How to Define Time Entry Notification Templates based on the Autotask Ticket Category

In the blog Using Autotask Line of Business to Segregate Your Billing and Work, I show how to use the Autotask LOB and Ticket Categories to restrict how/when/where your team sees data in each ticket. There are times however you want to get even more granular and also define the Notification Templates, or other data, when a tech enters time on a ticket/task.

Here is how you do that:

1. For each Time Entry type, create a specific Time Entry Autotask Form/Speedcode
2. Specify the Notification Template (or other settings) in that Autotask Form
3. In your Ticket Category, remove all Time Entry forms other than the ones with the settings you want

Let’s take an example.

Say you have two LOBs: IT Support and Hosting. You’ve created two Ticket Categories: IT Support and.. you got it.. Hosting.

Now let’s create these Autotask Forms:

• IT Support – Remote Support. Includes your IT Support hourly rate and uses the Notification Template “IT Support Emails”.
• Hosting – Remote Support. Includes your Hosting Support hourly rate (perhaps free/included) and uses the Notification Template “Hosting Support Emails”.

Next, update your Ticket Categories:

• Ticket Category: IT Support. Remove all Time Entry Forms except “IT Support”.
• Ticket Category: Hosting. Remove all Time Entry Forms except “Hosting Support”.

At this point, your team will automatically use the correct forms, time entries, and notification templates.