<style>p { margin: 0; }span.fr-emoticon.fr-emoticon-img { background-repeat: no-repeat !important; font-size: inherit; height: 1em; width: 1em; min-height: 20px; min-width: 20px; display: inline-block; margin: -0.1em 0.1em 0.1em; line-height: 1; vertical-align: middle; } span.fr-emoticon { font-weight: normal; font-family: "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "NotoColorEmoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", "EmojiSymbols"; display: inline; line-height: 0; } blockquote { border-left: solid 2px #5e35b1; color: #5e35b1; margin-left:0; padding-left:5px;}blockquote blockquote{ border-color: #00bcd4; color: #00bcd4;}blockquote blockquote blockquote{ border-color: #43a047; color: #43a047;} table.grid{ border-collapse: collapse;} table.grid td, table.grid th { border: 1px solid #ddd;} .fr-fic.fr-dib{ display: block; margin: 5px auto;}.fr-fic.fr-dib.fr-fir{ text-align: right; margin: 5px 0 5px auto;}.fr-fic.fr-dib.fr-fil{ text-align: left; margin: 5px auto 5px 0;}.fr-fic.fr-dii{ float: none; margin: 5px auto;}.fr-fic.fr-dii.fr-fil{ float: left; margin: 5px auto;}.fr-fic.fr-dii.fr-fir{ float: right; margin: 5px auto;}img.fr-dib.fr-fir { margin-right: 0; text-align: right;}img.fr-dib.fr-fil { margin-left: 0; text-align: left;}img.fr-dib { margin: 5px auto; display: block; float: none;}img.fr-bordered { box-sizing: content-box; border: solid 5px #CCC;}img.fr-shadow { box-shadow: 10px 10px 5px 0px #cccccc;}img.fr-rounded { border-radius: 10px; -moz-border-radius: 10px; -webkit-border-radius: 10px; -moz-background-clip: padding; -webkit-background-clip: padding-box; background-clip: padding-box;}</style><p id="isPasted"><strong>In this guide we will cover:</strong></p><p><strong>- What are Parent and Child Tickets?</strong></p><p><strong>- Identifying a Parent or Child Ticket</strong></p><p><strong>- Linking Tickets Manually</strong></p><p><strong>- Creating Child Tickets Automatically</strong></p><p><strong>- Actions between Parent and Child Tickets</strong></p><p><strong>- Child Ticket Behaviour when Merging Parent Tickets</strong></p><p><strong>- Adding Child Tickets into the Column Profile</strong></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Admin Guides:</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/1341/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>General Settings</strong><br></a></li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>Related Guides:</strong></p><ul><li style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/1921/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>Actions</strong></a></li><li style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/1943/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>Actions: System Uses</strong></a> </li><li style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/1936/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Column Profiles</a></li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">What are Parent and Child Tickets?</span></strong></p><p>Parent and child tickets are a way of linking tickets together. Think of some tickets as A, B and C. If A is the parent ticket, you could link B and C to it as the children. A child ticket can only have one parent, but the parent can have multiple children. </p><p><br></p><p>The parent-to-child relationship can be used to delegate subtasks or link related issues.</p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Identifying a Parent or Child Ticket</span></strong></p><p>There are a few indicators that a ticket is a parent or child. The first is in the ticket list, where the ID will either show with a "-P" or "-C" at the end for parent and child respectively.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImU0ZDdkZmQzLTVlNTktNDFjNy05YmFiLTJjOWVkYjJiZTk0MCJ9.FH9bOZkAdinJAr8sVzYMurxFjRFL5W1HY5P_a2nugIc" width="468" height="218" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 1. Child and parent ticket on a ticket list.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>When you click into a parent ticket, there will be a tab for "Child Tickets" with a count of the number in brackets.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjU1MmU4NTcwLTE2ZTgtNDE4Ni1hYzZiLTAwNWY3MWU0YTk2YiJ9.wTto1XTcXsLAec7c_R5a4NKH50RQM46smFeLwG8UIHg" width="1215" style="width: 1217px; height: 267.053px;" height="267" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 2. Child Tickets tab on a parent ticket.