About Global Issues

Global Issues in Issuetrak allow you to link multiple related issues together and manage them as a single, collective item. This is especially useful when the same problem affects multiple users or customers, or when you need to proactively notify stakeholders about a known issue.

This feature is ideal for:

  • IT support teams handling system outages
  • Customer service departments managing recurring complaints
  • Operations teams tracking similar incidents

Global Issues ensure consistent updates, reduce duplication, and streamline communication.

How Global Issues Work

A Global Issue acts as the primary (parent) issue, with related issues linked as secondary (child) issues. This setup is useful for consolidating duplicate tickets or proactively notifying users about known problems, such as an email outage affecting multiple users.

  • Parent-Child Structure: The Global Issue is the central hub, with linked issues as children.
  • Automated Updates: Linked issues can automatically inherit updates from the Global Issue, based on settings.
  • Bulk Notifications: Create new linked issues in bulk to proactively notify affected users or departments.
  • Flexible Linking: Optionally link related issues without having the Global Issue automatically update them, which is useful for reporting or tracking issues that are similar but not exactly the same.
 

Permissions Overview

The table below outlines the actions each user type can perform with the Global Issue.

Action

Full Sys Admin

Agent

End User

Activate/Deactivate Feature

✔

✖

✖

Promote to Global

✔

✔

✖

Manage Global Issues

✔

✔

✖

Submit New or Existing Linked Issues from Global Issue

 ✔ ✔ ✖

Submit Linked Issue Via Submit Same Problem Feature

 ✔ ✔ ✔
(Only if granted permission to view the Global Issue)
 
 

Activate or Deactivate Global Issues

Please note that only users with Sys Admin permissions can activate or deactivate Global Issues within your system. Lesser administrative privileges, such as Can access and maintain Administration functions, will not allow users to toggle this functionality.

Activate Global Issues

Steps:

  1. Click the gear icon in the upper right > click Features beneath System.
  2. Scroll down to the Global Issues section.
  3. Select Use Global Issues.
  4. Choose which values should be copied.
    • When Linked: Values copied during the initial linking of issues.
    • On Change: Values copied when the Global Issue is updated.
  5. Click Update.

A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.

This is the only place where you can edit the "When Linked" and "On Change" settings for Global Issues. While these settings are visible in the Global Issue Options of individual issues, the only setting you can change there is Override default field update settings, which disables all automatic updates to the linked issues when checked.

Deactivate Global Issues

As your processes and needs change, you may wish to deactivate Global Issues for your site. 

Steps:

  1. Click the gear icon in the upper right > click Features beneath System.
  2. Scroll down to the Global Issues section.
  3. Uncheck Use Global Issues.
  4. Click Update.

A confirmation message will confirm deactivation.

 

Promoting an Issue to a Global Issue

Agents can promote issues to Global by following these steps.

Steps:

  1. From the View Issue screen of the issue you are promoting, click Promote to Global in the right quick menu.
  2. Define which users should be able to see and access the Global Issue in the Global Issues view of the Issue Hub and in any related reports. The following options will be available in the Viewing Permissions section:
    • All users with access to this Issue
      • This option can be selected in addition to one of the following options.
    • All users in the Global issue’s organization
    • Only Agents in the Global issue’s organization
    • All users in all organizations
    • Only Agents in all organizations
  3. Use the Linked Issue Settings section to determine what information/events will be copied to linked issues.
    • If Tasks are enabled for the site, check Copy tasks to newly created linked Issues?  to include tasks in new linked issues.
    • Optionally, check Override default field update settings for linked Issues? to bypass all field update options for this Global Issue when selected.
  4. Click Promote.

A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete. 

Want to see how it's done? Click Continue to watch the demonstration below.

 

Linking Existing Issues to a Global Issue

Agents can link existing issues to a Global issue in two ways.

Method 1: Link Existing Issue(s) from Global Issue (Single or Bulk)

Steps:

  1. From the View Issue screen of the Global Issue, click Global Issue Options in the right quick menu.
  2. Scroll down to the Linked Issues section.
  3. Select Search for Issues to Link.
  4. Select the appropriate options to locate the issues that you need to link to the Global issue.
  5. Check the boxes for all of the issues that need to be linked to the Global issue.
  6. Click Link Selected Issues.
  7. Click OK on the confirmation prompt.

