By
El Copeland
August 21, 2024
•
20 min read
Business
Tutorials
Choosing the Right Ticket Status Colors in HaloPSA
Have you implemented unique colors for your Ticket Statuses in HaloPSA?
Coloring these Statuses adds a great Quality of Life to your Agents working tickets. Often, it is treated as a nice-to-have or “let’s just make it look pretty,” which are fine if it works for you. However, we invite you to imagine instead with us: what if you could leverage symbolic colors that guide an Agent through your defined ticket process. What if you could implement that in a reasonable way?
So, to help lessen that decision fatigue for you since we know you’re busy customizing every other setting in HaloPSA as well, here is the framework that Rising Tide uses to approach customizing these settings to help you quickly and sensibly label your Ticket Statuses. In a future article, we’ll tackle Ticket Action color codes; however, the concepts will generally remain the same.
Laying out the Ticket Status Colors Framework
Before we jump into coloring statuses, let’s start by defining a ticket’s lifecycle according to how your Agents need to allocate their attention to those tickets, whether that is dictated by standard professionalism or ensuring SLAs are kept. For the sake of this conversation, we are going to address these ticket attention phases with the segments: Normal Attention, Elevated Attention, or Inert Attention.
Normal Attention
Ideally, your Agents receive a ticket and all things are “Go,” they have everything they need to start working, and then Close the ticket when they've successfully completed the task and can rest on their laurels (or move on to the next ticket!).
We recommend all Normal Attention tickets to be assigned “cool colors” like greens, blues, and purples. (And not cool because we think they’re rad, cool as opposed to warm colors, more information here on color theory) Statuses like New and In Progress generally belong here. We have the ticket, everything is going as planned. What a perfect, serene world. Peaceful, isn’t it?
Unfortunately, that’s not the reality in most of our businesses! What happens when tickets require extra attention or action to ensure their timely completion?
Elevated Attention
Here in Elevated Attention is where we see statuses like Escalated, Pending Approval, or Reopened: tickets that we need to be actively thinking about and revisiting, especially ones that are keeping our SLA clock running. To inspire action and increase visibility, we’re using warm, fiery colors like Orange, Red, and Yellow.
What if there is a ticket where we cannot take immediate action, or it doesn’t warrant it? That’s our last category: Inert Attention.
Inert Attention
There will be times when our tickets are active but there is literally nothing we can do but wait. The SLA clock isn’t running, so we don’t need to worry about taking action on these just yet: statuses like Waiting on Client or Waiting on Vendor. We recommend using greys to signify these statuses’ inactive character.
In general, we recommend you set up HaloPSA to do most of the status setting and remembering to move tasks in and out of statuses, especially Inert-type statuses. Specifically, when setting up these Inert Attention statuses in HaloPSA, be sure to build those Ticket Statuses, Ticket Type Settings, and your related Workflows so when a ticket enters or exits an Inert status, it automatically puts the ticket on or removes it from SLA hold. You can see examples of these settings in the screen captures below.
Some examples of this recommendation in action could be:
- Setting a Waiting on Client ticket to Attention Required when a customer replies to an email
- Setting a Waiting on Vendor ticket to Attention Required when a Supplier updates
- Setting a ticket to Scheduled upon creating an Appointment (Ticket Type Settings: Status after user appointment booking (resource booking), or Status after Agent creates appointment)
- Automatically setting Waiting on Client tickets to Closed after a certain number of hours with no reply according to SLA rules you set.
Ticket Status Colors Framework in Action
With all of these ideas in mind, we suggest as you approach customizing each ticket status, you ask:
What type of Attention do I expect of my team at this status: Normal, Elevated, or Inert?
When you have that answer, choose a color from the suggested family. Remember that color for other statuses you may have for other Ticket Types so it stays consistent regardless of what Area your Agent is operating from!
Here are some examples for what we specifically recommend to Rising Tide Customers. You will likely not need all of them, depending on your MSP’s needs:
Normal Attention
- Brand New/Assigned (Waiting on You): Green — Ticket is newly created and waiting for initial action. Green indicates readiness to start and clear action needed.
- Claimed/Work in Progress: Blue — Ticket is actively being addressed towards resolution. Blue symbolizes confidence in ongoing work and progress.
- We’d be remiss if we didn’t specifically call out that at Rising Tide we recommend that your Agents should not be "Claiming" tickets until they're ready to work on them.
- Closed: Black — The ticket has been fully resolved and all necessary actions are completed. Black signifies completion and closure of the ticket.
Elevated Attention
- Pending Approval: Yellow — Awaiting authorization or approval to proceed. Yellow is high-visibility and unique to call attention to follow up that may be necessary.
