Automation#22 Track Ticket Duration at Specific Status

Automation#22 Track Ticket Duration at Specific Status



Hello Everyone!

Welcome back to the Community Learning Series! Today, we explore how Zylker Techfix, a gadget servicing firm, boosted productivity by tracking the time spent at a particular ticket status in Zoho Desk. 

Zylker Techfix customized Zoho Desk’s ticket statuses to align with their servicing process. Here’s their workflow: when a gadget was submitted for service, the ticket entered “Open” status. After an initial examination, it moved to “Service” status, mapped to the “Hold” type while repairs were underway. Once repairs were complete, the ticket progressed to “Billing” and then to “Closed” after payment and delivery. To improve operations, Zylker Techfix wanted to know how long tickets stayed in “Service” status, giving them insights into potential delays and resource use. With a custom function, they tracked this time in a custom field, then used it to generate reports that highlighted areas for process improvement.

With this custom function, you can gain a clear view of your support timeline, identify bottlenecks, and serve clients more efficiently. Let’s dive into how you can implement this custom function to refine your own operations and drive productivity forward.

Prerequisites
1. Create a Custom Field
To track ticket duration at a StatusName (call it In progress) mapped to the Status Type On Hold, 
     
      1.1 Go to Setup (S) >> Customization >> Layouts and Fields.
             Select Tickets under Layouts and the Department in which you would like to track the ticket duration. 
      1.2 Create a custom single line field in the Tickets layout of the respective department. 
            1.2.1 Click on the layout, add a single line field with a label StatusTime. 
                      You can label the field with your preferred name. 
      1.3 Note the API names for the the single line field to insert into the custom function.     
            To find the API name, Click on the Gear wheel icon of the single line field.
            Click on Edit Properties, you will find the API Name under the Edit Field. Refer to Create Custom Fields. 

2. Create a connection
      2.1 Go to Setup(S) and choose Connections under Developer Space.
      2.2 Click Create Connection.
      2.3 Select Zoho OAuth under Default Connection.
      2.4 Set the connection name as deskconnection.
      2.5 Under Scope, choose the below scope values:
             Desk.tickets.READ
             Desk.tickets.UPDATE
      2.6 Click Create and Connect.
      2.7 Click Connect and click Accept.
Connection is created successfully.

Create a Workflow Rule
1. Go to Setup, choose Workflows under Automation. 
2. Under Workflows, click Rules >> Create Rule.

In the Basic Information section,
3. Select Tickets from the drop-down menu under Module.
4. Enter a Rule Name and Description for the rule.
5. If you want to activate the rule right away, select the Active checkbox. Else, create the rule and activate it later.
6. Click Next.
 
In the Execute on section, follow these steps:
7. Select Field Update, Choose Status.  
8. Click Next.
 
