SR Fields

Here is a partial list of the default fields that appear in the Top Panel and the General Details tab in the main panel in an SR. Some of these fields are explained in this section. The remainder are discussed in the list of available fields at the bottom of this help page.

When you are done making all necessary changes to your service record, click OK/Apply to save your work.

Navigating the top panel

The top panel is intended for high-level information, such as the SR's category, assigned admin, and status. These fields remain fixed in place at the top of the screen so you can review them whenever the SR is open. To optimize space on your screen, the fields in the top panel appear side-by-side and the entire panel can be collapsed and expanded at any time.

Sub Type

In order to select another sub type, you must first create it under Settings > Service Desk Templates > Sub Types . Each sub type allows you to display a different set of fields on the form. Example: You have two departments using SysAid-- IT and Maintenance. Each of these two departments will need to record different types of information on the SR form, and you would therefore like to create a different form for each of them. By customizing the form, you can choose which fields appear on the form for each sub type. When IT is creating a new service record, they choose the IT sub type and the SR form shows only IT relevant fields. When Maintenance is creating a new service record, they choose the Maintenance sub type and the SR form shows only maintenance relevant fields.

Category

This allows you to categorize your service records. Categories are important for routing of service records, automatically calculating due dates, and reporting. To customize which categories are available, see the Category List.

Title and Description

The title and description of the service record.

If Automatic Suggestions from the Knowledge Base is enabled for admins, a list of related articles from the Knowledge Base appears as you type your title. This enables you to find articles that address your issue and resolve the SR faster. If a suggestion looks like it could be a good resource for resolving the issue, click the title to view the full article.

Notes

Allows you to log notes on the service record. When you add a note, SysAid includes your name and a timestamp indicating when the note was added.

To add a note, Click New. Enter your note, and click Add.

To see all the notes and not just the most recent notes, click All Notes.

By default, end users can view this field from the Self-Service Portal, and can even add their own notes.

When an admin adds notes, the end user can be notified as specified under Settings > Service Desk > General.

When an end user adds notes, the status of the SR can be updated as specified under Settings > Self-Service Portal > General Settings.

If you are using email integration, you can configure email replies on the SR to automatically populate in the notes.

Status

This allows you to record the progress of the service record from submission to resolution. You can change the status of a service record as many times as you like to reflect ongoing updates. Status changes can send out automatic notifications as specified under Settings > Service Desk > General. If you choose a closed status, the Closure Information field appears and you can select the appropriate closure information.

Example of the lifecycle of a service record:

1. A service record is submitted via email integration and automatically is given the status New.
2. The helpdesk dispatcher reads the service record and decides that it should be assigned to Tom. He assigns the SR to Tom and changes the status to Open.
3. Tom views the service record, realizes that he's missing some information, and sends the end user an email. He then changes the status to Awaiting Response.
4. The end user receives the email and responds with the desired information. SysAid Email Integration automatically adds the response to the service record and changes the status to Client Responded.
5. Tom sees that a response has arrived, reads the response, and realizes that he won't be able to resolve the issue for at least two days. He changes the status to Follow-up and puts a follow-up date on the service record.
6. In two days, the follow-up date arrives, and an escalation rule changes the status of the service record back to Open.
7. Tom sees that the service record has opened, and knows that he can resolve it now. Tom resolves the service record, changes its status to Closed, and enters the appropriate closure information.

Urgency, Impact, and Priority

These fields indicate how critical this service record is to the continued operation of your company.

• Urgency is how soon the issue will affect normal company operations.
• Impact is how big the effects of the problem will be.
• Priority is calculated based upon urgency and impact, as seen in the Priority Matrix.

Service records opened by email receive the urgency specified for that email address under email integration. Service records that are opened by end-users receive the default service record impact specified under Settings > Service Desk > General and either the default service record priority specified under Settings > Service Desk > General or the priority specified by any applicable priority rule or the Priority Matrix.

Due Date

The due date indicates by what date this service record must be resolved. Due dates can be calculated automatically using due date rules. If you don't want due dates changed after they've been set by the system, you can make them read-only by customizing the form using by clicking Design Form. Go here for more information on making form fields read-only.

Submit User

The submit user is the user who submitted the service record. The functionality here is the same as for request user, but with one major difference: the submit user can't be changed.

Assigned To and Admin Group

Assigned To is the administrator who is working on the service record, and Admin Group is the group of administrators who is responsible for the service record. Depending upon how you assign work in your service desk, you may assign a service record to an admin, an admin and an admin group, or just an admin group.

Assigned to and Admin Groups can receive automated notifications when a service record changes as specified under Settings > Service Desk > General. You can set up automatic SR routing by assigning an SR to an admin group with automatic dispatching enabled and leaving the Assigned To field blank. SysAid then assigns the SR to the admin in the group who is assigned to the least amount of SRs.

