Ticket Customization
Configure the workflow statuses and categories used across your ticketing system. This page lives under Settings → Ticketing and is available to the Owner and Admin roles.
Organization-wide default SLA targets and business hours used to live on
this page. They now live in the unified SLA hub
(Settings → Ticketing → SLA, /settings/ticketing/sla), alongside named SLA
policies and escalation policies. A pointer card at the bottom of this page links there.
Overview
Ticket Customization lets you:
- Create, rename, recolor, and delete ticket statuses, and flag which status is the default, which statuses count as closed, and which pause the SLA clock.
- Create, rename, recolor, and delete ticket categories used to classify tickets.
Navigate to Ticket Customization
Go to Settings → Ticketing → Customization (/settings/ticketing/customization). The page is organized into two sections, stacked top to bottom: Ticket Statuses and Ticket Categories, followed by a link to the SLA hub.
The first time the page loads, Ascent seeds a set of default statuses and categories for your organization automatically.
Ticket Statuses
Statuses define the workflow stages a ticket moves through. Each status row shows a color swatch, the status name, the number of tickets currently using it, and any flags (System, Default, Closed, Pauses SLA).
Default statuses
When no statuses exist yet, Ascent creates these system statuses:
| Status | Default | Closed |
|---|---|---|
| New | Yes | No |
| Open | No | No |
| In Progress | No | No |
| Waiting | No | No |
| Resolved | No | Yes |
| Closed | No | Yes |
System statuses cannot be renamed or deleted, but you can still change their color and toggle their flags.
Status fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The status label (required, up to 50 characters). |
| Color | A hex color used for the swatch; pick from the color input or type a value like #3B82F6. |
| Default Status | When on, new tickets are assigned this status automatically. |
| Closed Status | When on, tickets with this status are treated as resolved. |
| Pause SLA Clock | When on, time a ticket spends in this status is excluded from the resolution SLA timer (stop-the-clock). Use it for statuses where you are waiting on the customer (e.g. "Waiting on Customer", "On Hold"). The response SLA is unaffected — it always ends at first response. |
Stop-the-clock (pausing the SLA)
Turning on Pause SLA Clock for a status lets you stop the resolution SLA timer while a ticket is parked waiting on someone outside your team, so technicians aren't penalized for customer delays:
- While a ticket sits in a pausing status, its resolution due date is pushed out by the (business-hours) time it spends paused, and that time is excluded from breach and at-risk calculations and the SLA dashboard.
- Moving the ticket back to a non-pausing status resumes the clock; you can pause and resume any number of times and the paused durations add up.
- Each pause and resume is recorded on the ticket's history timeline.
- Time spent paused outside business hours doesn't change anything, because the resolution clock isn't running then anyway.
- The response SLA never pauses.
Add a status
- In the Ticket Statuses card, click Add Status.
- Enter a Name and choose a Color.
- Optionally turn on Default Status and/or Closed Status.
- Click Create.
Edit a status
- Click the ⋯ (more) menu on the status row and choose Edit.
- Update the color or flags. For system statuses the Name field is locked.
- Click Update.
Delete a status
From the status row's ⋯ menu, choose Delete. The Delete action is disabled for Default and System statuses, and you cannot delete a status that still has tickets assigned to it — reassign those tickets first.
Ticket Categories
Categories classify tickets by the type of issue. Each row shows a color swatch, the category name, the number of tickets using it, and whether it is a System or Custom category.
Default categories
When no categories exist yet, Ascent creates these system categories: General, Network, Hardware, Software, Email, and Security.
System categories cannot be renamed or deleted, but you can change their color.
Category fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The category label (required, up to 50 characters). |
| Color | A hex color used for the swatch; pick from the color input or type a value like #6B7280. |
Add, edit, and delete categories
- Click Add Category to create a new one, entering a Name and Color, then click Create.
- Use the row's ⋯ menu to Edit (color, and name for custom categories) or Delete a category.
- The Delete action is disabled for system categories, and a category that still has tickets assigned to it cannot be deleted — reassign those tickets first.
SLA settings
Organization-wide default SLA targets (first-response and resolution times
per priority) and business hours are configured in the unified
SLA hub, not on this page. A SLA Settings card at the bottom
of Ticket Customization links to Settings → Ticketing → SLA (/settings/ticketing/sla), where the
Defaults, Policies, and Escalations tabs live together.
The status-level Pause SLA Clock flag (stop-the-clock) stays here, on the status it applies to — see Stop-the-clock above.
Tips
- Mark closed statuses correctly. Toggling Closed Status on the right statuses keeps reporting and SLA stop-the-clock behavior accurate.
- Keep one default status. Only the status flagged as Default is applied to new tickets.
- Reassign before deleting. Statuses and categories in use by tickets cannot be deleted; move those tickets to another status or category first.
- Configure SLA targets in the SLA hub. Default response/resolution times and business hours now live under Settings → Ticketing → SLA.
Related
- Custom Fields — capture extra information on tickets (and other records) beyond the built-in fields, using your own dropdowns, dates, checkboxes, and more.