Every ticket needs an owner to get resolved. IntelliDesk gives you three ways to hand out work: assign by hand, let auto-assignment do it, or keep an unassigned queue your team picks from.
Assigning a ticket
Open the ticket and pick someone in Assignee in the side panel. The list shows the people on that ticket's desk. They get a notification ("Sam Naidoo assigned HD-1182 to you"), on the bell and as a push notification if they've switched those on. Assigning a ticket to yourself doesn't notify anyone.
To hand out several at once, tick them in the inbox and use Bulk assign. A canned response can also assign the ticket as one of its actions.
To give a ticket back, set the assignee to Unassigned. It's useful when it needs someone else's expertise. If you're going on leave, set your status to on leave instead: your desk can hand your tickets over automatically (see Away, on leave or absent: your availability and what happens to your tickets).
Auto-assignment
Each help desk can switch on Auto-assignment (Settings → Help Desks → your desk → Settings). New tickets on that desk then get an owner straight away, whichever way they arrive: email, the website form, the customer portal, the API or WhatsApp. (Live chats are picked up from the Live Chat console instead.)
- Only agents on shift. An agent on that desk who has used IntelliDesk in the last two hours counts as on shift. If nobody has, anyone active in the last 24 hours is used instead, so tickets still get an owner early in the morning. Anyone who is away, on leave or absent is always skipped, even if they used IntelliDesk recently. Managers and observers aren't included; give someone the agent role on the desk if they should receive tickets.
- Preferred agents first. If the desk has a preferred-agent list, the ticket goes to the first person on the list who is available. The list is a priority order, not a rotation: use it when one person normally owns a desk and others cover.
- Then, how to choose (set per desk):
- Take turns: tickets rotate evenly through the available agents.
- Least busy first: the ticket goes to whoever has the fewest open tickets across the workspace; agents who are tied take turns. Best for bigger teams, and when some tickets take much longer than others.
- Best match (AI): Jev reads the ticket and gives it to the agent whose skills fit best (see below).
- Nobody available: left unassigned, for someone to pick up. The desk's managers get a No one available on {desk} notification (bell and push) saying the ticket is waiting unassigned. It's sent at most once every 4 hours per desk, and resets as soon as auto-assign succeeds again.
A trigger that assigns a ticket always wins: auto-assignment only picks an owner for tickets that don't have one yet.
The first person to reply to an unassigned ticket also becomes its owner automatically, so the reports credit whoever helped the customer. The same applies when the owner is on leave or absent: the colleague who replies to or closes the ticket becomes its owner, even if the owner had already replied.
For what happens to someone's existing tickets while they're out, and who hears about customer replies, see Away, on leave or absent: your availability and what happens to your tickets.
Best match (AI)
Choose Best match (AI) under How to choose, then fill in What each agent handles: a few words per agent, like "Billing, refunds, Afrikaans" or "API integrations, webhooks". When a ticket arrives, Jev compares it with those notes and picks the best-suited agent. It's asked in the same AI call that sets priority and type, so it adds no extra AI usage.
It needs AI triage & assist switched on for the desk. Until then, tickets go to the least busy agent.
Jev suggests; these rules decide:
- Only agents on shift are considered, as above. People who are away, on leave or absent are never picked.
- No overloading. If the best fit already has five or more open tickets than the least busy agent, the ticket goes to the least busy agent instead.
- Least busy when unsure. If Jev isn't confident, sees no clear fit, or can't run, the ticket goes to the least busy agent (preferred agents first). A confident best match beats the preferred-agent list.
- Always explained. Each ticket gets an internal note from Jev saying why, for example "Assigned to Elena Rossi by Jev as the best match (91% sure). They handle: API integrations, webhooks." or "Assigned to Marcus Reid (least busy). No best match from Jev: Jonas Keller already has far more open tickets than the rest of the team."
Agents left blank still get tickets when nobody clearly fits. The ticket is usually assigned within a few seconds; if the AI is slow, it's assigned least busy after two minutes at most.
Seeing who's working on what
Workload in the sidebar shows the team's queue:
- New: tickets nobody on the team has opened yet, and tickets from the last 24 hours. A good first stop each morning.
- Members: pick a person to see their open tickets and project cards.
- Backlog, Unassigned and Project Board: older work, tickets with no owner, and cards by stage.
Tickets without an owner also show under Unassigned in the inbox filters and on the dashboard.
Assignment history
Every change of assignee is recorded in Settings → Audit Log as "assignee changed", with who made it and how: manual, auto-assign, rule, first reply, bulk update, API, MCP or handover.
Not doubling up
When someone else has a ticket open, a bar at the top of the ticket says so ("Thandi Mokoena is also viewing", or "is typing…" while they write a reply). Check it before you start, so two people don't answer the same customer.
Bringing someone in
To ask a colleague for help, write an internal note and @mention them (the Mention button, or type @). They get a notification, and the customer never sees the note. For a full handover, leave a note explaining where things stand and change the assignee: the note carries the context, the assignment moves the ticket, and the mention makes sure they see it.
For a permanent change of owner for a whole desk, update the desk's preferred-agent list rather than reassigning tickets one by one.
Following a ticket
Click Follow at the top of a ticket to keep an eye on it without owning it, for example as a manager on a sensitive case. When the customer replies, you're notified, just like the owner. The inbox's Following view lists everything you follow. Click Following again to stop.
Notification settings
Choose what you're notified about in the bell's settings (the gear icon): Assigned to me, Customer replies (on tickets you own or follow), Mentions and New tickets.
Roles on a help desk
Each person on a desk has one of three roles:
- Manager: changes the desk's settings and members, and everything an agent can do.
- Agent: works tickets: reply, assign, change status, merge, tag.
- Observer: read-only, for people who need visibility without touching anything.
The role applies to that desk only. To run several desks with their own teams, see Running several teams and mailboxes in one workspace.