PBJ Helpdesk — Changelog
Current release: 2.10.0 (August 2026). One-time purchase per major version; requires PBJ CRM.
2.10.0
New: a documented seam for other plugins to hold back one closure email. When a ticket is closed, the help desk now asks — once, for that close — whether the “your ticket has been closed” message should be sent. With nothing listening, it sends, exactly as before.
Why it exists. PBJ Dispatch closes a ticket when it turns it into a booked visit. Without this, the customer would get the booking confirmation and a closure notice in the same minute, for one job. The help desk does not know or care which plugin is asking; it just asks the question.
Only the email is held back. The stage change, the closed stamp, the silent claim, the timeline note and the status-changed action all still happen, exactly as they do for any other close. There is no site-wide “closure emails off” switch, and this is not one.
The existing bulk-manager behaviour is unchanged and still takes precedence on its own.
No database changes. Pairs with PBJ Dispatch 1.1.0, released alongside it.
2.9.0
A safety release for the database. On a site where an earlier update had only partly applied, the help desk could fail in ways that looked like something else entirely — new tickets refusing to save, incoming email quietly not being stored, or a mailbox connection being made over and over. Every one of those paths now checks first and steps around the missing piece instead of failing, and the site repairs itself the moment the database catches up.
The plugin also stops recording a database change as done unless it can see that it actually happened, and stops retrying for ever on a host that will never allow it — after five attempts it leaves one clear notice naming what is missing.
It also now checks that PBJ CRM is not just installed but new enough. On a site running an older CRM the help desk could take the whole site down; it now shows one notice and loads nothing. Some tidying of code and settings nobody used. No database change.
2.8.0
Your tickets now appear on the CRM’s new Today screen, alongside your tasks, in one list sorted by when things are due. You still only ever see the tickets you were already allowed to see — the help desk decides that, exactly as it does on every other list, and the CRM only merges what it is handed. Update PBJ CRM to 1.16.0 as well, or Today will show tasks only.
The per-stage status dropdown has been removed from every ticket list. Every row already prints its exact status in the Status column, so the dropdown asked you to re-specify something you could already see — and it was the half of the pair that produced silent empty lists, because its “Open” meant one single stage while the control beside it meant “not closed”. What survives is the simple one: All open and closed · Open · Closed.
The triage screen’s “New messages (not tickets yet)” card has been removed. It counted inbound mail sitting in spam, in the bin and in filed, while the list directly beneath it showed the inbox only — so it could read “191” over an empty list. The inbox is right there underneath; the number was not telling you anything the list was not.
2.7.0
The Email Templates and Canned Replies tabs have gone from the help desk’s own settings. Both editors moved to PBJ CRM’s Templates & Notifications tab back in 2.5.0, and until now they sat in both places at once — the same editor behind two different doors. Every link and button that used to point here takes you straight to the CRM tab instead, including the “Review the templates” step in the setup guide. Nothing about the templates themselves has changed and nothing has been deleted. On a site still running a CRM older than 1.12.0 the two tabs stay exactly where they were, so nothing can become unreachable. No database changes.
2.6.0
When you reply to a ticket you can now choose which of your mailboxes it goes out from, instead of the help desk always deciding for you. Leave it alone and it decides exactly as before. The choice applies to public replies only — an internal note is never emailed, and a client never picks the address your business sends from. No database changes.
2.5.0
The triage screen now leads with the tickets assigned to you. Its first tile used to count new messages, which is not something anybody is answerable for; it now counts your own still-open tickets and opens them as cards when clicked. Open-ness is read from each ticket’s own status path, so a category with its own stages is counted properly rather than against a fixed list of names. “Tickets waiting to be assigned” appeared twice — a tally and the heading of the list it was counting, each fetched separately; the tally and its database query are gone. New messages have moved to the top of the screen. Clicking a person on the Team screen now shows what they have been working on beneath their open tickets — replies and notes across every ticket you are allowed to see, newest first, each naming its ticket, with a filter by kind of activity. You can add your own sign-off to replies, written once on your profile using your name, job title and direct number; it is off until you turn it on, and a manager can set a shared one instead. Categories can carry their own wording, so a “Billing” ticket reads differently from a “Technical help” one — fill in only what differs. Email templates and canned replies have moved to PBJ CRM’s Templates & Notifications tab alongside every other add-on’s, and groups are now created and edited in the CRM, leaving this Groups tab as “Group categories” for the one job the CRM cannot do. History, Reports, Team, Settings and Profile are tucked under a single “Settings” button rather than sitting in the main row — nothing moved out of reach and nobody sees more than before. Security: the sign-up link at the bottom of a client’s email now expires after 24 hours and offers a fresh one, where before it worked indefinitely, so a forwarded email handed account setup to whoever received it. Requires PBJ CRM 1.10.0 or newer. No database changes.
