Automation #4 - Auto Delete Tickets based on Rules

Automation #4 - Auto Delete Tickets based on Rules



This is a monthly series in which we pick some common use cases that have been either discussed or most asked about in our community and explain how they can be achieved using one of the automation capabilities in Zoho Desk.
 
Unwanted tickets spamming your inbox and messing with your help desk reports? There is a way you can automatically delete such tickets, based on their subject lines or email IDs or a combination of both. The rules totally depend on your use case, but we have a simple script that can help you achieve this easily. Initiate this automation today and clear unwanted tickets easily and keep your reports accurate. 
 
Let's begin by establishing two components: a connection and a workflow rule linked to a custom function. Initially, we'll create the connection, followed by configuring the workflow rules to trigger the custom function.

Create a connection

To create connection, perform the following steps:
  1. Go to Setup > Connections under Developer Space
  2. Click "Create Connection"
  3. Select "Zoho Desk" under "Default Services"
  4. Give the connection name as "autodeletetickets"
  5. Under Scope below values
    Desk.tickets.READ
    Desk.tickets.DELETE
  6. Click "Create and Connect"
  7. Click "Connect" and click "Accept"
Connection is created successfully.


To create workflow rule and associate custom function, perform the following steps:
  1. Go to Setup, and under Automation, click Workflows.
  2. On the left panel, under Workflows, click Rules > Create Rule,
    In the 
    Basic Information section, carry out the following steps:
  3. In the Module drop-down menu, select Tickets.
  4. Enter a name and description for the rule.
  5. If you want to activate the rule right away, select the Active checkbox. Else, you can just create the rule now and activate it later, on the Rules page.
  6. Click Next.
    In the 
    Execute on section, perform the following steps:
  7. Select the Create checkbox to execute this rule every time a new ticket is created. 
  8. In the Criteria section, perform the following steps:
  9. If you want to delete tickets based on the content in the Subject field, add this criteria:
    Subject contains <keywords separated by commas.
  10. If you want to delete tickets based on the content in the Subject field and the email ID of the contact, add this criteria:
    Subject contains <keywords separated by commas>
    AND/OR
    Email contains <email ids separated by commas>
  11. If you want to delete all tickets except the ones that have a specific content in the Subject field and/or were sent by a particular sender, add this criteria:
    Subject doesn't contain <keywords separated by commas>
    AND
    Email doesn't contain <email ids separated by commas>
  12. Click "Next".
  13. In the Actions section, carry out the following steps:
  14. Click the + icon under "Action" and select "New" next to Custom Functions
  15. Enter a name and description for the custom function. Choose Tickets under Module.
  16. Under Argument Mapping, give a desired Method Name. Map the arguments as below:
     16.1 
    In the Argument Name field type ticketID, and from the Value drop-down list select Ticket Id under Tickets Section
  17. In the script window, input the Custom Function you find below:

    1. deskDomain = "https://desk.zoho.com";
    2. //Replace your zoho desk URL accordingly
    3. jsonString = {"ticketIds":{ticketID}};
    4. deleteTicket = invokeurl
    5. [
    6. url :deskDomain + "/api/v1/tickets/moveToTrash"
    7. type :POST
    8. parameters:jsonString.toString()
    9. connection: "autodeletetickets"
    10. ];
  18. Click "Save" to save the custom function
  19. Click "Save" again to save the workflow.

Important Note: Please make sure to add the accurate criteria, based on which the custom function must be executed. If you do not add any criteria, the rule will execute and delete all tickets in the department. 



      Zoho Campaigns Resources


        • Desk Community Learning Series


        • Digest


        • Functions


        • Meetups


        • Kbase


        • Resources


        • Glossary


        • Desk Marketplace


        • MVP Corner


        • Word of the Day


        • Ask the Experts


          • 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

          Zoho CRM Plus Resources

            Zoho Books Resources


              Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                Zoho Projects Resources


                  Zoho Sprints Resources


                    Zoho Orchestly Resources


                      Zoho Creator Resources


                        Zoho WorkDrive Resources



                          Zoho CRM Resources

                          • CRM Community Learning Series

                            CRM Community Learning Series


                          • Tips

                            Tips

                          • Functions

                            Functions

                          • Meetups

                            Meetups

                          • Kbase

                            Kbase

                          • Resources

                            Resources

                          • Digest

                            Digest

                          • CRM Marketplace

                            CRM Marketplace

                          • MVP Corner

                            MVP Corner




                            Zoho Writer Writer

                            Get Started. Write Away!

