Staff & Departments

Manage agents, teams, departments, and SLA plans to organize your support workflow and ensure the right people handle the right tickets.

WordPress Roles (WP-Level Access)

Deskuss adds two custom WordPress roles and grants its capability to two built-in roles:

Role	Type	Capabilities
`deskuss_staff`	Custom (Deskuss)	`read`, `upload_files`. Grants access to the Deskuss admin panel.
`support_client`	Custom (Deskuss)	`read` only. Front-end portal access; cannot reach `/wp-admin`.
`administrator`	Built-in (auto-enhanced)	Standard WP admin capabilities plus `deskuss_staff`
`editor`	Built-in (auto-enhanced)	Standard editor capabilities plus `deskuss_staff`

Deskuss auto-grants the deskuss_staff capability to administrator and editor during activation. A new WP user with either of those roles can immediately log into the helpdesk at /deskuss/.

Access Scopes (Helpdesk-Level Permissions)

Once a user has the deskuss_staff capability, they need a Deskuss access scope to actually do anything in the helpdesk. Access scopes are Deskuss-internal — separate from WordPress roles. Deskuss ships with four seeded scopes:

Scope	What the agent can do	Typical user
All Access	Everything: manage departments, staff, SLAs, forms, reports, tickets, settings, system logs	Helpdesk admin / owner
Expanded Access	Manage tickets across all departments, including transfers and assignments; view reports; cannot edit global settings	Support manager
Limited Access	View and reply to tickets within assigned departments; create internal notes; cannot transfer or assign	Front-line agent
View only	Read-only access to tickets, KB, and dashboards	Auditor or new hire in training

For the full permission matrix (which actions each scope can perform), see Agents & Roles → Access Scopes.

Two separate role systems. A WP administrator with the "View only" access scope can still access WordPress core, but inside Deskuss can only read tickets. Conversely, a user with the deskuss_staff WordPress role but no Deskuss access scope can log in but sees nothing useful. Both must be set correctly.

Adding Staff Members

Add agents to your helpdesk so they can view and respond to tickets assigned to their departments.

Steps to Add a Staff Member

Navigate to Deskuss → Agents in the staff control panel
Click Add New Agent at the top of the Agents list
Search for an existing WordPress user or create a new one by entering their name and email
Choose an access scope — All Access, Expanded Access, Limited Access, or View only (see Agents & Roles)
Assign the agent to one or more departments
Optionally assign the agent to a team
Click Save

Existing Users: Deskuss syncs with your WordPress user database. If a WordPress user already exists, you can grant them staff access without creating a duplicate account. Their display name, email, and avatar are pulled from their WordPress profile automatically.

Editing an Agent

To update an agent's access scope or department assignments:

Go to Deskuss → Agents
Click the agent's name
Modify their access scope, departments, or team
Click Update

Removing an Agent

Removing an agent from Deskuss does not delete their WordPress user account. It only revokes the deskuss_staff role and deskuss_access capability. Any tickets previously assigned to that agent remain assigned — reassign them to another agent before removal for continuity.

Teams

Teams let you group agents together for organized collaboration. A team can span multiple departments and is useful when you want a set of agents to work on related tickets collectively.

Creating a Team

Go to Deskuss → Teams
Click Add New Team
Enter a team name (e.g., "Escalation Team", "Enterprise Support")
Select a Team Lead — this agent will receive notifications when tickets are assigned to the team
Add agents to the team by selecting them from the list
Click Save Team

Team Setting	Description
Team Name	A unique label for the team, displayed in ticket assignment dropdowns
Team Lead	The primary point of contact; receives escalation notifications and can reassign tickets within the team
Members	Agents added to this team; can be from any department

Teams vs. Departments: Teams are for internal grouping of agents, while departments determine ticket routing. A ticket is assigned to a department, not a team. Teams help you organize agents for collaboration, escalation, and workload balancing within and across departments.

Departments

Departments organize tickets by topic or business function. When a customer submits a ticket, they choose a department, and the ticket is routed to the agents assigned to that department.

Creating a Department

Go to Deskuss → Departments
Click Add New Department
Configure the department settings (see table below)
Click Save Department

Setting	Description	Example
Name	The department label shown to customers and staff	Support, Billing, Technical, Sales
Email	Incoming email address for this department; tickets sent here are auto-created	support@yoursite.com
SLA	The SLA plan applied to tickets in this department (response and resolution targets)	Standard — 4h response, 24h resolution
Auto-Response	Automatic reply sent to customers when a ticket is created in this department	"Thank you for contacting our support team. We'll respond within 4 hours."
Manager	The agent responsible for this department; receives alerts for unassigned and overdue tickets	Selected from agents with All Access or Expanded access scope (see Agents & Roles)

Default Department

One department is always set as the default. When a customer submits a ticket without selecting a department, it is automatically routed to the default department. You can change the default at any time from Deskuss → Departments by clicking "Set as Default" on the desired department.

Ticket Routing

Departments determine how tickets are routed and assigned:

Customer selection — When submitting a ticket, customers choose a department from a dropdown. The ticket is routed to that department's agents.
Email piping — Tickets received via a department's email address are automatically assigned to that department.
Default fallback — If no department is selected, the default department receives the ticket.

Multi-Department Agents: A staff member can belong to multiple departments. In their agent profile, select all departments they should handle. They will see tickets from all assigned departments in their ticket list and can pick up any unassigned ticket within those departments.

Permissions

Each access scope has a defined set of permissions controlling what the agent can access and modify within Deskuss. The full matrix is in Agents & Roles → Permission Matrix.

Custom Capabilities: The deskuss_staff WordPress capability grants base access to the helpdesk. Per-scope capabilities (like the ability to manage departments, agents, or settings) are then layered on top based on the agent's assigned access scope. These can be extended using WordPress capability filters if you need custom permission schemes.

Agent Directory

The Agent Directory provides a visual overview of all helpdesk staff. Access it from Deskuss → Agents.

Directory Features

Grid view — Browse all agents in a card layout showing name, role, avatar, assigned departments, and status
List view — Switch to a detailed table with sortable columns for quick lookups
Filter by department — Narrow the directory to agents in a specific department
Filter by access scope — Show only agents with All Access, Expanded, Limited, or View only
Online status — See which agents are currently active based on their WordPress session

Quick Actions from the Directory

From the Agent Directory you can:

Click an agent's name to view and edit their profile, access scope, and department assignments
View an agent's open, answered, and closed ticket counts at a glance
Quickly reassign tickets from one agent to another using the overflow menu
Temporarily disable an agent to pause ticket assignments without removing their account

Tip: Use the directory's filter options to quickly find available agents when you need to manually assign a ticket. Filtering by "Online" status and "Department" ensures you route tickets to agents who are actively available.