2.4.1
A fix for 2.4.0. On some servers the database update from that release did not complete, and when that happened the mail list came back completely empty — while the message count above it still showed the right number, so the inbox looked wiped rather than broken. No mail was ever lost. This release repairs the database by itself on the next page load and the list comes straight back.
Two related fixes came with it. The update used to record itself as finished even when the database change had been refused, so it never tried again; it now only records success once the change is really in place. And every part of the plugin that uses the new columns checks they exist first, so a site part-way through the update keeps replying, keeps taking internal notes and keeps collecting email as normal — you simply do not get follow-up suggestions until the update finishes.
2.4.0
Plenty of customers do not press reply. They open a brand-new email, type the same subject, and send it — and until now that landed in your inbox looking like fresh work, with the ticket it belonged to sitting open two feet away. The helpdesk now spots those. When an email arrives from the same person, about the same thing, as mail already on a ticket, it gets a caution mark in the inbox, and opening it offers Add to ticket HD-n — showing you that ticket, what it is about and whether it is still open, so you can check before you agree. Nothing is ever attached on its own. There is a Not a follow-up button too, which clears the prompt and leaves the email where it was.
Every ticket also has a new Timeline tab beside the conversation: the whole life of the job in order, day by day — opened, what the customer wrote, what you replied, internal notes, status and priority changes, reassignments, category and customer changes, missed response targets, and follow-up emails you added. When a job has dragged on and somebody asks what actually happened, the answer is one tab away. Tickets you raised long before this update get a full timeline too. Internal notes stay staff-only there, and group tickets stay nameless, exactly as everywhere else.
The database updates itself when you upgrade. A background job fills in what is needed to match older mail; until it finishes, suggestions simply do not appear for that older mail.
2.3.0
A bug-fix release from a full code review. Seventeen colour tints across the portal — status pills, notice backgrounds, hover shades — were being thrown away by every browser because of a stray character in the stylesheet; they all render again. An email you sent can no longer be marked as junk, which used to block your own sending address. Deleting a ticket now files your sent replies instead of dropping them into the inbox as if they were new mail. While PBJ CRM is running, new mailboxes are created there rather than here, so one address is never set up twice.
2.2.0
Email that became a ticket now lives in a permanent Tickets pile — kept for reference until the ticket itself is deleted. New “Manage tickets” screen: every ticket in one filterable list with bulk assign, group, category, status, priority, customer, CSV export and delete (bulk actions only email people when you tick the box).
2.1.x
Invites are sent only when an agent asks (with a confirm naming the recipient); closing a ticket emails the requester a closed notice; every reply footer carries the portal link and the customer’s own never-expiring sign-up link. Full mobile pass.
2.0.0
The helpdesk became a true module of PBJ CRM: your agents ARE your CRM staff — one list, one set of roles, nothing programmed twice. Existing helpdesk staff are moved onto CRM roles automatically.
1.5.0–1.10.1
Mailbox connections moved into PBJ CRM (entered once, used by campaigns, invoices and ticket replies); the Mailboxes tab became a simple picker; collection is strictly INBOX-only and one-way — nothing on your mail server is moved or deleted; mail hygiene (spam button + sender blocklist, automatic filing at 90 days), remembered sender→customer matches, and a long list of review fixes.
1.0.0–1.4.0
The foundation: portal, ticket engine, silent claim, SLA ladder, built-in mail client, agent intake, Team view, reports, invites, and the move inside the PBJ CRM hub.
