In today's work environments, accurately tracking agent attendance is essential for ensuring productivity and accountability within a ticketing system. Businesses need a reliable system to monitor check-in and check-out times, along with detailed tracking of various agent activities throughout the workday. Traditional methods may not provide the flexibility needed to capture all aspects of an agent's workday, leading to challenges in maintaining precise attendance records.

The Agent Attendance Tracker for Zoho Desk addresses these challenges by offering a comprehensive and customizable system for tracking agent attendance. This extension allows users to create custom statuses and monitor check-in and check-out times accurately, providing a detailed and reliable record of agent activities.

Managers can use the agent attendance report to see whether an agent has checked in and to identify the specific activity they are currently working on. This ensures tickets are assigned to agents who are actively available to handle them. If an agent has checked out, they are marked as unavailable, which prevents the manager from manually assigning a new ticket to them during their off hours.

Business scenario

Integrating the Agent Attendance Tracker extension   

Integrating the Agent Attendance extension involves the following steps.

1. Installing the extension from the marketplace: Users with the Manage Marketplace permission can install the Agent Attendance extension from the Marketplace. From the Desk Marketplace, users can search for and install the extension.

2. Selecting department and setting user permissions: The integration is department-specific, so it can be installed for the respective departments. The extension can also be made accessible to selected profiles and agents to ensure it is used by the appropriate team members.

3. Authorizing the extension: Once permissions are configured, users must authorize the extension. The required authorizations include ZApps external client, Zoho OAuth, and Zoho Desk. All three connections must be authorized for the extension to work. In case of any technical failures, users can revoke and reauthorize the connections, except for the ZApps external client, which cannot be revoked.

4. Customizing the agent status configuration: In the Preference tab, users can configure agent statuses by renaming existing statuses or creating new ones to suit their business needs. By default, there are four statuses with two status types (Online and Offline):

• Check In
• Check Out
• Meal Break
• Short Break
  
  

Users cannot delete the Check-In and Check-Out statuses; however, they can remove the Meal Break and Short Break statuses if needed. Additionally, users can create up to 20 custom statuses, mapping each to either the Online or Offline status type. These custom statuses enable precise tracking of various activities, ensuring detailed and reliable attendance records. For instance, if a custom status called Customer Onboarding is mapped to the online status type, the tracker will start recording the check-in time spent on this activity whenever the Customer Onboarding status is selected.

Notes:

1. The Desk's Online and Offline status in the user preference settings does not synchronize with the Agent Attendance extension.
2. The Check-In status is mapped to the Online status and cannot be deleted, while the Check-Out status is mapped to the Offline status and also cannot be deleted. This ensures agents are always marked as available or unavailable based on these critical statuses. Consequently, assignment rules will operate based on the Desk's Online/Offline status only and are not affected by this extension. This means that even if an agent is marked as checked-out using the Agent Attendance Tracker extension, they can still be assigned to a specific ticket if they are part of a ticket assignment rule.
3. The user needs to check out within 24 hours. After this period, the agent's status will automatically change to Check Out.
4. The Agent Attendance Tracker extension is not compatible with light agent profile users.
   

1. Navigate to Setup > Integrations > Marketplace.
2. Search for and select the Agent Attendance extension.
3. Click Install.
4. On the Zoho Meeting Installation page, click the General Settings tab.
5. Choose the desired Departments and Profiles/Agents from the dropdown list.
6. Check the Terms and Conditions.
7. Click Install.
8. Once installed, authorize the ZApps external client, Zoho OAuth, and Zoho Desk connections to activate the extension.
   
9. In the respective Authorization page, click Accept to complete the authorization.
   

To customize the agent status configuration

1. Go to the Agent Attendance Tracker installation page.
2. Navigate to the Preference tab.
3. Customize the Agent Status and Status Type accordingly.
4. Users can rename the existing status or create new ones, and set their desired status type.

Accessing the agent attendance tracker and report

The Agent Attendance extension is accessible in both the Bottomband and Topband within Zoho Desk.

In the Bottomband, clicking the Agent Attendance Tracker extension icon opens a widget where both admins and agents can change their status and track check-in and check-out times. Any status mapped to the offline type will stop the timer, excluding that time from the total working hours. For instance, if the Customer Meetup status is mapped to offline, the time spent in this status won't be counted in the total hours.

In the Topband, by clicking the More icon and searching for Agent Availability Report, users can access two views: Admin and Agent.

• In the Admin view, current user statuses are displayed as cards, each representing the agent's current status. These statuses are organized into columns, making it easy for admins to get a quick overview of their team's activities. When an admin clicks on a specific user card, they can view that agent's detailed attendance report, which is displayed in list view or a tabular view. Additionally, admins can check out on behalf of an agent if necessary. For instance, if an agent forgets to check out or is unable to do so, the admin can manually update their status to ensure accurate time tracking. In general, the agent attendance report can be used by admins to gather comprehensive information such as the agent's name, email address, and timestamps for all check-ins, check-outs, and any custom statuses the agent has used throughout the day.
  
  
  
  
• In the Agent view, users can see only their own attendance reports, with data displayed weekly in both list and tabular view. The detailed report includes the check-in and check-out times for each day, providing a clear record of when the agent started and ended their work. Additionally, the report captures break hours, showing the duration and timing of any breaks taken throughout the day. This detailed tracking helps agents monitor their own productivity and ensure they are adhering to their work schedules.
  
  
  
  

Note: Users can change their status within the Bottomband of the agent attendance report, and these changes are synchronized with the agent attendance tracker widget.

Downloading the attendance report

Both admins and agents can download attendance reports using the Export option available within the agent attendance report dashboard.

Exporting reports by admins

Admins can select the desired agent, start date, and end date to generate and download a comprehensive report for a specific period. This is useful for reviewing individual agent performance, tracking attendance trends, and ensuring accurate record keeping.

Exporting reports by agents

Agents can generate their own reports by selecting the start and end date, providing a personal record of their attendance and activity.

Note: Users can generate up to 30 days of reports from the selected start date.

Disabling and uninstalling the Agent Attendance extension  

Users can disable or uninstall the Agent Attendance Tracker extension as needed. Once uninstalled, they will no longer be able to track their agents' attendance. Additionally, uninstalling the extension will permanently delete all associated data, which cannot be recovered upon re-installation.

Note: Users with the Manage Marketplace permission can disable or uninstall the extension.

1. Navigate to Setup > Integrations > Marketplace.
2. Click Installed Extensions.
3. Choose Agent Attendance Tracker from the list of extensions.
4. Toggle the Disable option.
5. Click Disable to confirm the selection.
   
   
   

To uninstall the extension  

1. Navigate to Setup > Integrations > Marketplace.
2. Click Installed Extensions.
3. Choose Agent Attendance Tracker from the list of extensions.
4. Click the More icon in the top-right corner of the page and select Uninstall Extension.