Creating a New Helpdesk Category

Helpdesk categories in Keka help you logically classify tickets so they reach the right people and get resolved on time. When you create a new category, you can define who handles the tickets, how quickly they should be responded to, and what happens if they aren't resolved on time.

Follow the steps below in sequence to create a new helpdesk category from scratch.

Step 1: Navigate to Ticket Categories

1. Go to Helpdesk from the left navigation panel.
2. Click on the Settings tab at the top.
3. Make sure you are on the Ticket Categories section.
4. Click on Add category on the top right.
5. Select Create from scratch from the dropdown.
   
   

You can also select Choose from predefined categories if you'd like to use one of Keka's ready-made templates instead.

 

Step 2: Enter Basic Category Details

This section captures the identity of your category.

1. Enter a clear, descriptive Category Name.
2. Add a short Description explaining what the category is used for. 
   

Step 3: Choose the Audience

Decide who will be able to raise tickets under this category.

1. Select All Employees if the category should be available to everyone in the organization.
2. Select Select employees to limit access to specific individuals.
3. Select Select groups to limit access to specific employee groups.
   

Step 4: Assign Category Head and Business Hours

1. Under Category head, search and select the employee who will oversee this category and its tickets.
2. Under Business hours, choose the applicable working hours for this category (e.g., Default 24x7). Response and resolution times will be calculated based on these hours.
   

 

Step 5: Configure Ticket Behavior

1. Toggle on Enable On Hold status if you want assignees to pause a ticket temporarily while waiting on inputs.
2. Toggle on Allow employees to re-open closed tickets if you want employees to reopen a closed ticket if the resolution wasn't satisfactory.

Step 6: Decide on Sub-Categories

Under Do you want to split this category further?

1. Select No to keep it as a single category without further division.
   
2. Select Yes if you want to create sub-categories with different priority values and choose assignees for sub-category. 
   

Step 7: Choose Who Can Change Ticket Priority

1. Ticket assignee – The person handling the ticket can update its priority.
2. Category head – The category owner can update the priority.
3. Employee – The person who raised the ticket can update the priority.
   
   

 

Step 8: Choose Category Assignees

1. If priority is not set to sub-category level ,here add a role or an employee responsible for handling tickets in this category (e.g., Location Head, HR Manager, IT Admin).
2. Toggle on Would you like to add 'Ticket Assignees' as followers to the tickets? if you want assignees to be added as followers, so they get notified of all activity on the ticket.
   
   

 

Step 9: Enable Ticket Prioritisation

Prioritisation helps you set service-level expectations for tickets based on urgency.

1. Turn on the Ticket prioritisation enabled toggle to activate priority levels.
2. Enable the High,Medium, Low priority level and set the First Response time and Expected resolution time for the respective priority level tickets.
3. Under Default priority for tickets in this category, select the priority that will be applied to all new tickets by default.
   
   

You can enable or disable any priority level using the checkboxes on the left.

 

Step 10: Configure Ticket Escalation

Escalations ensure that unresolved or unanswered tickets get the right attention on time.

1. Toggle on Enable the escalation matrix in case tickets are not responded in time to escalate tickets that don't receive a first response within the defined time.
2. Toggle on Enable the escalation matrix in case tickets are not resolved in time to escalate tickets that aren't resolved within the expected resolution time.
3. Set the time duration and the employee to whom the escalation should be directed.
   
   

 

Step 11: Save the Category

1. Review all the settings you've configured in the panel.
2. Click Save Category at the bottom right to create the category.
3. Click Cancel if you'd like to discard the changes without creating the category.
   
   

Your new helpdesk category will now appear on the Helpdesk categories page and will be ready to receive tickets.

 

To know how to create canned responses, Click here.