Building custom reports in Insights (Professional and Enterprise)

Zendesk is removing Insights reporting on February 5th, 2021. If you are using Insights, you’ll need to move to Explore, the latest generation of reporting for Zendesk products, before that time.

You can create your own custom reports in Insights. For information on creating custom metrics and dashboards, see Creating custom metrics and Creating dashboards in Insights.

If you have not enabled Insights, see Enabling Insights for yourself. If you are an Enterprise agent in a custom role, you might not have access to Insights, depending on how your admin set up your custom role.

This article covers the following topics:

• Creating a new custom report
• Adding your data
• Filtering your report
• Customizing your report
• Changing report visibility

Tip: If you want to learn more about reports on your workflows, tickets, and users, check out the Metrics and Analytics: Intro to Insights training course.

Creating a new custom report

You can create new reports using the Report Editor. You can either create a new report in Insights or from an existing dashboard.

To create a new report in Insights

1. Click the Reporting icon () in the sidebar, then click the Insights tab.
2. Click GoodData in the upper-right corner.
3. Select Report in the toolbar.
4. Click Create Report.

   

   You will automatically be redirected to the Report Editor.

To create a new report from a dashboard

1. On an Insights dashboard, click the Settings icon.
2. Select Edit from the drop-down list.
3. Click Report, then click +Create a New Report.

You will automatically be redirected to the Report Editor.

Adding your data

The Report Editor contains three panels, What, How, and Filter. In the What and How panels, you will select your data. For information on adding filters, see Filtering your report.

This section contains the following topics:

• Viewing the events data model
• Adding metrics in the What panel
• Adding attributes in the How panel

Viewing the events data model

Insights is built on a data model that represents all the data sent from your Zendesk Support to GoodData for your Insights project. All of the objects in the data model represent pieces of data that you can use to build custom reports.

This conceptual graphic is a high-level representation of the Insights data model. The green boxes represent the data sets in the data model.

You can view the detailed data model, including all of your custom fields. Viewing the data model helps you understand the relationship between items and what you can report on in Insights.

Note: You can also view an interactive version of your data model. Sign in to Insights in Zendesk Support, go to GoodData labs, and then click LDM Visualizer. However, keep in mind that the LDM Visualizer app belongs to GoodData and isn't supported by Zendesk. We can't fix bugs that you may encounter with this app.

To see the data model

1. Click the Reporting icon () in the sidebar, then click the Insights tab.
2. Click GoodData in the upper-right corner.

   

3. Click Manage in the toolbar.
4. Click Model in the left navigation.

   

   The data model appears.

5. Click the data model to see the full-size version in another tab.

   The facts in the data model are used in the How when you build reports and the attributes are used in the What when you build reports.

Adding metrics in the What panel

Your metrics include all of your quantitative data, such as number of tickets and wait times. Metrics represent what your report is made from, so they are added in the What panel. This section only discusses how to add pre-built metrics. For information on adding custom metrics, see Creating custom metrics in Insights.

To add a new metric

1. In the Report Editor, click on the What button.
2. In the View by drop-down list, select whether to view your metrics by Folders or Tags.
3. Select the folder or tag containing your metrics or search for metrics using the search bar under Metrics
4. Click your metric.

   

5. Edit any metric details in the Detail column.

   

   You can edit the following details:
   • Metric format: Select how your results are displayed, such as in conditional colors or bars. Click the Metric Format box to edit your result format in the Number format editor.
   • Drill in Settings: Set the attributes to use when drilling into your metric. Drill in settings can also be added after you create a report.
   • View details: Edit your metric MAQL, duplicate your metric, change visibility settings, and add tags, descriptions, and comments. You can also navigate to this page in Manage>Data>Metrics.

When you are finished selecting your metric, you can either click the How button or click Done.

Adding attributes in the How panel

Your attributes include all of your qualitative data, such as dates and ticket fields. Attributes are how your results are divided, so they are added in the How panel. Depending on the metrics you selected, you might not be able add some attributes. The folders' names containing unavailable attributes will appear gray. This feature prevents you from creating invalid reports.

To add an attribute

1. In the Report Editor, click on the How button.
2. In the View by drop-down list, select whether to view your attributes by Folders or Tags.
3. Select the folder or tag containing your attributes or search for attributes using the search bar under Attributes.
4. Click your attribute.

   

5. Edit any attribute details in the Detail column.

   

   You can edit the following details:
   • Display Label: Select how values are represented. For example, for the User attribute, you can select to display either the User Name, ID, or URL. This option is only available for some attributes.
   • Filter this attribute: Select which values are or are not included in your results. This filter is processed before any filters added in the Filter panel.
6. Click Done.

