Have you ever been in a meeting where the solution to every issue seems to be “Let’s just create a new service board for that”—only to realize you now have 20+ boards cluttering your PSA? You’re not alone. Many MSPs struggle with balancing ticket organization and information management, often leading to an overcomplicated system that hinders efficiency rather than improving it.
The truth is, just because you can create a service board doesn’t mean you should. Too many service boards create unnecessary complexity, technician fatigue, and administrative headaches. Instead of streamlining operations, it forces teams to constantly update workflows, adjust statuses, manage permissions, and tweak automation rules, leading to wasted time and frustration.
The Role of Service Boards in MSP Operations
At their core, service boards are simply containers for information—tracking client needs, automation alerts, technician tasks, and more. When used correctly, they can be a powerful tool for ticket management and service delivery. However, over-engineering your boards can reduce clarity, create bottlenecks, and overwhelm technicians with unnecessary segmentation.
Instead of adding more boards, consider leveraging types, sub-types, and items to categorize tickets effectively. These tools allow for better ticket organization without adding unnecessary complexity.
Key Considerations Before Creating a New Service Board
Before creating another service board, ask yourself:
✅ Who? – Is this for a specific team or department that needs a dedicated workspace?
✅ What? – Does this service board serve a completely different function from your existing ones?
✅ Where? – Does the information need to be restricted to certain team members?
✅ How? – How does this board fit into your overall workflow, and will it add value without creating redundancy?
If the answer to these questions doesn’t justify a completely separate board, it’s likely better to manage tickets using views, ticket types, and categorization tools rather than adding more complexity.
The Essential MSP Service Boards
Through experience, we’ve found that most MSPs only need a handful of well-structured service boards to run an effective and organized operation. Here’s a streamlined approach:
🚀 Core MSP Service Boards for Efficiency
1️⃣ Triage – A centralized board for reviewing and dispatching incoming service requests before assignment.
2️⃣ Service – The primary board for general managed service support requests that need resolution.
3️⃣ Alerts – A catch-all board for RMM, backup, and automated alerts that need technician review.
4️⃣ Admin – A board for internal, non-billable tasks, such as technician time tracking and administrative work.
5️⃣ Billing – Used for client billing inquiries and financial-related ticket tracking.
6️⃣ Sales – Dedicated to managing sales-related tickets, follow-ups, and prospect inquiries.
7️⃣ Client Success – A board for account management, customer feedback, and client success tasks (not technical in nature).
By structuring service boards around function rather than individual issues, you reduce clutter, improve technician focus, and simplify management.
How Views Can Improve Ticket Management Without More Boards
Once you have well-defined service boards, views become a powerful tool for filtering and organizing tickets based on what’s relevant to each technician. Views allow you to:
🔹 Prioritize urgent tickets so critical issues aren’t lost in the queue.
🔹 Limit access to specific tickets for different roles or teams.
🔹 Create a structured workflow without the need for excessive boards.
Final Thoughts: Simplify to Scale
Having too many service boards doesn’t mean better organization—it often leads to more confusion, inefficiencies, and administrative work. Instead of constantly adding new boards, focus on:
✔ Using types, sub-types, and items to categorize tickets effectively
✔ Maintaining only the essential service boards
✔ Leveraging views to customize ticket visibility without extra clutter
By optimizing how you use service boards, you’ll increase technician efficiency, reduce administrative burden, and create a more scalable support structure.
🚀 Need help optimizing your PSA service boards? Let’s simplify and streamline your ticketing system—so your team can focus on what really matters: delivering top-tier service!
