General					Business		Related	Customized
Details	Solution	Activities	Messages	Chats	Impact	History	Items	Printout

 

The General Details tab includes the category of the service record; the title and description; the status, urgency, and priority of the service record; and much more. Some of these fields are explained in this section. The remainder are discussed in the list of available fields at the bottom of this help page.

 

When you are done making all necessary changes to your service record, click OK/Apply to save your work.

 

 

Default fields on the General Details tab

 

Here is a partial list of the default fields that appear on the General Details tab.

 

Sub Type (Enterprise Edition only)

In order to select another sub type, you must first create it under Service Desk --> Sub Types. Each sub type allows you to display a different set of fields on the form. Example: You have two departments using SysAid-- IT and Maintenance. Each of these two departments will need to record different types of information on the SR form, and you would therefore like to create a different form for each of them. By customizing the form using the cogwheel icon , you can choose which fields appear on the form for each sub type. When IT is creating a new service record, they choose the IT sub type and the SR form shows only IT relevant fields. When Maintenance is creating a new service record, they choose the Maintenance sub type and the SR form shows only maintenance relevant fields.

Category

This allows you to categorize your service records. Categories are important for routing of service records, automatically calculating due dates, and reporting.

Title and Description

The title and description of the service record.

Notes

Allows you to log notes on the service record. Depending upon how you've configured SysAid under Customize --> Appearance, you may or may not be able to type directly into this field. If you can't type into the field, you may add a note using the Add a note button. Adding a note in this way adds your name and a timestamp of when the note was added.

By default, end users can view this field from the End User Portal, and can even add their own notes.

When an admin adds notes, the end user can be notified as specified under Service Desk --> Service Desk Settings --> General Settings.
When an end user adds notes, the status of the SR can be updated as specified under Preferences --> End User Portal.

Status

This allows you to record the progress of the service record from submission to resolution. You can change the status of a service record as many times as you like to reflect ongoing updates. Status changes can send out automatic notifications as specified under Service Desk --> Service Desk Settings --> General Settings. If you choose a closed status, the Closure Information field appears and you can select the appropriate closure information.

Example of the lifecycle of a service record:

1. A service record is submitted via e-mail integration and automatically is given status New.
2. The helpdesk dispatcher reads the service record and decides that it should be assigned to Tom. He assigns the SR to Tom and changes the status to Open.
3. Tom views the service record, realizes that he's missing some information, and sends the end user an e-mail. He then changes the status to Awaiting Response.
4. The end user receives the e-mail and responds with the desired information. SysAid E-mail Integration automatically adds the response to the service record and changes the status to Client Responded.
5. Tom sees that a response has arrived, reads the response, and realizes that he won't be able to resolve the issue for at least two days. He changes the status to Followup and puts a followup date on the service record.
6. In two days, the followup date arrives, and an escalation rule changes the status of the service record back to Open.
7. Tom sees that the service record has opened, and knows that he can resolve it now. Tom resolves the service record, changes its status to Closed, and enters the appropriate closure information.

Urgency, Impact, and Priority

These fields indicate how critical this service record is to the continued operation of your company.

• Urgency is how soon the issue will affect normal company operations.
• Impact is how big the effects of the problem will be.
• Priority is calculated based upon urgency and impact, as seen in the Priority Matrix.

Service records opened by e-mail receive the urgency specified for that e-mail address under e-mail integration. Service records that are opened by end users receive the default service record impact specified under Service Desk Settings --> General Settings and either the default service record priority specified under Service Desk Settings --> General Settings or the priority specified by any applicable priority rule or the Priority Matrix.

Due Date

The due date indicates by what date this service record must be resolved. Due dates can be calculated automatically using due date rules. If you don't want due dates changed after they've been set by the system, you can make them read-only by customizing the form using the cogwheel icon . Go here for more information for making form fields read-only.

Main Asset

Allows you to connect an asset to the service record. Any asset attached to a service record in this fashion will include the service record under the Service Desk tab on the asset form. This allows you to easily track all service records that have been logged against an asset.

You can click Change to attach a different asset, or click Detach to remove the asset.
Click to view details for the attached asset. This can be very helpful for troubleshooting hardware or software related issues.
Click to initiate a remote control session with the attached asset and instantly connect to the computer with the problem. Note that the remote control icon only appears if the attached asset is a computer.

