Feature Enhancement Request: Improve Ticket Merging Behavior to Automatically Archive or Hide Duplicates and Add Merge Indicators

Dear Development Team,

We are currently experiencing an issue with the ticket merging functionality in our ticket system that is impacting our reporting and workflow efficiency. Below, I'll outline the problem, expected behavior, and a proposed solution for your consideration.

Current Behavior:

• When merging a duplicate ticket into a primary ticket, the duplicate remains visible in our ticket list with a status of "Closed" and "Resolved."

• No additional indicators (e.g., a "Merged" flag, Reason for Merge, or link to the primary ticket) are added to the duplicate ticket.

• This results in reports showing multiple tickets with identical or similar subject lines, all marked as closed/resolved, without any context to explain that they were duplicates merged into a single primary ticket.

Expected/Desired Behavior:

• Upon merging, all relevant information (comments, attachments, history, etc.) from the duplicate ticket should be fully transferred to the primary ticket.

• The duplicate ticket should then be automatically removed from the active ticket list (e.g., archived, deleted, or hidden from standard views and reports) to prevent clutter.

• If retention of the duplicate is necessary for auditing purposes, it should include clear indicators such as:

  • A "Merged" status or tag.

  • A Reason for Outage (RFO) field or merge notes summarizing why it was merged.

  • A direct link to the primary ticket for quick reference.

• Reports should either exclude these merged duplicates by default or filter them based on the new merge indicators to avoid inflating ticket counts and confusion.

Impact:

• Our reports are cluttered with redundant entries, making it difficult to analyze true ticket volumes and trends.

• Team members waste time cross-referencing tickets to identify merges, reducing productivity.

• This lacks transparency, as there's no easy way to see merge details without manual investigation.

Proposed Solution:

• Enhance the merge process to include an option (or default behavior) to archive/hide duplicates post-merge.

• Add mandatory or optional fields during merge (e.g., RFO notes) that get appended to both the primary and duplicate tickets.

• Introduce report filters specifically for merged tickets to exclude or group them appropriately.

Thanks

Karin Botha