# What is Queue?

> A list of tickets waiting to be picked up by a team or agent.

Canonical: https://www.decimal.app/glossary/queue · Last reviewed: 2026-09-23

A queue holds tickets assigned to a group, such as billing, technical, or enterprise, until an agent takes them. Most help desks support several queues with routing rules between them.

## Why it matters

Queue design shapes response times. Too many queues fragment attention; too few mix easy and hard work.

## Best practices

1. Route by skill. Send technical tickets to people who can investigate them.
2. Watch oldest-ticket age. It's more telling than queue length.
3. Limit queue count. Merge queues that share the same people.

## How Decimal helps

Decimal works alongside your help desk queues in tools like Zendesk, Intercom, and Pylon.

## Related terms

- [Ticket Routing](https://www.decimal.app/glossary/ticket-routing): Automatically sending each ticket to the right queue, team, or person.
- [Backlog](https://www.decimal.app/glossary/backlog): Open tickets waiting on someone, and the clearest early sign a team is underwater.
- [Ticket Triage](https://www.decimal.app/glossary/ticket-triage): Sorting incoming tickets by type, urgency, and owner before work begins.

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