Overview
Sometimes multiple people will see the same issue and report them individually. The first line of defense is to minimize the number of duplicate submissions by preventing them in the first place. Once these tasks are in the system, it can be confusing to know if something was already completed or who is responsible for fixing the issue. By merging duplicate work requests you can avoid this problem while also keeping all the people who submitted the requests informed on the progress.
Table of contents
How to merge duplicate work requests
Required permissions
In order to be able to merge work requests, you need permission #177 'Recreate Work Requests' which can be enabled under Settings > Roles.
Choosing a primary and secondary work request
When you merge work requests you cannot un-merge the work requests later. Only the data of the request you start the process from (the Source Work Request) will be kept, while most data of the Target Work Request will be lost.
Because of this, work requests should be merged before any work has been done on the work requests to avoid losing data. If one of the work requests has already been started by a Technician or additional information has already been added to the task, this work request should be the starting point for the work request merger.
Data that will be lost from the Target Work Request includes but is not limited to: comments, logged time, and pictures.
However, not all data is lost. Some data will transfer from the Target Work Request to the Source Work Request as a comment:
Task Name
Task ID
Task Requestor
Task Description
The task requestor will be added to the email notification chain of the Source task
Merging work requests
Click Locations > Select Your Location > Manage Work or Open Tasks
Identify the work requests you want to merge:
Click the work request you want to use as the Source.
Note: Only the data in the work request you pick here will be kept, the other work request will be merged into this one.
Click on the green action button. From the expanded list of options, click the merge button.
Use the search bar to help you find a specific work request.
Click the Target Work Request you want to merge and then click Select.
Note: you can only merge one request at a time.
Click Yes to confirm merging the work requests. You cannot undo this action after this step.
Note that the task name, task id, task requestor, and task description have all been added to the task comments.
Note that the task requester from the Target Work Request was added to the notifications of the Source Work Request.
