Automate your ticket process by creating rules that will activate in response to specific ticket actions. There is no limit to the number of rules you can create, and with the addition of email templates, the possibilities are limitless!

Note:

• Automation rules respond to manual ticket actions — one automation rule cannot trigger another.
• Atera offers three preset rules that are commonly used. For examples of commonly used ticket automation rules, see Commonly-used ticket automation rules

Understanding Ticket automation rules

By default, when a ticket is raised in Atera, no actions are taken — no fields are changed, notifications sent, or values modified. However, with Ticket Automation Rules, you can make changes based on certain conditions.

Triggers

When creating your Ticket automation rules, the first step is to select a trigger. The trigger determines when the rule will run.

For example, New Ticket Created triggers the ticket automation rule whenever a new ticket is created by the end user. If you create a ticket automation rule with the New Ticket Created trigger, nothing will happen initially because no Conditions and Actions have been selected yet. To activate the rule, you need to select the desired conditions of the rule and the actions you want the rule to perform if the rule is triggered and the conditions are met.

There are 6 trigger options available:

• New ticket created: Trigger when a new ticket is created.
• Ticket status changed: Trigger when the status of a ticket is changed.
• Ticket closed or resolved: Trigger when a ticket status is changed to closed or resolved.
• Ticket assignment changed: Trigger when the technician assignment of a ticket is changed.
• Low ticket rating submitted: Trigger when a low rating is submitted from an email survey of a closed/ resolved ticket.
• Ticket requester responded: Trigger when the ticket requester responds to a ticket comment.
• Ticket contact responded: Trigger when the ticket contact responds to a ticket comment.

Conditions

Conditions allow you to customize the Ticket Automation rule to execute under specific circumstances. For example, with the New Ticket Created trigger, you can add a condition like Priority equals critical. This condition ensures that the Ticket Automation rule runs only for new tickets with their priority classified as critical. It will not trigger for tickets of any other priority. 

If you add more than one condition, use the Must match checkbox to determine which conditions must be true, or which conditions can be alternatives to each other. Learn more about Must match

Alternatively, you can leave conditions empty to create a general ticket automation rule that runs for all instances of the trigger. For example, if there are no conditions added to a rule with the New Ticket Created trigger, the rule will run for all new tickets.

Conditions vary based on the trigger selected for the rule. The following condition properties are available for each trigger:

• New Ticket Created: Activity Status, Auto Ticket Tag (Beta), Site Name, Site Rank, Destination Email, Event Trigger Time, From Requester Email, Hours Since Ticket Created (Beta), Priority, Product Family, Source, Status, Technician, Ticket Form, Ticket Impact, Ticket Title, User Last Comment, User Name
• Ticket Status Changed: Activity Status, Auto Ticket Tag (Beta), Site Name, Site Rank, Destination Email, Event Trigger Time, From Requester Email, Hours Since Status Changed (Beta), Priority, Product Family, Source, Status, Technician, Ticket Form, Ticket Impact, Ticket Title, User Last Comment, User Name
• Ticket Closed/Resolved: Activity Status, Auto Ticket Tag (Beta), Site Name, Site Rank, Event Trigger Time, From Requester Email, Hours Since Ticket Created (Beta), Priority, Product Family, Source, Status, Technician, Ticket Form, Ticket Impact, Ticket Title, User Last Comment, User Name
• Ticket Assignment changed: Activity Status, Auto Ticket Tag (Beta), Site Name, Site Rank, Event Trigger Time, From Requester Email, Priority, Product Family, Source, Status, Technician, Ticket Form, Ticket Impact, Ticket Title, User Last Comment, User Name
• Low Ticket Rating Submitted: Activity Status, Auto Ticket Tag (Beta), Site Name, Site Rank, Event Trigger Time, From Requester Email, Priority, Product Family, Source, Status, Technician, Ticket Form, Ticket Impact, Ticket Title, User Last Comment, User Name
• Ticket Requester Responded: Activity Status, Auto Ticket Tag (Beta), Site Name, Site Rank, Event Trigger Time, From Requester Email, Priority, Product Family, Source, Status, Technician, Ticket Form, Ticket Impact, Ticket Title, User Last Comment, User Name

