Connect Autotask
Connect Autotask PSA with an API user. We set up Autotask's webhooks for you, tickets come in by themselves, and approved replies go back as ticket notes.
If your support tickets live in Autotask PSA (from Datto, now Kaseya), connect it directly. No code is needed. We sign in to Autotask as an API user you make there. Autotask then tells us when a ticket is created or changes, we read the ticket from Autotask, and approved replies go back to Autotask as ticket notes.
Each platform connects one ticket system. See Connect your ticket system for how that works.
Before you start#
You need an Autotask admin. Only an admin can make an API user and a workflow rule.
The API user is a special Autotask user that only works through Autotask's API, and costs no licence. Replies and notes show in Autotask as written by it, so give it a name such as "Cerberius Agents".
Don't give the API user a line of business. With one, it can't see every ticket this platform takes.
Connect Autotask#
- 1
In Autotask, go to Admin › Organization Settings & Users › Resources/Users (HR) › Resources/Users. Click New, then New API User.
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Under General, enter a First Name and Last Name, such as "Cerberius Agents". Set Security Level to API User (system) (API-only).
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Under Credentials, click Generate Key and Generate Secret. Copy the Username (Key) and the Password (Secret). Autotask shows the secret only now.
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Under API Tracking Identifier, choose Custom (Internal Integration). Enter an Internal Integration Name, such as "Cerberius Agents". Copy the Tracking Identifier. Click Save & Close.
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Here, go to Settings › Ticket system. On the Connection tab, click Connect a ticket system and choose Autotask.
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Under Your Autotask, fill in the Username (Key), the Password (Secret) and the Tracking identifier. Show me how on our page shows the Autotask steps too.
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Choose how Approved replies go back, what happens After a reply, and whether to add the Agent's findings in Autotask.
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Click Connect Autotask. We find your Autotask, check the API user, and set up Autotask's webhooks. Then click Check connection.
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Under Which companies, tick the Autotask companies whose tickets this platform takes, or leave them all unticked to take every company's tickets. If you like, tick some queues too. Click Save.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Username (Key) | The API user's username, from Autotask. Autotask runs in several regions, called zones. We find your zone from the username, so you never type an address. Your keys only ever go to Autotask's own addresses. |
| Password (Secret) | The API user's secret. Once saved, it is never shown again. Type a new one to replace it. |
| Tracking identifier | The API user's Tracking Identifier, which Autotask also calls the API Integration Code. Autotask needs it on every request. Once saved, it is never shown again. |
| Check connection | Shows once Autotask is connected. It signs in as the API user, reads tickets and companies, and checks that the webhooks we made are still on. It says what worked, or what to fix. |
| Let Autotask tell us about tickets | Shows whether Autotask tells us about tickets. We set this up for you (see below). If it failed, it says why, with Try again. |
| Last heard from Autotask | When Autotask last called the webhook address. Never yet means it hasn't called. If a call was refused, it says when and why, such as wrong signature. |
| Which companies | Shows once Autotask is connected: your active Autotask companies, read from Autotask. Tick the ones whose tickets come to this platform, the clients whose systems this platform can look into. With none ticked, every company's tickets come here. A company that another of your platforms takes from the same Autotask can't be ticked, and says which platform takes it. Tickets already here stay here. |
| Which queues | Optional. Shows once Autotask is connected. Only tickets in the ticked queues come here. With none ticked, tickets in every queue come here. |
| Approved replies | Add it as a note to the contact: a ticket note published to All Autotask Users, so the contact sees it in the client portal. To email it to them too, set up a workflow rule (see below). Add it as an internal note: your team reads it in Autotask and sends it themselves. |
| After a reply | Then set its status to: one of your Autotask ticket statuses, or Leave it as it is. For example, Waiting Customer shows you are waiting for the contact. It only changes once nothing else on the ticket waits here, such as a fix. If Autotask refuses the change, the reply still counts as sent. Off at first. |
| Agent's findings in Autotask | When on, an internal note with what the agent found goes on the Autotask ticket as soon as a reply is ready to approve. It is published Internal Only: only your own Autotask team sees it, not co-managing users or contacts. Off at first. |
Once Autotask is connected, change anything here and click Save at the bottom.
If someone deactivates the API user or generates a new secret for it, Autotask stops taking it. Save the new secret here, or make a new API user.
How Autotask tells us about tickets#
Autotask tells us about tickets through webhooks: our address, which Autotask calls when something happens. Autotask only lets you make webhooks through its API, so we make them for you when you connect. There are two, both named "Cerberius Agents":
- one for tickets: when one is created, or its status, company or queue changes;
- one for ticket notes: when a note is added, such as a contact's emailed reply.
You can see them in Autotask under Admin › Extensions & Integrations › Other Extensions & Tools › Webhooks. Leave them on. If someone deletes them, Check connection says so: click Try again under Let Autotask tell us about tickets to make them again.
Each call only tells us which ticket changed. We read everything else from Autotask ourselves.
When we make the webhooks, we give Autotask a secret key of ours. Autotask signs every call with it, and we refuse calls without the signature. There is nothing to copy. Try again makes the webhooks again, with a new key.
To try it, create a test ticket for one of your chosen companies. It shows under Tickets here within a minute, and our page says Last heard from Autotask with the time.
Email replies to the contact#
Autotask doesn't email a reply by itself
When a person adds a note in Autotask, they tick who to notify. Autotask's API has no such choice: a note we add is not emailed to anyone. The contact still sees it in the client portal. To email it to them, set up one workflow rule in Autotask.
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In Autotask, go to Admin › Automation › Workflow Rules and click New. Give it a name, such as "Email notes to the contact".
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Under Events, tick Note Added By and choose Autotask Resource.
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On the Notification tab, tick the ticket's contact under Recipients. Choose who it is sent from, and a Notification Template that includes the note.
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Click Save & Close.
Autotask never sends internal notes to contacts through a workflow rule, so the agent's findings stay with your team. The rule also emails notes your team adds by hand and publishes to everyone.
Try it once with a test ticket of your own before you rely on it.
What happens with an Autotask ticket#
- A new ticket in Autotask reaches the agent, with its files. Who asked comes from the ticket's contact in Autotask, never from what the ticket says.
- A note from the contact reaches the agent as a follow-up. That is a reply they emailed, or a note they added in the client portal. Your team's notes, and notes from workflow rules, are skipped. An email from an address that isn't one of your Autotask contacts is skipped too.
- Setting it to Complete in Autotask stops the work on it here.
- Closing it here sets it to Complete in Autotask.
- A reply to a ticket with no contact, or a contact with no email address, isn't sent. The reply here says it failed. In Autotask, set the ticket's contact, then retry the reply here.
The ticket's number here is the one people see in Autotask, such as T20261106.0001. The ticket's
side panel shows its status, who has it, its queue, priority, company and due date, with a link to
open it in Autotask.
Only tickets that came from Autotask go back to Autotask. Other tickets on the same platform, from the log watcher for example, don't.
Tickets opened in Autotask before you connected don't come in, even when they change later. Importing older tickets works for Halo only for now.
One Autotask, a platform per client
An IT company runs one Autotask for all its clients, and each client's systems are their own platform. Connect each client's platform to the same Autotask, and under Which companies tick that client's company. Each platform gets its own webhooks. Two platforms never take the same company's tickets.
Stop#
Click Disconnect… at the top of the Connection tab, and confirm. New tickets from Autotask stop coming in, and replies stop going back to it. Our webhook address stops working at once. Tickets already here stay.
Then, in Autotask, deactivate the API user. Autotask then switches off the webhooks it owns too.