                            Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                              Zoho CRM コンテンツ




                                ご検討中の方

                                  • Recent Topics

                                  • File Upload Field in Zoho Forms Not Updating Existing File in Zoho CRM

                                    Hi everyone, I’m trying to understand the behavior of a file upload field mapped from Zoho Forms to Zoho CRM. Scenario There is a File Upload field in a Zoho CRM module. A Zoho Form also has a File Upload field, which is mapped to that CRM field. When
                                  • Zoho Training

                                    Greetings! I am trainer. My focus area is Project Management and MS Project. I have used Zoho CRM to a good extent. Though, I was interested in using ZOHO projects, as there were no live projects, I could not take it up for studies. Recently a client
                                  • Detailed list of scoring rules in Zoho CRM

                                    Good morning Zoho community, warm greetings The reason for my message today is that I have a problem with my CRM, which I will explain below: Our organization has scoring rules designed to rate our potential customers or leads in the application based
                                  • How to create a summary document from Projects details

                                    Hi, Our team is creating many projects inside Zoho Project. When closing a project, they write a summary document containing data from the projects it-self (understand project budget, customers, etc...), and editable (ie the document is either a Writer
                                  • Host in US Data Centre

                                    I humble apply to be registered on US Data centre
                                  • convert the project to templet

                                    i have some deployment ME product for different customer , i need to create a fixed template for use it rather then keeping creating this template every time
                                  • Best practices for managing Project Charters, Business Case and RAID logs within Zoho?

                                    Hello everyone, I’m currently refining our PMO setup within Zoho Projects and I’m curious how others are handling high-level governance documentation. We’ve been using the standardized Project Charter, Business Case and RAID frameworks from projectmanagertemplate.com
                                  • Work Orders / Bundle Requests

                                    Zoho Inventory needs a work order / bundle request system. This record would be analogous to a purchase order in the purchasing workflow or a sales order in the sales cycle. It would be non-journaling, but it would reserve the appropriate inventory of
                                  • Izettle or Sumup Integration for Zoho Books.

                                    The Stripe & Square clearing works great in Zoho Books. Any further integrations planned in the future for Izettle or Sumup? These card processors are very common for taking payments with a card reader.
                                  • Trying to access records in a custom module in Zoho Desk and not having luck

                                    I've built a custom module in Zoho Desk and am using a custom function to query the records in the module and I'm not having any luck. The only way I have found to retreive a record is by getting it by its recordID (the long zoho assigned one). The function
                                  • ZOHO Books Smart Accounting Software for Travel Agency

                                    Dear Travel partner, Contact for Travel Agency Accounting Setup & Training Vansh Travel (ZOHO Books Authorised partner) Email: info@vanshtravel.com Mo: +91 98984 95155 Please find PDF   
                                  • 452 Mailbox delivery restricted by policy error

                                    We have been testing Zoho desk for about a week now and have been forwarding emails in via an Exchange Online Mail flow rule without issue until yesterday. Suddenly yesterday morning we started getting the vast majority of the emails stuck in Pending
                                  • Send Email reply on behalf of Agent

                                    Hi, When using the send email reply via the API I can set the reply on behalf of the customer by using impersonatedUserId in the header of the API call. Is there a way to do this for Agents too? I need to be able to send an email reply on behalf of an
                                  • Sharing Tickets to a team within a department

                                    Hi there, We have a need for one department to be able to share tickets to a specific team within a department, I'm wondering if this is possible? All the shared tickets are going into the 'Shared Tickets' view for the whole department but is there a
                                  • Automatic Department and Employee Sync Between Zoho One and Zoho People

                                    Dear Zoho Support, I'm writing to propose a valuable feature request that would streamline data management and improve user experience within the Zoho ecosystem: automatic synchronization between departments and employees in Zoho One and Zoho People.
                                  • Maximum limit of bank accounts

                                    I'm currently setting up Zoho Books in order to migrate at the start of our next financial year (April) and while adding bank accounts I've tried to add a second account from the same bank and receive an error about the maximum limit of bank accounts.
                                  • Unable to load a specific image

                                    Hi I am trying to upload an svg file, which reports that there is "a problem with the file", but does not say what sort of problem. I can't find anything which says which files are supported, so it may be it does not support svg. (which would be a real shame) The file itself will open in either Firefox or Chrome without problem. For the moment I am using a png file, which does not zoom well of course. David
                                  • Why does the Address field show the wrong map location even with a correct Pincode?

                                    I am noticing an issue with the Address field map in Zoho Creator. When I enter a city name that exists in multiple locations within the same state, the map sometimes points to the wrong area even if I have entered the correct Pincode. Currently, it seems
                                  • You have reached the maximum limit of bank accounts that can be connected to Zoho Books through token.

                                    I can no longer connect to my bank account to download transactions into Zoho Books. I egt the error message: "You have reached the maximum limit of bank accounts that can be connected to Zoho Books through token. To connect more accounts, write to us
                                  • Archive Option in Conversation View

                                    Hello, I have a suggestion\request to add an "Archive Thread" button in conversation view of Zoho Mail. The best suggestion I have is to put an "Archive Thread" button next to the "Label Entire Thread" button in conversation view. Most users don't just
                                  • Outlook/Hotmail Blocking Zoho SMTP IPs (S3150)

                                    We are currently facing a serious deliverability issue with Zoho SMTP while sending transactional OTP emails for our production application. Emails sent to Outlook / Hotmail addresses are being rejected with the following error: 550 - 5.7.1 Unfortunately,
                                  • Outlook is blocking incoming mail

                                    Outlook is blocking all emails sent from the Zoho server. ERROR CODE :550 - 5.7.1 Unfortunately, messages from [136.143.169.51] weren't sent. Please contact your Internet service provider since part of their network is on our block list (S3150). It looks
                                  • Zoho Social API for generating draft posts from a third-party app ?

