Managing Service Desks and Teams
Learn how to create and manage service desks, add teams, configure members and roles, set working hours, and adjust desk settings.
Path: /settings/desks
Understanding Service Desks
What are Service Desks?
A service desk is a top-level unit that organizes support work. Each desk has a name, emoji, description, inbox email, and members. Desks contain teams (also called subdesks), which group agents and can have their own working hours and routing. Tickets belong to a desk and are routed to teams and agents based on your configuration.
Understanding Desk Structure
Each desk has:
Main team - A special default team (
main) for the deskCustom teams - Additional teams with names, timezones, descriptions, working hours, and members
Desk members - People who can work on the desk; team members must be desk members first
Desks also have settings for email inbox, automation, SLA, notifications, tags, custom fields, and canned responses. Access these from the desk's settings pages.
Understanding Desk Hierarchy
Desk → Teams. A desk is the parent. Teams are children. Routing can send tickets to a specific team based on the team's timezone or description (configured at the desk level).
Managing Service Desks
Creating a New Desk
Go to Settings → Desks.
Click Create Desk.
Create a custom desk or choose a predefined template:
Custom - Enter name, emoji, and description.
From template - Select a template that preconfigures common desk setups (IT, HR, Legal, Finance, Workplace, Marketing, and Security).
Click Create.
While filling in the description, you can click Improve with AI to generate a polished, routing-optimized description automatically. Enter your raw notes or key points about the desk's purpose and the AI rewrites them into a clear, precise description that helps your agent route conversations accurately. The AI uses tailored prompts for each of the seven predefined templates and a general fallback for custom desks. It is also aware of your other active desks to minimize ambiguity between them.
Editing Desk Settings
Open a desk from the Desks list.
Use Edit (or the desk header) to change the name, emoji, and description. Editing opens a focused modal so you can make changes without leaving the current page.
On template-based desks, the desk name and emoji remain fixed to preserve their core identity. You can update the description at any time to influence how Harmony's AI agent classifies and routes incoming tickets.
On custom desks, all fields - name, emoji, and description - are fully editable at any time.
You can also use Improve with AI in the Edit Desk dialog to regenerate the description from new notes at any time.
Desk descriptions now support up to 1,000 characters (increased from 500), giving you more room to provide detailed context and routing guidance. Your unsaved changes are also preserved if you switch browser tabs while editing.
Configuring Desk Details
Path: /settings/desks/$deskId
From the desk overview, you can configure:
Email - Enable email-to-ticket, set inbox address, and choose whether CC'd addresses become watchers.
Members and teams - Add/remove desk members and manage teams.
Automation - Assignment rules, status management, auto-close, surveys.
SLA - Response and resolution targets by priority.
Notifications - Destinations for ticket created, status changed, SLA breach.
Tickets - Tags, custom fields.
Templates - Canned responses.
Hiding and Reordering Desks
You can hide desks you don't need to reduce clutter and reorder visible desks to match your team's priorities. These controls are available from the Desks list and keep your support environment organized and focused on what matters most.
Deleting a Desk
Open the desk and go to Settings or use the delete option.
Confirm by typing the desk name.
The desk and all associated tickets are permanently deleted.
Understanding Desk Status
When the disabled-desks feature is enabled, desks can be turned on or off. Use the Enabled toggle in the desk header. Disabled desks no longer receive new tickets and may be hidden from some views.
Configuring Desk Members
Path: /settings/desks/$deskId/members
Adding Members to a Desk
Go to Settings → Desks → select a desk → Members tab.
Click Add Member (or use the command/search popover).
Search for employees and add them to the desk.
All team members must first be desk members.
Adding Members When SCIM Is Enabled
When SCIM user management is active, desk membership is normally controlled through your Identity Provider (IDP) groups. You can now supplement that SCIM-managed membership by manually adding specific employees to a desk on a per-desk basis. Manually added members extend access beyond what the IDP group provides without overriding or disrupting your existing SCIM configuration.
Removing Members from a Desk
Open the Members tab for the desk.
Find the member and click Remove.
You must remove a member from all teams before removing them from the desk. If they're still on a team, remove them from the team first.
Understanding Member Roles
Member roles depend on your configuration:
Legacy mode - All members appear as "Admin."
Groups-based mode - Roles come from access management. Use Manage users (main desk) or the Add Member popover (team view) to assign roles. Options are provided by the access-management integration.
Managing Desk Teams
Teams and desk members are managed together from a unified settings page, with separate tabs for each. Each team has a name, timezone, and description, and can be deleted at any time - members return to the desk and existing ticket assignments are preserved.
Creating Teams
Go to the desk → Members tab → Teams sub-tab.
Click Create Team.
Enter team name, timezone (default from desk or browser), and description.
Configure auto-assignment directly in the creation dialog (see Configuring Team Auto-Assignment below). All auto-assignment options pre-populate with the desk's current settings so you have a sensible starting point.
Click Create.
