FAQs: Lifecycle Report | Zoho Desk

FAQs: Lifecycle Report

1. What is a lifecycle report?
A Lifecycle Report tracks the various stages of a support ticket from creation to resolution, showing every stage that it goes through (like Open, In Progress, On Hold, Escalated, and Completed).
For example, a customer raises a support ticket for a defective product. The ticket starts as Open, moves to In Progress when an agent starts working on it, shifts to On Hold while waiting for warehouse confirmation, and finally ends as Completed once the replacement is shipped. The Lifecycle Report shows how long the ticket stayed in each stage, who handled it, and when it moved to the subsequent stages.
  1. By reviewing the Lifecycle Report, the administrator can look into
  2. Status Transitions (e.g., Open → In Progress → On Hold → Completed)
  3. Duration Spent in Each Stage
  4. Agent or Team Responsible at Each Stage
  5. Exact Timestamps of Status Changes
2. How many types of lifecycle report can I create?
You can create four types of Lifecycle Reports and customize the reports using various filters and grouping options to generate multiple report variations.
The four types of Lifecycle Reports are:
  1. Status report: Tracks how tickets move through different statuses like Open, In Progress, On Hold, and Escalated. For example, users can find the time taken at a particular stage.
  2. Agent report: Monitors ticket transfers between agents or assesses individual performance. For example, if a user notices Agent A takes longer to resolve tickets than others, the administrator can check if the tickets are assigned to the right agent or team to make sure that the resolution is provided at the right time.
  3. Team report: Shows ticket transfers between teams or just one particular team to evaluate collaboration. Here, the user can see if delays are happening when tickets move from Customer Support to the Technical Team.
  4. Department report: Analyzes how tickets flow across departments, highlighting any workflow inefficiencies. For example, if billing-related tickets take too long to assign when transferred manually, the user can streamline the process with automation.
3. How do I access lifecycle report?
To access the lifecycle report
  1. Navigate to the Analytics module from the top navigation bar in your interface.
  2. In the left-side panel, scroll down to find and click on Reports at the bottom.
  3. Under Reports, select Static Reports.
  4. Click Lifecycle Report to open to view the available lifecycle reports.
  5. Choose the relevant department, or by default, the lifecycle report will show All Departments records.
  6. Select the type of Lifecycle Report you require:
    1. Status Report – Movement of tickets through various statuses.
    2. Agent Report – Ticket transfers between agents.
    3. Team Report – Ticket transitions between teams.
    4. Department Report – Ticket movements across departments.
4. What filters are available in the lifecycle report?
When generating a lifecycle report, the user can apply various filters to customize the report according to their needs. The key filters are:
  1. Updated From/To:
    1. Status: Tracks the transition of tickets from one status to another, such as from Open to In Progress or from On Hold to Escalated. For example user can use this filter to see how many tickets were moved only from from On Hold to Escalated in the last week.
    2. Owner: Filters tickets based on changes in ticket ownership. For example, if the user needs to know how many tickets Agent A handed over to Agent B.
    3. Team: Captures transitions of tickets between teams, such as from Customer Support to Technical Support. For example, users can apply this filter to see the number of tickets that are moved to a different team.
    4. Department: Tracks ticket movements across departments, such as from Support to Billing. Here, users can use this filter to analyze delays when tickets move from Patient Support to Billing in a healthcare organization.
  2. Timeline filters: Timeline filters can be used to define the timeframe for which you want to view the ticket lifecycle data to analyze ticket movements over a specific period in the case of status.
Timeline filters
Description
Example
Last 24 Hours
Displays data for the previous 24 hours from the current time
If the user generates the report at 3 PM on March 28, the lifecycle report will show data from 3 PM on March 27 to 3 PM on March 28.
Today
Shows data from 12:00 AM to the current time on the same day.
If the user generate the report at 2 PM on March 28, it will show data from 12:00 AM to 2 PM.
Yesterday
Displays data for the entire previous day (from 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM).
If the user generates the report on March 28, this filter shows data from March 27.
Last 7 days
Includes data from the previous 7 calendar days, including today.
On March 28, this filter covers data from March 22 to March 28.
Last 30 days
Includes data from the previous 30 calendar days, including today.
On March 28, this filter covers data from February 27 to March 28.
Current week
Displays data from the start of the current week (Monday) to the current time.
On Thursday, March 28, this filter shows data from Monday, March 25, to March 28.
Last week
Displays data for the previous calendar week (Monday to Sunday).
On March 28, this filter shows data from March 18 to March 24.
Current month
Shows data from the 1st of the current month to the current time.
On March 28, this filter covers March 1 to March 28.
Last month
Displays data for the entire previous month.
On March 28, this filter shows data from February 1 to February 28.
Custom
User can define a specific date range from two given date setters. one will be the start date and another will be the end date.
User can select March 1 in the start date date setter and March 15 in the end date date setter to filter out the records from March 1 to March 15.

