When the same job comes back every week, month or quarter
How to make routine work create itself
Make a recurring ticket open repeat work for you. Add your procedure as a checklist. Make the steps required so the ticket stays open until they are done.
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How to do it
Write the procedure first.
Publish it under the client's Documentation > Procedures tab. A company-wide procedure works on any client's ticket. Each step you write is a line on the checklist. Keep each step small. The checklist is a copy. Later edits to the procedure do not change a checklist that is on a ticket.
Open Settings > Service Desk > Recurring Tickets. Click New Recurring Ticket.
Use one rule for each client and each job, such as a monthly patch review or a quarterly restore test. Pick the Client first. The rule belongs to that one client.
Name the procedure in the Title or Problem / description.
The tech sees the Problem / description on every ticket the rule makes. Write a line like this: Use the Monthly patch review procedure. Link it from Related Items. That line ties the rule to the checklist. The rule cannot add it for you.
Pick a Cadence and a Start date, and add Tags (optional) if you want them.
Cadence is Daily, Weekly, Every two weeks, Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly. The tags you pick go on every ticket the rule makes. Use them to find the whole series later. Tickets fire at the start of the workday. Weekends and holidays are skipped.
Set Priority, Board (optional) and Assignee (optional). Then click Create rule.
Leave Assignee on Unassigned (triage) if you want the ticket to land with whoever is free. Pick a person if the same tech always does this job. Leave Active - fires on schedule on.
When the ticket opens, link the procedure.
Open the ticket. Click + Link Item in Related Items and search for the procedure by name. Click it in the results. A Procedure checklist card opens with every step unticked. Do this once, at the start. A checklist can only go on an open ticket. A procedure can be on a ticket once.
Tick Required to close on the checklist.
A Required to close tag shows next to the title. From then on, you cannot close the ticket until every step that is not Optional is ticked. The message reads: Finish these required checklist steps before closing. It lists the open steps.
Tick each step as the work gets done.
A ticked step shows Done by, the tech's name and the time. The count at the top, such as 2 of 5 done, updates at once. Untick a step to reopen it.
Close the ticket, then check the list next month.
Back on Recurring Tickets, each row shows Next run, Last run and how many tickets it has made. Say the system was down and the rule fell behind. It makes one ticket on the first pass. Then it moves to the next date. It does not make one for each missed cycle.
Pause or delete a rule when the job ends.
Click Pause to stop a rule without losing it. Click Resume to turn it back on. The trash icon deletes the rule only. The tickets it made stay. Your client sees the checklist as read-only. If the procedure is marked client visible, they see each step. If not, they see only the progress count.
Note: Removing the linked procedure takes the checklist off the ticket. The ticks go too. The portal asks you to confirm first. Leave it on until the ticket is closed.
The pages behind each click
What you will have
- Have repeat work open as a ticket by itself.
- Name the procedure in the ticket so the tech knows which one to use.
- Put the procedure on the ticket as a checklist when the work starts.
- Make the steps required, so the ticket cannot close with a step undone.
- Check the list later to see what ran and when.
Why it works this way: How to make routine work create itself
A recurring ticket is a rule. It makes one ticket for one client on a set date. After that it is a normal ticket. It gets your Ticket Rules and its SLA deadlines.
A recurring rule does not add a checklist. The rule form has no procedure field. The tech links the procedure on the ticket.
A checklist never blocks closing until you tick Required to close. A step marked Optional never blocks, even then.
Other ways to do this: How to make routine work create itself
Workflows
Build a Workflow template with many steps. Push it by hand with Apply Template, or fire it from an Automation.
Elise attaches the checklist
When a new ticket closely matches a published procedure, Elise can add it as a checklist. Turn on three switches at Settings > Service Desk > Intake AI. They are Intake AI, AI Doc Suggestions and AI Procedure Checklists.
If it did not work: How to make routine work create itself
- A rule made no ticket today. Check that it is Active. Check that today is an open business day. Check that its Next run date has come.
- Nothing shows after + Link Item. The procedure may not be published. It may be under a different client. Publish it under Documentation > Procedures first.
- The ticket will not close. Open the checklist and tick the required steps. Mark a step Optional in the procedure if it should never block.
- The Tags (optional) field is missing on the rule. Pick a Client first.
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