Filtering your report

You can apply filters to limit your results to specific settings.

To add filters

1. Click the Filter button after you add your data.
2. Select a filter type.

   

   Below are the available filters:

   • Select from a List of Values (including date ranges): Limits your results to set attribute values or dates. This filter requires an attribute with values to filter by. If you select a date attribute, you can apply date ranges such as last week.
   • Ranking Filter: Limits your results to the selected number of top or bottom values. To use this filter, you will need to select the number of top or bottom results, an attribute to rank by, and a metric to rank.
   • Numeric range filter: Displays only results that are higher or lower than a set number. This filter requires an attribute to filter by, a metric containing your results, and a number for your results to be greater or less than.
   • Variable filter: Filters results by a selected variable from the data model. You can see a full list of variables in Manage>Data>Variables.
3. When you have finished entering your filter options, click Apply.

Your filter will be applied to your report. If you do not want to filter results, you can delete your filter from your report.

To delete your filters

1. Hover over your filter name.
2. Click Delete.

If you want to add filters to your report, but do not want to show them, you can hide your applied filters.

To hide your filters

1. Click Hide Filters.
2. Click the Filter button again to show your added filters.

Customizing your report

After you add your data and filters, you can customize your report. All customization options can be accessed by clicking Show Configuration on the upper right.

This section contains the following topics:

• Selecting your data location
• Customizing axes and result formatting

Selecting your data location

If you are using a chart type that contains axes, such as a bar or line chart, you can select the associated axis for each metric and attribute.

Your chart will automatically set your attributes and metrics at default locations. You can switch what axis your metrics and attributes appear on.

To switch metric and attribute axis

1. Click Show Configuration.

1. Under the main Configuration heading are all available locations on your chart.

   

   The available locations are:
   • Horizontal (X): Values appearing on the X axis or horizontal axis of your chart.
   • Vertical (Y): Values appearing on the Y axis or vertical axis of your chart.
   • Series: Series will determine the values shown on your chart. The value labels will appear in the legend at the bottom of your chart. You must have more than one metric or attribute for this location option to be available.
2. Drag and drop your metrics and attributes between locations.
3. If you have multiple metric values, you can click the down arrow next to Metric Values to select which results are shown first.

   

4. Click Apply

Customizing axes and result formatting

After you have selected your data location, you can edit axes and overall results formatting.

To edit axis settings

1. Click Show Configuration
2. Under the Advanced Configuration heading, click the + button next to the axis you want to modify.

   

3. Click the + button next to the metric or attribute you want to modify.

   

4. Perform any of the following customization options:
   • Visibility: Uncheck the box next to the metric or attribute to hide the metric or attribute.
   • Name: Uncheck the box next to Name to hide the metric or attribute name. Select a degree from the Rotation drop-down list to shift the metric or attribute name position.
   • Labels: Uncheck the box next to Labels to hide the result labels. Select a degree from the Rotation drop-down list to shift the result labels.
5. Click Apply.

To edit chart settings

1. Click Show Configuration.
2. Under Advanced Configuration, click the + button next to Global Settings

   

3. Perform any of the following customization options:
   • Global Font Size: Set the size of your result font.
   • Data Labels: Display the number above a data point.
   • Legend and Gridlines: Show or hide the result legend or chart grid.
   • Line smoothing and Data points: For line graphs, you can check Line smoothing to curve your line graph and Data points to highlight individual value's results.
4. Click Apply

In addition to the above customization, you can also select the order your results appear in by selecting a new sort option in Chart Sorting. If you did not enter custom formatting when adding your metric, you can change how your results are interpreted by clicking Custom Number Formats underneath Formatting.

Changing report visibility

Once you publish a dashboard, all your custom reports and metrics on the dashboard become visible as well. If you hide a dashboard, its reports and metrics remain published. You must hide them individually by turning them into personal objects. Personal objects can be viewed only by you, but can be shared by sending editors and users the link.

Note: If you hide an object you do not own, keep the link. You will no longer be able to view the report without it.

Hiding your report

By default, your report is hidden from users. In the Report Editor, you can select for your report to be visible or hide your report. The report is hidden if the eye icon () is shown at the top of the report.

1. After you create a custom report, click the Options drop-down menu and select Settings.
2. In Settings, deselect Visible to all users.
3. To make a report visible, click the eye icon.

You can share a hidden report by sending editors a link to your report. For more information on sharing reports see, Sharing reports in Insights