Using RT for Hardware Grants

RT Overview
Once you have your RT account and have logged into RT, you should see an overview page similar to this:



It should show you a list of the current tickets you own, the newest tickets present in the ticket queues you can see, and a column of queues you can access. In the above image, the Hardware Grants queue is circled in red. Clicking on the Hardware Grants queue link will take you to this page:



The Hardware Grants queue keeps track of all currently open tickets, their owners, and the last time a change was made to the ticket. Clicking on a ticket's link will take you to a ticket's details:



If the ticket is owned by Nobody, that means it's up for the taking. If you'd like to take it, simply click on the Take link (circled in red in the above image) to have RT assign it to you.

Once you take ownership of the ticket, you need to contact the requestor and inform them of their grant's status (e.g. if it's been approved or denied) and possibly schedule a time for them to come in and pick up hardware. The best way to do so is to use RT's reply function, as it will send them a copy of the ticket they submitted if you do so (most people don't have a copy because of the way our hardware grant requests are made, so this helps jog their memories). However, don't use the Reply link at the top of the page, as that won't send them a copy. Instead, scroll down the page a bit and use the link circled in red below:



If you need to add a comment to a ticket but don't want or need the requestor to see it, click the link circled in beige below:



Once you have given out a grant and filed the paperwork/disbursed it in the database, you should resolve the ticket. You can do so by clicking the link circled in green in the above image. That should bring you to this page:



To properly resolve a ticket, select the "resolved" status from the dropdown menu indicated above, and write it what was given out for the grant in the Message field. Once you submit it, the ticket will be closed and removed from both the Hardware Grants and your personal queues.