Next Ticket for ConnectWise Manage – MSPbots.ai

The NextTicket for ConnectWise Manage app is an automated ticket dispatch system that gives the technicians and dispatchers a portal where they can identify the next ticket that will be worked on. The dispatching is based on a scoring system identified by the organization considering predefined rules that will help deliver value to the MSP faster.

The Next Ticket for ConnectWise Manage app does not support Project Tickets. For more detailed information, see Next Ticket App not Support Project Tickets.

1. How to access the app

To access the NextTicket app for ConnectWise in MSPbots, follow these steps:

Open the MSPbots app.
Click Apps on the left pane.
When the Apps tab opens, click NextTicket for ConnectWise Manage.

2. Why should you care?

For Owner and Service Managers: The NextTicket app provides an automated way of dispatching tickets to technicians and ensures that technicians and dispatchers are more objective in catering tickets based on priority, importance, and time criticality.
For Dispatchers: This app allows dispatchers to dispatch tickets in a few clicks. They can easily see the highest ticket priority for each technician considering their skillset.
For Technicians: This app helps technicians easily identify the ticket they should work on next. Technicians can reject the ticket provided they supply a reason for rejection. They can also monitor their scheduled tickets for the day on the same page.

3. Prerequisites

ConnectWise Manage Integration

Properly configured priority rules. Only admin users can set and modify priority rules.
Optional: Add Companies to the Watch List.

4. Admin Users: Setup Procedures

Only admin users have permission to adjust the settings for the NextTicket Manager.

4.1. Set the ticket filter

You can set filters to help you narrow down the tickets applicable to each technician.

To set the ticket filter, follow these steps:

On the NextTicket for ConnectWise screen, select the Tickets filter list and click Add New Filter.
When the Filter Settings window opens, enter the filter name in the Filter Name box.
In the center pane, select the applicable filter type from the Select Fields list.
When two new boxes or lists appear beside the Select Fields list, indicate the other filter specifications.
If you want to add more groups or conditions for the filter, click the plus + sign beside the AND and OR tabs, and select either Add Group or Add Condition.
You can also click Preview to check if the new filter settings or conditions are valid.
When you're done setting up the filter, click Save.

4.2. Delete filter conditions

In the Filter Settings window, you can delete filter conditions individually or delete them all at once.

To delete filter conditions individually, click the delete icon corresponding to the condition you want to delete.

To delete all filter conditions, click the trash icon and click Clear All.

4.3. Accept or Reject the top-priority ticket

Selecting a ticket filter and a user on the NextTicket for ConnectWise screen automatically triggers the Request Next Ticket action and refreshes the user's top-priority ticket and its details. The Accept and Reject buttons on this screen allow you to accept the ticket, or reject it if you think it should not be assigned to the selected user, provided a reason for rejection is given.

Follow these steps to accept or reject a top-priority ticket:

On the NextTicket for ConnectWise screen, select the applicable filter from the Tickets filter list.
Select a user to see the assigned top-priority ticket.
Once the user's top-priority ticket details appear, review then click Accept or Reject.

Accepting the next ticket
Click the Accept button to start working on the next ticket.
* The Accept button is available in the NextTicket Manager user interface and MS Teams when the Enable Accept Button option is activated (See Configure Accept ticket actions). Clicking this button will let the user take ownership of the provided top-priority ticket and send the corresponding NT bot messages to the user's MS Teams.
* You can only accept the next ticket provided to you when the lock has not expired, and you cannot click on the Accept button of another user's next ticket.

Clicking the Accept button will:
1. Assign you as the new Ticket Owner.
2. Apply the In-Progress status configured in the Override In-Progress Status by Board section.
3. If an error message appears, you can click Request Next Ticket to request the current highest priority ticket in your queue.
Rejecting the next ticket
1. Click the Reject button.
2. In the Reject Reason window, select or type the reason for rejecting the ticket. Providing a valid reason helps improve the NextTicket rules and generate more accurate calculations and insights from dashboards.
  You can configure the default dropdown list of rejection reasons in the Reject Ticket Actions settings.
3. Click Save. NextTicket Manager will skip the rejected ticket for the next 60 minutes and the next ticket with the highest priority will be provided.
  
  Rejected tickets are default hidden from the rejecting technician for one (1) hour. To modify the hide rejected ticket setting, enter your desired interval to the Reject Time Action.

4.4 Enable the Auto Request function (optional)

Technicians trigger the dispatch request and get the next priority ticket by selecting a filter and a user. You can modify this default setting and automate dispatch by activating the Auto Request switch. When activated, this feature automatically dispatches the next priority ticket to the technician whenever the filters are updated or the Next Ticket page is refreshed, as long as the technician is not currently working on another ticket.

To activate the Auto Request function:

A. Enable the switch from the Next Ticket page

Click the Settings icon beside the Request Next Ticket button and click the Auto Request toggle switch.