The Teams table displays an "Auto-assignment" column so you can see at a glance which teams have auto-assignment active and which rely on desk-level logic.
The Create Team dialog also shows a "Selected routing method" badge indicating whether timezone-based or description-based routing is currently active for the desk, so you know which team property - timezone or description - is most important to fill in.
Editing Team Details
Path: /settings/desks/$deskId/teams/$teamId
Open the team from the Teams list.
Use Edit to change name, timezone, and description.
The Edit Team modal also shows a "Selected routing method" badge so you can see which routing property is currently driving ticket assignment for this desk.
Deleting Teams
Open the team and use Delete Team (or the delete option in the Teams pane).
Confirm. You are redirected to the desk members view.
Managing Team Members
Adding members to teams
Open the team detail page.
Click Add Member. The popover shows two sections:
Desk Members - Employees already on the desk.
Employees - Everyone else in your organisation not yet on the desk.
Selecting someone from the Employees section shows a confirmation dialog explaining they will be automatically added to the desk before being added to the team. The entire flow completes in one place without navigating away.
Removing members from teams
Open the team's members list.
Click Remove next to the member.
Assigning team roles
When groups-based member management is enabled, team members use the same role model as desk members. Three team-level roles are available:
Team Manager
Full read/write access to tickets assigned to their team, plus the ability to manage team configuration via Settings > Desks > Team Settings
Team Operator
Full read/write access to tickets assigned to their team
Team Observer
Read-only access to tickets assigned to their team
These roles give support organisations finer-grained control over ticket visibility across subdesks, addressing privacy and operational boundary needs. Assign roles via the member management UI.
Configuring Team Routing
Desks have a routing method that determines how tickets are assigned to teams:
Route by timezone
Tickets are routed to the team whose timezone matches the ticket context. Ensure all teams have a timezone configured.
Route by description
The AI agent routes based on each team's description. Write clear descriptions of what each team handles. Team descriptions can use natural language; the AI classifies incoming tickets to the most relevant team automatically.
Set this in the desk's Members/Teams area under Settings > Desks > [Your Desk] > Members & Teams > Teams tab. Changing the routing method now prompts a confirmation dialog warning you of the impact before the change takes effect, helping you avoid accidental misrouting.
Configuring Working Hours for Teams
Understanding Working Hours
Working hours define when a team (or the main desk) is "open" for SLA calculations. Outside working hours, SLA timers typically pause. Each team and the main desk can have their own schedule.
Setting Up Working Hours
Open the desk or team settings.
Find Working hours.
Choose 24 × 7 support (always open) or Custom working hours.
For custom hours, set timezone and enable/disable each day with start and end times (30-minute steps).
Configuring 24/7 Availability
Select 24 × 7 support to have the desk or team count as always available. SLA timers run continuously.
Understanding Working Hours Impact on SLA
Desk SLA - Uses the main desk's working hours (and holidays).
Teams - Inherit working hours and holidays from their parent desk by default, but these can be overridden at the team level.
Holidays - Use the Holiday calendar section to add custom holidays or import a country calendar. Teams can inherit the desk's holiday calendar.
Configuring Desk Settings
Configuring Desk Automation
From Settings → Desks → desk → Automation:
Auto-assignment - Choose method: round-robin, least-loaded, fixed, or first-responder. Set scope (agents) at desk or team level.
Status management - Auto status: reporter reply → "In Progress"; agent reply → "Pending Reporter."
Auto-close - Mandatory close comment; auto-close resolved/pending after inactivity; reminder hours; auto-close linked tickets by link type and eligible statuses.
Require closing comment - When enabled, agents must leave a comment before closing a ticket to ensure every closure is properly documented. When closing multiple tickets in bulk, a single modal appears so agents can submit one comment that applies to all affected tickets. This setting is off by default and can be enabled per desk at any time.
Surveys - Enable/disable satisfaction surveys; optional reminder after X hours.
Setting Up Desk Notifications
From Settings → Desks → desk → Notifications:
Configure destinations for:
Ticket created
Ticket status changed
SLA breach
Destinations can include Slack, Teams, and other configured channels.
Configuring Desk SLA Policies
From Settings → Desks → desk → SLA:
Set response and resolution targets by priority (Urgent, High, Medium, Low). Working hours for the main desk determine when SLA timers run. See the Automation and SLA guide for details.
Configuring Ticket Settings per Desk
From Settings → Desks → desk → Tickets:
Tags - Create, edit, and delete tags (name, color; system vs custom).
Custom fields - Define custom fields (type, mandatory, internal, description, options).
Managing Team Settings
Per-team settings:
Working hours - 24/7 or custom; option to inherit from desk.
Holiday calendar - Use desk holidays or configure team-specific holidays.
Auto-assignment - Configure when creating the team or update afterward. Choose from the same methods as the desk (round-robin, least-loaded, etc.), scoped to team members. Auto-assignment is disabled by default for new teams so members follow desk-level logic until you explicitly enable it.
Related Resources
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