Within Teamwork Desk, you can use ticket forwarding to connect your third party vendors into a ticket without giving them direct contact with your customers.

Before you start

Forwarded messages are created as child tickets of the original parent ticket. Child tickets can be:
  • Assigned to a different recipient (customer) than the original.
  • Associated with a different inbox than the original.
  • Assigned to a different agent than the original.

📝 Forwarding a ticket creates a new child ticket, therefore count as one of a part-time agent's monthly 10-reply allowance.

Forward a ticket

  1. Select Tickets from Teamwork Desk's main navigation menu.
  2. Navigate to the relevant inbox.
  3. Click a ticket to open it.
  4. Select the Forward tab at the top of the editor. Forwarding allows you to forward the ticket to a third party email address.
  5. Type out the forward recipient's email address in the To field.
    1. Teamwork Desk automatically suggests addresses for any matching existing customers on your site as you type.
      💡 Use the Cc and Bcc options on the field's right to add additional addresses.
       

       
  6. Enter a custom subject line. By default, it inherits the parent ticket's ticket number and subject.
  7. Type a custom message above the Forwarded message line. The original ticket's previous replies are included and can be edited or removed as needed.
    1. You can also uncheck the Include ticket history option at the bottom of the editor to exclude the entire history from the forwarded message.

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    2. For inboxes that have an email signature enabled, the signature will be included by default when forwarding a ticket. You can view the signature using the three dots at the bottom of the editor to expand the hidden content. 
  8. Click Send Message.

The forwarded conversation is created as a child ticket of the original parent ticket.

💡 The undo send feature (available on Pro subscriptions and above) gives agents an option to cancel the forwarded message after sending.


View forwarded tickets

When you forward an existing ticket, the forwarded message is created as a new separate child ticket.

In any inbox or tickets list view, child tickets (forwarded conversations) are indicated with a blue forwarding arrow beside the subject.

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In the original ticket:
  • The Messages tab includes an activity reference for the forward's creation. You can click the ticket number to view the child ticket.

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  • An additional Forwards tab displays any existing forwards created from that ticket. Clicking a forwarded message opens it in a quick preview panel.
    • The Forwards tab only shows child tickets (forwarded tickets) that are associated with inboxes you have permission to access.


Child ticket (forwarded message):
  • When viewing a child ticket, a Forwarded conversation label is displayed at the top of the ticket view. Hovering over this label shows a clickable ticket ID linking the associated parent ticket.

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  • You cannot forward an already forwarded conversation (child ticket). While viewing the ticket, the Forward tab is locked.

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  • When a third-party recipient replies to a child ticket (forwarded conversation), their response is added as a regular reply on the child ticket.

Delete original tickets

Forwarded conversations (child tickets) remain in the original ticket's Forwards tab as long as the original ticket exists on your site.

If the original parent ticket is deleted, you are alerted before confirming deletion that the ticket has child tickets associated with it.

Once a parent ticket is deleted, the relationship with any child tickets is removed. The child tickets are not deleted and remain on your site.

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Forwarding exceptions

  • Tickets cannot be forwarded to email addresses that are already being used as inbox addresses in your Desk site as this would create a duplicate of the ticket in multiple inboxes. It is also not possible to forward tickets to addresses that are already being used as a Desk alias.
  • Forwarded conversations (child tickets) cannot be forwarded.
  • Forwarded conversations (child tickets) cannot be merged.
  • Tickets cannot be forwarded from one inbox to another on the same site or another site.
  • If the private notifications option is enabled in your Advanced Security settings, forwarding will be disabled for all tickets on your site and the Forward tab will be locked in each ticket.
    📝 This advanced security feature is available on Premium and Enterprise subscriptions.
  • Attachments from previous messages in a ticket are included by default when forwarding.
    • Files are listed at the bottom of the forward thread. Use the X on a file's right to exclude it from the forwarded message.
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    • These files are available for download by anyone with the link and expire after 30 days.
      📝 Total email size limit is 25MB including any attached files.

For more information, see: Creating a New Ticket or Message