OH Ticket Numbering – KorTerra Prefix Update (5-8-25)

Overview

OH811 reuses ticket numbers every decade, which presents challenges for long-term KorTerra customers. These reused ticket numbers can incorrectly appear as update tickets in customer systems if the same ticket number already exists from 10 years ago. To resolve this issue, KorTerra is implementing a change to the ticket number format for Ohio 811 (OH811) tickets.

This update involves adding a decade-specific prefix to all incoming OH811 ticket numbers to ensure they are recognized as distinct from tickets created in previous decades.

This change will be applied the evening of Thursday, May 8th.

What’s Changing

Current Format

KorTerra currently receives ticket numbers directly from OH811. For some customer accounts, we prepend the ticket number with an "OH" prefix to identify it as an Ohio ticket.

• Example today (with prefix): OHA510800001

• Example today (without prefix): A510800001

Where:

• OH = Optional KorTerra prefix for Ohio tickets

• A = OH811 server designation

• 5 = Last digit of the current year (e.g., 2025)

• 108 = Julian date (day of year)

• 00001 = Sequence number for the day

Updated Format

To accommodate ticket differentiation by decade, KorTerra will introduce adding a "2" prefix to represent the “2” in 2025 for the current decade:

• For accounts with an existing "OH" prefix:
  OHA510800001 becomes OH2A510800001

• For accounts without any current prefix:
  A510800001 becomes 2A510800001

This change ensures ticket numbers from different decades are uniquely identified.

Why This Change Is Important

Since OH811’s numbering system only includes a single digit for the year, it’s not possible to distinguish between decades (e.g., 2015 vs. 2025). This can lead to issues with:

• Ticket versioning and correction tracking

• New ticket details updating and overwriting ticket details from the old ticket with the same ticket number

• Previous completion data and comments from 10 years ago displaying on what should be treated as a new ticket

By including a decade-specific prefix, KorTerra can prevent misidentification of tickets and ensure that your systems treat each ticket as a unique entry.

Handling Update / Correction Tickets

Please be aware that this change may affect how update and correction tickets are processed.

Example Scenario:

• Ticket A510800001 is received prior to the change.

• A correction for this ticket is received after the change as 2A510800001.

In this case, the ticket numbers do not match, and the correction ticket will not automatically update the original. Instead, it will be treated as a new ticket and must be processed by your team.

Reference: OH811 Ticket Number Format

The OH811 ticket number is composed of:

• Server Designation (A or B): Indicates the OH811 server.

• Year (1 digit): Last digit of the year (e.g., 5 for 2015/2025).

• Julian Date (3 digits): Day of year (e.g., 049 for February 18).

• Sequence Number (5 digits): Order of ticket creation for that day.

Due to the 1-digit year limitation, there's no way to determine the ticket’s decade without a separate prefix — hence the importance of KorTerra's prefix update.

Summary

For all customers, the original OH811 ticket number (without the prefix) will continue to be included in the body of the ticket for reference.