Attachments You can add relevant attachments to the SR by dragging them directly into the Attachments field or by clicking Browse

You can sort the attachments by type or by date added, by clicking Sort By and selecting how you want the attachments sorted.

You can filter the attachments to display specific types of attachments, by clicking the Filter drop-down and selecting an attachment type.

You can select preview attachments by clicking one and toggling through the other attached images in the gallery view.

You can easily locate ticket attachments by searching for them in the Attachments search bar.

You can download or delete an attachment by clicking on it's ellipses in the attachment form or from Download or Delete button in the the gallery view.

When you attach a file, SysAid validates that the file extension is a valid file type.

The following file types cannot be loaded as attachments:
jsp, jspx, jsw, jsv, jspf, wss, do, action, exe, msi, ps1, html, htm, pif, application, gadget, msp, com, scr, hta, cpl, msc, jar, bat, cmd, vb, vbs, vbe, jse, ws, wsf, ps1xml, ps2, ps2xml, psc1, psc2, msh, msh1, msh2, mshxml, msh1xml, msh2xml, scf, lnk, reg.

Activities

Activities represent the time an administrator spent working on a service record, and can include any relevant notes or telephone conversations with the end user. Activities logged here appear in SR activities reports.

To record an activity:

1. Click New.
2. Enter the Start Time for the activity.
3. Enter the End Time for the activity. This manually calculates the total time. Alternatively, you may manually enter the Total time in the format XX:XX.
4. Select a User to indicate who reported the activity.
5. Enter a Description for the activity.
6. Click Add Activity. Your activity appears in the table below.

The activity is logged against whichever user appears in the User field. If you click Change to change the user, you can log an activity for a different user.

To see all the activities and not just the most recent activities, click All Activities.

You can delete an activity at any time by clicking.

To view an activity, click in the activities row.

To copy the text of an activity, click Copy when the activity's light box is opened.

Messages

The message log records all emails sent from a service record and all emails received by SysAid that are connected to a service record.

SysAid identifies an email as being relevant to a service record if it finds "#XXXX" in the subject of an email and "XXXX" corresponds to an existing service record ID. (Example subject line: "Regarding Service Record #106 Software X keeps crashing")

Click Open All to open a new window that attaches all emails into one page for easy viewing.

To see all the messages and not just the most recent messages, click All Messages.

Click on the Body of a message to view the full message in a new window.

Viewing automatic messages in service records

Under specific circumstances, such as when a status changes, SysAid may send emails automatically from a service record. Automatic emails sent by a service record are also shown in the message log.

To show automatic messages, from automatic messages drop-down list, click Show.

To hide automatic messages, from automatic messages drop-down list, click Hide.

You may also choose whether automatic messages are shown or hidden by default under Settings > Service Desk > General using the option "Display the automatic notifications in messages." Regardless of what you select there, you can always click show/hide to show or hide automatic messages.

Selecting an SR template

The tabs and fields that appear on the SR form depend upon the SR template selected. When creating incidents, templates can be used to prepopulate fields on the incident, which is useful when creating incidents for common problems. When creating changes, requests, and problems, the chosen template determines the workflow for the SR. You can choose the SR template manually from the Template drop-down list. The template is also changed automatically after a category is selected for the SR (new SRs only). Note that the Template field appears on the SR form when creating new SRs only.

To create templates, go to Service Desk > Service Desk Templates > Incident/Request/Change/Problem Templates.
To choose which template is associated with each category, go to Settings > Service Desk > Categories.

Using advanced drop-down lists

Some of the drop-down lists on the SR form offer additional functionality. These drop-down lists allow you to type the list item you are looking for so that it is easier to find. You can also choose advanced search to open a dedicated search page.

Searching through an advanced drop-down list

Matching incidents to problems (ITIL only)

There are frequently instances where an incident is caused by a larger problem. When you are viewing an active incident, SysAid suggests open problems that may be the cause for the incident. By locating the correct problem, you can find out information that could help you to more easily resolve the incident, such as a workaround. You can also easily attach the incident to the problem, which will ensure that the incident is properly resolved when the problem is resolved.

Matching an incident to a problem

If there are one or more problems that could be related to the incident you are currently viewing, SysAid displays these in a list. You may click on a problem name to view details for that problem. This can help you understand if a problem has caused the incident. If you find that a problem has indeed caused the incident, return to the SR form and click the check box next to that problem's name. When you save the SR form, the problem is attached to the incident under related items.

Which problems does SysAid display?

SysAid displays problems in two instances:

• There is an active problem with the same category or main CI as the current incident.
• There is an active problem attached to an active incident that has the same category as the current incident.

Available fields for the SR form

The fields listed here are also available on non-workflow tabs on the Request, Change, and Problem forms.