- Escalated: Orange — Moved to a higher level of support due to complexity or urgency. Orange highlights urgency and attention required.
- Customer Updated/Vendor Updated/Approver Updated: Orange— Orange is used to indicate recent release from a paused status like Waiting on Customer or Waiting on Vendor and subsequent re-instating of the current SLA timer, if applicable.
- Attention Required: Orange — Elevated attention needed following removal from an SLA hold.
- Reopened: Red — Previously closed/resolved ticket is active again due to additional issues or dissatisfaction. Red indicates a critical reactivation that needs immediate reassessment.
Inert Attention
- Waiting on Client: Grey — Progress on the ticket is paused because it requires input or action from the client. Grey suggests inactivity from the MSP’s side, waiting on external action.
- Waiting on Vendor/Waiting on Parts: Grey — Progress on the ticket is halted while waiting for action or information from an external vendor. Similar to waiting on client but specific to external vendors.
- Scheduled: Purple — Scheduled could also technically be included in the Normal category, hence the cool purple. Denotes a paused status where work is planned, but no active work is required.
- Resolved: Teal — Similar to Scheduled, Resolved straddles the Normal category as well. The issue within the ticket has been addressed, awaiting final closure or verification from the requester. Teal is a calm yet upbeat color indicating resolution but awaiting final closure.
As with most rules, there are going to be times when items cross between phases, or you may operate differently and not define a ticket status the same way we did here.
Maybe you have some color-blind technicians on staff and decide to use completely different colors completely or none at all. (If you do want to create a color-blind friendly palette, here’s a great resource.)
Maybe you want to choose different values (light or dark) within a certain family than what Halo provides.
Good! Break our rules. They're just here to help you decide what you do or don't actually want.
Our main recommendation is that you use your best judgement on what is right for your team and just be consistent which sometimes means keeping it simple. And let us know what you ended up doing, you may help someone else. Happy customizing!
As Partner and Business Consultant at Rising Tide, I help organizations align culture with efficiency, bridging the gap between strategy and the everyday systems that make it work. I’ve spent my career leading diverse, cross-functional teams and building communities where people actually want to learn and collaborate. With roots in technology, education, user experience & design, and project management, I specialize in turning complex ideas into clear, actionable plans that keep both people and projects thriving.
Outside of work, you’ll usually find me weight-training, gardening, or rewatching Doctor Who with a cat in my lap.
See some more of our most recent posts...
Chapter-by-Chapter Discussion Questions for The Go-Giver by Bob Burg: Chapter Seven - Rachel
In this chapter guide to “Rachel” from The Go-Giver, we explore what great coffee, storytelling, and human needs have in common. From “survive, save, serve” to Maslow and “meat computers,” this piece invites MSP leaders and service pros to rethink how they scale excellence without burning people...or the beans!
Read post
About this Series
This discussion guide is part of Rising Tide’s Fall 2025 book club, where we’re reading The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann.
If you’re just joining us, here are a few pages you’ll likely benefit from:
- Chapter One – The Go-Getter for an introduction on how to use these Discussion Questions
- Book Clubs, Conversations, and Curiosity for why we started a book club for a technical team here
Chapter Summary
In Chapter 7, "Rachel," we learn more about Rachel and about the characteristics that Pindar finds valuable.
Discussion Questions
Use these open-ended prompts to guide reflection and conversation. Remember, there are no right answers!
- How do you feel about the commentary about Pindar’s age? Do you know people who are younger than they seem? What characteristics contribute to that perception?
- Can you relate to Rachel? Is her story believable? What do you think the authors seek to elucidate about her? What about Pindar’s view of her?
- We’re yet again hearing Pindar described as a storyteller. What does that make you think the authors are trying to say about Pindar’s skill set?
- Survive, save, and serve. Where do you find yourself landing? Where would you like to invest more?
- What do you think is Rachel’s “secret” to good coffee? The author describes many aspects of her craft, surely it’s not just because she’s one-eighth Colombian!
Rising Tide Input for your Consideration
- Making coffee well is an interesting metaphor! There is so much care, precision, and repetition in making coffee, it’s as much a science as it can be considered an art.
- Consider Starbucks beans: to produce a consistent product at a scale, they roast their beans very hard, eliminating the unique characteristics of a specific variety of coffee bean in lieu of a product that will hold up to their regularly heavy-flavored and sugared drinks. (See: Why Starbucks Coffee Has That Burnt Taste) Is it possible to truly scale excellence with care? Is there a limit?
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs suggests humans must have their basic needs met before they have the space to pursue “more advanced” needs.