• New ticket created: Activity Status, Auto Ticket Tag (Beta), Contact Last Comment, Contact Name, Customer Name, Customer Rank, Destination Email, Event Trigger Time, From Contact Email, Hours Since Ticket Created (Beta), Priority, Product Family, Source, Status, Technician, Ticket Form, Ticket Impact, Ticket Title, Ticket Type
• Ticket status changed: Activity Status, Auto Ticket Tag (Beta), Contact Last Comment, Contact Name, Customer Name, Customer Rank, Destination Email, Event Trigger Time, From Contact Email, Hours Since Status Changed (Beta), Priority, Product Family, Source, Status, Technician, Ticket Form, Ticket Impact, Ticket Title, Ticket Type
• Ticket closed/resolved: Activity Status, Auto Ticket Tag (Beta), Contact Last Comment, Contact Name, Customer Name, Customer Rank, Event Trigger Time, From Contact Email, Hours Since Ticket Created (Beta), Priority, Product Family, Source, Status, Technician, Ticket Form, Ticket Impact, Ticket Title, Ticket Type
• Ticket assignment changed: Activity Status, Auto Ticket Tag (Beta), Contact Last Comment, Contact Name, Customer Name, Customer Rank, Event Trigger Time, From Contact Email, Priority, Product Family, Source, Status, Technician, Ticket Form, Ticket Impact, Ticket Title, Ticket Type
• Low ticket rating submitted: Activity Status, Auto Ticket Tag (Beta), Contact Last Comment, Contact Name, Customer Name, Customer Rank, Event Trigger Time, From Contact Email, Priority, Product Family, Source, Status, Technician, Ticket Form, Ticket Impact, Ticket Title, Ticket Type
• Ticket contact responded: Activity Status, Auto Ticket Tag (Beta), Contact Last Comment, Contact Name, Customer Name, Customer Rank, Event Trigger Time, From Contact Email, Priority, Product Family, Source, Status, Technician, Ticket Form, Ticket Impact, Ticket Title, Ticket Type

Note: Your custom fields are also available for all triggers. Learn more

Actions

Actions are performed when conditions and triggers selected for the rule are met. For example, if you want to notify the technician that a critical ticket was created, set up an automation rule with the New ticket created trigger and Priority equals Critical condition. Then, add the Send email to technician action. When configuring this action, you will need to select an Email template to determine the content of the email that the contact will receive.

The following actions are available:

• Set Field Value: Change the value of one of the following fields on the ticket:
  • Priority
  • Product family
  • Spam
  • Status
  • Technician
  • Ticket Form
  • Ticket impact
  • Ticket type
• Send an Email: Send the email template you select to a specific address that you enter in the Value field of the action. To notify multiple people, separate the email addresses with a comma.
• Send an Email to Technician: Send the selected email template to the assigned technician. If no technician is assigned to a ticket, this action will not work.
• Send an Email to Requester: Send the selected email template to the end user assigned to the ticket.
• Send Survey to Requester: Send an email with a survey to the end user.

• Set field value: Change the value of one of the following fields on the ticket:
  • Priority
  • Product family
  • Spam
  • Status
  • Technician
  • Ticket Form
  • Ticket impact
  • Ticket type
• Send an Email: Send the email template you select to a specific address that you enter in the Value field of the action. To notify multiple people, separate the email addresses with a comma.
• Send Email to Technician: Send the selected email template to the assigned technician. If no technician is assigned to a ticket, this action will not work.
• Send Email to Contact: Send the selected email template to the contact assigned to the ticket.
• Send Survey to Contact: Send an email with a survey to the contact.

Create new rule

1. Go to Admin > Support and ticketing > Ticket automation rules.

The Ticket Automation Rules page appears.

2. Click Add New Rule. 

The Add Rule window appears.

3.  Create your rule:

• Rule name: Give your rule a name.
• Description: Enter a clear, concise description.
• Trigger: Select the trigger for the rule.
• Ignore flow: Select 'Yes' for the rule to operate regardless of hierarchy. 
  Note: When the conditions of a rule are met and the associated action is performed, only the remaining rules with Ignore flow selected will be examined and executed (if conditions are met). See Understanding Ignore flow
• Active: Select Yes to activate the rule.

4. Click Add.

The rule is created and visible on the Ticket Automation Rules page.

To add conditions and actions:

5. Click the rule name to expand it and manage the Conditions and Actions.

6. Under Conditions, select the Ticket Property, Operator, and Expected value from the dropdown menus. To view a list of available conditions see, Conditions

Note: A condition's expected value is not case sensitive.