                                    Hello everyone, I hope you are all well. I have a question regarding Zoho Social. I am developing an application that generates social media posts, and I would like to be able to incorporate a feature that allows saving these posts as drafts in Zoho Social.
                                  • Temporarily rate limited due to IP reputation.

                                    We have suddenly started receiving the following Mail Delivery Status Notification: Diagnostic-Code: 4.7.650 The mail server [136.143.184.12] has been temporarily rate limited due to IP reputation. For e-mail delivery information, see https://aka.ms/postmaster
                                  • IMPORTANT: It doesn´t search for letters with portuguese characters.

                                    Some of my articles have for example the word "vídeo". But if I search for "vídeo" it doesn´t find them. If I search for "video" it does find them. Idealy, it should find the articles either way. But if I have to choose, it would be better to find the
                                  • IMPORTANT: It doens´t show full article name on search - Should add line break

                                    When we search for articles, it doesn´t show the full name. There should be a line break so the user can see the full article name, otherwise the user can´t know if that´s the article he/she is looking for. This is very important, otherwise the user has
                                  • Zoho Books - Payment Gateway - Revolut

                                    Hi Books Team, My feature request if to include the popular platform Revolut as a payment collection option on invoices in Zoho Books. Please upvote if you are also looking for this option.
                                  • Zoho Books | Product updates | January 2026

                                    Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From e-filing Form 1099 directly with the IRS to corporation tax support, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience. E-File Form 1099 Directly With the
                                  • Kaizen #233 - Generating AI-powered Follow-up Emails Using CRM Functions and Widgets

                                    Hey everyone! Welcome back to another interesting post in the Kaizen series! Sales teams regularly capture interaction notes in CRM after speaking with prospects. However, drafting a follow-up email that reflects the conversation context can be repetitive
                                  • Connect Bank in Zoho Books

                                    Can I connect UOB or Ariwallex in Zoho Books?
                                  • Using MPN across multiple SKUs and inventory tracking

                                    I have several different SKU's that share a common MPN and would like to track inventory by MPN. SKU1 has MPN1 assigned SKU2 has MPN1 assigned Here is an example If I start with 5 of MPN 1 in stock I want each SKU1 and SKU2 to show as 5 in stock, If I
                                  • Marketing Tip #1: Optimize item titles for SEO

                                    Your item title is the first thing both Google and shoppers notice. Instead of a generic “Leather Bag,” go for something detailed like “Handcrafted Leather Laptop Bag – Durable & Stylish.” This helps your items rank better in search results and instantly
                                  • Feature Enhancement Request – Text Formatting Options in Item Description (Zoho Books/Quotes Module)

                                    Dear Zoho Development Team, Greetings from Radiant360 Integrated Technical Services LLC. We would like to bring to your attention a functional limitation we've encountered within the Item Table / Quote Description section of Zoho Books (and Zoho CRM Quotes).
                                  • ZOHO Books Query

                                    Good day, Can someone please advise. I recently migrated from ZOHO Invoice to ZOHO Books. No that I want to use the inventory on Books I cant as all my items have transaction history. The person I spoke to at ZOHO said I need to create a new Company profile
                                  • Best way to schedule bill payments to vendors

                                    I've integrated Forte so that I can convert POs to bills and make payments to my vendors all through Books. Is there a way to schedule the bill payments as some of my vendors are net 30, net 60 and even net 90 days. If I can't get this to work, I'll have
                                  • inventory removal at packing list or shipment.

                                    currently our system is set to remove inventory at invoice. This is creating an inventory nightmare? Is it possible to change the settings to remove the item from inventory at either the packing slip stage or shipping the item.
                                  • How to add employee and not invite them to log in?

                                    I want to add 50 employees, but invite them only when everything will be configured and ready. Is it possible? Should we create employee profiles and then convert them later? Thank you,
                                  • Any Offline Developing Environements or IDE's for Zoho Creator

                                    Hi there, Is there any offline developing environment for zoho creator like the Eclipse for sales force.com? So that i could make my development faster. Its taking a laot of time to write save and verify the code in Zoho Creator online. Thanks in advance
                                  • How is Your eCommerce Experience w/Zoho Inventory?

                                    First off, I'm SUPER grateful for the advent of Zoho Inventory and now the Zoho Commerce Suite. Overall, Inventory is a great product, especially for customers without an eCommerce presence. For eCommerce companies (especially those shipping more than ~10 packages/day), however, there are certain drawbacks that keep my clients from moving over to Zoho Inventory: Cons: 1. Invoice + Package Creation from Shopify/Other eCommerce Integrations: Zoho Inventory makes the somewhat perplexing decision to
                                  • Ability to Use Both AND and OR When Creating Rules (Advanced Conditions)

                                    I'd like to be able to use more complicated logic when setting up rules. E.g. in Zoho Mail, I can choose "Advanced conditions (AND/OR) to create a rule that can be applied to multiple subject lines from the same sender. But in Zoho TeamInbox, I will have
                                  • Next Page