- If that’s too academic, El gave a talk at MSPGeekCon about how we’re all basically meat computers with Hardware, Software, and Networking built into us. Does that perspective change how you can handle other humans and even take care of yourself? (Watch part 1 of “The Care and Feeding of Meat Computers” here: https://youtu.be/yRcs5XYI8LQ?si=J3Q_VGenSHaKutOR)
About Rising Tide and our Book Club
Rising Tide helps MSPs and service-focused teams build better systems: the kind that align people with purpose.
Every Friday at 9:30 AM ET, we host Rising Tide Fridays as an open conversation for MSP owners, consultants, and service professionals who want to grow both professionally, technically, and emotionally. In Fall/Winter 2025, we’re walking through The Go-Giver, chapter by chapter.
If that sounds like your kind of crowd, reach out to partners@risingtidegroup.net for the Teams link.
Bring your coffee and curiosity…no prep required.
Chapter-by-Chapter Discussion Questions for The Go-Giver by Bob Burg: Chapter One - The Go-Getter
At Rising Tide, we use book clubs not to read—but to listen, question, and practice curiosity. Join us as we unpack Chapter One of The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann, using open-ended prompts to reflect on ambition, connection, and growth. Perfect for service-minded teams who want to slow down and think differently.
Read post
About this Series
If you’ve already read Book Clubs, Conversations, and Curiosity, you know that at Rising Tide, we don’t host book clubs for the sake of reading. We use them as an excuse to talk, to listen, and to practice curiosity together.
The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann is the first book that we've chosen to explore together in this way. Each week, we’re reading one short chapter together and using a few open-ended questions to spark real conversation: no lectures, no wrong answers, just reflection.
Below are our discussion prompts for Chapter One: “The Go-Getter.”
They’re written for teams like ours: busy, service-minded, sometimes too practical for their own good...who want to slow down long enough to notice what these stories have to teach.
How this guide is different from others you'll find online: We keep it chapter-focused. Every set of questions focuses only on the current chapter so there is no foreshadowing, no jumping ahead, no “we’ll get to that in Chapter 7.” The goal is to slow down and savor the smaller ideas that get lost when you rush to the big themes, and we're going to make sure that team members that are "behind" have enough data points to connect the dots and contribute even if they're not caught up to the current reading.
Use them however you like. Whether you’re reading along with us or just looking for a fresh team conversation starter, we hope these questions help you stretch a little, think differently, and see something new in yourself or your work.
Some Tips on how to use this Guide
- Keep it simple. No slides. No structured lessons. Read a question aloud, give a solid 10-second pause, sometimes you have to let the awkwardness of silence drive the conversation.
- Honor the one-chapter rule. No spoilers, no summaries! Stay inside the chapter or assigned reading. If someone raises a later theme, park it in a “Next Chapters” list and keep today focused. Similarly, don’t try to solve the book. Ask what this chapter made people notice or feel—nothing more.
- Actively include people who didn’t read and make space for quieter voices. Use prompts like, “From this idea alone, what stands out?” Curiosity doesn’t require homework. Explicitly ask: “Anyone who hasn’t shared want to weigh in?” Intentionally invite two voices before anyone speaks twice
- Time-box it. 15–30 minutes. One good discussion beats five rushed questions.
- Close with a single takeaway. Each person names one sentence, idea, or action they’re taking into the week. Log it. Revisit next time.
If you tweak or add questions, tell us at partners@risingtidegroup.net. We’ll keep improving this tool for other MSP teams.
Chapter One Discussion Questions and Observations
Chapter One Summary
In this chapter, we meet Joe, a go-getter who doesn't seem to be getting what he's going for. We are also introduced to his coworkers: Melanie and Gus, who help connect him with Pindar, or the Chairman, who agrees to tell Joe the huge trade secret that will surely be his key to success.
Chapter One Questions
- How would you describe or define a go-getter?
- Is it a good or bad thing? Why?
- Do you consider yourself a go-getter?
- Do you know people like Joe, Gus, or Melanie? What do you think of them as people or colleagues?
- Why do you think the authors chose the name Pindar for the Chairman?
- What do you think Pindar's conditions are going to be?
Chapter One Observations from the Rising Tide Team
- Being a Go-Getter isn’t a bad thing!
- It’s important to remember that the authors of this book are likely flattening the depth of characters into caricatures to more cleanly get the point of their story across. This is important to remember because rarely in life will the humans you interact with be the fulfillment of the assumptions you make about them.
- Pindar is the name of a Greek poet who wrote odes of Victory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pindar. Does this mean we can expect victory for Joe?
Creatures of a day! What is anyone?