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>You can also hover over the three dots to "Toggle showing grandchild Tickets". This will choose whether tickets show that are the child ticket of the child, i.e. if we are looking at ticket A, and ticket B is the child, it will also show ticket C as the child of ticket B.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjI3MDBkYmM0LWI5N2QtNDAwNC1hYjczLTM3MDllNGI2MGMwNyJ9.oGSMSqb3Sp8Lz9_uvLPevH2utPWjigsVjiJorXIy6Vw" width="1217" style="width: 1219px; height: 383.032px;" height="383" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 3. Toggle showing grandchild Tickets option.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>On the child ticket, the "Ticket information" will show the "Parent ID" field with a hyperlink to the parent ticket.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjcyZjY2YTE1LWVmYTYtNDNkNC1iNTExLWFlN2NkZGQ1OGE3MiJ9._clYVNErpWyz5kV0qZoE1A8BeF6I6ZL93ztRH_spBkQ" width="245" height="121" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 4. Parent ID field on a child ticket.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Linking Tickets Manually</span></strong></p><p>When viewing a ticket, you can create a parent-child relationship by hovering over the three dots in the top right corner. "Link to another Ticket" will make the ticket you are viewing the child of another, and you can also create actions with this as a system use, whereas "Link Tickets to this Ticket" will make this ticket the parent of others. Clicking either of these options will bring up a screen to select the ticket(s) from a list. This feature is useful if linking support tickets that come into your helpdesk to a major incident ticket.</p><p><br></p><p><img data-fr-image-pasted="true" src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImY1NWQ1Zjg0LTI3MTktNDViMS1hYzI4LTE0MmZmMTZkNjE5ZCJ9.Kc7QRu2ETJMdrfhZt2FKaLGabmf95xxcgJnlCqgVSNg" width="256" height="511" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-style: none; cursor: pointer; padding: 0px 1px; user-select: none; text-align: left; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; max-width: none !important;" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 5. Creating a parent-child relationship from existing tickets.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>Within the ticket list, you can also use the checkbox > hover over "Edit" > "Link" to link tickets.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImJlOGQ2ZmUzLTU1OTUtNGMwZS04NGE2LTBhZTA4M2QyYjAxMyJ9.VfokNgck7wBZzkxPGLAS279Yixlnrd7P7kizc2SZ1X4" width="298" height="337" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 6. Link system use on a ticket list.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>There are also action system uses for creating a parent or child ticket from another. When this system use is added to an action, a popup to create a new ticket will appear upon use.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjE0ODM5MWIzLWVhNWMtNDI4NC1hY2QyLWU3ZjU0MTNhNTBmMiJ9.B9yrDgRlMXx9rTMqyYYDn3FdzVFFQ9Ba0gdTDdWzJZc" width="1219" style="width: 1221px; height: 573.577px;" height="574" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 7. Creating a new child ticket from an existing ticket.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Creating Child Tickets Automatically</span></strong></p><p>Child tickets can be created automatically using ticket templates. The "Children" tab allows you to select which tickets are created. If no rules are set, they will be created immediately upon parent creation, but rules can be used to delay this until the criteria is met.</p><p><br></p><p>Templates of entity type "Child Template" are the only ones that will appear in the dropdown here.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjAyMDJkYzZhLTE2YzEtNDMxNC04YzI4LWI2Y2U1ZmMxOThmYSJ9._WduE6zBGHTwhEFrh2wSJMQElZm_KsaTmeXoCk87DLs" width="1211" style="width: 1213px; height: 436.802px;" height="437" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 8. Adding child templates to a ticket template.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>Automatic creation can also be done in the workflow. Using the same system use with an template, this can then be made a quick action by enabling "Is a Quick Action" a little further down. Quick actions do not show the new action screen, and are completed automatically.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjQzOTRkM2YwLTY2YmItNDIxNC1iODdkLTJjYzliZTBkMDkzNyJ9.Cw3G10G9UITob6J6x3NmnL1Z71yzS7ME4MKiZ9ieoQA" width="459" height="300" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 9. Creating a child ticket from an action.