Request User

This is the user who's requested the service. If an administrator opens a service record on behalf of somebody else, he or she can select the request user from the adjoining list (see Using advanced dropdown lists, below). There are four action icons that appear next to the request user:
Click to view the user profile for the request user.
Click send an e-mail to the request user (see below for further details).
Click to send a a chat request to the end user's computer. After confirmation, a chat session will begin. (When an admin clicks here, SysAid checks the list of Online Users to see if the user is currently logged in to the network. If the user is logged in, SysAid send the chat request to the machine he or she is logged into.)
Click to initiate a remote control session with the computer the end user is logged into. (When an admin clicks here, SysAid checks the list of Online Users to see if the user is currently logged in to the network. If the user is logged in, SysAid send the remote control request to the machine he or she is logged into.)

Submit User

The submit user is the user who submitted the service record. The functionality here is the same as for request user, but with one major difference: the submit user can't be changed.

Assigned To and Admin Group

Assigned to is the administrator who is working on the service record, and Admin Group is the group of administrators who is responsible for the service record. Depending upon how you assign work in your service desk, you may assign a service record to an admin, an admin and an admin group, or just an admin group.

Assigned to and Admin Groups can receive automated notifications when a service record changes as specified under Service Desk Settings --> General Settings.

Attachments

You can add relevant attachments to this request by clicking the Add button next to Attachments. A popup screen will allow you to browse your computer for the files you wish to attach.

 Add attachments to a service record

 

Sending an e-mail from a service record

 

SysAid allows you to track all e-mail correspondence with your end users from within a service record. Any time you send an e-mail from a service record, the e-mail is added to the message log for that service record. When the end user responds to the e-mail, the answer is also added to the message log. In that way, all e-mail correspondence is readily available to any administrator that looks at the SR. Please read more about the message log below.

 

Click the icon next to any user name on the SR form to send a message from within a service record. This opens the Send Message page. You can read more about this page here.

 

Important: When you send an e-mail from within a service record, the Subject line of the e-mail is prepopulated. Do not change the Subject! When the user replies to your e-mail, SysAid sees the service record number in the subject line and knows which service record to update. If you change the subject, SysAid will create a new service record instead of adding the response to the existing SR.

 

 Sending an e-mail from a service record

 

Using advanced dropdown lists

 

Some of the dropdown lists on the SR form offer additional functionality. These dropdown lists allow you to type the list item you are looking for so that it is easier to find. You can also choose advanced search to open a dedicated search page.

 

 Searching through an advanced dropdown list

 

Matching incidents to problems (ITIL only)

 

There are frequently instances where an incident is caused by a larger problem. When you are viewing an active SR of type incident, SysAid suggests open problems that may be the cause for the incident. By locating the correct problem, you can find out information that could help you to more easily resolve the incident, such as a workaround. You can also easily attach the incident to the problem, which will ensure that the incident is properly resolved when the problem is resolved.

 

 

Matching an incident to a problem

If there are one or more problems that could be related to the incident you are currently viewing, SysAid will display these in a list. You may click on a problem name to view details for that problem. This can help you to understand if a problem has caused the incident. If you find that a problem has indeed caused the incident, return to the SR form and click the checkbox next to that problem's name. When you save the SR form, the problem is attached to the incident under related items.

 

Note: SysAid only displays suggestions if the current incident is in an active status and if there are no problems already linked to the incident.

 

Which problems does SysAid display?

SysAid displays problems in two instances:

• There is an active problem with the same category as the current incident.
• There is an active problem attached to an active incident that has the same category as the current incident.

 

Actions available from the upper menu bar icons

 

There are several actions that you can perform on a service record using the icons in the upper menu bar:

 

Duplicate a service record

There are times when it's convenient to duplicate a service record, such as when two different departments need to work on the same issue. Click the Duplicate icon to duplicate a service record. An exact copy of the service record is created, which you can then save.

 

Notes:

• Be sure to save your service record before you duplicate it.
• The message log is not duplicated, so be sure to copy any important correspondence into one of the notes fields before duplicating the SR.
• Activities are not duplicated, so be sure to copy any important notes into one of the notes fields before duplicating the SR.

 

Create a new linked item

Service records are frequently related to other components of the helpdesk. These other components could include tasks, projects, Knowledge Base items, and more. From within a service record, SysAid allows you to create a new item which is linked to the SR you are looking at.

