
The Reporting Overview gives you insight into how Zendesk Support is performing. It provides data about your ticket volume and management. It also enables you to compare key ticket metrics within Zendesk Support, and with your peers.
The Reporting Overview is not updated in real time. Except for Satisfaction data, which is updated daily, the data in the Reporting Overview is updated hourly. The Reporting Overview displays data in the timezone settings configured in the user's profile.
This article includes the following topics:
Accessing the Reporting Overview tab
The Reporting overview contains three sections for comparing key ticket metrics; viewing ticket metrics by channel, benchmark, and first reply; and viewing top articles, searches, and agents.
- Click the Reporting icon (
) in the sidebar.
The Reporting Overview opens by default.
- Select a Reporting period at the top.
You can select a predefined period or select Custom to set a specific range up to three months.
The custom date range is inclusive of both dates selected. The dates selected will include dates that are greater than or equal to the start date selected and less than or equal to the end date selected.
- Analyze the data that appears in the Overview tab.
For more information, refer to the sections below:
Comparing key ticket metrics
The top of the Reporting Overview contains options for viewing ticket metrics.

- New Tickets is the number of new tickets created during the reporting period.
- Solved Tickets is the number of solved tickets during the reporting period.
- Backlog is the total number of unsolved tickets in Zendesk Support at the present time.
- Agent Touches is number of agent updates to tickets during the reporting period.
- Satisfaction Rating is the average customer satisfaction rating given during the reporting period.
- First Reply Time is the average amount of time it took an agent to make the first public comment in a ticket (in calendar hours).
When you click one of the ticket stat options, you see a detailed graph that includes daily totals for each day of the reporting period. You can change the reporting period for any of the ticket stats. And you can view one ticket stat at a time or you can choose to compare two ticket stats.
- Click the Reporting icon (
) in the sidebar.
- Select a Reporting period at the top.
You can chose a predefined period or chose Custom to set a specific range up to three months.
The custom date range is inclusive of both dates selected. The dates selected will include dates that are greater than or equal to the start date selected and less than or equal to the end date selected.
- Click one of the ticket stats at the top to view that data.
- If you want to compare two stats, click a second ticket stat.
- Hover your mouse over the graph to see daily totals.
Viewing more ticket metrics
The middle section of the Reporting Overview contains three panels for viewing additional ticket metrics.

-
Tickets by Channel shows the percentage of your tickets that come from each of your supported channels.
The graph shows a maximum of six channels. If you offer more than six support channels, you will see your five most used channels and a sixth category called Other that groups your remaining channels.
-
Benchmark enables you to compare your key metrics to your peers. The benchmark shows your satisfaction rating, first reply time, and new ticket volume compared to your peers, by industry, company size, or target audience.
The benchmark is based on a 28-day rolling window of performance benchmarks for you to compare yourself against. The benchmark is calculated by first finding the mean (or average) for each individual Zendesk account, then taking the median over all accounts as the benchmark. By this definition, 50% of the accounts in the segment fall above that number, and 50% of the accounts in that segment fall below that number.
-
First Reply Time shows the average amount of time it took an agent to make the first public comment after a ticket was created. The chart shows the distribution of tickets according to number of hours for first reply. This enables you to visualize the first reply time in a more robust way, rather than looking at an average, which might be skewed by outliers.
If an agent creates a ticket, it will not automatically be excluded from First Reply Time on the native overview. The first reply time for an agent-created ticket will not be calculated until any agent's next public reply.
The graph includes a breakdown by hours, showing what percentage of tickets were responded to within a specific number of hours (0-1, 1-8, 8-24, or >24). Tickets that do not have a public comment are not included. For example, if a ticket is closed without a public comment, it does not have a first response time, and is not included in the First Reply Time calculation.
Note: This metric is based off calendar hours, not any business hours or schedules you might have set.
To view your tickets by channel, benchmark, or first reply
- Click the Reporting icon (
) in the sidebar.
The Reporting Overview opens by default.
- Select a Reporting period at the top.
You can choose a predefined period or chose Custom to set a specific range up to three months.
The custom date range is inclusive of both dates selected. The dates selected will include dates that are greater than or equal to the start date selected and less than or equal to the end date selected.