The Auto Request toggle switch is disabled by default. Activating it from the Next Ticket page will enable the Auto Request for the current user and not for the user selected in the User dropdown list.

B. Activate the function from User Management in the Next Ticket Settings.

Go to Settings > User Management for ConnectWise Manage.
In the User Management window, click the Auto Request switch corresponding to the technician's name.

4.5. Set up the point system for priority rules

For information on setting up the point system, refer to Setting Up the Point System for NextTicket Priority Rules.

4.6. Add an advanced rule

For more information on adding an advanced rule, refer to How to Create an Advanced Rule for NextTicket Manager.

4.7. Add companies to the Watch List

Adding companies to the watch list gives additional points to the tickets logged by the identified companies for better monitoring and management of priority tickets.

To add companies to the watch list, follow these steps:

On the NextTicket for ConnectWise screen, click Watch List.
When the Watch List tab opens, click Add Company.
In the Add Company window, select the checkbox for the applicable companies.
You can also select the Only show companies have agreement check box to show the companies with agreements only.
In the Why add to the watch list? box, enter the reason for adding the selected companies to the watch list.
Click Save.

4.8. Lock and Timeout Duration

The Lock and Timeout Duration feature prevents technicians from working on the same ticket and situations where multiple technicians get the same ticket. It locks the requested ticket for the requesting technician's review until the lock expires and another technician can review it.

Below is how the Lock and Timeout Duration feature works once activated in the NextTicket settings.

The technician clicks the Request Next Ticket button and receives the next high-priority ticket for review. This ticket is automatically locked to the requesting technician for five (5) minutes, which is the default timeout duration.
The technician must study the ticket details and accept or reject the requested ticket within the timeout duration.
Clicking Accept within the timeout duration will assign the ticket to the requesting technician.
If the technician fails to click Accept and the lock expires, the ticket becomes available to another technician and cannot be accessed by the original requestor.
Clicking Reject before the lock expires will automatically expire the lock and the ticket becomes available for other technicians to request. The next requesting technician will be subject to the same ticket lock process.

Requested tickets are locked to the requesting technician over the duration configured in the Lock and Timeout Duration settings. During this time, the accepted ticket is locked to the accepting technician and inaccessible to other technicians until the lock time expires. The admin cannot reassign the lock ticket during the lock period either. The ticket will be open to other technicians only after the lock expires.

How to activate and configure the duration of the lock and timeout duration settings

Open the NextTicket Manager app.
Click Settings > Options.
Go to the Basic tab in the Options window and set the Lock & Timeout Duration.

The default timeout duration is 5 minutes, but you can set the lock to a maximum of 60 minutes.
Entering the value zero (0) deactivates the lock and timeout feature.
This field does not accept a null or blank input.

4.9. Customize Ticket URL

Go to the NextTicket for ConnectWise Manage app.
Click Settings > Options.
When the Options tab appears, toggle the Customize Ticket URL switch ON and enter your custom ticket URL. Replace the actual ticket number with the {{TicketNumber}} token.

Example: If the original ticket URL is https://manage.mspbotssample.com/v4_6_release/ConnectWise.aspx?locale=en_US&routeTo=ServiceFV&recid=5027470

and you want to customize the ticket URL to
https://mtx.link/5027470

Enter https://mtx.link/{{TicketNumber}} in the Customize Ticket URL option. When you click the ticket number, the link will point to https://mtx.link/5027470.
The Customize Ticket URL feature is available in the Attendance Manager and all NextTicket Manager apps:
- Enabling the Customize Ticket URL switch in the Attendance Manager or the NextTicket Manager app also activates the switches for this feature in the other apps. If this switch is OFF in any of these apps, the switch for this feature in the other apps will also be OFF.
- The Customize Ticket URL configuration in the Attendance Manager and NextTicket Manager will be applied to the remaining apps.
- If the Customize Ticket URL switch is OFF, the ticket links will remain as the originally generated links.
Click Save to keep your settings.

4.10 Set Multiple Filters Logic

Open the NextTicket for ConnectWise Manage app.
Click Settings > Options.
In the Options window, go to the Basic tab and select your preferred logic for multiple filters.
- Round Robin - This logic rotates ticket prioritization among the assigned filters (from top to bottom), returning the highest priority ticket based on the active filter.
- Most Points - This logic evaluates all tickets across all filters and returns the ticket with the most points. Because this method runs tickets through all active filters, it will make more API calls to the user's PSA and significantly increase the time required for prioritizing tickets.
Click Save.

4.11. Configure Accept Ticket Actions

Go to the NextTicket for ConnectWise Manage app.
Click Settings > Options.
When the Options tab appears, click Accept Ticket Actions.
- Enable Accept Button - Turning this switch ON will activate the Accept button and allow the user to accept ConnectWise tickets in the NextTicket for ConnectWise app. This switch is closed by default.
- In-Progress Status - Fill in the following fields to set the ticket statuses that will be displayed as "In Progress" on the personal card of the Attendance Manager.
  