The Must match checkbox makes a Ticket property mandatory. Other properties without this tag are alternatives, and just one needs to be met to trigger the action. See Understanding Must match

Note:

• If there is only one Ticket property without Must match, it must meet its expected value for the condition to trigger the action.
• If there are no Must match Ticket properties, then all properties in the condition act as alternatives, and only one needs to be true to trigger the action. 

7. Click Add.

The condition is added. You can add multiple conditions by repeating this process.

8. Now, add an action by selecting an Action type, Related field/Email template, and Value (if applicable). To view a list of available actions, see Actions

9. Click Add.

The action is added. You can add multiple actions by repeating this process.

The automation rule is now active!

Understanding Ignore flow

If there are no rules with Ignore flow selected, the first rule that satisfies its conditions will be executed, and subsequent rules will be ignored, regardless of whether their conditions are met.

	Conditions met	Ignore flow	Executed
Rule 1
Rule 2
Rule 3
Rule 4

If some rules have Ignore flow selected, after the first rule is executed, only subsequent rules with Ignore flow will be performed. 

	Conditions met	Ignore flow	Executed
Rule 1
Rule 2
Rule 3
Rule 4

Understanding Must match

If no condition has Must match selected, at least one of the conditions needs to be true for the action to trigger.

If one condition has Must match selected, it must be met, and at least one of the other conditions (out of those not marked as Must match — if they exist) must also be met.

If multiple conditions have Must match selected, they must be met, and at least one of the other conditions (out of those not marked as Must match — if they exist) must also be met.

Deactivate ticket automation rule

1. Go to Admin > Support and ticketing > Ticket automation rules.

The Ticket Automation Rules page appears.

2. Click on the name of the rule you want to deactivate. Then click Manage Rule.

Note: If you wish to delete the rule permanently instead of deactivate it, click Delete.

The Edit Rule page appears.

3. Click No under Active. Then click Apply.

The rule is now deactivated and will not be triggered.

Preset ticket automation rules

Atera offers three preset ticket automation rules to effortlessly automate commonly used practices like reopen tickets upon response, send an email with all the ticket information when a new ticket is created, and auto-assign technicians to tickets in a round-robin fashion. You can turn off these preset rules at any time by deactivating the ticket automation rule

To manage the preset ticket automation rules:

Go to Admin > Support and ticketing > Ticket automation rules.

The Ticket Automation Rules page appears.

Reopen resolved tickets upon response

This rule will reopen tickets with Resolved status upon a reply from the ticket requester.

This rule will reopen tickets with Resolved status upon a reply from the ticket contact.

This rule is triggered when the requester responds to a ticket. If the ticket status is Resolved, the status will be changed to Open.

This rule is triggered when the contact responds to a ticket. If the ticket status is Resolved, the status will be changed to Open.

Ticket created email (script)

This rule will send an email to the ticket requester with general information about their new ticket created.

This rule will send an email to the ticket contact with general information about their new ticket created.

This rule is triggered when a new ticket is created. If the source of the created ticket is not from an alert or from the Service Portal, an email with the New Ticket Created email template (including all the general information about the ticket) will be sent to the ticket requester.

This rule is triggered when a new ticket is created. If the source of the created ticket is not from an alert or from the Customer Portal, an email with the New Ticket Created email template (including all the general information about the ticket) will be sent to the ticket contact.

Note: If your customer replies to the automated email, you'll want their comment to appear on the existing ticket (not a new ticket, unintentionally created by the email). To ensure the comment is added to the existing ticket, begin the New Ticket Created email template’s subject with the following snippet, '[#{[Ticket Number]}].'

Note: If your requester replies to the automated email, you'll want their comment to appear on the existing ticket (not a new ticket, unintentionally created by the email). To ensure the comment is added to the existing ticket, begin the New Ticket Created email template’s subject with the following snippet, '[#{[Ticket Number]}].'

Auto Assignment

This rule auto-assigns new tickets to technicians in a round robin order.

When a new ticket is created, the Technician value is assigned automatically in a round robin order to technicians with permissions to be included in the auto-assignment.

Note: To include a technician in the auto-assignment, go to Admin > Users and Security > Access Roles. Select a role and enable Ticketing Automated Assignment.