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 4 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. 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 9 trigger options available:

• New ticket created: Triggers when a new ticket is created.
• Ticket status changed: Triggers when the status of a ticket is changed.
• Ticket closed or resolved: Triggers when a ticket status is changed to closed or resolved.
• Ticket assignment changed: Triggers when the technician assignment of a ticket is changed.
• Low ticket rating submitted: Triggers when a low rating is submitted from an email survey of a closed/ resolved ticket.
• Ticket requester responded: Triggers when the ticket requester responds to a ticket comment.
• Ticket contact responded: Triggers when the ticket contact responds to a ticket comment.
• Ticket group assignment changed: Triggers when the group assignment of a ticket changed.
• Ticket escalated by AI assistant: Triggers when a ticket was escalated by AI assistant.
• Ticket approval status changed: Triggers when the approval status of a ticket changed.

Conditions

Conditions allow you to customize a 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 conditions are available for each trigger.

Note: 

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

• When a rule has multiple “Not Equals” conditions (for example, Source Not Equals Phone and Source Not Equals AI Assistant), the rule can run in scenarios where one of the conditions is true.

  For instance, if a ticket is created manually in the Atera console, its source is not “AI Assistant”, so that condition evaluates as true. In this case, the rule will run even though the ticket was manually created.

  To handle different scenarios independently, create separate rules for each condition instead of combining multiple “Not Equals” conditions into a single rule.

Actions

Actions are performed when conditions and triggers selected for the rule are met. For example, if you want to notify a 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
  • Technician group
  • 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 the technician: Send the selected email template to the technician assigned to the ticket. If no technician is assigned, this action will not work.
• Send email to a requester: Send the selected email template to the end user assigned to the ticket.
• Send survey to email the requester: Send an email with a survey to the end user.
• Trigger webhook: Initiate a predefined webhook to send data to an external service, triggering specific actions based on your setup (Available only for New ticket created, Ticket status changed, Ticket closed/resolved).
• Forward the ticket to email: Forward the triggered ticket to a specific address that you enter in the Value field of the action. To send it to multiple people, separate the email addresses with a comma.
• Set field value by Copilot: Let Copilot automatically fill custom fields you've created, based on the ticket content, to keep your data organized and up-to-date.
• Send email to all group members: Send the selected email template all group members assigned to the ticket. If no technician group is assigned, this action will not work.
• Create child ticket: Automatically generate a child ticket linked to the triggering ticket. Enter the child ticket title in the Value field.

• Set field value: Change the value of one of the following fields on the ticket:
  • Priority
  • Product family
  • Spam
  • Status
  • Technician
  • Technician group
  • 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 the technician: Send the selected email template to the technician assigned to the ticket. If no technician is assigned, this action will not work.
• Send email to a contact: Send the selected email template to the end user assigned to the ticket.
• Send survey to email the requester: Send an email with a survey to the end user.
• Trigger webhook: Initiate a predefined webhook to send data to an external service, triggering specific actions based on your setup (Available only for New ticket created, Ticket status changed, Ticket closed/resolved).
• Forward the ticket to email: Forward the triggered ticket to a specific address that you enter in the Value field of the action. To send it to multiple people, separate the email addresses with a comma.
• Set field value by Copilot: Let Copilot automatically fill custom fields you've created, based on the ticket content, to keep your data organized and up-to-date.
• Send email to all group members: Send the selected email template all group members assigned to the ticket. If no technician group is assigned, this action will not work.
• Create child ticket: Automatically generate a child ticket linked to the triggering ticket. Enter the child ticket title in the Value field.

Note: The order when creating actions with Technician groups (Beta feature) is crucial. Actions that assign a group need to be entered first, followed by any other action to be executed by the automation rule. 

For example, if you put the technician auto-assignment action first, it will assign a technician from any group, and then attempt to assign the group afterward. If the technician isn’t in that group, the ticket technician will become unassigned. By assigning the group first, the auto-assignment will correctly assign technicians in a round-robin fashion, only to members of that group.

Create new rule

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

The Ticket Automation Rules page appears.

2. Click Create New Rule. 

The Add Rule window appears.

3.  Create your rule:

• Rule name: Give your rule a name.
• Description: Enter a clear, concise description of what the rule will do.
• Trigger: Select the trigger for the rule.
• Enable rule: Check the box to activate the rule.
• Always run: Check the box 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

4. Click Save.

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 Field, Operator, and Value from the dropdown menus.

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

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

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

The automation rule is now active!

Understanding Always run

If there are no rules with Always run 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 Always run selected, after the first rule is executed, only subsequent rules with Always run 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 three dots menu and click Edit trigger.

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

The Edit Rule window appears.

3. Uncheck the box under Enable rule. Then click Save.

The rule is now inactive and will not be triggered.

Preset ticket automation rules

Atera offers 4 preset ticket automation rules to effortlessly automate commonly used practices like reopening tickets upon response, sending an email with all the right ticket information when a new ticket is created, auto-assigning technicians to tickets in a round-robin fashion, and reassigning tickets of a disabled technician for reopened tickets. You can turn off these preset rules at any time by deactivating them.

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.

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

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

Unassign disabled technician for reopened tickets

This rule automatically removes the assigned technician if they are disabled when a ticket is reopened.

It is triggered when the requester responds to a ticket. If the technician is disabled, the technician assignment will be set to Unassigned.

It is triggered when the contact responds to a ticket. If the technician is disabled, the technician assignment will be set to Unassigned.

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 Include on automated assignment (from the Ticketing tab).