Lifecycle Reports

Lifecycle Reports

From data to decisions: A deep dive into ticketing system reports


lifecycle report captures and visualises the sequential states that a ticket undergoes across its lifespan. 

For instance, when a customer submits a support ticket for a faulty product, it is initially marked as Open. It transitions to In Progress when an agent begins addressing it, may be placed on On Hold while awaiting confirmation from the warehouse, and ultimately concludes as Completed once the replacement is dispatched. It is then moved to Closed status after the issue is resolved.

The lifecycle report provides details on the duration of each phase, the person responsible for managing it, and the date it advanced to the next stage. It tracks when and how long each ticket stays in a specific status. It can also consider other factors, like the person assigned or the ticket category. Most ticketing systems offer detailed filtering. This lets organizations look at lifecycle metrics by agent and team.

What does it track?

  1. Request ID: Zoho Desk identifies and distinguishes tickets using a unique reference number called a ticket ID.
  2. Event start time: The time when the ticket status begins.
  3. Event end time: The end time of the ticket status
  4. Status updated from: The initial status of the ticket.
  5. Status updated to: The current ticket status.
  6. Duration: The duration between the transition.
  7. Duration (Business Hours): The duration between the transition in business hours.
  8. Modified by: The agent who modified the request.

What are ticket-based reports? 

Ticket-based reports are summaries created from the data collected in a help desk ticketing system. These reports focus on different aspects of ticket management and give insights into how customer support requests are handled and resolved. They usually include metrics like ticket volume trends, response times, resolution times, ticket statuses, agent and team performance, and customer satisfaction scores.

Types of lifecycle reports

Status transition: A simple solution to reduce delays 

In a streaming service company, the status lifecycle report identifies tickets that remain in the Pending Verification status for an excessive amount of time, which can negatively impact user satisfaction. For instance, a user reporting an issue with their subscription may be stuck in Pending Verification while awaiting a response from the billing team. 
 
By analyzing the lifecycle report, the company discovers that the delay arises from inefficient communication between the support and billing departments. To address this, they can implement automated notifications or escalation measures to alert the support team if a ticket remains in the Pending Verification status for an extended period. This approach will expedite resolution times and lead to enhanced user satisfaction.

Agent transition: Enhancing agents' accountability

In a travel agency, tickets concerning flight changes often require collaboration among different agents, such as those handling customer service and ticketing. By using the agent lifecycle report, managers can assess how long each agent spends on flight-related tickets. 
 
For example, if an agent consistently takes longer to resolve these tickets than their colleagues, this data helps identify potential weaknesses in their process. The manager can then provide focused training through an internal knowledge base or redistribute tickets more evenly using assignment algorithms. By optimizing the distribution of work and offering targeted support, agents can improve their ticket handling efficiency, reduce delays, and resolve requests more swiftly.

Team transition: Supporting cross-team collaboration

A food delivery service frequently encounters tickets transitioning between the Customer Support and Delivery teams, especially for order-related inquiries. By analyzing the team lifecycle report, they can identify how long tickets linger with each team and determine whether delays stem from the Delivery team. 
 
To address this, the company can implement time-based automation protocols that activate when tickets move to the Delivery team. This will facilitate quicker acknowledgement and necessary actions, minimize resolution times, and significantly improve the customer experience.

Department transition: Simplifying complex issues

A university admissions office handles support tickets that involve multiple departments, including Admissions, Financial Aid, and Academic Advising. By utilizing the department lifecycle report, they find that tickets regarding financial aid often take longer than anticipated during the transition from Admissions to Financial Aid. 
 
The report uncovers that inefficient handoffs between these departments are contributing to the delays. To enhance this process, the university can establish automation protocols that streamline information transfer between departments, thus minimizing bottlenecks and ensuring that all essential details are passed along seamlessly.

Components

Status transitions

This tracks the movement of tasks, tickets, or items through various defined states, such as New, In Progress, On Hold, and Resolved. Watching these status changes helps managers understand the process flow, identify where delays occur, and confirm that each phase is being handled appropriately.

Time spent per status

This measures how long an item stays in each status before moving on. Calculating the time spent reveals bottlenecks, identifies inefficient stages, and guides efforts to shorten cycle times and accelerate overall resolution or delivery.

Agent and team analysis

This component breaks down performance metrics for individual agents and teams. It provides insights into productivity, workload distribution, and effectiveness. It helps with targeted training, balanced workload allocation, and recognizing top performers within the lifecycle.

Work schedule adjustments

Using lifecycle data, this part checks if current staffing and schedules match workload patterns. It helps optimize shifts and resource availability. This helps avoid both over-staffing and under-staffing, ensuring demand is met and wait times are reduced.