9. Leave the Criteria section blank and click Next. (Add a criteria if you require it.) 
10. In the Actions section, click the + icon and select New next to Custom Functions.
11. Enter a Name and Description for the custom function.
12. Under Argument Mapping, give a desired Method Name. Map the arguments as below: 
      12.1 In the Argument Name field, type ticketId and from the Value drop-down list, select Ticket Id under the Tickets Section.                                         
13. In the script window, insert the Custom Function given below:
  1. ///----<<<< User Inputs >>>>----
  2. deskURL = "https://desk.zoho.com";
  3. //Replace with your custom domain
  4. //Replace your Custom Field API Name to Update Desired Type Status Duration Ex: Open 
  5. durationApiName = "cf_status_name";
  6. // ex: "cf_open_time"
  7. //Replace your Desired Status Type Name Ex: Open
  8. statusType = "On Hold";
  9. // Open or On Hold or Closed
  10. //Replace the Status Name 
  11. statusName = "In Progress";
  12. // Ex: In Progress, Waiting for Reply, etc
  13. // ----<<<< Initial Configs >>>>----
  14. logs = Map();
  15. logs.insert("ticketId":ticketId);
  16. openHoursToUpdate = 0;
  17. openMinutesToUpdate = 0;
  18. onHoldHoursToUpdate = 0;
  19. onHoldMinutesToUpdate = 0;
  20. //---------------------------
  21. try 
  22. {
  23. // ---- start your logic from here ----
  24. ticketStatusLifeCycleInfo = invokeurl
  25. [
  26.   url :deskURL + "/api/v1/tickets/" + ticketId + "/statusLifeCycle"
  27.   type :GET
  28.   connection:"deskconnection"
  29. ];
  30. logs.insert("ticketStatusLifeCycleInfo":ticketStatusLifeCycleInfo);
  31. if(ticketStatusLifeCycleInfo != null && ticketStatusLifeCycleInfo.containsKey("statusLifeCycle") && ticketStatusLifeCycleInfo.get("statusLifeCycle").size() > 0)
  32. {
  33.   for each  statusInfo in ticketStatusLifeCycleInfo.get("statusLifeCycle")
  34.   {
  35.   statusType = statusInfo.get("statusType");
  36.   statusName = statusInfo.get("status");
  37.   if(statusType == statusType && statusName == statusName)
  38.   {
  39.     statusDuration = statusInfo.get("duration");
  40.     if(statusDuration != null && statusDuration != "")
  41.     {
  42.     statusDuration = statusDuration.replaceAll(" hrs","");
  43.     durationCollection = statusDuration.toCollection(":");
  44.     hourDuration = durationCollection.get(0);
  45.     minuteDuration = durationCollection.get(1);
  46.     openHoursToUpdate = openHoursToUpdate + hourDuration.toNumber();
  47.     openMinutesToUpdate = openMinutesToUpdate + minuteDuration.toNumber();
  48.     }
  49.   }
  50.   }
  51.   openHoursToUpdate = (openMinutesToUpdate / 60).toNumber() + openHoursToUpdate;
  52.   openMinutesToUpdate = openMinutesToUpdate % 60;
  53.   logs.insert("openHoursToUpdate":openHoursToUpdate);
  54.   logs.insert("openMinutesToUpdate":openMinutesToUpdate);
  55.   ticketUpdateParams = Map();
  56.   ticketUpdateParams.insert("cf":{durationApiName:openHoursToUpdate + ":" + openMinutesToUpdate});
  57.   logs.insert("ticketUpdateParams":ticketUpdateParams);
  58.   ticketUpdate = invokeurl
  59.   [
  60.   url :deskURL + "/api/v1/tickets/" + ticketId
  61.   type :PUT
  62.   parameters:ticketUpdateParams + ""
  63.   connection:"deskconnection"
  64.   ];
  65.   logs.insert("ticketUpdate":ticketUpdate);
  66. }
  67. }
  68. catch (errorInfo)
  69. {
  70. logs.insert("errorInfo":errorInfo);
  71. }
  72. info "logs: \n" + logs; 
  73. logs.insert("errorInfo":errorInfo);
  74. info "logs: \n" + logs;
NOTE
a. In Line 2, Replace ".com" with the domain extension based on your Data Center.
b. In Line 5, add the API name of the custom field created within the Tickets layout. 
c. In Line 8 and line 11, enter the status type and status name. 
14. Click Save to save the custom function.
15. Click Save again to save the workflow.

Creating Ticket Tracking Reports
You can generate Reports under Analytics to view the time duration of your tickets in one go. 
Go to the Analytics module >> Choose Reports >> Add Report >> Select Tickets module and Time Entry under Related modules. Refer to Create Custom Report 

Let us know how this custom helps improve your ticketing process.

Until next week,
Warm regards,
Lydia | Zoho Desk 

    • Sticky Posts

    • Register for Zoho Desk Beta Community

      With the start of the year, we have decided to take a small step in making the life of our customers a little easier. We now have easy access to all our upcoming features and a faster way to request for beta access. We open betas for some of our features

    • Share your Zoho Desk story with us!

      Tell us how you use Zoho Desk for your business and inspire others with your story. Be it a simple workflow rule that helps you navigate complex processes or a macro that saves your team a lot of time; share it here and help the community learn and grow with shared knowledge. 

    • Tip #1: Learn to pick the right channels

      Mail, live chat, telephony, social media, web forms—there are so many support channels out there. Trying to pick the right channels to offer your customers can get pretty confusing. Emails are most useful when the customer wants to put things on record. However, escalated or complicated issues should not be resolved over email because it's slow and impersonal.  When you need immediate responses, live chat is more suitable. It's also quick and convenient, so it's the go-to channel for small issues. 

    • Welcome to Zoho Desk Community - Say hello here!

