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 single-line field to insert into the custom function.     

            To find the API name, click the Gear wheel icon in the single-line field.

            Click on Edit Properties, and 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 Desk 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 

• Topic Participants

• Lydia | Zoho Desk

  

• Mohd Hayzee

• Shivani | Zoho Desk

  

• admin

• 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

• How do I set up this automation correctly?

  When contacts enter my Subscribers list, I want it to reference a custom field to see if it is empty. Then I want it to do two things: If empty: Assign a tag based on a different custom field. If that custom field is empty, assign a different tag. If

• Function #62: Display associated Quote on Invoice details screen

  Hello everyone! Today, we are sharing a Related List script that makes it easy to view and access the quote from which an invoice was created right from the invoice details screen. This Related List displays the Quote number and Amount, allowing you to

• Desk x CRM Integration

  Howdy! We currently use SalesIQ but we are considering moving across to Desk as it seems to have more functionality that we want. One of the pulls is the ability for our customers to self serve. But, I might be getting over excited and not actually need

• Issue with Save & Share Link – Works for Others but Not Creator

  I’ve enabled the "Save and Share" feature in Zoho Forms, and it works correctly for all users accessing the public link—except for me (the form creator). Issue Details: When I save and share the link, recipients see a “no permission” error. The form is

• Save the pdf report from a registration form in a Folder

  Through Zoho Forms I created a registration form with quite a lot of rules to handle different variables (TEAM types, payment in installments, etc.), and the result is pretty good. The automatic PDF that is sent to the respondent upon submission is already

• zoho forms integration to zoho work drive

  Scenario: A user fills out a Zoho Form, entering details such as email, mobile number, and other required information, and uploads supporting documents like PAN, Aadhaar, etc. Upon submission, the data is available in Zoho Forms Reports. Requirement:

• Zoho Forms to Zoho CRM Integration failed - can I restart it?

  The integration of Zoho Form to Zoho CRM has failed. Is there a way for me to restart it for the impacted entry?

• insert an equation, but in document, it shows an image not available.

  I'm new to Zoho writer and used Zoho writer in desktop app version . When I inserted an equation, I got an image not available sign. Any help is appreciated. Thanks, Charles

• Zoho Desk Android app update - Swipe action customization

  Hello everyone! We have brought in support for the swipe action customization in latest version(v2.9.13) of the Zoho Desk Android app update, enabling you to configure left and right swipe gestures on tickets to carry out the actions swiftly without opening

• Arranging Ticket Templates

  Is there any way to arrange our ticket templates? It doesn't look very organised when it's just arranged according to when they were created. We want the list to look more organised, by arranging/grouping them by topics, or even just by alphabetical

• What they mean with "Portal"?

  I just downloaded this app to take my personal notes on digital art studio because it seemed to me the most comfortable app to do it, I use it very often, what do they mean by “no activity on your portal”? I have about 1 year of work here and I don't

• favorites no longer listed

  Hello, I can no longer navigate to my Favorites from the pulldown at the top of my grid view (see attached screenshot). I wasn't able to find it anywhere! Please help me display my Favorites. Thank you!

• Notecards Disappeared

  Got a new phone. Downloaded and signed in Zoho Notebook. Not finding the Note cards. Just Empty Note books. Frustrating.

• Table Errors

  Hello, I'm new to Zoho Notebook and using it on several Mac/Apple devices. My question is regarding tables: Why do they become broken, and how to fix the error without retyping all my data? (Please see the screenshot attached.)

• Online Calculator with Zoho Forms?

  I'd like to build a custom calculator on my website. Zoho Forms seems to offer all the fields for basic calculations performed live without pressing any "Calculate" buttons. Unfortunately, there is still that "Submit" button at the bottom. There is nothing

• Zoho Tables instead of Zoho Creator Spreadsheet reports <3

  That would make my day for sure. Zoho Creator is create, but miss data entering as AirTable/Spreadsheet can. Seeing Zoho putting effort in this makes me think maybe one day we could see a similar interface for Zoho Creator spreadsheet reports. B.

• Notebook Stack

  Hi Everyone I Hope you´re fine, I´m sorry if this idea was posted before (I made a search but I haven´t find anything related). So, Having the possibility of stacking notebooks would be an interesting way to order notebooks that correspond to the same

• Writing on sketch cards is bugged when zoomed in

  When zoomed in, it writes a noticeable distance above or to the side of where you're actually trying to write. The further you're zoomed in, the more noticeable it is. Zooming is also entirely absent on the desktop version.

• Swipe between notes on iPhone

  It'd be convenient if I could move from one note to the next in a notebook simply by swiping left to right.