1. Click the Create a new linked item icon .
2. Select the type of item you would like to link to. You may link to projects, tasks, FAQs, CIs, and assets.
3. Select whether the current item caused the new linked item, was caused by the new linked item, or neither.
4. Click Create New.

SysAid will now create a new item of the selected type, and this item will be linked to the service record you were just looking at. You may view and edit the relationships between linked items from the Related Items tab.

 

Create a new linked item

SysAid allows you to easily create a new linked item from any service record. You can create a problem from an incident, create a change from a problem, create a KB article from an incident, etc. After the new linked item is saved, it will appear in the Related Items list.

1. Click on the Create a new linked item icon .
2. Select the appropriate type of linked item.
3. If you have selected a request, change, or problem, you must select the desired template. Note that only request, change, or problem templates with the same category as the SR or without a category will be available in the list.
4. Click Create New to create the new linked item.

 

Create a customized printout of your service record

You can create a customized printout of your service record using the Customized Printout icon . Read more about customized printouts here.

 

Delete the service record

Click the Delete icon to delete the service record. You must have permission to purge SRs for this icon to appear.

 

Print to PDF

You can print the SR form to PDF using the PDF icon .

 

Customize the SR form

Click the Cogwheel icon to customize the SR form. This icon only appears to SysAid Administrators. Read more about customizing forms here.

 

Archive a service record

It can be helpful to archive old service records so that they no longer appear in your Service Desk work queues. On any closed SR, click the Archive icon to archive that service record. Once archived, a service record may no longer be modified by anybody in any way. Additionally, an archived service record will only appear in the Service Desk list if you are using a view that shows archived records (see customizing list views). An archived record may be restored using the Restore icon . Once restored, the service record may be edited normally.

Note: The archive icon is only available for SRs with a closed status class.

 

 

General					Business		Related	Customized
Details	Solution	Activities	Messages	Chats	Impact	History	Items	Printout

 

Typically, you will use the Solution tab after you've finished working on a service record. It allows you to record the steps you've taken to resolve the SR.

 

After making any changes on this page, click OK/Apply to save your work.

 

 

The Resolution and Solution fields give you two different places to record the steps you've taken to resolve a service record. Note that the solution field appears by default to end users on the End User Portal while the resolution field does not.

 

The Actions list gives you several options:

 

Icon	Function
	Initiate a remote control session with the SR's Main Asset. Note that the remote control will only work if the attached asset is a computer.
	Send an e-mail to the SR's request user.
	Add the contents of the solution field to a new Knowledge Base article. The category, title, and description of the service record are copied as well. For more information about creating Knowledge Base articles, please go here.
	Click here to view all Knowledge Base articles with the same category of the service record. This helps you to quickly find a relevant KB article that can help you resolve the service record.

 

 

General					Business		Related	Customized
Details	Solution	Activities	Messages	Chats	Impact	History	Items	Printout

 

This tab allows you to record activities for your service records. Activities represent the time an administrator spent working on a service record, and can include any relevant notes or telephone conversations with the end user. Activities logged here appear in SR activities reports.

 

 

To record an activity:

1. Enter the Start Time for the activity. The default start time is the current time.
2. Enter the End Time for the activity. This manually calculates the total time. Alternatively, you may manually enter the Total time in the format XX:XX.
3. Enter a Description for the activity.
4. Click Add. Your activity appears in the table below the Add button. You can delete an activity at any time using the Delete button.

 

The activity is logged against whichever user appears in the User field. If you use the Change button to change the user, you can log an activity for a different user.

 

Note: When a chat has an attached service record, the chat is logged as an activity in that service record. The activity start time is when the chat was accepted, and the activity end time is when the chat was closed.

 

 

General					Business		Related	Customized
Details	Solution	Activities	Messages	Chats	Impact	History	Items	Printout

 

The message log records all e-mails sent from a service record and all e-mails received by SysAid that are connected to a service record.

 

SysAid identifies an e-mail as being relevant to a service record if it finds "#XXXX" in the subject of an e-mail and "XXXX" corresponds to an existing service record ID. (Example subject line: "Regarding Service Record #106 Software X keeps crashing")

 

 

Click Open all messages to open a new window that attaches all e-mails into one page for easy viewing.

 

Click on the Body of a message to view the full message in a new window.

