Requests

Call it a ticket or a project. Keep it in one thread.

Client work comes in every size: a two-line support question, a kick-off brief, an engagement that runs until spring. In Zendo each of them is a request, with the conversation, files, internal notes, status and billing on one page both sides can open. What a request is called, and how big it gets, is up to you.

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Inside a request

Put the thread, the files and the bill on one page

Stop tracking projects across emails, shared drives, spreadsheets, and chat threads. A single request page consolidates all conversations, files, and project history for your team and clients—eliminating handovers and keeping everyone aligned.

A thread that reads like the story of the work

Messages with the client, the files they send and every status change land in the same thread, in order, so the history explains itself. When your team needs to talk without the client listening, switch the reply to a note. It sits in the conversation where the context is, and the client never sees it.

How conversations work in Zendo

Keep the money one tab away from the work

A request and its order point at each other. Open the Billing tab and you see what was quoted, invoiced and paid for this piece of work, with the order's payment status at the top; open the order and you see every request it covers. Quote up front, invoice at the end, or take a deposit first and bill the rest later on the same order: the order of steps is your setting, and each one starts from the request.

See how quotes and invoices work

And the details that keep it on track

A checklist that comes with the request type

Each request type can start from its own checklist template, so every new project arrives with the same steps, including the one your team always forgets. Give the client edit rights, a read-only view of the progress, or none of it.

Fields for the facts you always ask about

Effort estimate, a link to the shared folder, the client's purchase order number. Custom fields keep them on the request instead of in somebody's notebook, each one private to your team, read-only for the client or public.

Deadline and priority where everyone looks first

Set a deadline, mark the priority and add a flag, right in the request's header. Priority and deadline also show as columns in the requests table, so the urgent ones surface before anyone reads a single message.

Three ways in

Open it for the client, or let the work come to you

Most service firms don't wait for clients to fill out forms. Set up requests on their behalf, or let clients initiate projects themselves or through a purchase. Zendo handles every workflow seamlessly.

Start the work before the client logs in

From the Dashboard, the requests list or the client's profile, New request opens the same form the client would see, under the request type you pick. It works for clients you haven't invited yet, so by the time Dana from Northwind Retail gets her invite, the project, the brief and the first files are already waiting in her portal.

Let clients ask in their own words

Clients submit requests through custom forms designed for their specific request type. For subscriptions, the portal tracks remaining requests before the cycle refreshes—eliminating awkward emails about limit overages automatically.

Build the forms behind each request type

Let a purchase open the request

When clients purchase services via order links, Zendo instantly creates linked orders and requests at checkout. After-purchase settings open single or multiple requests with briefs ready, skipping manual data entry.

See how Front Desk works

Request types

Let a ticket be a ticket and a project a project

Most service firms work at two speeds: quick tasks that need an immediate response and projects that run all quarter. Request types split your work the way your team already talks about it—giving each type its own labels, forms, statuses, and sidebar tabs.

Name & Placement

A name your clients would use

Ticket, Project, Job, Case, or plain Request, in singular and plural. The label shows up wherever the type does, and you decide whether the type gets its own tab in the sidebar or shares one with others.

Custom Forms

A form that asks what you'd ask on the call

Every type has its own request form with conditional logic, so a support ticket asks what went wrong and where, while a new project asks for the goals, the budget and the deadline.

Build request forms

Custom Statuses

Statuses in your own words

Pick the statuses this type moves through from your workspace's list and arrange them under Pending, Active and Completed. Your words stay yours, and Zendo still knows which requests are waiting, which are moving and which are done.

Automations

Rules that run without you

When a request comes in, gets assigned, changes status, moves to Active or Completed, or is archived, the type can change its status, send the client a message or send an intake form. Assignment rules per type and per client decide who picks it up.

See automations

Who can submit

Who gets to submit it

Open a type to every client, limit it to the ones you pick, unlock it when a client buys a service, or keep it for your team to open on a client's behalf. Your priority support queue stays a priority.

Workflows

Set the route once, then watch the work move

Every firm has its own idea of what happens after a brief lands. Someone picks it up, the client hears back, the work goes through review and eventually closes. In Zendo that route lives on the request type, which means you set it up once and every request of that type follows it, on a board your team can read at a glance.

See what happens before a client finds out

The request-type editor shows a timeline beside the settings: the form the client fills, the status the request opens in, the message your automations send and what closing it means for the order. If something would break, like a type no client can reach or one with no closing status, the timeline marks it while you're still in the editor, not after the first client gets stuck.

Table for Monday, kanban for the stand-up

Your team sees requests from every client together and filters them by client, team, assignee, status or request type. Switch to kanban and the columns are that type's statuses, so dragging a card from In progress to Client review is the status change, logged in the thread for the client to see. The list view opens requests in three panes, for working through replies like an inbox. Day to day, the Dashboard pulls out what needs you, under Waiting for you and Waiting for client.

Route it to whoever knows the client

Assignment rules, set per request type and per client, hand each new request to the person who already looks after that client.

Clear the board, keep the history

Archive finished requests to keep the board short, and restore one when the client comes back three weeks later with “just one more thing”.

Find the one they mentioned on the phone

Filter by client, assignee, status or request type and a few hundred requests narrow down to the one Acme brought up on yesterday's call, without scrolling back through last quarter.

Your Questions Answered

Requests questions

What is a request in Zendo?

A request is one piece of client work with its own thread, files, internal notes, status, checklist and billing. It has no fixed size: a request can be a support ticket, a brief or a whole project, depending on how you set up your request types.

Can I call requests tickets, projects or jobs?

Yes. Each request type has its own label, so buttons, lists and headings use your word. You can also show selected request types as separate tabs in the sidebar, for example a Tickets tab and a Projects tab, each with its own statuses and automations.

Can I create a request on behalf of a client?

Yes. Open the client's profile and choose New request to fill in the same form the client would see. You can do this before the client is invited, so their portal is ready when they first log in.

How do requests connect to quotes, invoices and payments?

A request that involves money is linked to an order, and the link works both ways. The request's Billing tab shows the order's quotes, invoices and payment status, and the order lists the requests it covers. You choose the order of billing steps: a quote first, an invoice at the end, or a deposit followed by further invoices on the same order.

Do clients see internal notes?

No. Notes sit in the request thread next to the conversation, but only your team can read them.

Is there a kanban board for requests?

Yes. Requests can be shown as a table, a kanban board or a list. On kanban, the columns follow the statuses of the selected request type, and moving a card changes the request's status.

Can I limit how many requests a client submits?

Yes, through subscriptions. A subscription can include a request limit per billing cycle, and clients see how many requests they have left and when the limit refreshes.

Name the work your way, and open the first request today

Set up a request type, open a request for a client you already work with, and send the invite when everything is in place. Free for 3 clients.

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