Current release: 2.10.0 (August 2026). One-time purchase per major version; requires PBJ CRM.
2.10.0
New: a documented seam for other plugins to hold back one closure email. When a ticket is closed, the help desk now asks — once, for that close — whether the “your ticket has been closed” message should be sent. With nothing listening, it sends, exactly as before.
Why it exists. PBJ Dispatch closes a ticket when it turns it into a booked visit. Without this, the customer would get the booking confirmation and a closure notice in the same minute, for one job. The help desk does not know or care which plugin is asking; it just asks the question.
Only the email is held back. The stage change, the closed stamp, the silent claim, the timeline note and the status-changed action all still happen, exactly as they do for any other close. There is no site-wide “closure emails off” switch, and this is not one.
The existing bulk-manager behaviour is unchanged and still takes precedence on its own.
No database changes. Pairs with PBJ Dispatch 1.1.0, released alongside it.
2.9.0
A safety release for the database. On a site where an earlier update had only partly applied, the help desk could fail in ways that looked like something else entirely — new tickets refusing to save, incoming email quietly not being stored, or a mailbox connection being made over and over. Every one of those paths now checks first and steps around the missing piece instead of failing, and the site repairs itself the moment the database catches up.
The plugin also stops recording a database change as done unless it can see that it actually happened, and stops retrying for ever on a host that will never allow it — after five attempts it leaves one clear notice naming what is missing.
It also now checks that PBJ CRM is not just installed but new enough. On a site running an older CRM the help desk could take the whole site down; it now shows one notice and loads nothing. Some tidying of code and settings nobody used. No database change.
2.8.0
Your tickets now appear on the CRM’s new Today screen, alongside your tasks, in one list sorted by when things are due. You still only ever see the tickets you were already allowed to see — the help desk decides that, exactly as it does on every other list, and the CRM only merges what it is handed. Update PBJ CRM to 1.16.0 as well, or Today will show tasks only.
The per-stage status dropdown has been removed from every ticket list. Every row already prints its exact status in the Status column, so the dropdown asked you to re-specify something you could already see — and it was the half of the pair that produced silent empty lists, because its “Open” meant one single stage while the control beside it meant “not closed”. What survives is the simple one: All open and closed · Open · Closed.
The triage screen’s “New messages (not tickets yet)” card has been removed. It counted inbound mail sitting in spam, in the bin and in filed, while the list directly beneath it showed the inbox only — so it could read “191” over an empty list. The inbox is right there underneath; the number was not telling you anything the list was not.
2.7.0
The Email Templates and Canned Replies tabs have gone from the help desk’s own settings. Both editors moved to PBJ CRM’s Templates & Notifications tab back in 2.5.0, and until now they sat in both places at once — the same editor behind two different doors. Every link and button that used to point here takes you straight to the CRM tab instead, including the “Review the templates” step in the setup guide. Nothing about the templates themselves has changed and nothing has been deleted. On a site still running a CRM older than 1.12.0 the two tabs stay exactly where they were, so nothing can become unreachable. No database changes.
2.6.0
When you reply to a ticket you can now choose which of your mailboxes it goes out from, instead of the help desk always deciding for you. Leave it alone and it decides exactly as before. The choice applies to public replies only — an internal note is never emailed, and a client never picks the address your business sends from. No database changes.
2.5.0
The triage screen now leads with the tickets assigned to you. Its first tile used to count new messages, which is not something anybody is answerable for; it now counts your own still-open tickets and opens them as cards when clicked. Open-ness is read from each ticket’s own status path, so a category with its own stages is counted properly rather than against a fixed list of names. “Tickets waiting to be assigned” appeared twice — a tally and the heading of the list it was counting, each fetched separately; the tally and its database query are gone. New messages have moved to the top of the screen. Clicking a person on the Team screen now shows what they have been working on beneath their open tickets — replies and notes across every ticket you are allowed to see, newest first, each naming its ticket, with a filter by kind of activity. You can add your own sign-off to replies, written once on your profile using your name, job title and direct number; it is off until you turn it on, and a manager can set a shared one instead. Categories can carry their own wording, so a “Billing” ticket reads differently from a “Technical help” one — fill in only what differs. Email templates and canned replies have moved to PBJ CRM’s Templates & Notifications tab alongside every other add-on’s, and groups are now created and edited in the CRM, leaving this Groups tab as “Group categories” for the one job the CRM cannot do. History, Reports, Team, Settings and Profile are tucked under a single “Settings” button rather than sitting in the main row — nothing moved out of reach and nobody sees more than before. Security: the sign-up link at the bottom of a client’s email now expires after 24 hours and offers a fresh one, where before it worked indefinitely, so a forwarded email handed account setup to whoever received it. Requires PBJ CRM 1.10.0 or newer. No database changes.
