If you signed up before Aug 9, 2021, please click Previous plans to view your applicable plans.

Once you've customized your ticket forms to your liking, you can start using them. This article covers some common use cases.


Your default ticket form is available from the Free plan onwards. Multiple ticket forms are available from the Pro plan onwards.


This article contains:

Before you begin

See Basic Guide for Ticket Forms and Fields to learn about:

  • Definitions of "ticket field" and "ticket form"
  • Default ticket fields
  • Ticket field properties
  • The Priority, Source, and Status fields
  • The default ticket form

See Advanced Guide for Ticket Forms and Fields to learn about:

  • Custom ticket fields
  • Dependent fields
  • Dynamic sections
  • Creating multiple ticket forms

Publish your forms

You can publish your forms to your support portals and help widgets in multiple ways.

Publish a form to multiple places

When you edit a form, you can publish it to portals and feedback widgets immediately.

  1. Go to Admin > Workflows > Ticket Forms and click a form's name to start editing it.
  2. Click the Publish button to bring up a dialog.
  3. Select portals and widgets to associate the form with and click Save.
    The Publish button within a ticket form.
    • The dropdowns contain only the portals and widgets created in your Freshdesk account. Click the links in the dialog to go to the respective settings page.


Add multiple forms to a portal

You can add forms to a portal from the portal settings page.

  1. Go to Admin > Channels > Portals and click Edit on your portal of choice.
  2. Go to the Manage sections tab.
  3. In the Ticket box, choose the forms to add from the Add ticket form dropdown.
  4. Modify the Page title and the Dropdown placeholder (if you've added multiple forms) to suit your brand voice.
  5. Modify settings to control who can submit and view tickets on your portal and click Save.
    Manage sections tab as described in the surrounding text.


Add multiple forms to a help widget

You can add forms to a help widget from the widgets page. Since your widget can be embedded, you can use your forms across all your websites.

  1. Go to Admin > Channels > Widgets and click the widget to modify.
  2. In the Contact form box, Select Show form with ticket fields.
  3. Choose the forms to add from the Add ticket form dropdown.
  4. Modify the Title of the form, Dropdown placeholder (if you've added multiple forms), Form submit button, and Form confirmation message to suit your brand voice.
  5. Modify other rules for attachments and who can see the form and click Save.
    The Contact form section in widget settings as described in the surrounding text.

Create tickets using your forms

Once your ticket forms are published, a customer or agent can navigate to the Submit a Ticket page on your support portal, choose the form from the dropdown, and fill it out.

The Submit a Ticket page on the support portal


Additionally, an agent can submit a ticket from the agent portal (backend) by clicking on New > New ticket. This will lead them to the default Report an Issue form.

The new ticket button on the agent portal


An agent may raise a ticket on behalf of the customer by putting their email ID in the Requester field, or they may use their own ID. If they use a customer's ID, the source will be set to Phone by default and cannot be changed.


After creating a ticket, an agent's scope and role determine if they have view access for the ticket.


Use Case
Access
Agent Portal
Customer Portal
Customer raises a ticket
N/A
N/A
Customer can view their tickets.
Agent raises a ticket on behalf of a customer
Yes
Agent can view the ticket
Agent cannot view the ticket, but the customer can.
No
Agent cannot view the ticket
Agent cannot view the ticket, but the customer can.
Agent raises a ticket for themselves
Yes
Agent can view the ticket.
Agent can view the ticket.
No
Agent cannot view the ticket
Agent can view the ticket.


An agent can navigate from the backend agent portal to the frontend customer portal by clicking the Account icon > Go to customer portal. They can navigate back to the agent portal by clicking Account > Dashboard.

Run automations based on ticket forms

You can create automation rules that run on tickets created from a specific form. You can create rules that run on ticket creation or ticket updates.


For example, you may have a ticket creation rule to map any tickets from your "Feature request" form to your engineering team (group) or your program manager (agent).

Sample automation rule that assigns tickets from "Example form" to "Sample group".


To create an automation rule based on ticket forms:

  1. As an admin, go to Admin > Workflows > Automations.
  2. Choose either the Ticket Creation or Ticket Updates tab and click New rule.
  3. Give your rule a name.
  4. In the On tickets with these properties section, choose: In Tickets if Form Is and select your ticket form.
  5. If you're creating a Ticket Updates rule, choose your event triggers in the Involves any of these events section (such as Priority is changed).
  6. In the Perform these actions section, choose the action to perform (such as Assign to Agent).
  7. Click Preview and save. Review the rule summary and click Save and enable.

SLAs on ticket fields

As part of your workflows, you should also define SLA policies on custom ticket fields you've created. In particular:

  • define SLAs for any custom sources you've created, such as "walk-in customer"
  • choose custom statuses where your SLA timers should be paused, such as "waiting for third-party"


Learn more about setting up SLA policies.


To do so:

  1. Go to Admin > Workflows > Ticket Fields and add choices under the Source and Status properties.
  2. Turn off the SLA toggle next to the appropriate status choices and click Save field.
    SLA toggle as described in the surrounding text.
  3. Go to Admin > Workflows > SLA Policies and click Add policy.
  4. Give your new SLA policy an appropriate name and description.
  5. In the When a ticket satisfies these conditions section, choose Source and select your custom source.
    New SLA policy for walk-in customers as described in the surrounding text.
  6. Define your SLA targets, reminders, and escalations and click Save.