Report and visualization

This presents the collected data through detailed reports and graphs, such as charts and dashboards. This makes complex lifecycle information easy to understand and share. Visuals help identify trends, issues, and opportunities for improvement quickly and effectively.

Benefits

Identify workflow bottlenecks

Lifecycle reports reveal the stages or processes where delays or inefficiencies occur. By pinpointing these bottlenecks, organizations can investigate causes and implement targeted improvements to keep work flowing smoothly and avoid stagnation.

Measure team performance

These reports provide precise data on how teams or individuals are performing against defined metrics such as ticket resolution, project progress, or task completion rates. They enable team leads to assess productivity objectively, identify high performers, and address performance gaps with evidence-based insights.

Improve resolution time

Tracking the lifecycle of tasks or tickets highlights opportunities to shorten turnaround times, such as by automating repetitive steps, reallocating workload, or streamlining approval chains. Accelerating resolution improves customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Support continuous improvement

Lifecycle reporting creates a feedback loop where ongoing data collection drives iterative refinement. Organizations use insights from past performance to refine processes, adopt best practices, and innovate workflows that adapt to changing demands and evolving goals.

Optimize resource allocation

With clear visibility into workload distribution, resource utilization, and process timing, lifecycle reports enable managers to assign the right people, apply the right technology, and allocate their budget where those resources are needed most. 

Takeaway

Using a lifecycle report in a help desk ticketing system is essential for operational success. It offers a clear, data-driven view of each stage in the ticket process, from issue intake to resolution. This enables teams to identify delays and reduce resolution times. 

The insights from the report support better resource allocation and enable help desks to provide faster and more consistent support experiences. This leads to higher customer satisfaction and boosts productivity and efficiency in a scalable way.

 

Stay tuned for more articles in our Desk Reports series.

 

Regards,

 

Kavya Rao

The Zoho Desk Team



InfoManaging a help desk involves complex responsibilities, such as identifying bottlenecks, minimising errors, and evaluating team performance for seamless service delivery. To do this effectively, access to comprehensive analytics and real-time insights is crucial. Zoho Desk streamlines these tasks by also providing detailed analytics and live reports through the Radar app, allowing managers to make informed decisions anytime, anywhere. Download now!

      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

          • Zoho Desk Partners with Microsoft's M365 Copilot for seamless customer service experiences

            Hello Zoho Desk users, We are happy to announce that Zoho Desk has partnered with Microsoft's M365 to empower customer service teams with enhanced capabilities and seamless experiences for agents. Microsoft announced their partnership during their keynote
          • WhatsApp pricing changes: Pay per message starting July 1, 2025

            Starting July 1, 2025, WhatsApp is shifting from conversation-based pricing to per-message billing. That means every business-initiated message you send will count. Not just the first one in a 24-hour window. Pricing updates on the WhatsApp Business Platform
          • Live Webinar - Work smarter with Zoho Desk and Zoho Workplace integration

            Hello customers! Zoho Desk and Zoho Workplace are coming together for a webinar on 14th May, 2024. Zoho Workplace is a suite of productivity apps for email, chat, docs, calls, and more at one single place. Zoho Desk is closely integrated with a few tools
          • Apple iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 updates for Zoho Desk users

            Hello Zoho Desk users! Apple recently announced the release of iOS 17 and iPad OS 17. These latest OS updates will help you stay productive and efficient, through interactive and seamless user experiences. Zoho Desk has incorporated the updates to help
          • Zoho Desk Cheat Sheet For The Year-End

            Check out these Zoho Desk best practices to end this year on a high and have a great one ahead! #1 Set Business (Holiday) Hours - If you have limited working hours, please make sure you restrict your business hours or set them as holidays for the coming days. Let your customers know when you will, and won't, be available. #2 Update the Annual Holiday List - Check the holidays for the new year and update the holiday schedule. Usually, holidays from the current year will be carried over for the next

          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

                                  • GraphQL in new Send Webhooks feature

                                    Hello, is it possible to use GraphQL apis in the new Send Webhooks feature?
                                  • # 2 Why do we need a billing system when accounting covers billing?

                                    In today's evolving financial tech stack, businesses use a mix of tools to manage their day-to-day operations, from invoicing to full-fledged accounting. While accounting platforms typically come with built-in invoicing features, specialized billing systems
                                  • How to insert an Excel/Zoho Sheet table in a chat?