- Refer to the appropriate reporting panel in the middle section of the overview: Tickets by Channels, Benchmark, or First Reply Time
Note: If the Benchmark report does not display data, you need to complete a brief survey to opt-in to the benchmark. To do so, click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select Settings > Benchmark survey. It might take some time for your Benchmark report to update.
You can also watch this short video about how to complete the benchmark survey for your Zendesk.
Viewing top content, searches, and agents
The bottom section of the Reporting Overview contains three panels for viewing data about your Help Center content, end-user searches, and agent performance.

-
Help Center content shows your top articles or posts according to the number of views, votes, or comments during the reporting period. You can filter for knowledge base content or community content.
- Top Searches shows end-user search data during the reporting period, including top search strings used in your Help Center, searches that resulted in a user creating a ticket, and searches that did not return an article or a community post.
-
Top Agents shows your top agents according to number of tickets solved, customer satisfaction ratings, and number of ticket updates during the reporting period.
Note: The Top Agents panel is not displayed if you are using Support Essential.
- Click the Reporting icon (
) in the sidebar.
The Reporting Overview opens by default.
- Select a Reporting period at the top.
You can chose a predefined period or chose Custom to set a specific range up to three months.
The custom date range is inclusive of both dates selected. The dates selected will include dates that are greater than or equal to the start date selected and less than or equal to the end date selected.
- Refer to the reporting panels at the bottom of the Overview: Top Articles, Top Searches, or Top Agents.
- Click any of the tabs in the panels to change the data.
- (Professional and Enterprise only) Click See all at the bottom of the panel to expand the data.
Clicking See all opens the Knowledge Base, Community, or Search Reporting tab, depending on your selection. For more information on Help Center reporting, see Analyzing Help Center knowledge base and community activity and Analyzing Help Center search results.
94 Comments
Thanks for the article, definitely helpful! I'm wondering if there is a way to view the exact same data that's in the "Overview" section but limited to only data from one "Organization" ?
We have several clients that we run through our Zendesk and it would be helpful to be able to view these metrics on an organization by organization basis.
Thanks!
Hey Tommy!
Unfortunately it's not possible to modify these reports in a way that will show you only the results related to one individual Organization. These are just meant to give you a broad breakdown of your account activity. For the sort of functionality you're wanting, you'll need to use the Insights reporting platform that's available on the Professional and Enterprise plan levels.
I hope that helps clear things up!
Can someone provide a more granular definition of "Touches" as displayed on these reports?
Does it include all updates to a ticket? Or only updates w/ comments?
If I just flip the status between open and pending 5 times in succession, without making any other changes to the ticket, does that register as 5 touches?
Hey Mike,
The definition of "Touches" displayed on these reports are in relation to any update made by the agent. This includes changing the status of the ticket because an agent is still touching the ticket to make this change.
So in regards to your scenario provided, if an agent flips the status of a ticket 5 times in succession, that means that 5 touches have been registered.
Hope this helps!
Hi,
I tried to upload the excel file several times, but always show that error message my format is correct.
This is the first time I encountered this problem.
Hi Herbert!
I see you've got a ticket open with our Support team as well. It looks like this is a known issue that a number of customers are experiencing, and we're actively working on getting it resolved.
We'll update you in your ticket when we have new info to share!
Hi, as I advanced user, why can´t I see Insights for a product we use, Talk?
Hey, Patricio! I see that this is your first post. Welcome to the Zendesk Community!
Not being able to see your Insights definitely sounds unexpected. Let me get a little bit more info so I can help troubleshoot:
- How long have you been on the Talk Advanced plan?
- Have you purchased it, or are you currently on a trial?
Can you see which times are most popular to receive tickets based on metrics?
Hi Michele!
We have a recipe for this in our Best Practices and Recipes area! You can find it here: Insights: Tickets by time of day created.
Hope that helps!
I have added a report to an incorrect dashboard, how do I remove it from the dashboard but not delete it entirely?.
ignore me found it
Hey Amy! Thanks for letting us know!
