---
title: "Desk settings"
description: "The ticket statuses, categories, subcategories, and automatic ticket categories your desk uses, and how MSP defaults reach each client."
url: "https://support.outpostplatform.com/service-desk/desk-settings/"
product: "depot"
type: "reference"
status: "draft"
ai_summary: "Enterprise and MSP, ticket:manage. Tabs: Statuses (six groups, SLA pause), Categories with subcategories, Automatic tickets (default category per source, and the Trust all senders switch for email), Notification emails. On MSP, Inbox > Desk defaults sets defaults every client uses until it chooses Customize; Revert to MSP defaults undoes it."
availability:
  plans: ["enterprise", "msp"]
  permission: "ticket:manage"
  preview: false
source: "https://gitlab.com/outpostplatform/docs/-/edit/main/src/content/docs/service-desk/desk-settings.md"
license: "CC BY 4.0"
---

# Desk settings

Desk settings hold the vocabulary of your service desk: the statuses a ticket
moves through, the categories and subcategories that say what a ticket is
about, and the category a ticket gets when Outpost raises it on its own. On
the MSP plan you set these once as MSP defaults, and every client uses them
until you customize that client. This page lists every setting, where it
lives, and what it changes.

## Where the settings are

| Settings | Where | Who can change them |
| --- | --- | --- |
| One desk's settings (Enterprise), or one client's (MSP) | **Tickets** > **Desk settings**. On the MSP plan, open the client first. | `ticket:manage` |
| MSP defaults for every client (MSP) | **Inbox** > **Desk defaults** | `ticket:manage` |

Both pages have the same tabs: **Statuses**, **Categories**, **Automatic
tickets**, and **Notification emails**. **Desk defaults** also has
**Clients**. Technicians without `ticket:manage` do not see these pages, but
they pick from the categories set here on every ticket. See
[Roles and permissions](/depot/roles-and-permissions/).

The **Notification emails** tab holds the emails sent to requesters. See
[Ticket notification emails](/service-desk/ticket-notifications/).

**Desk defaults** also has **Contact tags**, the labels such as **Primary
contact** and **VIP** that you give to people at each client. Every client
uses the same set and cannot customize it. See
[Client contacts, sites, and contact tags](/msp/contacts-and-sites/).

## Statuses

Every status belongs to one of six fixed status groups. The group decides how
the desk treats a ticket in that status: the **Status** filter on the ticket
list and the ticket views select by group, and reports count tickets by it
under **Status group**. You cannot add, rename, or remove a group.

| Status group | Built-in status | SLA clock in the built-in status |
| --- | --- | --- |
| New | **New** | Running |
| Open | **Open** | Running |
| Pending | **Pending** | Paused |
| On hold | **On hold** | Paused |
| Solved | **Solved** | Paused |
| Closed | **Closed** | Paused |

Solved and Closed are the resolved groups. A ticket moving into either one
sends the requester the **Resolved** email, a parent moving into either one
takes its open child tickets with it, and a ticket moving out of either one
is reopened. When a ticket first moves into Solved, its requester is sent a
satisfaction survey.

Add a status when one group needs a finer name, such as **Waiting on parts**
in the On hold group. Select **Add status** on the **Statuses** tab.

| Field | What it sets |
| --- | --- |
| **Name** | The name technicians see, up to 64 characters. The `{{status}}` placeholder in notification emails prints it. |
| **Code** | What rules, canned responses, and reports store: 1 to 32 lowercase letters, digits, or underscores. It cannot be changed after you save. |
| **Status group** | Which of the six groups the status belongs to. |
| **Pause the SLA clock while a ticket is in this status** | Whether SLA timers stop while a ticket is in this status. The **SLA clock** column shows **Paused** or **Running**. See [Service level agreements](/service-desk/sla/). |
| **Sort order** | Where the status lists. Lower numbers list first. |

Rules for statuses:

- The built-in statuses cannot be removed, and each keeps its status group.
  You can rename one or change whether it pauses the SLA clock.
- A status cannot be removed while open tickets are in it. Move them to
  another status first.
- The **Status** picker on a ticket lists every status, the ones you added
  included, grouped by status group. Canned responses (**Set status**) and
  workflows (**Change a field**) can also set a status you added. See
  [Queues and canned responses](/service-desk/queues-and-automation/) and
  [Workflows](/service-desk/workflows/).

## Categories

A category says what a ticket is about. It is set on **New ticket** and in
the **Category** panel of each ticket, it is a filter on the ticket list, and
the **Tickets by category** report groups tickets by it. A subcategory
narrows one category, such as **Printer** under **Hardware**.

| Built-in category | Code | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Incident** | `incident` | Something that was working has stopped working. |
| **Service request** | `request` | Somebody needs something they do not have yet. |
| **Question** | `question` | Somebody needs to know how to do something. |
| **Problem** | `problem` | The underlying cause behind one or more incidents. |
| **Change** | `change` | A planned modification to the estate. |

A ticket filed with no category is an **Incident**.

To add a category, select **Add category**. To add a subcategory, select
**Add subcategory** under its category. Each takes a **Name**, a **Code**
(same rules as a status code), a **Description**, and a **Sort order**.