      Hello everyone! Though we have been here for a while, it’s time to formally establish the Zoho Desk Community; we’re really happy to have you all here! This can be the place where you take a moment to introduce yourself to the rest of the community. We’d love to hear all about you, what you do, what company or industry you work for, how you use Zoho Desk and anything else that you will like to share! Here’s a little about me. I am Chinmayee. I have been associated with Zoho since 2014. I joined here

    • Webinar 1: Blueprint for Customer Service

      With the launch of a host of new features in Zoho Desk, we thought it’ll be great to have a few webinars to help our customers make the most of them. We’re starting off with our most talked about feature, Blueprint in Zoho Desk. You can register for the Blueprint webinar here: The webinar will be delivered by our in-house product experts. This is a good opportunity to ask questions to our experts and understand how Blueprint can help you automate your service processes. We look forward to seeing

      • Recent Topics

      • Ticket Time Entry to Timesheet

        The title just about sums it up. I have searched here and not found anything relevant, but If I overlooked, then please set me straight.  We have staff that do nothing but close tickets in desk all day long. These tickets represent their timesheet. Is there a way to have this information sync or for a tech to go into their timesheet themselves and sync it with their tickets of the same timeframe?? We waste a ton of time doing timesheets and the old "Clock in/Clock out" isnt detailed enough for us!!

      • Calls undetected.

        The call is not showing on the call log.

      • Calls undetected

        Zoho is not reading calls made.

      • Multi-currency and Products

        One of the main reasons I have gone down the Zoho route is because I need multi-currency support.  However, I find that products can only be priced in the home currency, We sell to the US and UK.  However, we maintain different price lists for each. 

      • Archiving Contacts

        How do I archive a list of contacts, or individual contacts?

      • How to add to Subforms via Zapier with Zoho Writer?

        I have the following layout for a Zoho Writer Document. As you can see there is a repeating subform taking in "Items". I am trying to make a Zapier integration with it, and I can see there is 1 field saying: "Items", but it does not specify how I'm supposed

      • Missing information data Zoho inventory

        there some missing data in Zoho inventory connection. pick list stock counts bin location we have requested it via mail and the support team doesn’t gove feedback. has anyone achieve to get these info or to ask other ya les

      • Calendar Events Issues

        Not able to view scheduled events on my calendar

      • Extensions 101 webinar series: Build, integrate, and monetize with extensions

        Attention developers! Are you ready to take your extension development skills to the next level? We're excited to bring back the Extensions 101 webinar series with an expanded lineup of Zoho products and an introduction to more platform features. Last

      • Custom Related List Inside Zoho Books

        Hello, We can create the Related list inside the zoho books by the deluge code, I am sharing the reference code Please have a look may be it will help you. //..........Get Org Details organizationID = organization.get("organization_id"); Recordid = cm_g_a_data.get("module_record_id");

      • Where are recordings stored?

        I have hosted a couple of test meeting, used the "record" button to start and stop the recording but I am unable to find where are those recordings saved?  Can anybody help? Thanks

      • Zoho Desk's integration with Microsoft PowerBI delivers advanced analytics insights

        Hello everyone, Gaining advanced insights through reports and dashboards is one of the critical requirements of every business. In addition to key metrics tracked in Zoho Desk, such as agent performance, SLA adherence, and ticket lifecycle, businesses

      • Create static subforms in Zoho CRM: streamline data entry with pre-defined values

        Last modified on (9 July, 2025): This feature was available in early access and is currently being rolled out to customers in phases. Currently available for users in the the AU, CA, and SA DCs. It will be enabled for the remaining DCs in the next couple

      • IMAP error message in Zoho mail

        I cannot send emails today. Everything fine for years until today. Get a message: "You are yet to enable IMAP for your account. Please contact your administrator". Does anyone know how to correct this?

      • Enhancements to Zoho Map integration tasks

        Hello everyone, We're excited to announce enhancements to the Zoho Map integration tasks in Deluge, which will boost its performance. This post will walk you through the upcoming changes, explain why we're making them, and detail the steps you need to

      • IMAP stopped working today

        Hello! I've been a paid customer for more than 10 years, IMAP was always working fine. But today this is the error I've got on my iPhone: I've tried toggling the IMAP for my account (Mail -> Settings -> Mail accounts) off and on again, but that did not

      • Are custom portals accessible on the Zoho learn smartphone app?

        In other words, can users external to my organisation, once signed up, use the app in the same way as internal users? Thanks

      • Zoho Books/Inventory - Update Marketplace Sales Order via API

        Hi everyone, Does anyone know if there is a way to update Sales Orders created from a marketplace intigration (Shopify in this case) via API? I'm trying to cover a scenario where an order is changed on the Shopify end and the changes must be reflected

      • Conditional Layouts On Multi Select Field

        How we can use Conditional Layouts On Multi Select Field field? Please help.

      • Multiple columns in a form

        I am evaluating Zoho Creator. However, I am seeing almost no layout control on a form.  Just a basic 1 or 2 column format that is then imposed on the entire form.  That's not going to work for many, many real world cases. We need multiple columns per line, and we need each line/section to occupy a single column or be able to span the columns.   Someone please tell me that I'm missing something and the capability is actually there.  