 

 

Viewing automatic messages in service records

 

Under specific circumstances, such as when a status changes, SysAid may send e-mails automatically from a service record. Automatic e-mails sent by a service record are also shown in the message log.

 

Click the show automatic messages button if you would like to see these messages Click the hide automatic messages button if you would like to hide them (only one of these buttons shows at once, depending upon whether you are viewing automatic messages or not).

 

You may also choose whether automatic messages are shown or hidden by default under Service Desk --> Service Desk Settings --> General Settings using the option "Display the automatic notifications in messages." Regardless of what you select there, you can always use the show/hide buttons to show or hide automatic messages.

 

 

 

 

General					Business		Related	Customized
Details	Solution	Activities	Messages	Chats	Impact	History	Items	Printout

 

This tab shows a list of all chats that are attached to the service record. Click on a chat for more details about it.

 

For full instructions for using the chat list, please go here.

 

 

 

General					Business		Related	Customized
Details	Solution	Activities	Messages	Chats	Impact	History	Items	Printout

 

The Business Impact tab shows you which CI this service record is connected to (referred to as the Main CI). This allows you to predict other IT problems that might arise because of the open service record.

 

Example: As you can see in the screenshot below, Adobe Dreamweaver is installed on MKT026, and Dreamweaver is connected to the Technical Writing business process (only the word "Technical" appears in the screenshot). Therefore, if MKT026 has a problem that prevents it from being used, you know that there won't be any further updates to the technical documentation until the problem is fixed.

 

By always viewing the business impact of a service record, you can better prioritize your time, and you can make sure to always respond to the most important service records first.

 

Note: In the CI Relations Graph, CIs with active service records are highlighted in orange, and CIs with monitoring warnings or errors are highlighted in red.

 

 

Attaching a CI to a service record

 

If a service record has a Main Asset, and if that Main Asset has been imported to the CMDB, then a Main CI is automatically attached to the service record. In other cases, you need to manually attach a CI to the service record.

 

To attach a CI to a service record:

1. Click Change to open a list of CIs in the CMDB. Note that the default category filter for this list is the category of the service record, and you will only see CIs that have this category. If you would like to view CIs in other categories, you must update the category filter.
   
     Viewing CIs in the Server category
   
    
2. Search for the desired CI, and click on it to attach it to the task.
3. Click OK/Apply after attaching the CI.

 

You can now see the Business Impact of this task on your network.

 

Filtering the CI Relations Graph

 

Using the dropdown list, you can choose to view CI relationships affecting the CI, affected by the CI, or in both directions. You may also use the Relation Type Filter to show only certain types of relationships in the graph. For example, if you want to see only software installed on a workstation, you would create a filter that shows only CIs connected by the Installed on/Contains SW relationship.

 

 

General					Business		Related	Customized
Details	Solution	Activities	Messages	Chats	Impact	History	Items	Printout

 

Under this tab you can see a list of all changes that have been made to this SR. Click on Incident changed (or the appropriate link, depending upon SR type) to open a new screen with a snapshot of the SR at that revision.

 

Note: The activities field is not logged in the SR history.

 

 

 

 

 

General					Business		Related	Customized
Details	Solution	Activities	Messages	Chats	Impact	History	Items	Printout

 

This tab allows you to manage the relationships between the service record and other entities within SysAid. Creating relationships allows you to easily see what this service record is connected to, and it also creates links to the related items so that you can easily navigate back and forth between them.

 

When you are done making all necessary changes to your service record, click OK/Apply to save your work.

 

 

Following is a description of the default fields that appear on this page:

Main Asset

Please read the description found on the General Details tab, above. A service record's Main Asset is added to the Linked Items table that appears on this tab.

Main CI

Similar to the Main Asset. Once a service record has a Main CI, the service record will appear on the Help Desk tab for that CI in the CMDB. For more information about the functionality of the Main CI, please read the Business Impact tab, above. A service record's Main CI is added to the Linked Items table that appears on this tab.

Main Project

If this service record is part of a project, you can select the relevant project here. This adds a link to the project so you can easily access it from the service record. A service record's Main Project is added to the Linked Items table that appears on this tab.

Main Task

Selecting a Main Task adds a link to the task so that you can easily access it from the service record. If you have selected a Main Project for this SR, only tasks that are part of that project will appear in this list. If no project is selected, all tasks for all of your projects appear in this list. A service record's Main Task is added to the Linked Items table that appears on this tab.

