Issues

Required · Configure case handling

Use issue classifications to describe what customers need help with. A case is the individual request; an issue is its category. Harbor’s case “Monthly report export fails” might use Reporting → Report export. A well-chosen issue helps agents collect the right information and recognize recurring problems.

Before you begin

Use an administrator with issue-management permission. Decide a small set of categories your agents understand. Review existing issues and their links to forms or workflows before adding more. You can keep existing classifications that already fit.

Create or refine a classification

Open Settings → Cases → Issues. Open an existing relevant issue, or select New Issue.
Enter Name using language agents recognize. For example, Report export is clearer than an unexplained product code.
Review External name for customer-facing use. Use wording a customer can select without knowing your internal organization.
Choose the appropriate Parent if the item belongs under an existing category such as Reporting. Keep the initial hierarchy shallow enough for people to navigate.
Open Routing & Visibility and review Divisions and the permitted scope. Keep the intended division selected; leave it blank for a global issue only when that is appropriate and permitted.
Choose Visibility deliberately: Everywhere, Internal only, or External only. Internal diagnostic classifications need not appear on a customer’s form.
Review display order, active state and the AI description where available. Explain when to choose the issue and when a neighboring category is more appropriate.
Select Save Changes, then reopen the item and verify the saved labels, scope and visibility.

Saved Report export issue with plain-language internal and customer labels and a fictional training description.

The complete issue-classification reference explains the hierarchy and settings. These example names are not built-in defaults.

Use the issue on the training case

Open the new-case form for Harbor and Jordan.
Choose the intended Division, then select the report-export Issue.
Inspect the fields shown. A case policy may choose a different form for this division and issue; changing the issue can therefore change which information is needed.
Enter the useful problem details: the report, the attempted export format, what happened and the affected scope.
Save the controlled case or draft and verify the displayed classification.

If you want an Export format field, create it in Custom Fields and place it on the appropriate case policy. Do not create dozens of issue categories to store values that belong in a field.

Choose categories people can maintain

Classify by the support need rather than the current assignee. “Reporting” remains meaningful after the case moves to a specialist. A queue describes where work goes; an issue describes what it concerns.

Keep an understandable fallback for requests that cannot yet be classified. Review those cases later to improve the taxonomy. Do not force a customer to diagnose an internal root cause before submitting a request.

If the result is unexpected

Issue is missing: check Active, Division, parent availability, visibility and the user’s role; reopen the form after saving.
Customer sees internal language: review External name and Visibility, then test the actual portal form.
Wrong fields appear after selection: inspect the matching case-policy type, division, issue and order.
Automation routes incorrectly: check the workflow’s actual issue condition and competing rules. Renaming a label alone is not a routing test.
You need to replace an issue: review existing references and reporting before deactivating it. Do not delete useful historical classifications simply to simplify a picker.

Completion check

Agents can explain the classification in plain language.
Customer-facing labels make sense without internal knowledge.
The issue is available in the intended division and audience.
The training case uses the intended classification and form.

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