      • Global search

        Hi! I think it would be great to have a global search that would give you results from all records of a database, no only for a single field of a single form as we have now. Thanks!

      • Any insights about API/v2? Having problem for a while.

        I don't know why it is throwing a 404 error, my report name is correct. Has someone had this issue and how you fix it?

      • Edit QR code with redirect to form

        Guten morgen, wir haben ein Formular Reklamation_erstellen. Dort soll ein QR Code erstellt werden, der im Lieferschein angezeigt wird. Beim Scannen auf dem soll das jeweilige Formular zum BEARBEITEN geöffnet werden. Leider bekomme ich es nur so hin, dass

      • Getting all the ingredients together for baking an app

        Good day everyone. After reading a lot of the help docs and watching videos, I now started on my app. To prevent hours and hours wasted on going down the wrong track, I would like some clarification on the following. But first some background: I have

      • Help Needed with Configuring ZC Microservice

        I'm attempting to create a simple microservice, but am running into problems with scope and auth. Using Custom API Builder, here's my setup: 1. Method: GET 2. Auth: OAuth2 3. User Scope: All users 4. Response: Standard 5. Function: A function that returns

      • Creator Simplified #10: Predefine Form Field Values and Make Them Read-Only for Users

        Hey Creators, Ready for this week's tip in the Creator Simplified series? Today, we will explore how to have read only fields in a form. Use Case: Assume a scenario where the default value for a Department field needs to be English Literature, but you

      • To Assign a genrated pdf to a file upload field using delug

        content = "<html><body>HTML Content on page One <div style='page-break-after:always'></div> HTML Content on page Two </body></html>"; file = zoho.file.convertToPDF(content); file.setFileName("Name of the file"); <variableName> = <FormLinkName>[ID == input.ID];

      • Zoho Mail : Email Outgoing Blocked

        I suddenly received the following message yesterday. I cannot send any mail. Please resolve as soon as possible, I cannot work without sending email. Dear User, We regret to inform you that your email outgoing has been blocked and you will not be able

      • Creator and Tables

        Good day. I am trying to create my first application. I have imported my data into Tables and am creating my app in Creator. I do not see my tables and cannot see how to write forms data to a table. Even the Workflow just uses the form. In one of the

      • Calendar week view: Today + 6

        Is there anyway to have the calendar change dynamically based on the date? Due to the amount of events, we only display a week at a time, but towards the end of the week, we can no longer see ahead to next week (without changing it manually every time).

      • customer Name and address details

        i created one application there is no customer details in that . how to add customer details and

      • Recalculate every row in the subform

        Hello, Can anyone help me with a script, please? I have an issue. Sometimes it happens, that in a multi row subform one of the rows show an incorrect row total value. Not really understand how it can happen, if I have a 20 row subform, 19 rows show correct

      • Creating Repeat Forms that remove redundancies

        I wanted to understand if you can make multi-layer forms that reduce the need for users to input information in again and again. We want a form that our suppliers fill out per ingredient they sell, and the end result should have the Ingredient (Section

      • What is the difference between the free plan and the mail lite plan?

        What is the difference between the free plan and the mail lite plan? How many emails can I send per day?

      • Unblock email

        Hi The outgoing mail from a client of me is blocked. I already made tickets and tickets are send to the EU desk but nobody is responding. The problem is already 4 days! There is absolutely no help from the support. I am really not satisfied at all! Can

      • Domain verification failure

        Hello Zoho Support, I purchased my domain directly through Zoho Mail, but the domain verification keeps failing with the message “TXT verification failed.” I’ve already waited and retried several times, but it still won’t verify. Could you please manually

      • Unable to send message;Reason:554 5.1.8 Email Outgoing Blocked.

        My email account is unable to send emails, and I urgently need to use it. How can I resolve this?If there is anything we have done wrong, please let us know in advance so we can actively cooperate to improve. User ID: 850482493

      • URGENT: Email stopped workin - can't access admin panel

        For some reason email sending stopped working. When I try to send an email it fails with "Unable to send message;Reason:451 4.7.1 Temporary system error" I can receive email just fine I see in my notifications some errors about the MX records, however

      • Can I associate an invoice to a Project after the fact?

        We have generated an invoice but would like to assoicate it to a Zoho Project after the fact.  Is there any way to accomplish that? Thanks, Scott

      • Emails I send as a cc or bcc NEVER GO THROUGH TO THA RECEIVER !!

        every time i send a cc or bcc copy of an email to anyone when I’m using my zohomail.com email - no one ever gets the cc of bcc copy if the email: why???? And i triple check that the email addresses are correct; then i get back an email message (EVERYTIME)

      • Next Page