  The Accept Ticket Actions feature will only work properly if the In-Progress Status section is configured.
  1. Default In-Progress Status Name - The selected option in this field is the status displayed for ConnectWise tickets in the In Progress status on the user's attendance card in the Attendance Manager app. The default status name is "In-Progress".
  2. Override In-Progress Status by Board - The selected options in this field are the ticket statuses that will be considered "In-Progress" when clicking Accept for each board.
    For example, setting the ticket status under the Accounting board as Completed will change the status of those tickets to Completed when the Accept button is clicked. The ticket with the Completed status will be displayed on the Ticket Owner's card in the Attendance Manager app as the default In-Progress status name.
Click Save to keep your settings.

The Accept Ticket Actions function supports updates to ConnectWise Manage Service Tickets only. You will get the following error on Project Tickets:
"code": "NotFound"
"message": "Ticket xxxxxx not found"

4.12. Adjust Reject Time Interval

The reject duration can be one (1) hour to 24 hours. To modify this setting:

Go to the NextTicket for ConnectWise Manage app.
Click Settings > Options.
In the Options window, go to the Reject Ticket Actions tab and enter your desired reject duration in the Adjust Reject Time Interval field.
Click Save.

4.13. Enabling reject reasons settings

To allow technicians to select from the reject reasons dropdown list, click the Enable Standardized Reject Reasons switch and turn it ON.

To make the Reject Reason a required field, turn the Enable Reject Reason Requirement switch ON.

4.14. Creating a custom list of reasons for ticket rejection

A custom list of reasons for ticket rejection helps streamline the ticket rejection process and create dashboards with better insights and actionable data.

To create a custom dropdown list of ticket rejection reasons:

Go to the NextTicket for ConnectWise Manage app.
Click Settings > Options.
In the Options window, go to the Reject Ticket Actions tab.
Go to the Reject Reason section and click the +Add link.
Enter a reason for rejection and click Save.
Click the +Add link and add more reasons until you complete the options in the dropdown list.
Click Save.

To delete a reason from the dropdown list, click the delete icon corresponding to the reason for deletion.

Only admins can see and modify the reject reason switches and the dropdown list for ticket rejection. Admins can also reject tickets without providing a reject reason.

5. Permission Required to Use the Accept Tickets Action

The ConnectWise Manage integration setup procedure includes giving MSPbots read-only permissions to create bots and reports. If you want to use the NextTicket Manager and modify the Accept Ticket Actions, you must update the permissions granted to MSPbots. Select ALL for all the access levels for Close Service Tickets, Resource Scheduling, and Service Tickets.

How to set the updated permission to update the Accept Tickets Action

Log in to your ConnectWise Manage Console.
Click System > Security Roles.
On the Security Modules screen, select the role of the authorized account connected to MSPbots. The role MSPbots is selected in the image as an example.
Scroll down and expand Service Desk.
Set the permission by selecting All for all access levels for the following:
- Close Service Tickets
- Resource Scheduling
- Service Tickets

6. Users or Technicians: Feature Overview and Tasks

This section guides users on how to navigate the NextTicket app.

6.1. View your top-priority ticket

The NextTicket for ConnectWise screen shows the top-priority ticket you can start working on.

Go to the NextTicket for ConnectWise and select the appropriate filter from the Tickets filter list.
After you select a filter, the Request Next Ticket option automatically refreshes, and then the details of your next top-priority ticket appear on the screen.
Select either Dashboard View or List View to view the ticket details.
- In List View, you can view details about the tickets in the your queue, including:
  - Pts - The score of the ticket calculated based on Priority Rules.
  - Timer - Time until the ticket is released after being locked.
  - Reserve Status - Status of reserved tickets.
    - Accept | Reject - You can Accept or Reject the highest priority ticket at the top of the list.
    - Open
    - Locked - The ticket has been locked by another technician. Hover over the icon at the top right of Locked to view the name of the technician who has locked it.

6.2. Accepting the next ticket

Click the Accept button to start working on the next ticket.

6.3. Reject your top-priority ticket

You can reject the ticket if you think the ticket should not be your next top-priority ticket.

Follow these steps to reject your top-priority ticket:

On the NextTicket for ConnectWise screen, select the applicable filter from the Tickets filter list.
Once the details of your top-priority ticket appear on the screen, click Reject Next Ticket.
When the Reject Reason window opens, select a reason for the rejection from the dropdown list. If none of the provided options apply to you, select Others - Select to input your reason.
Click Reject.

6.4 Activate the Auto Request function (optional)

Selecting a user and a filter from the Next Ticket page triggers your next priority ticket's dispatch. You can modify this default setting and automate the ticket dispatch by activating the Auto Request switch.

When activated, the Auto Request feature automatically triggers ticket requests and displays the next priority ticket every time you update the filters or refresh the Next Ticket page, as long as you are not currently working on another ticket.