How to Set Up Issue Tracking In Sharepoint (Step-by-Step)

What Is SharePoint Issue Tracking and What Is It Used For?

The Issue Tracker app in SharePoint comes as an out-of-the-box list application in Microsoft SharePoint Online, which offers a unified and systematic way of documenting, classifying, assigning, and tracking problems until they are solved. While emails and spreadsheets cannot offer such convenience as one consistent point of truth, the Issue Tracker does.

SharePoint lists are flexible data storage mechanisms that allow you to add custom columns, filters, and views to your list, along with using it in Power Automate workflows.

Common Use Cases for SharePoint Issue Tracking:

What Are the Benefits of Setting Up Issue Tracking in SharePoint?

Integrating issue tracking in the SharePoint environment will create a central place where the issues will be held. Therefore, your team will know where the problem arose and start working on it straight away. The search experience is great in SharePoint; however, without a place where the issues are kept, it becomes useless. It's no more about finding the issue in the email or some file; now, you enter the application, locate the issue, and solve it. More time will be spent solving the issue instead of looking for it.

Furthermore, integrating issue tracking in customer service SharePoint environments will improve your customer service quality. Quick and organized process means quick answers for the consumer and the client. Consumers notice the fast and high-quality customer service, which is crucial for being their regular customers.

Centralizing issue management in SharePoint has four extra advantages:

1. Single source of truth: All the issues are kept in a single list available to all the team members. This way, there is no need to rummage through e-mails to track down a particular open issue. Finding specific issues in SharePoint lists is fast and easy.
2. Quick resolution time: Issues become instantly visible to the proper owner and resolution starts immediately. Due date assignment and priority levels automatically create urgency and accountability.
3. Identifying trends: SharePoint Issue Tracking allows managers to identify trending issues such as product defects that create frequent customer service issues or the same step in a process creating delays in projects. Root causes need to be addressed to avoid future issues.
4. Improving customer service quality: If SharePoint Issue Tracking is used by the team for tracking their customer service issues, improved issue resolution and organization directly lead to improved customer experience.

How to Set Up SharePoint Issue Tracking: Step-by-Step

Use these 8 steps to configure the SharePoint Issue Tracking app in your environment.

Step 1: Navigate to your SharePoint environment

Go to the SharePoint site where you plan to configure issue tracking. In order to do that, you should have Site Owner or Site Collection Administrator permissions to add apps to the site.

Step 2: Go to the Settings and Add an App

Press the gear icon (Settings), which is located in the top-right corner of the SharePoint site. Then choose Add an app.

Step 3: Locate the Issue Tracking app

Scroll down the page to the section called Apps. Look for the name "Issue Tracking". Click it.

Step 4: Enter the name for your Issue Tracking list

Type the name for your issue tracking list in the dialog box named Adding Issue Tracking (for instance: "IT Helpdesk Issues", "Customer Service Log") and click Create.

Step 5: Access your app

Your newly created app will be found in the section named Lists, Libraries, and Other Apps. Just click on the name of your app to access it. This will create a default list with built-in columns.

Step 6: Customize Your Columns Using the List Setting

Click on List from the toolbar above and choose List settings. Go through each column and change it according to your requirements. Especially focus on categories, priority, and status columns, which are mostly customized by people.

Step 7: Save Column Changes after Editing

After editing the required column, click on OK. You have to perform this step again and again until you customize all the columns. Take some time to examine each and every column before adding anything into it.

Step 8: Add Your First Issue

After customizing all the columns, click on "New Item" and add your first issue. Enter all the details such as title, category, priority, due date, responsible person, and comment on the status of the issue.

How to Configure Advanced Settings for SharePoint Issue Tracking

After having created the Issue Tracking list, a few more settings will greatly increase its value.

Creation of Custom Columns: In addition to the default columns, custom columns can be added to collect relevant data. For adding a column, click List Settings > Create Column. Possible options for custom columns in issue tracking are:

• Resolution Date (Date type): indicates the date when the issue was resolved
• Related Project (Choice/lookup column): connects the issue to the particular project or workstream
• External Reference (single line of text): holds ticket ID from some other application
• Resolution Notes (multiple lines of text): stores the resolution notes apart from other comments
• Open Issues by Owner: filtered by Status = "Active," grouped by Issue Owner
• High-Priority Issues: filtered by Priority = "High" or "Critical"
• Issues Due This Week: filtered by Due Date in the current week
• Resolved Issues (last 30 days): for trend analysis
• Issue Owner: will allow you to track who an issue belongs to and to whom it should be addressed for solving the problem.
• Due Date: will let you know when an issue should be solved by.
• Comments: will help you keep track of all the details related to the issue including troubleshooting actions, results, further requests, and next actions to take. Comments will track who left the comment and when.
• Issue Categorization: will allow you to categorize, group, summarize, and analyze the entire issue from various angles. It will help you find recurring problems and solve them effectively.
• Customization: will allow you to change your issue tracking application according to your needs.

Custom Views: SharePoint list views help to filter and arrange issues depending on different users. For creating views, use the link List Settings > Create View. The following views can be suggested:

Power Automate Notifications: To learn how to create automated notification messages in your issue tracking list using Power Automate and SharePoint, refer to Microsoft's Power Automate and SharePoint documentation. For example, you can set up flows that will automatically notify the assigned Issue Owner about the new item assignment or notify the manager about the overdue issue.

What Features Does SharePoint Issue Tracking Include?

With SharePoint Issue Tracking, you get access to a list of columns that will help you begin with them all being customizable:

The complete list of the default columns will look like this:

All columns can be changed, hidden, and enhanced with new custom columns according to your company's particular needs. More information about the types of columns and site columns in SharePoint can be found in the Dock 365 guide about SharePoint columns.

Conclusion

In case, the only thing that you need is an issue tracking system, the guide above contains all the information that you may need. Just follow the steps provided above, and in no time, you will be tracking the issues that occur. The lack of understanding of the capabilities of the tools that you already have creates difficulties in the development of your business.

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