                                    Hello, is there a way to paste an excel/zoho sheet table to a conversation without loosing table lines. I tried to paste a piece of a table and all the columns and rows were gone. How to easily paste a table without a need of sending a file? Katarzy
                                  • Mass Update Application Status

                                    How to update application statuses of Multiple Applications at once? Is that possible? If not then why please consider adding it It can save hours of manual work Thats the only Option I see
                                  • Free webinar: Streamlining customer service paperwork with the Zoho Sign extension for Zoho Desk

                                    Hi there! Wondering how to bridge the gap between digitized customer service and business paperwork? Attend our free webinar to learn how you can do this by connecting Zoho Sign, our digital signature app, with Zoho Desk, our online customer service help
                                  • Mail Search Not Working

                                    Hello, Mail search is not working at all. I've tried Chrome and Mozilla. I can try and search for an exact term, or even an email that is 1st in my email list. All search does is sit and spin, or it comes up with no results. I've also tried it on my android
                                  • Cannot Send Email to a Gmail Account

                                    Hello, I have a zoho-hosted email account, alex@chirochannelnetwork.com that has trouble sending to gmail accounts.  But not all gmail accounts, only some of them. I've tried to figure this out with clients, and they don't appear to be going into their
                                  • Unblock ME

                                    info@pentekykloi.gr Unable to send message;Reason:554 5.1.8 Email Outgoing Blocked. Learn more. I purchase additional storage
                                  • Cannot Print Landscape with Zoho Sheet

                                    I am noticing that when using the Zoho Sheet desktop for Mac, that even when selecting landscape as the print option, once you choose "Print", a second system dialog opens that automatically makes the view portrait again, and does not allow printing in
                                  • Power of Automation : Enhancing custom date field calculations by excluding Weekends and Holidays

                                    Hello Everyone, A Custom function is a user-written set of code to achieve a specific requirement. Set the required conditions needed as when to trigger using the Workflow rules (be it Tasks / Project) and associate the custom function to it. Requirement:
                                  • portal.assignUserInProfile - Não esta adicionando

                                    Estou encontrando problema com este comando portal.assignUserInProfile Não esta incluindo o usuário no portal Alguém pode me dizer o que pode ser thisapp.portal.assignUserInProfile("teste@gmail.com","Customer");
                                  • CRM emails vs Campaigns

                                    Please help me understand this. I am having a difficult understanding of "Campaigns" sent through CRM (real emails) or Zoho One (blast "potentially junk" emails) This is what I currently think emails sent via CRM are "real" emails sent through linked real personal email accounts and therefore are more likely to get delivered.  We use this for critical updates for our "Approved " accounts and certain other preferred statuses emails via Campaigns are sent through the Zoho server (like MailChimp, Campaign
                                  • Reverse proxy

                                    We have a web application in the creator platform. When I launch a particular DNS, I would like that DNS to redirect to the web page of the application in creator app. Has anyone achieved it and if yes, please share how to do it.
                                  • Still client need to download .exe?

                                    Hello, the client for use zoho assist need everytime download .exe file and launch it?
                                  • Splitting a ticket's entire thread

                                    Hi, When you split a ticket it only splits the individual reply that you clicked "Split as new ticket" on. Is it not possible to split the entire ticket thread from that point into the new ticket (every reply from the split point forward)? Or is there
                                  • Editing the text on the Help Center home page

                                    Is it possible to edit the "Welcome to Help Center" message anywhere? This one: We'd like to be able to tailor it a little more ourselves.
                                  • WHMCS for Zoho Flow

                                    Can we use WHMCS for Zoho flow?
                                  • Online meetings through Calendar Booking form with options

                                    This is great to see and particularly for those users who don't have Zoho BOOKINGS. The shame of it all though is that it could have been better. Why do we have to set up separate booking forms for each type of meeting and for each online conferencing
                                  • Agents permission per department

                                    Hi Team, can I setup permission for each agent what they can do in each department, for example I want account department agents to only have view access to support department tickets and not allowed to assign or reply to clients. I am sure this would
                                  • CRM notes

                                    I want to be able to add notes to a task that do not necessarily get rolled up into an account or contact.   For example, I tasks to work on a Court Order for John Doe divorce account.  There might be lots of updates (in the form of notes) that employees
                                  • Alternative / optional Position

                                    How do you create an alternative position or an optional position (article) in offers?
                                  • جمود في الصفحة عند حفظ عمل

                                    عندما اقوم باضافة ايقونة الى صفحة النموذج تجمد الصفحة ولا تعمل وتصبح مثل المظلة احدث الصفحة لا تعمل انتظر قليلا لا تعمل اقوم بنسخ رابط الصفحة والصقه في الرابط فيعمل
                                  • ZOHO Books Canadian payroll Integration

                                    Hello, I know ZOHO books doesn't have Canadian payroll and I dont believe its coming anytime soon. My question is there a Canadian payroll software that could be integrated with Zoho Books? Thank you HD
                                  • Zoho Desk Time Tracking and the Salary Privacy Issue

                                    Hello colleagues, Just wondering if anyone did hit the same wall? In the Desk, when the agent-specific hourly rates are enabled (Zoho Desk → Setup → Time Tracking → Billing Preferences), these Time Entries are being displayed in the Ticket History tab.
                                  • How to Delete, Disable, or Remove Streams from the Mail App?

