MSP ticketing software checklist: what to look for
A managed service provider (MSP) needs ticketing software that treats each client as its own group, with its own portal, SLA targets, people and email address, all in one workspace. Use this checklist to compare tools on the points that matter once you have more than a few clients.
First decide how much tool you need
MSPs often start by choosing between a help desk tool and a professional services automation (PSA) tool. A PSA ties tickets to time, contracts and invoices. A help desk tool handles the requests, the deadlines and the communication. If you bill clients from ticket hours, you will probably want a PSA or a billing system alongside whatever you pick. If you bill a flat fee per user or per device, you may need only the help desk part. The glossary compares the two, and helpdesk ticketing vs PSA goes into more detail.
The checklist
1. Clients as first-class groups
Each client should be an organization with its own contacts and tickets, and technicians should be able to filter by client at a glance. Ask how people are matched to a client (by email domain, by invitation, by hand) and what happens when an unknown address writes in.
2. A separate portal per client
Each client should be able to have its own address, logo, colors, request forms and wording, not just one shared portal with a client filter. Sign-in options matter too, since clients differ in how formal they want access to be. The client portal setup guide walks through one in detail.
3. SLA targets per client
Different clients pay for different service levels. Look for policies you can attach to a client, business hours with that client's time zone and holidays, and a pause while you wait on the client. Ask what happens to open tickets when you change a client's policy. See the IT SLA guide.
4. Client-side administration
A client contact who can see all of their organization's requests, and add or remove their own users, saves your team a lot of small tasks. Ask if that role exists and what it can see.
5. Email per client
Look for a mailbox, or a team address, for each client, with its own defaults for team, priority and type, a way to hold mail from unknown senders for review, and replies that thread into the same ticket.
6. Wording per client
Some clients say "ticket", some say "request", some say "work order". A tool that lets you rename the nouns, for the workspace or for one client, makes the portal feel like part of their own company.
7. Roles and data separation
Ask how access is separated between clients, what a technician can see, and if you can create custom roles. You also want an audit log, since clients will ask who changed what.
8. Automation, approvals and the API
Look for rules that act on new tickets and SLA warnings, approvals that can follow a chain, and an API with signed webhooks so you can connect your monitoring, documentation and billing tools yourself.
9. Pricing that does not punish growth
Find out whether client users cost anything. A model that charges only for the people who work tickets keeps the price steady when a client adds fifty employees. Work out the cost for your real technician count, not the entry tier.
10. What it does not replace
Be clear about what the tool leaves to others: billing, remote monitoring and management, documentation, asset records. A help desk that does one job well, connected through an API, is often easier to run than a suite you use a third of.
How ActiveQ answers the checklist
- Each client is an organization in one workspace, with its own contacts, tickets, portal, forms and sign-in rule. See client portals.
- An SLA policy attached to an organization wins over the team and workspace defaults, and open tickets keep their clocks if you change it. See SLA management.
- A client contact with the organization admin role can see all of that organization's requests and manage its users in the portal.
- A mailbox can belong to one client and set the team, type and priority of new tickets, with unknown senders either added as contacts or held in quarantine.
- Nouns such as ticket can be renamed for the workspace or for one client.
- Custom roles, an audit log, automations, approvals, an API and signed webhooks are included. Technician pricing is $79.99 a month for 1 to 3 agents, $149.99 for 4 to 8 and $19.99 for each agent above 8, and client contacts cost nothing. See ActiveQ for MSPs and pricing.