What is anyone not? A dream of a shadow
Is our mortal being. But when there comes to men
A gleam of splendour given of heaven,
Then rests on them a light of glory
And blessed are their days. (Pindar, Pythian 8)
Join the Conversation
Want to hang out in these conversations with the Rising Tide team? We meet Fridays at 9:30 AM ET to talk through important business, technological, and communal developments, and for the next 14ish weeks, The Go-Giver! If you’re an MSP owner, consultant, or service professional who wants to grow your team’s emotional intelligence alongside your technical skill, you’re welcome here.
Reach out to partners@risingtidegroup.net for the Rising Tide Fridays Teams link. Bring your coffee and curiosity: no prep required.
Book Clubs, Conversations, and Curiosity
Curiosity isn’t taught; it’s practiced. At Rising Tide, we build a culture where curiosity fuels both technical and personal growth. Through team discussions, shared learning, and a book club centered on The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann, we explore how better questions lead to better people, better work, and better service.
Read post
Like many MSPs, Rising Tide invests in our people through access to books, trainings, conferences, and certifications. At its core, this is not education for education’s sake: rather, we believe the best technical work starts with curiosity, and we consistently seek ways to foster curiosity as a skill. You see, we think the best solutions come not just from curiosity about technology, but curiosity about each other, about our clients, and about our community. We want to be known as people who ask better questions, understand others' perspectives with clarity, and are always hungry for more. We believe that personal growth will always drive technical and professional success for our team, and as a result, our clients.
Curiosity is not something you learn from an SOP, a certification, or a conference.
So how does a business foster curiosity? Curiosity is not something you learn from an SOP, a certification, or a conference. It’s something you develop by creating the time and space for yourself and your people to feel safe to speak up, to ideate, to build, and to iterate.
We are doing our best to build a culture of curiosity and progress in as many ways as possible, not just through structured education, but in choosing tools, conversations, and activities where we can intentionally seek to learn from and about each other and the world around us. The last part is very important at a core level: we believe every person brings a different background, toolkit, and perspective that strengthens and deepens our own, even — or especially! — when we disagree.
every person brings a different background, toolkit, and perspective that strengthens and deepens our own, even — or especially! — when we disagree.
As a fully remote team of 6, this can be pretty difficult to do since we can’t go out for lunch or have regular physical touchpoints other brick-and-mortar businesses may enjoy. So, one of the standard ways we cultivate this is through scheduled daily and weekly team conversations where we review customer issues, books or videos, conferences attended, or other interesting things we’ve seen that we want to share.
Most recently, we chose to essentially start a book club where we would read The Go-Giver by Bob Burg, together, and to invite clients and friends to review it with us on a weekly call. It was important to us that as a team expectation, we should make sure no one felt the demand too great on top of weekly work expectations. Thus, we decided on reading one chapter (7-10 pages) a week, to make sure that it felt accessible to everyone. (Reading ahead is absolutely allowed and encouraged, but we will only discuss one chapter a week!)
how do you allow for people to join in the conversation even if they didn’t get a chance to read?
The next question for a book club is: how do you facilitate conversation in a way that allows for people to share what was meaningful to them, or to join in the conversation even if they didn’t get a chance to read? In preparing for our book meetings, I sought out online resources with simple chapter-by-chapter discussion questions. However, as a very easy read, it seemed that most questions online covered concepts that spanned multiple chapters, which encouraged reading ahead and missing perhaps some smaller ideas worth savoring in each chapter.
Honestly, we figure we’re not alone in this desire to have simple questions and to walk carefully through conversations, so we've decided to share our own discussion questions, chapter-by-chapter! These questions are written without consideration for future chapters of the book and are meant to help bring in conversation about the topics and themes specifically covered in the given chapter. These questions are open-ended and if you’re facilitating, we encourage you to take the stance of no-wrong-answers, just as an impartial listener. You never know what perspectives or fresh ideas may come out of conversation.
Check out The Go-Getter Chapter One Discussion Questions here.
We’ll continue to add discussion questions and commentary on the book club as we move forward. Next things I’d like to try is to offer facilitation to a team member who has read ahead, to help them stretch their muscles of asking questions and building conversations. What other ideas should we tie in?
Join the Conversation
Want to hang out in these conversations with the Rising Tide team? We meet Fridays at 9:30 AM ET to talk through important business, technological, and communal developments, and for the next 14ish weeks, The Go-Giver! If you’re an MSP owner, consultant, or service professional who wants to grow your team’s emotional intelligence alongside your technical skill, you’re welcome here.
Reach out to partners@risingtidegroup.net for the Rising Tide Fridays Teams link. Bring your coffee and curiosity: no prep required.