2.4.1
A fix for 2.4.0. On some servers the database update from that release did not complete, and when that happened the mail list came back completely empty — while the message count above it still showed the right number, so the inbox looked wiped rather than broken. No mail was ever lost. This release repairs the database by itself on the next page load and the list comes straight back.
Two related fixes came with it. The update used to record itself as finished even when the database change had been refused, so it never tried again; it now only records success once the change is really in place. And every part of the plugin that uses the new columns checks they exist first, so a site part-way through the update keeps replying, keeps taking internal notes and keeps collecting email as normal — you simply do not get follow-up suggestions until the update finishes.
2.4.0
Plenty of customers do not press reply. They open a brand-new email, type the same subject, and send it — and until now that landed in your inbox looking like fresh work, with the ticket it belonged to sitting open two feet away. The helpdesk now spots those. When an email arrives from the same person, about the same thing, as mail already on a ticket, it gets a caution mark in the inbox, and opening it offers Add to ticket HD-n — showing you that ticket, what it is about and whether it is still open, so you can check before you agree. Nothing is ever attached on its own. There is a Not a follow-up button too, which clears the prompt and leaves the email where it was.
Every ticket also has a new Timeline tab beside the conversation: the whole life of the job in order, day by day — opened, what the customer wrote, what you replied, internal notes, status and priority changes, reassignments, category and customer changes, missed response targets, and follow-up emails you added. When a job has dragged on and somebody asks what actually happened, the answer is one tab away. Tickets you raised long before this update get a full timeline too. Internal notes stay staff-only there, and group tickets stay nameless, exactly as everywhere else.
The database updates itself when you upgrade. A background job fills in what is needed to match older mail; until it finishes, suggestions simply do not appear for that older mail.
2.3.0
A bug-fix release from a full code review. Seventeen colour tints across the portal — status pills, notice backgrounds, hover shades — were being thrown away by every browser because of a stray character in the stylesheet; they all render again. An email you sent can no longer be marked as junk, which used to block your own sending address. Deleting a ticket now files your sent replies instead of dropping them into the inbox as if they were new mail. While PBJ CRM is running, new mailboxes are created there rather than here, so one address is never set up twice.
2.2.0
Email that became a ticket now lives in a permanent Tickets pile — kept for reference until the ticket itself is deleted. New “Manage tickets” screen: every ticket in one filterable list with bulk assign, group, category, status, priority, customer, CSV export and delete (bulk actions only email people when you tick the box).
2.1.x
Invites are sent only when an agent asks (with a confirm naming the recipient); closing a ticket emails the requester a closed notice; every reply footer carries the portal link and the customer’s own never-expiring sign-up link. Full mobile pass.
2.0.0
The helpdesk became a true module of PBJ CRM: your agents ARE your CRM staff — one list, one set of roles, nothing programmed twice. Existing helpdesk staff are moved onto CRM roles automatically.
1.5.0–1.10.1
Mailbox connections moved into PBJ CRM (entered once, used by campaigns, invoices and ticket replies); the Mailboxes tab became a simple picker; collection is strictly INBOX-only and one-way — nothing on your mail server is moved or deleted; mail hygiene (spam button + sender blocklist, automatic filing at 90 days), remembered sender→customer matches, and a long list of review fixes.
1.0.0–1.4.0
The foundation: portal, ticket engine, silent claim, SLA ladder, built-in mail client, agent intake, Team view, reports, invites, and the move inside the PBJ CRM hub.