17.1. Service Requests: Self-Service Intake Forms That Become Tickets

Service Requests let you publish a catalog of structured, self-service forms to your client portal. When a client picks a request from the catalog and fills it out, AlgaPSA automatically turns the submission into a properly routed ticket, so the right board, priority, and details are captured every time.

How Service Requests Differ From Tickets:

A ticket is free-form: the client (or technician) writes whatever they need. A service request is a guided form for common, repeatable asks, where you control exactly which questions are asked and where the resulting work lands. Use them for predictable requests such as:

• New user onboarding and offboarding
• Access and permission requests
• Software installation
• Hardware or equipment requests
• Any standard intake you'd rather not handle as a blank ticket

The Lifecycle of a Service Request:

Each service request moves through three states:

• Draft — a work-in-progress that clients can't see yet.
• Published — live and available in the client portal.
• Archived — retired and hidden from the catalog (can be restored later).

A published request that has unsaved edits shows as Draft Changes, meaning the live version differs from the draft you're editing.

Where to Find Service Requests:

• As an MSP user, open Service Requests from the sidebar to build, publish, and monitor your catalog.
• As a client, the published catalog appears in the client portal, where end users browse services, submit requests, and track their status under My Requests.

How the Pieces Fit Together:

Building a service request follows a simple path, each step covered in its own article:

1. 17.2. Create a Service Request — start a draft and fill in the basics.
2. 17.3. Build the Request Form — add the questions clients answer.
3. 17.4. Configure Ticket Routing — decide where submissions land.
4. 17.5. Publish and Manage Service Requests — go live and maintain the catalog.
5. 17.6. Review Submissions — track what clients send in.
6. 17.7. How Clients Submit Service Requests — the client-portal experience.