Hello,
I have been able to create plenty of my own custom dashboards and reports throughout Zendesk but one area I cannot seem to get is the Knowledge base statistics. I would love to be able to create my own reports and dig deeper into the statistics that are given from the Reporting section.
I was able to find the Reports section labeled Knowledge Capture that has a quite a few pre-made reports. My problem is that I cannot seem to locate exactly: What / How / Filter to use. Below are some of the pre-made reports but whenever I try to use those I do not get any data whatsoever. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Michael,
The Knowledge Capture dashboard is for the Knowledge Capture app. The app is still in early access.
I'm guessing the app has been enabled for you but maybe it's not being used if you're not seeing data in the associated reports.
It would help to know what search terms are being used often in the Help Center as native metrics in Zendesk (not going to Google Analytics). I am noticing a pattern of less-than-helpful metrics in the ZD reports.
Hi Mary,
There is a native Search dashboard you can use (without going to Google Analytics). Have you seen it? Here's info about the dashboard.
Hi Jennifer,
In the drop down selection list of benchmark, I only see three options: Others, External Customer and company size:100-499. Is there other choices?
Thanks.
Hi Jennifer,
Those are in direct relation to your industry, audience, and company size that you selected in the Benchmark Survey under Admin > Settings > Benchmark Survey. Based on the your selections, it gives reflects those options in the drop-down to compare your account to similarly-sized companies.
Currently, after filling out the survey, those are the only options available in that section of the Reporting Overview!
Thank you for commenting and reaching out! Let us know if you have any further questions!
Is there a way to make the report ignore weekends? It's killing our average first response time as we only have support staff M-F from 8-5 on average, and any tickets over the weekend make it look like we just let them stagnate forever before responding.
Hi Erin!
Unfortunately our Native reporting overview would not allow you to report on just data for tickets Monday through Friday. However, if you were to leverage Insights and Business Hours, you could achieve this workflow. Feel free to send us an email at support@zendesk.com if you'd like to discuss this in more detail.
Hi!
I created a report to show me how many tickets are tagged as merged. I wanted to be able to quickly see how many new tickets were not included in the solved ticket total because they were duplicates. How can I see this report on the overview page? Do I have to open the reporting tab and view it manually every week?
Thanks for your help!
Is it possible to modify (or replace) the Insights Overview the way you can with GoodData Dashboards? Even logged in as the Owner account, I get a little lock icon at the upper right area of the Overview that pops up the following message when I hover over it:
"View only. You don't have permission to edit this dashboard."
Nevermind - I figured out I can select my own dashboard that I want to see using the drop-down in the upper-left area of the Insights screen. Neat!
OK, real question this time, can I make my own dashboard the default for all users AND, can I make Insights the default tab for all users (rather than the generic Overview tab)?
And finally, is the Daily Sync option to choose the time to sync the actual GoodData report or just this particular dashboard on the Insights tab? If it doesn't set the sync time for the actual report, when is the report sync'd (we have a Professional account, not Enterprise)?
Hi,
I need the Benchmark Report with a longer time frame, 90 days is to short. How can i find/create this report with Insights ?
Thanks for your help!
Hi!
Need help sending a daily ticket reports to End User, GoodData will accept Light Agent and Agent email but not accepting End User email address. Please help by providing instructions.
Thank You
Annoyingly, GoodData can only send reports as e-mail to registered real users of Zendesk (and end users don't count.) Luckily, you can send Dashboards via e-mail (only as attached PDFs, unfortunately) using Zendesk Insights to any e-mail address.
Thank You so much John!
You're welcome. I had to reply because that stuff drove me nuts a while ago and it took me long enough to figure it out (don't laugh) that I didn't want anyone else to painfully stumble through it either.
Now, to those Zendesk pros who are lurking, can you please make this less silly? I realize much of it relies on GoodData, which isn't exactly fully in your control, but seriously, you've got to be able to wield some power to be able to beat them over the head with suggested improvements.
Oh, and in case it's not clear, "less silly" means:
Hi everyone.
Could you help me understand why there was a sudden and inexplicable spike on June 6th.
What are the likely reason(s) that could've caused 96,835 new tickets in 1 day?
Much appreciated.
- Randy
I would like to follow up on the issue detailed above. Thanks.
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