Group By

Group By categorizes the report data based on specific parameters such as Ticket ID, Updated From, and Updated To to understand how tickets move through different stages, where delays happen, and how teams or statuses impact resolution time.

Group by
Description
Example
Tickets ID
Displays the report by individual ticket IDs as the lifecycle details will be Status updated from, Status updated to, and Duration for each ticket. This helps the user understand how a specific ticket moved through each stage, identify where it spent the most time, and investigate delays in resolution.
The user can analyze why a high-priority ticket remained On Hold for over 3 hours before being addressed, possibly due to awaiting approval from a manager or pending information from another department like billing.



Status updated from
Displays the report based on the status from which the ticket was updated to understand where the tickets are coming from and how those transitions are impacting resolution time.
If the tickets are frequently moving from the Waiting on Customer status after a long hold, it may mean that the customers are not responding quickly so that you could send automated follow-ups to reduce delays.


Status update to
Displays the report based on the status the ticket moved to from a previous status to understand where the tickets are being routed and whether they often end up in the same status, such as On Hold or Escalated.
If many tickets are being updated to Escalated and show a long duration afterward, this could highlight a process gap where frontline agents escalate too quickly or senior teams take longer to respond.



5. What is the difference between "Update from/to" and "Group by" filters?
Updated From/To: This can narrow down the report based on the specific status, agent, team, or department from which or to which a ticket was updated. If you apply the filter Updated From: Open and Updated To: Closed, the report will only show tickets that moved from the Open status to the Closed status.

Group by: This view option is used to categorize and group tickets based on specific parameters, such as Ticket ID, Updated From, or Updated To. It does not filter the tickets, but instead organizes them into groups for easy reference. For example, the report below shows tickets grouped by their status.

Group By > Status Updated From > All status.

The report will display tickets grouped under each status from which they transitioned, like Open, In Progress, and On Hold. You’ll see how many tickets transitioned from each status and their subsequent updates.

6. Can I export the Lifecycle Report for sharing and analysis?
Yes, you can export the report in Excel, CSV, PDF, and CSV. After generating the report, you need to click the More icon on the top-right corner, select the export format, and save it to my device or Print it.

7. Who can access the Lifecycle Report in my organization?
Users with Reports and Dashboards permission under Module Permissions can access the Lifecycle Report.
To update profile permission
  1. Navigate to Set up > User Management > Profiles
  2. Click on the desired profile that you would like to give permission to
  3. Enable Reports and Dashboards below Module Permissions
  4. Administrators can customize the access level as follows: 
    1. View – Users can view but cannot make any changes to reports and dashboards in the Analytics module
    2. Update – Users can update and make changes to reports and dashboards in the Analytics module
    3. Create – Users can create reports and dashboards in the Analytics module
    4. Delete – Users can delete reports and dashboards from the Analytics module
8. Can I see the number of records in each group?
The number value next to each grouped option denotes the total number of records (tickets) under that specific group. For example, if you group by 'Status Updated From' and see 'Open (15)', it means there are 15 tickets that were moved from the 'Open' status.

9. What is the difference between Duration and Duration (Business hours) in the Lifecycle Report?
  1. Duration refers to the total time a ticket has spent in a particular status, counting all hours continuously (24/7). For example if a ticket is in the In Progress status from 9:00 AM on Day 1 to 12:00 PM on Day 2, the Duration will be calculated as 27 hours.
  2. Duration (Business hours) calculates the time a ticket has spent in a status based only on the working hours set in your Desk. For example if the business hours are 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and the ticket was in In Progress from 9:00 AM on Day 1 to 12:00 PM on Day 2, the Duration (Business hours) would be 12 hours excluding non-working hours like evenings and weekends.