Reporting with custom fields

You can add custom fields to your Zendesk Support tickets to enable you to collect information that's not collected by a standard Zendesk ticket. For example, you could add a drop-down list to tickets that enables the requester of the ticket to choose their office location.

When your Support data is next synchronized with Explore, custom fields are also synchronized and can be used in your reports. This synchronization occurs every hour. Explore synchronizes ticket, user, and organization custom fields.

For details about how to create and use custom fields in Support, see Adding custom fields to your tickets and support request forms.

This article contains the following topics:

• How custom fields synchronize with Explore
• Finding custom fields in Explore
• Custom fields example
• Tips for using custom fields in Explore

How custom fields synchronize with Explore

When you create, edit, delete, or reactivate custom fields in Zendesk Support, the following happens in Explore:

• When a custom field is created or reactivated in Support, a corresponding metric or attribute is created in Explore at the next data sync (which can take between 1-2 hours). The custom field values must have been used in tickets, users or organizations for them to appear under the corresponding metric or attribute in Explore.
• When a custom field title or value is updated in Support, the metric or attribute title or value is updated in Explore.
• When a custom field is deactivated in Support the corresponding metric or attribute is deleted from Explore.

Important: If you delete an active field without deactivating it first, it will not be deleted from Explore. In this case, contact support for assistance.

Finding custom fields in Explore

All ticket, user and organization custom fields are synced with Explore and automatically placed in the corresponding attribute or metric folders of the datasets. From there they can be selected and used on the queries or dashboards.

Only the latest field value is recorded in the standard Explore metrics and attributes. In the Ticket updates dataset, you can track updates to the fields by using the Changes attributes. For details, see Metrics and attributes for Zendesk Support.

Note: The Backlog history dataset does not contain custom fields.

Use the following table to help you understand where to find your custom fields in Explore:

Field type (from Zendesk Support)	Object type in Explore	Explore folder
Drop-down Multi-select Text (single line) Multi-line Checkbox Credit card Regex	Attribute	Ticket custom fields Requester/user organization custom Fields Requester/user custom fields
Date	Attribute	Each date attribute is represented by multiple time dimensions placed in the attribute’s individual folder
Numeric Decimal	Metric	Numeric custom fields

Note: If you've set up multiple organizations for users, Explore will always report custom field information from the default organization. This means that any additional organizations added will report incorrect information.

Custom fields example

In this example, you'll create a custom field containing a drop-down list that lets agents add the requesters office floor to a ticket. You'll then synchronize this with Explore and finally, create a simple report showing tickets associated with each office floor. You must be a Support administrator to add the custom field.

Create the custom field in Support

Perform the following actions in Zendesk Support.

1. Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Manage > Ticket Fields.
2. Click the Add field button.
3. Click New Field at the top of the page, and enter a title for the field, in this case Office location.
4. From the list of field types, click Drop-down.

   

5. In the properties for the list, enter a title for the list, an optional description, and configure permissions as to who can set values for this field.

   For detailed information about the options on this page, see Adding custom fields to your tickets and support request forms.

6. In the Field values section, enter each line of the list. For this example, enter 1st Floor, 2nd Floor, 3rd Floor, 4th Floor, and 5th Floor.

   

7. Click Save.
8. Add the custom field to the ticket forms you want to use it with. For help, see Adding custom fields to your tickets and support request forms.

The new custom field is now available in your Support tickets. Before you move on, create a few tickets using this new field, or update the field on some existing tickets.

Tip: You might need to refresh your browser window before you see the new field.

Create the Explore query

Perform the following actions in Zendesk Explore after your data has synchronized. Synchronization takes place once every hour.

1. In Explore, create a new query using the Support: Tickets dataset. For more help, see Creating queries.
2. In the Metrics panel, add the Tickets metric.
3. In the Rows panel, expand Ticket custom fields, and then click Office location. It might take a few seconds to display the custom field.
   Tip: To find custom fields for users, expand User custom fields and for organizations, expand Organization custom fields.
4. Explore generates the report in a table similar to the following:

   

   Tip: Previously, Explore displayed custom field values as a tag instead of the actual value. If you have query filters, calculated metrics, or calculated attributes that reference the tag values, update these with the new custom field value to ensure they continue to work correctly.
5. Give the query a name, and then save it.

Tips for using custom fields in Explore

Use the tips in the following table to help you understand how custom fields work in Explore and how you can get the best from them:

Field type (from Zendesk Support)	Values	Usage
Drop-down Multi-select	Agents or end-users select values from drop-down and multi-select fields. These values appear in Explore as they are recorded in the Support UI. However, if a value is later deleted from the field in Support, its tag will be displayed in Explore instead of the actual value.	The drop-down field is commonly used to track information about the user or their request. Some common examples are category, issue type, region, plan, etc. Drop-down fields work in a similar way to built-in Support fields like Type or Priority. Use the multi-select field when multiple values are required. For example, you could record multiple product areas, services provided, or areas of interest. Reporting on this field type is more complex than reporting for a drop-down field. Use this field type when a drop-down field cannot be used as an alternative.
Checkbox	Checkbox fields have three values True (if the box is checked), False (if the box is not checked) and NULL (if the ticket was closed before the checkbox was created).	The checkbox is the simplest field type to use and is commonly applied as a query filter. Examples: Submitted for review, Serviced, Completed.
Text (single line) Multi-line	Text field values are manually typed in by agents or end-users meaning the field might contain a large number of values. Additionally, the values entered might be inconsistent, or contain spelling mistakes.	Normally, text fields are used as notes to record additional unstructured data. This makes them less useful for reporting purposes. However, they can still be added to the table queries to provide context details about tickets or users.
Credit card Regex	Values for these fields are also manually typed in by agents or end-users, but the format is controlled by the credit card number format or custom regular expression.	Because these fields provide a more structured way of recording data, they can be more useful for reporting purposes than standard text fields.
Date	Each date attribute is represented by multiple time dimensions like Date, Month, Year, etc.	Enables you to record dates or deadlines, like date of birth, project end date, and booking date. They can be used in queries, dashboard filters or calculated metrics in the same way as any built-in time attributes.
Numeric Decimal	Numeric and decimal fields allow storing numeric values that can be computed in the same way as any other metric using the available Explore aggregators.	These fields are similar to the system metrics, like Agent Replies or Resolution Time. Examples you could use are revenue, project length, or area in square meters.

Note: The maximum length of a custom field is 65,535 characters after encoding.