Parent ID

Sometimes, multiple service records are submitted for the same problem. A good example is when the internet goes down, and you get 30 service records informing you of this. In order to effectively manage all of these service records together, SysAid allows you to make one service record the parent and all other service records the children. Any status changes that affect the parent SR affect all the children (such as closing the SR), and any e-mail sent to the parent SR can also be sent out to all of the child SRs. In this way, you can manage all of the service records as one.

Parent SRs
A service record is automatically considered a parent service record as soon as it has child service records. This means that all you need to do is assign the child SRs. If you would like to see all child SRs for a given parent, open the parent SR and add the field Child Service Records to the form using the Cogwheel icon .

Child SRs
To make a service record a child service record, enter the SR# of the parent SR into the Parent ID field and click OK/Apply. This adds a link to the parent SR. Once a service record is marked as a child, you don't generally need to look at it again. Note that the only way to change the status of a child SR is by changing the status of the parent.

 

Using the Linked Items table

 

The Linked Items table shows you a list of all items related to the service record. Click on any item to open a new window with details for that item.

 

Items added to this table also appear in the Linked Items table for the related item. For example, if you add a task to the Linked Items table on a service record, you will see the service record in the Linked Items table for that task.

 

Adding linked items

The following four items are added to this list automatically, as detailed immediately above:

• Main Asset
• Main CI
• Main Project
• Main Task

 

You can also manually add linked items:

1. Select the type of item you would like to add using the Add a new link, of type dropdown list.
2. Choose whether the linked item caused the current SR, was caused by the current SR, or neither.
3. Click the Add button. This opens a list of items of the selected type.
4. From the list, select one or more items using the tickboxes at the left end of the rows.
5. Click the Select button to save the selected items. This closes the list and attaches the items.

 

Removing linked items

To remove linked items that were added automatically (such as Main Asset), remove the connection (e.g. Detach the asset,) and the item will be removed from the table.

 

To remove linked items that you added manually:

1. Select one or more linked items using the tickboxes.
2. Click the Delete icon that appears above the list.

 

 

General					Business		Related	Customized
Details	Solution	Activities	Messages	Chats	Impact	History	Items	Printout

 

In addition to the default service record printout accessible from the print icon , you may find it helpful to customize your own SR printout. A custom SR printout is very simply an Excel spreadsheet of your design that SysAid will populate with all necessary fields from the service record.

 

 Example of a customized printout

 

In order to customize the printout of a service record, please do the following:

 

1. Go to Help Desk --> List (Service Desk --> Incidents in Enterprise) and click on any service record.
2. Click on the Cogwheel icon on the upper menu bar.
3. In the Design Form window, select “Customized Printout” from the Tab dropdown list. Then, move any fields you want to show up in your printout from the Available Fields list to the Visible Fields list. Click on Save.

Important: If a field does not show up in Visible Fields, it will not show up in your printout, even if you include that field on the Excel template.

4. On the computer hosting your SysAid, go to ...\SysAidServer\root\WEB-INF\conf\templates.
5. You should see a file called <your_account_ID>_customized_printout.xls. Open it in Excel. (It's a good idea to make a backup of this file before you begin editing it.)
6. The Excel you've opened has two tabs: SR Printout and Data.
• The SR Printout tab contains the visual template for your customized report. You may edit this as you see fit. Please note that only text contained within the defined borders will actually be printed.
• The Data tab contains a list of available SR fields that you may add to your printout. The field name is contained in column A, and the field content is contained in column B. For example, cell A14 has the field name Solution, so you know that the content of the solution field is in cell B14. (Note that in the Excel template, the entire B column is blank. The data is only populated when you do a customized printout. Do not edit the Data tab.)
7. Therefore, if you would like to add the Solution field to the customized printout, on the SR Printout tab you would type "Solution:" in the desired cell and then type =$Data.B14 in the adjoining cell. If you would like to add the Resolution field to the SR Printout tab, you would type "Resolution:" in the desired place and then type =$Data.B15 in the adjoining cell.
8. Save the document when you are finished making changes. All customized printouts will use this file as the template.
9. To print a service record using the template you've just customized, open any service record and click on the Customized Printout icon in the upper menu bar.