                                    Is there a way to remove Streams from the mail app sidebar? I get too many notifications, it doesn't add any value to Zoho's functionality (especially since you can just make comments inside an email), and is distracting. I do not want notifications/alerts
                                  • Delay in MX updates

                                    Hi, I set MX Records 12 hours ago, and I am receiving email normally, but I still get notification MX record is not pointing correctly. Error: The MX records of your domain is not yet pointed to Zoho Mail. Why there is a delay in detecting MX records,
                                  • make.com integration

                                    Just wondering if anyone on Zoho One account connecting apps to Make.com We're on Canadian server (.com) and when connecting to Make.com, it keeps having error of Invalid Client ID. I have contacted both Zoho and Make and both sides said it's not an error
                                  • Article Numbers for KB articles

                                    Hello, I was wondering if it's possible to turn on article numbers/ part numbering for KB articles. If this is not already a feature, we'd like to request it. Frequently a solution will require multiple articles so tracking which articles are referenced
                                  • Refund Request ,Zoho Mail Subscription (zoho suport is not replying)

                                    Hi Zoho Team, I recently subscribed to the Zoho Mail yearly plan, but after evaluating it, I found that the interface does not suit my workflow. I’ve already canceled the subscription from my end. As I’m well within your 30-day refund window, I’m requesting
                                  • File Encryption - Zoho Desk iOS app update

                                    Hello, Everyone! We have now introduced the 'File Encryption' option within the Zoho Desk app as part of the HIPAA Compliance. This option allows the user to encrypt the attachments within the Desk mobile app, which acts as an additional layer of security.
                                  • Data encryption - Zoho Desk iOS

                                    Hello, Everyone! In the recent iOS version(v2.8.23) of the Zoho Desk app, we have supported data encryption. As a part of HIPAA Compliance, the Zoho Desk mobile app now allow users to encrypt the Desk mobile database as an additional layer of security.
                                  • Notify Admin when a user forgets to check-in or check-out at the designated time.

                                    Hello, I would like notify the Admin via email when a user forgets to check-in or check-out at the designated time. What is the best way to setup this email notification?
                                  • Assistance Needed with Prospect Conversion Issue

                                    Hi, I attempted to convert a prospect to an account, but received a pop-up notification indicating that the contact information matches an existing contact. I selected the option to add it to the existing contact, but it appears the prospect was not successfully
                                  • Mail Merge - unable to send more than 50 email

                                    Hi, I've subscribed to the pay email service because of the Mail Merge feature. However, I've found that this feature only allow to send up to 50 emails. I've to attach a screenshot for your reference. This limitation is not mentioned anywhere in service.
                                  • Zoholics Europe 2025: Your Ultimate Data Analysis (Zoho Analytics) Workshop Experience

                                    Why should you attend? This year, Zoholics Europe 2025 is putting data analysis centre stage. With a dedicated workshop designed to answer all your data-related questions, you’ll gain practical skills, real-time solutions, and expert insights that you
                                  • UK payroll entries

                                    Hey guys, Nett payroll payments are imported direct into the bank, using an external payroll system (will be glad for Zoho to have a UK payroll app) At present I have monthly recurring bills for HMRC which are auto entered & paid when due. This seems
                                  • Reverse Charge Services (Non-EU) Showing Correctly in 84/85 and 67, But Missing in Box 46 - Germany

                                    Hi, I'm located in Germany and I’ve set up my expenses for non-EU services (e.g., OpenAI, DeepSeek) under the reverse charge mechanism (§ 13b UStG) in Zoho Books, and I noticed some discrepancies in the VAT Summary Report. What’s Correct: Reverse Charge
                                  • Zoho Live Chat/Support

                                    What is going on with Zoho support lately? I've tried to use the live chat feature 4 different times and it refuses to connect to any (despite waiting over 30 minutes one of the tries). I finally gave up and emailed my question nearly a week ago and still
                                  • Can we have a module to records Certificate No and TDS rates for Lower TDS Certificates by the vendors ?

                                    Can we have a module to records Certificate No and TDS rates for Lower TDS Certificates by the vendors ?
                                  • Tip #38- Track Organizational Changes: A Guide to Using Action Log Viewer- 'Insider Insights'

                                    Hello Zoho Assist Community! Ever needed to trace who did what and when within your remote support operations? Let’s say your support team is growing, and you want to monitor key activities like settings updates, user invites, module changes, or permission
                                  • Next Page