# Your first request

Follow one request from start to finish: find your desk on the Command Center, add a request from its board, take it on, move it through the stages and watch the desk's figures change.

**Help Desk** turns each customer question into a request. Every request belongs to a desk: a queue with its own people, its own stages and its own rules. This walk-through follows one request on the **Front Desk** of the demo, from the moment a customer calls to the moment the desk counts it as wrapped up. It takes the shortest path; the pages it links to go further.

## Before you start {#before-you-start}

- You need the **User** access right on **Help Desk**. The **Administrator** right adds the **Configuration** menu. [Help Desk settings](helpdesk-settings#access-rights) explains both.
- You see the desks whose audience includes you. The **Front Desk** is open to every internal user.

## Step 1: find your desk on the Command Center {#command-center}

Open **Help Desk/Command Center**. Each desk has one card. The large figure counts its open requests. Below it, **Wrapped up (30 days)** counts the requests finished in the last 30 days, and **Targets honoured** gives the share of those that kept their service targets, or *no data yet* while none of them carried a target. The footer counts the open requests that are **Unclaimed** (nobody owns them), **Critical**, **Stale** and, when the desk measures targets, **Missed**, and shows the desk's agents.

![The Command Center, one card per desk, with its open requests, its recent results and its counters.](https://jaah.app/web/image/14195-610f4227/helpdesk-your-first-request-command_center-en.png)

Every figure opens the requests behind it. The menu at the top right corner of the card, shown when you point at the card, opens the same lists, the analyses of the desk and, for administrators, its set-up.

## Step 2: open the desk's board {#board}

Click **open requests**. The board shows one column per stage of the desk. **Received**, **Working** and **Waiting** hold open requests; **Resolved** and **Dropped** are folded on the right, because a request there is finished. The heading of a column counts its cards, with a red count of those going stale; on a card, a red badge such as *15d* gives the days the request has spent in its stage once that passes the limit of the stage.

![The open requests of the desk, one column per stage; New adds a card to the first column.](https://jaah.app/web/image/14199-f2b7cc98/helpdesk-your-first-request-open_requests-en.png)

## Step 3: add a request {#add}

1. Click **New**. A quick card opens at the top of the first column.
2. Type the **Title** the way the customer put it, for example `Help desk demo: Barcode scanner does not pair`.
3. Choose yourself as **Owner**, and the customer, here *Layla Haddad*, as **Customer**.

![The quick card at the top of the first column, with a title, an owner and a customer.](https://jaah.app/web/image/14203-d27b2f99/helpdesk-your-first-request-quick_create-en.png)

On a phone, the quick card opens at the top of the first column in the same way.

4. Click **Add**. The card takes its place in **Received** with its reference, such as *RQ00003*. Because **Received** carries an arrival message, an acknowledgement is e-mailed to the customer and written in the chatter of the request.

The requests you own are always listed under **Help Desk/Requests/Assigned to Me**.

## Step 4: open the request {#open}

Click the card. On the left, the form shows the **Desk**, the **Owner**, the **Priority** stars and the **Labels**; on the right, the **Customer**, with **Reported By**, **Reply To** and **Phone** filled from the contact. The **What Happened** tab holds the description, **Additional Details** the dates. The stage sits at the top right.

![The request opened from its card, with its reference, its desk, its owner, its customer and its stage at the top.](https://jaah.app/web/image/14205-41e0b902/helpdesk-your-first-request-request_form-en.png)

## Step 5: work on it {#work}

1. Click the stage, **Received**, and choose **Working**. The move is recorded in the chatter.

![The request in Working; the move is written in the chatter.](https://jaah.app/web/image/14209-550cc171/helpdesk-your-first-request-request_working-en.png)

2. Answer the customer with **Send message**: the message is e-mailed, and the reply of the customer comes back into the same conversation. Keep internal remarks in **Log note**. [Follow a record with the chatter](/docs/essentials/follow-a-record-with-the-chatter) explains the chatter.
3. While you wait for the customer, move the request to **Waiting** the same way, and back to **Working** when the answer arrives.

## Step 6: wrap it up {#wrap-up}

Click the stage and choose **Resolved**. The request is wrapped up: the desk e-mails the customer a closing notice and, because the **Front Desk** collects feedback, a short satisfaction request, both written in the chatter. If the customer answers the closing notice, the request opens again in the stage it left.

![The request wrapped up; the notice to the customer is in the chatter.](https://jaah.app/web/image/14213-0e8129eb/helpdesk-your-first-request-request_resolved-en.png)

## Step 7: see the desk's figures change {#figures}

Open **Help Desk/Command Center** again. **Wrapped up (30 days)** now counts your request.

![Back on the Command Center, the request counts among those wrapped up in the last 30 days.](https://jaah.app/web/image/14217-631c6f36/helpdesk-your-first-request-wrapped_up-en.png)

## What you have done {#what-you-have-done}

You found your desk, added a request from its board, took it on, worked on it and wrapped it up, and saw the desk count it. [Open a request for a customer](open-a-request) uses the full form, [Move a request through the pipeline](move-a-request-through-the-pipeline) covers the stages and the progress flag, and [Set service targets](set-service-targets) puts a clock on requests. [How Help Desk works](how-help-desk-works) explains desks, stages, owners and targets together.

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- Source: https://jaah.app/docs/helpdesk/your-first-request
- Updated: 2026-10-28
- Version: Help Desk 19.0.1.1.0
- Verified: 2026-10-28