> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.oration.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Tickets overview

> Use tickets to track customer issues, back-office work, and incidents that take more than a single conversation to finish.

Tickets are how your team tracks **work that is not done in one conversation**. A call or chat might last a few minutes. A refund, an address change, or an outage can take hours or days, pass through several teammates, and still need a clear status for the customer.

Oration tickets sit next to conversations. A conversation is the live interaction. A ticket is the durable record of the work that came out of it.

<Tip>
  If the customer’s question can be answered on the same call, stay in [Conversations](/guides/conversations/history). If someone still has to do work after the call ends, create a ticket.
</Tip>

## What a ticket contains

Every ticket has:

* A **number** unique to your workspace, such as `#1042`
* A **type** that decides the form, allowed statuses, sharing rules, and disposition set
* A **status** from the statuses attached to that type
* A **priority** (`urgent`, `high`, `medium`, or `low`)
* Optional **custom fields** defined on the type
* A **thread** of messages and internal notes
* An **activity history** for field changes, status time, and dispositions

The type is the most important choice. It is the schema for the ticket — not “email vs phone”, but “Refund”, “Address change”, or “Production outage”.

## Three kinds of work

Every ticket type belongs to one category. That category does not change for tickets you already created.

| Category        | Who sees it                                         | Typical use                                            |
| --------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Customer**    | Always shared with the customer                     | Long-running customer issues that need updates         |
| **Back-office** | Internal by default; you can allow sharing per type | Specialist work such as finance, fraud, or engineering |
| **Tracker**     | Never shared                                        | One incident that many customer tickets can join       |

Read [Ticket categories](/guides/tickets/types/categories) before you create types. The category you pick controls sharing, grouping, and how teammates talk on the ticket.

## Tickets vs conversations

|                  | **Conversation**                | **Ticket**                                          |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- |
| What it is       | One live call, chat, or session | One piece of follow-up work                         |
| Lifetime         | Usually minutes                 | Hours to days                                       |
| Who collaborates | The people on that interaction  | Assignees, owners, teams, and linked tickets        |
| Status           | Call or chat state              | Submitted → in progress → waiting → hold → resolved |
| Form             | Transcript and metadata         | Title, description, custom fields, disposition      |

You can [link conversations](/guides/tickets/working/conversations) to a ticket so the recording and transcript stay next to the work.

## Where tickets live in the product

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Tickets app" icon="inbox" href="/guides/tickets/working/inbox">
    Open **Tickets** in the sidebar to list, create, and work tickets.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Ticket types" icon="layer-group" href="/guides/tickets/types/overview">
    Configure types under **Settings → Contact Center → Tickets → Ticket Types**.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Ticket statuses" icon="flag" href="/guides/tickets/statuses/overview">
    Configure the workspace status catalog under **Ticket Statuses**.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Getting started" icon="rocket" href="/guides/tickets/getting-started">
    Create a type, attach statuses, then open your first ticket.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## What you can do on a ticket

Once a ticket exists, teammates can:

* Change its [status](/guides/tickets/working/status-and-snooze)
* [Assign](/guides/tickets/working/assign-and-share) a person or a team
* Fill [custom attributes](/guides/tickets/working/attributes)
* Add [messages and notes](/guides/tickets/working/messages)
* [Share](/guides/tickets/working/assign-and-share) a back-office ticket when the type allows it
* [Snooze](/guides/tickets/working/status-and-snooze) it until a follow-up time
* Apply a [disposition code](/guides/tickets/working/dispositions)
* [Link conversations](/guides/tickets/working/conversations) or [group customer tickets](/guides/tickets/working/tracker-groups) under a tracker

Every important change is stored in [history](/guides/tickets/working/history).

## Permissions

Ticket settings and ticket work use workspace roles. Teammates who can create types can also clone them. Teammates who can create statuses can clone custom statuses. System statuses cannot be cloned or archived.

If a control is missing in settings, ask a workspace admin to grant ticket type or ticket status permissions.

<Note>
  Need help? Reach out to [developers@oration.ai](mailto:developers@oration.ai).
</Note>