07/21/2026
We see this constantly: an MSP wants better reporting, so someone builds out ticket categories. A few months later there are 200 of them, techs are just picking whatever's closest, and nobody trusts the reports anymore.
The instinct is to CATEGORIZE every technical detail. But you don't actually need to know if a printing issue was the driver, the spooler, or a bad USB cable. What you need to know is whether printing issues are trending up across your client base.
Before adding a new category, ask: what decision would this actually help us make? If there's no answer, skip it.
Simple test: VPN, WiFi, and password resets are worth tracking - they point to real operational decisions. "Print Queue" or "DNS Cache" are troubleshooting details your technicians need in the moment, not something you'll ever build a report around.
A category list that takes five seconds to fill out correctly beats one that takes five minutes to understand. Consistency wins.
We wrote up a practical category structure that's worked well for small MSPs: https://lnkd.in/eaujAd5c