its contacts, and the additional fields your team chose.
Previous tickets
The More details panel also lists Previous tickets from the same requester. The first 3 are shown. Click See all for the rest, and click a ticket to open it. This helps you check whether the same question came up before and how it was answered.
Team Owners choose which fields appear on the card and in More details, in Team Settings.
Wrap up
You have now learned how to:
- Set a ticket's status, priority, assignee, tags and due date.
- Keep people in the loop with CC and BCC followers.
- Read the conversation and the audit trail.
- Reply, forward or add an internal note, with formatting, attachments and AI help.
- Send now or schedule, and manage scheduled messages.
- Find every file on the ticket.
- Use the record card, More details and previous tickets.
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