The two actions you'll do most often as a dispatcher: assigning a ticket to a specific agent, and marking an agent in or out. By the end of this lesson you can route work and manage team availability — the operational core of the role.

Direct-Assigning a Ticket

Problem: A specific ticket needs to land on a specific agent — you know who, you know why, you don't want the system to guess. As an agent you used Direct Assign on your own ticket; as a dispatcher you'll use it constantly to put work on someone else's plate.

Horizon's answer: The same Direct Assign action you used as an agent — but you're driving it from the dispatcher seat, on tickets that aren't yours. You pick the team, then the agent on that team, and submit. The ticket is reassigned and the receiving agent sees it land in their tray.

Direct-assign a single ticket

1. Open the ticket. From the dispatch panel, the easiest paths are:

   • Click a scheduled todo on the Dashboard to open its slide-over, then open the ticket from there.
   • Open the Ticket Board (covered in a later lesson) and click a row to open the ticket modal.
   • From inside your helpdesk, open the Rocketship ticket widget on that ticket.

2. Click Direct Assign.

3. Fill in the form:

   Field	What to do
   Team	Pick the team the ticket should go to. Changing the team clears the assignee selection.
   Assignee	Pick the specific agent on that team. The list is filtered to active, assignable members.
   Additional fields	Your account may have extra fields configured (notes, reason codes, etc.) — fill them in.

4. Click the action button to submit.

The ticket is reassigned in your helpdesk, the receiving agent's tray updates, dispatch stops considering the ticket for automatic assignment, and the change is recorded on the ticket history.

Direct Assign vs. Smart Assign

This is the choice every dispatcher makes constantly:

Smart Assign is covered in a later lesson. For now, you'll mostly use Direct Assign because it's the one you have full control over.

Reassigning a ticket someone else already owns

Direct Assign works regardless of current assignment. If a ticket is already assigned to Alice and you direct-assign it to Bob, that just updates the assignment. Use this when you're handing work mid-stream; consider giving Alice a quick heads-up.

Bulk direct-assign

If you need to assign many tickets at once, use the bulk version on the Ticket Board (covered in a later lesson on bulk operations). Don't direct-assign 30 tickets one at a time.

Common errors

• "Team has no eligible assignees" — every member of the team is currently Out, off-hours, or doesn't have the required helpdesk role (Autotask). Pick a different team.
• "Failed to queue helpdesk write" — the assignment couldn't be pushed to the helpdesk. Usually a transient connection issue; retry. If it persists, open a support ticket.

Tip: Drop a one-line internal note on the ticket explaining why you direct-assigned, especially when you're overriding what dispatch would have done. "Direct-assigned to Bob — customer asked for him by name" takes ten seconds and saves a status meeting later.

Marking an Agent In/Out

Problem: An agent calls in sick. Or steps out for an early lunch. Or is pulled into a long meeting. They didn't mark themselves Out, and now dispatch is still routing tickets to them. Tickets pile up unworked, customers wait. You need to flip them Out fast — without depending on them to do it themselves.

Horizon's answer: The In/Out Board lets you create an away period for any agent. While that period is active, dispatch skips them — same effect as if they'd marked themselves Out from the agent panel.

Open the In/Out Board

Click In/Out Board in the dispatch panel's top navigation.

You'll see four sections:

• Available Now — agents currently In, grouped by team.
• Currently Out — agents who are presently Out, with the reason and an End Now button.
• Scheduled — future away periods (covered in the next lesson on Reading Availability).
• History — past away periods, filterable.

Mark an agent Out (now)

1. On the In/Out Board, click New Away Period (header button, top right).

2. In the form:

   Field	What to do
   User	Pick the agent.
   Go out now	Toggle ON if they're going Out right now (skips the Start field).
   Start	(Hidden if "Go out now" is on.) The date/time they go Out.
   End (optional)	Leave blank for open-ended ("until they come back"). Set a date/time if you know when they'll be back.
   Note	Short reason — "sick day," "client meeting," "out at lunch." This shows on the In/Out Board so the team knows.

3. Click Save.

The agent is now marked Out. Dispatch will skip them for new assignments. Their existing tickets stay theirs.

Bring an agent back (end the away period)

1. On the In/Out Board, find the agent in the Currently Out table.
2. Click End Now.

The period closes, the agent goes back to In, dispatch starts considering them again.

The agent can also do this themselves

If the agent is at their keyboard, they can mark themselves Out (or come back) using the in/out toggle in their own user menu (covered in the Agent Training Guide → The In/Out Feature). Either path produces the same result. Use the dispatcher action when the agent isn't able to do it themselves — they're sick, on the phone, on the road, etc.

What "Out" actually does

Same as the agent's self-toggle:

• New ticket assignments skip the agent. The dispatch engine excludes anyone marked Out.
• Existing assignments stay in place. Going Out doesn't unassign anyone from anything.
• Their calendar stays visible. Other dispatchers and the agent themselves can still see scheduled work.

Tip: Set a Note that explains not just why but for how long. "Sick — out today only" or "In all-day client onsite, back tomorrow" gives other dispatchers the information they need to route around the absence without asking. Vague notes ("out") make the team guess.