Auto-Close Inactive Tickets

What Auto-Close Does#

Auto-close is a scheduled background process that checks for tickets that have been in Answered status for longer than the configured number of days without a client reply. When the threshold is reached, the ticket is automatically moved to Closed status and the client receives a notification email.

This keeps the ticket queue clean and prevents old resolved tickets from clogging the admin list.

Configuring Auto-Close#

1. Go to Admin → Settings → Support.
2. Find the Auto-Close Inactive Tickets section.
3. Set the Days Until Auto-Close value (e.g., 7 to close after 7 days of inactivity).
4. Set to 0 to disable auto-close entirely.
5. Click Save Settings.

[!TIP] A value of 5–7 days is typical for most hosting support queues. Shorter than 3 days may frustrate clients who need time to test a fix. Longer than 14 days adds noise to your queue.

How It Works#

The auto-close job runs on a scheduled interval (once per day by default). On each run it:

1. Queries all tickets with status Answered.
2. Checks the timestamp of the last staff reply on each ticket.
3. If the elapsed time since that reply exceeds the configured threshold, the ticket qualifies for auto-close.
4. A notification email is sent to the client informing them the ticket has been closed.
5. The ticket status is updated to Closed.

[!IMPORTANT] Auto-close only operates on tickets in Answered status. Tickets in Open, In Progress, On Hold, or Customer Reply status are never auto-closed, regardless of age.

Notification Email#

Before closing, the system sends the client a notification email using the ticket_auto_close email template. The email:

• States that the ticket has been closed due to inactivity.
• Includes the ticket subject and number.
• Provides a link to re-open the ticket by replying.

You can customise this email at Admin → Settings → Email Templates → Ticket Auto-Close.

Re-Opening a Closed Ticket#

A closed ticket is not permanently locked. Clients can re-open it at any time by:

• Posting a reply from the client portal — the ticket status changes to Customer Reply automatically.
• Replying to the notification email — email replies to the ticket notification re-open the ticket and add the message as a reply.

Staff can also manually set a closed ticket back to any status from the admin panel.

[!TIP] Clients do not need to open a new ticket. Encourage them to reply to the closure notification if the issue recurs.

Excluding Tickets from Auto-Close#

To prevent a specific ticket from being auto-closed:

• Change its status to On Hold — auto-close never applies to On Hold tickets.
• Or change it to In Progress — auto-close does not apply to this status either.

There is no per-ticket auto-close exemption setting; use status to control eligibility.

Checking the Auto-Close Log#

The scheduler records each auto-close action in the application log. Check Admin → Logs or the server-side log file at storage/logs/laravel.log to audit which tickets were automatically closed and when.