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>This can then be automated on a certain step of the workflow, such as below where it will create the child ticket if the "Software" custom field is set to "Microsoft Project" at this stage.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6Ijk0MzVlZDMwLWRhZTQtNDg3Ni1hNWE3LTg2ZGRkODAwNWVmNiJ9.XgpBuaDZoTwbpl1-toM7xsc8VAX9VPtea-eBxJ5wjfo" width="682" height="595" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 10. Adding the action to a step in the workflow.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>You can set child tickets directly against a ticket type. A new "Children" tab will show in the configuration for your ticket types. Here you can add child templates to create when the ticket type is used, these will be overridden by any templates that are associated with the ticket. The ticket type's children will therefore only be created if no template is present at the point of logging. </p><p><br></p><p>This means you can have both a template and ticket type children applied to a ticket. To do this you will need a ticket rule which applies the template on existing tickets. Since at the point of logging the rule will not be matched, the ticket type's children will be created. Later when the rule is matched, the template will be applied, creating the template's children as well. </p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImUzYWFhOGFjLWY2MzMtNDI2MC04OTdlLWQ5YjUyNDRiZTc3NCJ9.E01s4lqpOOpvBTaFRZ5DRWg4n3n-YqShLvF1Rkf69c4" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="736" style="width: 738px; height: 204.059px;" height="204"></p><p data-pasted="true"><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 11. Ticket type child tickets.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Actions between Parent and Child Tickets</span></strong></p><p>Actions can be added and shown between parent and child tickets. Here is the system use "Add note to Child Ticket(s)".</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjhhNGQ1OWRiLTM0NjEtNGFjMC04N2I5LTgyOWRjMDIwMDQ4MyJ9.KoAMwXqY6HB0F7YVZIbo3Su9Z-kBmC4eEDbxq5tWaRQ" width="1219" style="width: 1221px; height: 240.733px;" height="241" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 12. Note on the parent ticket.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>With the "Note" field added to the field list of the action, the text entered will then also be added to the children. There is also a "Add note to Parent Ticket" system use that does this the opposite way around. Both will only show on their respective tickets, i.e. actions with "Add note to Child Ticket(s)" will only show on a parent ticket.</p><p><br></p><p>"Add note to Parent Ticket" will also be a checkbox within an action's configuration in addition to a system use (Configuration > Tickets > Actions > Details tab). This frees up the system use field to be used for another purpose at the same time.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjdkZjVjMzYzLTcwMTItNGIyOC05MDI0LTc5NDg5NzNmYjE1MiJ9.pCuAAAUNToYZsCFKTNtxAG6TH_JBYOqv_M2pR1wk9Ng" width="1220" style="width: 1222px; height: 360.827px;" height="361" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 13. Note added to the child ticket.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>The action can also be set whether it appears on parent and/or child tickets. The "Show on Parent always"/"Show on Child always" setting in either of these dropdowns can be used to override the other one's "Don't show". This is for cases where a ticket is both a parent and a child.</p><p><br></p><p>The third option here is to set whether the action is added to parent/child tickets.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjAwYmU3NjI1LWQ4ZGUtNGIzOS1iYWQ5LTVlMmY4ZWM1ZGUyMyJ9.e88TY6vfKrHf7NzE6UMnr82Fd20M_QBmyno9fe_v9nc" width="563" height="209" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 14. Parent/child action settings.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>If set differently, this overrides the global setting at the top here in Configuration > Tickets > General Settings. This is also where other parent-child behaviour can be set globally, such as requiring the "Advanced Ticket Details" agent permission to unlink tickets.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjIxMWMyNTg0LTlhNzQtNDQ2Yy05YzQ2LTY3MmFlYTQ1MDFhYyJ9.mlGu8h081rwCNbk9z86rhaJJrAe2eqPo1TfRshHe-GY" width="1214" style="width: 1216px; height: 395.079px;" height="395" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 15. Global ticket configuration.