Rules for categories and subcategories:

- The built-in categories cannot be removed. You can rename them.
- A category or subcategory cannot be removed while open tickets are filed
  under it. Recategorize them first.
- A category or subcategory cannot be removed while an automatic ticket
  source uses it. Change that source's default first.
- Changing a ticket's category clears its subcategory.

## Automatic tickets

Some parts of Outpost raise tickets without a person. The **Automatic
tickets** tab sets the category, and optionally the subcategory, each kind
gets. With nothing set, the ticket is an **Incident**.

| Raised by | Which tickets |
| --- | --- |
| **Incident action items** | Follow-up tickets raised from an incident review. |
| **Compliance gaps** | Tickets raised from a gap on the compliance screen. |
| **Device compliance** | Tickets raised when a device stays out of compliance past its grace period. |
| **Chat** | Live chats a technician promotes to a ticket. |
| **Device management** | Lost mode and expiring device credentials. |
| **Software requests** | Requests users make from the tray software catalog. |

Choose the **Category** and **Subcategory** for a row, then select **Save** on
that row. The default applies to tickets raised after you save it.

These defaults do not apply to tickets people open. A ticket an end user opens
in the tray app is an **Incident**, and a ticket a technician creates takes
the category chosen on **New ticket**.

### Email senders {#email-senders}

The **Email senders** card on the **Automatic tickets** tab holds **Trust all
senders**, which decides how tickets that arrive by email treat senders
Outpost cannot verify. It is a practice-wide setting: on Enterprise it is on
**Tickets** > **Desk settings**, and on the MSP plan on **Inbox** > **Desk
defaults**. It needs `mailbox:manage`.

With the switch off, the default, Outpost verifies each sender before it
emails them back. Mail from a sender it cannot verify becomes a ticket marked
**Unverified sender** that sends no email until a technician verifies the
sender. See
[Sender verification](/service-desk/mailboxes/#sender-verification).

Turn on **Trust all senders** and confirm with **Trust all senders** to treat
every sender as verified. Every message then becomes a normal ticket, and
replies go back to whoever sent it.

:::caution
Anyone can forge the From line of an email. With **Trust all senders** on,
mail from someone pretending to be a client becomes a ticket under that
client, and your replies, with whatever they contain, go back to the forger.
Leave it off unless your mail filter already blocks spoofed mail.
:::

Mail that fails DMARC, and mail from a blocked sender, is still held in
[Suspended mail](/service-desk/suspended-mail/) with the switch on. Each
mailbox can override the switch in its **Senders** setting: **Use the desk
setting**, **Verify senders**, or **Trust every sender**.

## MSP defaults and per-client settings

On the MSP plan, **Inbox** > **Desk defaults** holds the statuses,
categories, automatic ticket categories, and notification emails that every
client uses until you customize that client. The built-in statuses and
categories are listed there too, read-only, so the page shows the whole set a
client ends up with. An MSP status or category cannot reuse a built-in code.

A saved change to the MSP defaults reaches each client that has not
customized that area right away. A client that cannot be reached at that
moment catches up within a few minutes.

### What each row is

Each status, category, subcategory, and email shows where it came from:

| Label | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| **Built in** | Comes with Outpost. Every client has it. |
| **MSP default** | Comes from your MSP defaults. |
| **This client** | Added or changed for this client only. |

### Customize one client

Each client follows the MSP defaults area by area. The four areas are
statuses, categories (with their subcategories), automatic ticket categories,
and notification emails.

In a client's **Tickets** > **Desk settings**, each area's tab shows where it
stands:

| What the tab shows | Meaning | What you can do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Using MSP defaults** | The client follows the MSP defaults for this area. The area is read-only. | Select **Customize** to edit it. Your first saved change makes the area this client's own. |
| **Customized for this client** | The client has its own version of this area. MSP changes to it no longer reach this client. | Select **Revert to MSP defaults**, then **Revert**, to go back. |

The notification emails have no **Customize** step: they can be edited
straight away, and the first saved change makes them this client's own.

Reverting an area removes the statuses, categories, and subcategories added
for this client in that area, or replaces its emails or automatic ticket
categories with the MSP defaults. Outpost refuses to revert statuses or
categories while open tickets use a status or category that the MSP defaults
do not have. Move or recategorize those tickets first. A built-in status or
category renamed for this client gets its original name and settings back.

On Enterprise, there are no MSP defaults: every setting belongs to your desk
and is always editable.

### Clients tab

The **Clients** tab of **Desk defaults** shows how each client stands:

| Column | Values |
| --- | --- |
| **Defaults** | **Up to date** (has your latest MSP defaults), **Catching up** (will receive them shortly), or **Could not be reached**. |
| **Customized** | The areas this client has customized, or **Nothing**. |

The same tab holds the **Requester portal** address that notification emails
link to. See
[Ticket notification emails](/service-desk/ticket-notifications/#portal-link).

## Related

- [Tickets](/service-desk/tickets/)
- [Ticket notification emails](/service-desk/ticket-notifications/)
- [Client contacts, sites, and contact tags](/msp/contacts-and-sites/)
- [Queues and canned responses](/service-desk/queues-and-automation/)
- [Email to ticket](/service-desk/mailboxes/)
- [Service level agreements](/service-desk/sla/)