Help Desk Workflow in Planfix: From Email Intake to Kanban
A help desk workflow works when every customer request lands in one place, gets an owner right away and moves through clear stages until it is closed. This three-minute video shows how to build that process in Planfix: support emails turn into tasks automatically, go straight to the support team and move across a Kanban board. Time logged on each request helps a manager calculate payroll and evaluate the team.
What you’ll learn: video chapters
- Support object and automatic assignment (0:43).
- Processing stages and the Kanban board (1:08).
- Email intake with an AI-created rule (1:30).
- Time tracking with data tags (2:07).
Service desk workflow in 4 steps
Step 1. Create an object for support requests
Support tasks are created from custom objects, so start there. Go to Account management → Types of objects, click New Object and name it. The video predates the July 2026 update, so it may show the section’s old name, Objects. In the demo, no special fields are added; the existing ones are only rearranged. Then add your support employee group (Support department in the video) as assignees, so every new request goes straight to support, and configure how assignees are added so tasks are distributed among team members automatically. That is support ticket routing without manual handoffs.
Step 2. Build a help desk Kanban board
Next, create a set of statuses for the support ticket stages. Add the extra statuses your team needs, for example, Waiting for a response and Forwarded to another department, and arrange them in order. Then create a Kanban board based on these statuses. Support works on this board: dragging a task to another column changes its status.
Step 3. Set up email-to-ticket automation
Go to Account management → Email → Virtual email addresses, click New email address and name it. A virtual email address only receives mail and turns incoming emails into tasks. Set up forwarding from your support mailbox in the mailbox’s own settings, not in a mail client; otherwise, emails arrive from you instead of the original sender.
When the first email, such as a test message, arrives, enable AI-based creation of an incoming email processing rule and name the rule. This is AI-powered email processing: Planfix creates the rule with AI, and you adjust only two of its four sections:
- in Trigger conditions (block 1), add a condition: the recipient address contains your virtual email address;
- in Main operation (block 3), create a task from the support object, copy the email subject into the task name and put the customer in the Counterparty field.
Customer request intake now runs on its own.
Step 4. Track time with data tags
Employees log their work in the task with the standard Actual working time data tag. To adapt it for support, edit the directory behind the tag: add a support group, fill it with work types and set an hourly rate for each. New accounts need to install the Time-tracking solution first.
Who this help desk workflow is for
- Support teams: one queue for email requests, where each ticket gets an assignee as soon as it arrives.
- Support leads: the Kanban board shows every request’s stage, and time records with hourly rates help calculate payroll.
- Cross-department teams: support works in the same system as the rest of the company, so other departments can join customer tasks.
- Product teams: customer suggestions can be discussed, and tickets can become product improvement tasks.
FAQ
Do customer replies go back to the same ticket?
Yes. All communication about a request happens inside the task. The employee replies in a task comment and selects the customer among the people to notify; the reply goes out from Planfix on the channel the customer used, and the customer’s answer comes back to the same task. Customers see only the comments they were notified about, so the team can also discuss the ticket internally there. Until the customer answers, keep the ticket in Waiting for a response.
Can Planfix assign support tickets automatically?
Yes. In the video, the assignee settings of the support object distribute new requests among the team. For a ready-made setup, the Customer Service solution offers three distribution methods: collaboration, distribution by order, and first come, first served.
How do I track time spent on support tickets?
Use the Actual working time data tag, which records the date, period and type of work. Add work types with hourly rates to its directory and summarize the records in reports.
Build your help desk workflow
Start with one support mailbox: create the object, the statuses and the Kanban board, then connect email. For the full feature overview, see help desk software in Planfix, or read the detailed guide to building a help desk and service desk in Planfix. New to Planfix? Sign up to try it.
This video was featured in What’s New in Planfix: October 2025.