A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.

Want to see how it's done? Click Continue to watch the demonstration below.

Method 2: Link From an Existing Issue to a Global Issue

Steps:

  1. From the View Issue screen of the issue you are linking, click Link to Global in the right quick menu.
  2. Use options on the Select Global Issue screen that opens to locate the Global issue.
  3. Click the Issue Number link on the Select Global Issue screen to select the appropriate Global issue.

You will be taken back to the View Issue screen. At the top of the page, you will now see "Linked to Global Issue" followed by the number of the Global Issue.

Want to see how it's done? Click Continue to watch the demonstration below.

 

Create New Linked Issues

There are two ways to create and link a new issue to a Global Issue at the time of submission.

Method 1: New Linked Issues via Global Issue (Single or Bulk)

After promoting a Global Issue, agents can submit new linked issues (in bulk if needed). 

Steps:

  1. From the view of the Global issue, click Global Issue Options in the left-hand menu.
  2. Select Submit New Issues to Link under the Linked Issues section.
  3. Choose an option from the drop-down to submit a new issue based on Asset, Location, Organization, User, or Custom Record Table Field.
    • The value entered as the submitter for the issue varies depending on the option selected.
      • The User option will enter the user selected as the issue's submitter.
      • The Location, Asset, or Custom Record Table Field 1 options will enter the logged-in user as the Issue's submitter.
      • The Organization option will enter the Contact User for that Organization as the Issue's submitter.

When submitting new issues based on Organization, only those Organizations with a valid Contact User will be included in the list. This value is required as it will be used as the issue submitter.

  1. Once selected, a list with search options will appear to help you locate and select the values desired. After your appropriate values have been selected, click Submit New Issues.
  2. Click OK on the prompt to create the issues.

A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.

A maximum of 200 issues may be submitted at one time. If you need to submit over 200 issues, please split them into batches of 200. Any records that already have issues linked to the Global Issue will not be available to select when submitting new issues on the Global Issue Options page.

Issuetrak will not send email notifications on Submit when issues are created using these steps. Since this has the potential to create hundreds of issues all at once, there is the potential to generate a large number of emails.

If email notifications need to be sent for all of the issues being created via these steps, you could create the issues and then add a note to the Global issue. As long as the users on the subscribers list have On Note selected and the Global issue is set to add notes to linked issues on change, they should get the notification for the issue.

Want to see how it's done? Click Continue to watch the demonstration below.

Method 2: Submit Linked Issue via “Submit Same Problem”

All users, including End Users, who have permission to view the Global Issue in the Global Issues view of the Issue Hub can submit new issues that will be automatically linked to it.

This method is only available if the Global Issues view is turned on in the Issue Hub settings.

Steps:

  1. From the Submit Same Problem column of the Global Issues view of the Issue Hub screen, click Submit next to the relevant Global Issue.
  2. Enter any additional comments or information relevant to this new issue in the Note field.
  3. Click Submit.

A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete and you will be returned to the Issue Hub screen.

Want to see how it's done? Click Continue to watch the demonstration below.

 

Edit Global Issue Options

Agents can link or unlink existing issues as well as change user viewing permissions.

Steps:

  1. View the Global Issue.
  2. Click Global Issue Options in the right quick menu.
  3. Change the Viewing Permissions and Linked Issue Settings as needed.
  4. Click Update Options.

A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.

 

Remove Global Status from Issue

Agents with permission to view a Global Issue can demote it at any time.

Steps:

  1. View the Global Issue.
  2. Choose Global Issue Options from the right quick menu.
  3. Check Remove Global status from this Issue and remove all links.
  4. Click Update Options.

A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.

 
 

Notifications Behavior

Global and Linked issues follow the same email notification rules as any other issue on your site.

  • If a note is added to a Global Issue and copied to its linked issues, a separate email notification is sent for each linked issue that receives the copied note. This applies only if your site is configured to send notifications for the Add Note event.
  • Exception: Linked issues that are submitted in bulk from the Global Issue Options screen do not generate email notifications for the Submit event. This applies even when notification settings are enabled for new issue submissions.
 

Need Help?

The goal of Issuetrak consulting is to make sure you get the most out of your Issuetrak implementation. Because your company is unique, your account manager can discuss which consulting options will work best for you. You can also reach out directly to the Implementation Team.

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