Akeeba Ticket System

Thursday, 26 June 2014 17:59 CDT

sohopros

We are still trying to configure this demo instance and have a few remaining questions - you access from Ticket #20357 is still valid, if you need to connect and take a look or configure:

A. When viewing the tickets in a category, we would need the option of showing all tickets in the category as well as tickets in child categories. Possible? This way, a property manager can see all tickets within their management scope on a single screen without having to click sub-category-by-sub-category.

B. When logged in as a manager and viewing the category list (see attached screenshot [category-list-manager.JPG], there is no way to see the number and status of tickets in each category without clicking into each category one at a time. Is there another view, similar to the "my tickets", but showing the tickets within the user's managed categories and not tickets that they have created or to which they are assigned?
In other words, we have different levels of users:

1. ticket creator (this is a property tenant, they should be able to see all tickets they have created and currently can using the My Tickets module)
2. ticket assignee (this is a property engineer, they should be able to see all/only tickets assigned to them and currently can )
3. ticket manager (this is a property manager, they should be able to see all tickets within their property and sort or filter by functional category (lighting/parking/HVAC/...)
4. ticket manager's manager (this is a regional manager responsible for multiple properties, they should be able to see all tickets within their region, and sort or filter by property/functional category)
5. ticket manager's manager's manager (this is a corporate manager responsible for multiple regions, they should be able to see all tickets, and sort or filter by region/property/functional category)
6. Global Admin (these would be site admins & SuperAdmins with no direct responsibility for managing tickets, but responsible for technical support of the site.

And we would like each level to be able to see a summary of the tickets within their pervue.

C. When we click the Work Order Buckets menu item, we get a 403 page, even though the user (yccengineer) is assigned to a Group (YCC Engineers) that is assigned to the Access level (Tenant Services) for the Menu Item.

D. We would not want the Engineers to be able to assign tickets to other engineers - only Managers should be able to do that. Is there a permission setting for that?

E. Is there a way to export time by user/ticket?

F. This client would like to be able to invoice from the system and the Invoice consists of 3 parts:
1. Time billed at an hourly rate that varies by engineer.
2. Material Cost that is added to the job (they may have to buy light bulbs to fix a lighting problem that is then billed to the tenant, for example)
3. A Management Fee that varies by tenant.
Can you suggest a method of implementation for this?

G. The Custom Status's all assume the Orange color code (same as "Pending"). Can that be modified so that they have unique colors?

Thanks, SOHO Prospecting Team

Thursday, 26 June 2014 18:24 CDT

sohopros

One other thing:
H. The MOD_ATSTICKETS does not show the custom status's - all tickets in a custom status show as Open. Is that right?

Thanks, SOHO Prospecting Team

Friday, 27 June 2014 02:12 CDT

nicholas

A. No, this is not possible and it's outside the scope of Akeeba Ticket System. As a result it will NOT be implemented.

B. This is the "Latest open tickets" page (you can create a menu item to it). However, this displays ALL open tickets, new and replied to by clients, in all categories where the user is a manager. This includes tickets assigned to the manager, tickets assigned to another manager and tickets not assigned to anyone.

What you describe that you want is outside the scope of Akeeba Ticket System and will NOT be implemented. In fact, I think you need a custom component as your workflow falls outside the scope of what is called a "ticket system". You have a very specific workflow in mind, one that needs custom software to implement.

C. Check your menu item's Access.

D. No. See my reply for B.

E. No. You can only show the time spent per manager. The feature is called "Time cards" because that's what it is designed to do: tell you how much each of your staff worked. It's not there for client billing. ATS is not a CRM. What you need is a CRM. That's a different kind of software, one we are not willing to write.

F. You need a CRM. See my reply for E.

G. No. Bootstrap only has very few colours available for labels.

H. Yes. It's supposed to be a user-facing module. It only gives a generic overview of the tickets, i.e. which are waiting for the user's reply, which are waiting for the staff's reply and which are closed.

After reading all your questions, it is quite clear that what you are after is not a ticket system. You need a custom support and billing workflow, a cross-breed between a ticket system and a CRM with a very specific workflow. You cannot achieve that with off-the-shelf software or even software-as-a-service solutions. You can either make some compromises on what you want to do and use cheap off-the-shelf software or you can spend A LOT of money (in the area of 30-40 thousand Euros) and time (6-9 months at least) to develop your own.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Friday, 27 June 2014 14:06 CDT

sohopros

There are actually SAS solutions that do all the things we are describing, such as http://impaksolutions.com/, but we are trying to evaluate smaller solutions. The client is willing to sacrifice 20% of the features they may want for a significant reduction in price. We are just trying to determine which 20% would need to be sacrificed by various solutions.

Thanks for helping us to sort that out!

Thanks, SOHO Prospecting Team

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