Organization
The unit tree is the structure of your desk. Every case, form and portal belongs to one unit, and the unit decides the brand requesters see, which automations and service levels apply, and who on your team works on its cases. You manage it under Settings → Organization.
Organizations and units
An organization is the top of a tree: a company or a separate legal entity. One desk can hold several organizations, and they share nothing but the installation and your team. Below an organization you add units for brands, departments or teams. Whether a unit is a brand or a department makes no difference to the desk; it is a place for structure, branding and access.
[!NOTE] Units that share a parent know nothing of each other: they have their own cases, forms and portals, and an agent on one doesn't see the other.
Adding organizations and units
- New organization (top right) creates an organization. It gets a brand of its own, named after it, which you can edit under Brands.
- Add a unit under …, below the tree, creates a unit under the selected organization or unit. The + on a row (shown when you point at it) and Add sub-unit in its menu (…) do the same for that row. A new unit uses the same brand as its parent until you give it its own.
For each you give:
| Field | What |
|---|---|
| Name | The name of the organization or unit. |
| Slug | Lowercase letters, digits and dashes, unique within the organization. It is only an identifier: requesters don't see it and it isn't part of any address. |
| Case prefix (optional) | See Case prefixes and numbers. |
How deep the tree goes
The tree is limited to 4 levels, counting the organization: an organization and three levels of units below it. Admins can change this under Settings → Installation (Levels in the unit tree, from 1 to 10). When a unit is at the limit, its row has no +, Add sub-unit is greyed out with "max depth", and the button below the tree says it is at the depth limit.
If you lower the limit later, deeper units keep working. The Organization page lists them in a warning, and they can't get new sub-units.
Case prefixes and numbers
Case references look like ABC-1042: a prefix and a number.
| Part | Rule |
|---|---|
| Prefix | Up to 8 uppercase letters and digits. A unit without one uses the prefix of the nearest unit above that has one; with none anywhere, the prefix is T. The field shows what new cases get, for example "New cases: ABC-1234". |
| Number | One counter per organization, starting at 1000. Units with different prefixes share it, so numbers don't repeat within an organization. |
[!NOTE] A reference stays the same for the life of the case. A new prefix only applies to cases created afterwards, and moving a case or its unit doesn't change existing references.
What a unit decides
- Select a unit in the tree. Its settings show on the right, and below the tree a summary of what is in it and below it: open cases, people, forms, portals, the service level and active automations, each linked to where you manage it.
- Change the settings in the table below.
- Click Save changes to apply the unit's settings.
Most settings can be left to Same as the unit above, shown with what that currently means. The organization sets the defaults for everything below it.
| Setting | What it decides |
|---|---|
| Branding | Same as the parent, or Own brand with one of the organization's brands. See Brands. |
| Who can submit | Who may send requests through this unit's forms and portals: Anyone, Known contacts only, or Known contacts; hold others for review. See Forms and Portals. |
| Portal sign-in | Optional or Required. See Portals. |
| Who may work on cases | The whole team, or Only the people these rules allow…: a table of rules by location, team or person; any one lets in. See Who may see what. |
| Sign replies | Whether replies from this unit end with a signature. On at the top; units below follow the unit above until they say otherwise. |
| Signature override | A signature per language that replaces the brand's for replies from this unit. Leave it empty to use the brand's. See Signatures. |
| Close resolved cases after | Organizations only: the number of days after which a resolved case closes on its own (1 to 365). Leave it empty for the installation's default (AUTO_CLOSE_DAYS, 7 unless changed), which the field shows. After closing, a reply from the requester opens a new case. |
Set elsewhere, following the tree
Some things are set elsewhere but follow the tree:
- Automations on a unit apply to cases in it and every unit below. See Automations.
- Service levels: a policy on a unit covers it and every unit below, unless a lower unit has its own. See Service levels.
- Who sees it: agents see the cases of the units they are assigned to and every unit below; admins see all. You assign people under Users.
Cards from plugins
Plugins can add cards of their own under the unit's settings. With Service Configuration, Services on
cases has A service before resolving: agents can't resolve or close a case in the unit, or in the units below
it, until its service is set (see services). It is saved as soon as
you switch it. Whoever may change the unit's settings (unit.settings in the unit) may change it.
Moving a unit
- Choose Move… in a unit's row menu.
- Pick the New parent.
Its sub-units, cases, forms and portals move with it, and branding follows the new place in the tree.
- A unit can only move within its organization, and not under itself or one of its own sub-units.
- The move is refused if the unit's deepest sub-unit would end up deeper than the limit.
- Organizations can't be moved.
Deleting a unit
Choose Delete in the row menu. A unit can only be deleted when nothing depends on it any more. The desk refuses and says what to do first when the unit still has:
- sub-units (move or delete them first),
- cases (move them to another unit),
- forms,
- portals, or portal items that route requests to it,
- automation rules.
Deleting a unit also removes what belongs only to it: people's assignments to it, its service-level policy, its canned replies, and API tokens limited to it. The confirmation says so.
[!CAUTION] Deleting an organization also removes its brands, and the accounts, contacts and other records that belong to it. This can't be undone.