• Sales IQ chat is not working in signed android apk

  I have integrated ZOHO sales IQ support chat and i have followed each step and its working fine in my development build but when i create signed APK for it. Chat does not work in it and showing awaiting for detail. I previously asked the same query but

• COQL order by COUNT not working

  Dear community, I am trying to get a list of deal amounts per planner working on it and sorted to get see who has the least amount of deals. For some reason, I am unable to use sort by in combination with a COUNT. My original code was: query = "select

• I want to duplicate a report and name it something else

  Hi, I have created a report, and now want to reproduce it and call it something else. so that I will end up with TWO separate reports with different titles. Please tell me how do I copy / reproduce a report please

• Zoho CRM: Sales Rep Professional Certification Program on Coursera

  We are happy to share that we have published the Zoho Sales Representative Professional Certificate in partnership with Coursera, a leading platform for online learning and career development that offers access to courses and degrees from leading universities

• OS X Notebook quits immediately upon launch

  NoteBook for OS X (Sequoia, but also under Sonoma) always quits immediately upon launch (so I cannot use the "Attach user log" option). I've restarted my MacBook but the problem persists. If it helps, attached is a diagnostic report from Library>Log

• Can External users upload files or images to WorkDrive?

  I want to know if it is possible for someone externally through a link and PW be able to upload files and images onto WorkDrive?

• Multi-line fields character limits

  Is there a way to set the character limit higher on multi-line fields so that we are not losing information pasted into the field? When the text is entered or pasted, there is no error to say that the text is too large. After saving and going back to view most of the text is gone.   Also, when viewing the resume, the text is not wrapped in the multi line fields and can t be read without scrolling across the page.

• Taz bot not working — What should I do to resolve this issue?

  I am experiencing issues with the Taz bot in Zoho Cliq—not receiving responses or it does not seem to work as expected. Could you please explain why the Taz bot might not be functioning and what steps I should take to resolve this issue? Thank you!

• OneNote Migration

  I am trying to migrate two notebooks from OneNote. For five days now I have had no notification that migration has completed and the migration page show 50% complete - one notebook completed one not finished. It just stays like this. I am unable to cancel

• Set various time slot reminders for task and event

  Hi I would like known if there is possibility to set various time reminders for a task or event like we have the possibility to do in google calendar or google task. For example I'am creating an event or task and I want to be alerted before 30min and

• Zoho Calendar not functioning---cannot edit, add attendees, etc.

  Hello, My calendar is acting strange. I'm using Chrome as my browser and pop ups are not blocked (the calendar worked fine yesterday). When creating an event, I'm not able to "edit" the event and add attendees, etc. The link is non-responsive. I cannot

• Spilt Axis for stacked column and line graph

  Each month around this time I prepare a business review deck. One of the biggest annoyances I have with Zoho, also happens to be something that most other platforms have provided for a long time now, and that is being able to create a chart with stacked

• Pin a note on top

  Dear Zoho Notebook Team, Please highly consider adding ability to pin a note on top and arrange pinned notes. I have a lot of notes that I want to pin important ones on top and this feature is missing badly. Thank you.

• Windows 11 app ver 2.2.8

  I have been trialing Zoho Notes syncing between my PC and iphone. No problems with iphone but the Windows 64 bit app ver 2.2.8 was very buggy and would lock up completely, needing a Control Alt Delete etc to close it down. It seemed to be connected to

• Deluge Script: Onboarding → Access Form

  Hello everyone, Edit: Sorry, I think I put this topic in the wrong section. I’ve recently run into an issue that’s been giving me a bit of a headache for the past few weeks. Context: This is my first time using Deluge to create a script, but it’s not

• Windows Device Authentication

  We have recently started using ManageEngine, and my boss saw a device management feature in the Zoho One directory. We thought it would either help give us more intergration into Zoho one through bringing ManageEngine services through Zoho one. Or, it

• How can I change spell check language?

  I cannot find the way to change spell check language. My "display language" is English, and I want to have the same one for Spell Check, but it is Russian!!! How can I change it? In one of your explanations you mentioned that I have to choose it from

• Mail is so slow - doesn't even work!

  Mail has been getting slower and slower - and today it's not even pulling up emails in either Inbox or Unread. This is beyond frustrating since email is a big part of business. Sent a request through the useless help portal - no response. Called the useless

• User marked as SPAMMER. Mail Fetch has also been disabled for any active POP accounts.

  I am the administrator for joelles.com One of our accounts has been blocked saying this: User marked as SPAMMER. Mail Fetch has also been disabled for any active POP accounts. I cannot change the disabled account in the control panel as it says that it

• Is there a way to sync Tags between CRM and Campaigns/Marketing Hub?

  I wonder if there is a way to synch the tags between CRM and Marketing-Hub / Campaigns?

• how to see if a specific contact opened an email in zoho campaign?

  how to see if a specific contact opened an email in zoho campaign?

• Next Page