Creating Supervisor Rules or Time-based Automations
Time-based rules are similar to Workflow rules for the reason that both define actions that will trigger alerts, create tasks and update fields in Zoho Desk. However, time-based rules are triggered when a timed event occurs, and not immediately after a ticket is created or updated.
Note:
- Time-based rules are applicable only for the Tickets module.
- Users with Profile permission to manage Help Desk Automation can access this feature.
- Time-based rules are available on all paid plans of Zoho Desk.
- You can create a maximum of 5 rules/15 rules/30 rules per department in the Standard, Professional, and Enterprise editions, respectively.
- You can associate each rule with up to three time-based actions (1 alert, 1 task & 1 field update).
Here are some ways you can use time-based rules in your help desk:
- Notify agents when their tickets stay unresolved for x hours.
- Notify Queue Managers when tickets remain unassigned for x hours.
- Notify agents of their tickets after x hours since they received a new response.
- Notify and assign re-opened tickets after x hours of receiving them.
- Notify Support Managers when agents reassign their tickets.
- Notify Support Managers, the no. of hours (approx.) it took for agents to respond since assignment.
Permission Required Users with the Support Administrator permission profile can access this feature.
Check Feature Availability and Limits
Time-based Conditions
Since time-based rules are triggered when a timed event occurs, Zoho Desk provides the following time-based condition to supervise your tickets:
- Hours since status updated
- Hours since closed
- Hours since re-opened
- Hours since assigned
- Hours since first assigned
- Hours since requestor responded
- Hours since agent responded
- Hours since due date
- Hours to due date
- Hours since modified
- Hours since created
- Hours since first response pending
- Hours since agent response pending
- Hours since requestor response pending
Notes:
- The time-based rules run once every hour on tickets that received a customer response in the past 30 days.
- The values for time-based conditions should be a whole number. Decimals (like 1.5) are not supported.
- The time-based conditions can be built using the following criteria options:
- <is>
- <is less than>
- <is greater than>
- For example, let's assume the current time is '08:00:00 AM' and the supervise rule is triggered. The rule criteria work as follows:
- Case 1: hours since created <is greater than> 2
<is greater than> will impact tickets whose created time is older than 06:00 AM. - Case 2: hours since created <is less than> 2
<is less than> will impact tickets whose created time is between 06:00 AM and 08:00 AM. - Case 3: hours since created <is> 2
<is> will impact tickets whose created time is between 05:00 AM and 06:00 AM.
- Note: The <is> condition is applied based on the hour, not the minutes.
Creating Time-based Rules
You must create time-based rules from scratch according to your help desk requirements. The steps to create a time-based rule is divided into 3 parts.
To create a time-based rule:
Part 1: Basic Information
- Click on Setup > Automation > Supervisor Rules.
- In the Supervisor Rules List page, select the Department from the drop-down menu.
- Click Create Rule in the upper right area.
- In the New Time-based Rule page, do the following:
- Enter the Rule Name.
- Select the Active check box if you want the rule to be activated.
- Specify whether the elapsed time should be measured in business or calendar hours.
- Optionally, enter a description in the Description field.
- Click Next.
Part 2: Rule Criteria
- In the Criteria section, build your time-based criteria statements.
- Select an operator between AND / OR to add multiple criteria.
- Click Next.
Note:
- You must specify at least one rule criteria to create a time-based rule.
Part 3: Actions
Time-based rules are meaningful only if an alert, task, or field update is associated with it. You must associate one or all of the actions, which are triggered when a timed event occurs. Also, you can associate the existing time-based actions or create new actions to be associated with your rules.
Action 1: Time-based Alerts
Time-based alerts are automated, predefined e-mail notifications that are triggered when certain conditions are met. These conditions are specified while creating the time-based rules.
To create a time-based alert:
- In the New Time-based Rule page and under Actions, do the following:
- Click the Add icon (
) and select New from the drop-down list corresponding to Alerts.
- In the New Alert window, specify a Name for the Alert.
- Choose an Email Template from the drop-down list.
The selected email template will be used to send emails when the time-based rule is triggered. - Specify who should be receiving this Alert.
You can choose between Groups, Roles, Roles and Subordinates or Agents. - Enable the following options if you will like to notify other users:
- Record Owner: Owner of the record
- Record Creator: User who created the record
- Notify Contact: Requestor who submitted the ticket
- Additional Recipients: Enter e-mail addresses, separated by a comma
- Record Owner: Owner of the record
- Click the Add icon (
- Click Save.
Action 2: Time-based Tasks
Assign tasks to users automatically when certain conditions are met. These conditions are specified while creating the time-based rules.
To create a time-based task:
- In the New Time-based Rule page and under Actions, do the following:
- Click the Add icon (
- In the New Task window, specify the task related details like Subject, Status, Priority, Assignee, Due Date, etc.
- Click Save.
A new time-based task is created, which will be associated with the rule.
Note:
- When you enable 'Assign ticket owner as task owner', the task will be assigned to the specified owner only when its corresponding ticket is unassigned.
Action 3: Time-based Field Updates
The Field Update option helps you to automatically update certain field values in the tickets when the associated time-based rule is triggered.
To create field updates:
- In the New Time-based Rule page and under Actions, do the following:
- Click the Add icon (
- In the Create Assignment Value window, specify a Name for the Assignment Value.
- Optionally, enter a description in the Description field.
- Select the field from the Assignment Values drop-down list that needs to be updated.
- Specify the value for the field that you want to be updated.
- Click Save.
The fields will be updated with the specified values when the time-based rule is triggered.
Associating Existing Actions to Rules
When you create a time-based rule, you must add certain actions (like alerts, tasks, field updates, etc.,) to it. These actions once created, can be associated with many rules.
To associate an existing action:
- Click on Setup > Automation > Supervisor Rules.
- In the Supervisor Rules List page, click the Edit icon (
) corresponding to a time-based rule.
- In the Edit Time-based Rule page and under Actions, do the following:
- Click the Add icon (
- In the Associate Existing <Action> page, select an existing Action and associate it to the rule.
- Click Save.
Deactivating Time-based Rules
You can activate or deactivate the time-based rules at any time. When you deactivate a rule, it will be removed from the Active Rule list. Time-based rules can be reactivated, when needed.
To deactivate time-based rules:
- Click the Setup icon (
) in the top bar.
- In the Setup Landing page, click Supervise under Automation.
- In the Supervisor Rules List page, click the Deactivate icon (
) for the corresponding rule.
The time-based rule will be deactivated instantly. You can head over to the Inactive Rules List and click the Activate icon ( 
) to re-activate the rule. Alternatively, you can click the Schedulers toggle to activate or deactivate all the time-based rules in one go.
) to re-activate the rule. Alternatively, you can click the Schedulers toggle to activate or deactivate all the time-based rules in one go.Deleting Time-based Rules
Time-based rules can be deleted when not in use. When you delete a rule, it will be permanently removed from your help desk and cannot be recovered.
To delete time-based rules:
- Click on Setup > Automation > Supervisor Rules.
- In the Supervisor Rules List page, click the Delete icon (
) for the corresponding rule.
- Click Ok to confirm.
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