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Control which Action Fields are Added to Child Tickets </span></strong></p><p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">When an action is set to be added to child tickets, all fields on the action will sync to the child ticket by default. Provided the child ticket type has these fields in it's field list. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">If you would like only the note on the action to be added to the children, and have no other field values added to the child, set <span style="font-size: 11pt;" data-pasted="true">"Field values to copy to child Tickets when adding Actions to child Tickets from a parent Ticket"</span>. This setting is found under Configuration > Tickets > Ticket Types > select a ticket type > Settings tab. </span></p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImEzZmMyNTNmLTEyYzItNDkwNC05YTgzLTE4ZGRhNTUzODVkOCJ9.Wnisqfm4YIaKsHxkptHQOtu6vfQiTbdqC061rDYGzkU" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="564" height="404"></span></strong></p><p><strong>Fig 16. Field values to copy to child Tickets when adding Actions to child Tickets from a parent Ticket.</strong></p><p><br></p><p data-pasted="true"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">You can set child tickets to have different custom field values to their parent ticket. When linking them as children, the agent will be prompted to set the values. These can also be changed at any time. To do this you will first need to set the Ticket Type under the "Values" tab. </span></p><p><br><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjIxMTljZDQ3LWFlNzItNDljMC1hZjI3LTU3ZmVhZTFlY2ZjNSJ9.WDVxNDWbLZZCattWkYV1Hl18OocTnJuaXF1LbiNR4zw" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1221" style="width: 1223px; height: 583.877px;" height="584"></p><p data-pasted="true" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.4285em;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Fig 17. Fields that differ per parent.</strong></p><p><br></p><p>Once set, a popup will show allowing you to choose the value for these fields on the child ticket. This can also be accessed by selecting the icon shown in <strong>Fig 18</strong>. </p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6Ijg2ODUzNGI0LTAwY2EtNDE3Yi1hYmM0LTY4YjQ0MzhmMzRiNSJ9.-sAjoeeskS02vmPpCxY2acPx0DxcSgY6u0nLKBIbOHc" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1226" style="width: 1228px; height: 303.124px;" height="303"></p><p data-pasted="true" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.4285em;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Fig 18. Setting fields values </strong></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.4285em;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Child Ticket Behaviour when Merging Parent Tickets</span></strong></p><p>The behaviour when merging a parent ticket can be set to determine what happens to its child tickets. By default, this is set to "Move Child Tickets to new Parent" but this can be set to close these either on the old or the new parent, delete them, or have a popup to ask every time. This is set in Configuration > Tickets > General Settings > Merging.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjZiZDBhZGEzLTA3NjAtNDI5Zi1iOWJkLTMzZGRlODM5ZWIzNCJ9.3rkcoTLtEvwqID2ZahgdDSoKvzS_pssirNq6HI9YPLc" width="481" height="81" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 19. When merging a Parent Ticket, do the following with the Child Tickets.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Adding Child Tickets into the Column Profile</span></strong></p><p>Column profiles can be configured to show the child ticket(s) of the parent in a dropdown arrow on the ticket list. In Configuration > Tickets > Views > Column Profiles > Configure Column Profiles, select the column profile you want to show the child ticket dropdown for. In the "Miscellaneous" section at the bottom, "Include Children" can be enabled.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjgwNTMxM2IyLTMyOWQtNGYyNC1hZTQzLTM1Yzc1NWE0Y2YyZiJ9.7KN1zL8NTicWIT1SuzPjJs0E4inoPbHaeGiJHqo1owI" width="444" height="124" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 20. Adding children into the dropdown.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>The ticket list will then have a small arrow at the side, which when clicked will show the child ticket underneath.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImI5ZmM2ODUzLTAwYzktNDZmMi04MTY3LTI0Mjc2MDI4ZjkwZiJ9.sqvbNt7r6k45P8LifpJmEAhMmoO6LAyUWPhJLFcBRsY" width="865" height="155" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 21. Dropdown with child ticket.</span></strong></p>
