The Zendesk Time Tracking app helps support managers gain visibility into the actual time spent across all your customer service interactions within a ticket. The app tracks the time spent on each ticket update and stores this with the ticket.
This time spent can be measured per ticket or per update. Time spent per ticket is called ticket handling time. Time spent per update is called update handling time. With Explore, you can create calculated metrics for these different handling times and create time tracking reports in Explore.
This article describes the difference between ticket handling time and update handling time. It also links to Explore recipes that show you how to create custom time tracking metrics and reports.
Ticket handling time vs. Update handling time
As with any other Support ticket data, there are two approaches for analyzing time tracking app data:
- Ticket handling time
- Update handling time
Ticket handling time
The first approach is to look at the handling time per ticket. You can use this information to report on individual agent performance, or to report on complex workflows where the same ticket is handled by multiple agents.
If you choose to go with this approach, the best place to create your reports is the Support: Tickets dataset. To do so, you can create a standard calculated metric based on the Total time spent (sec) metric (which is available in Explore only after you install the Time Tracking app) and use it to report on the handling time per ticket.
To learn how to create a custom Ticket handling time metric and use it to produce two example time tracking reports, see Explore recipe: Time Tracking app - Measuring ticket handling time.
Update handling time
The second approach is to look at the handling time per update. You can use this information to report on individual agent performance, or to report on complex workflows where the same ticket is handled by multiple agents.
For this approach, the calculated metric and reports should be created in the Support: Updates history dataset based on the data stored in the Changes - Previous value and Changes - New value attributes.
To learn how to create a custom Update handling time metric and use it to produce an example time tracking report, see Explore recipe: Time Tracking app - Measuring update handling time.
113 comments
Dainne Kiara Lucena-Laxamana
Hi Deo Labindalawa
Just checking in if your exported average still doesn't match the one in Explore. If yes, do let me know so we can look into it. But to clarify, Explore's average aggregator is calculated by adding up all the values and dividing the sum by the total number of values which is explained here.
1
Jake Warren
So one of the things I want to easily look at is amount of time my team is logging each week, think of it as a utilization metric. Time handling makes sense for this, but I'm struggling with how to show that based on when the time was logged. Is there no timestamp for when the time logging occurred that can be used? If I group by week for when a ticket was solved, the time handling for that ticket would all be showing for the same week, even if it were logged in different weeks. For example, a ticket has 3 hours logged in week 1 and 3 hours logged week 2. I want to group by when the time logging occurred to see that 6 hours split out, however grouping by solved date all 6 hours will show for the week the ticket was solved.
0
Gab Guinto
If you using the Update handling time metric, sliced by agent/updater, then you can filter the report by Update date attributes (Update - Date, Update - Week of year, etc.). These date filters will slice/filter the data by the time the actual update was made and the time tracking data was logged.
1
Jake Warren
I see what you're saying, @..., this covers exactly what I needed. Appreciate it!
0
Deo Labindalawa
Hi Dainne Kiara Lucena-Laxamana
Still not matching.
Im using the below query to get the overall AHT but when I'm trying to get the per analyst AHT to get the breakdown its not matching with the overall.
0
Gab Guinto
Let me create a ticket so that we can drill into the values. Thanks!
0
Keri Brownell
Hi there - how do I exclude tickets with the closed_by_merge tag within these metrics (this calculated metric: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408843359898-Explore-recipe-Excluding-tickets-closed-by-merge)
0
Jay Gianan
Hi Everyone,
We recently activated time tracking app.
Roles have been updated for the time tracking feature prior 12/2. However, the total time spent remains blank for created tickets starting 12/3 onwards whereas activation and update on roles was made prior.


Would anyone know why else would we show blank or 0 information for the total time spent field?
0
Jay Gianan
Hello Team, Would like to seek help on different Average Handle time from manual computation
ex. For Agent 1, Average handle time on the "(avg) Update Handling time (sec)" shows 1078.62222 however for manually computing Update Handling time by (sum) Update Handling time (sec)/Tickets Updated = 48538/37 it's giving me 1311.837. Can someone confirm why am I seeing a variance on AVG Handle Time (sec) from Manual computation of handle time?
0
Karl Kronborg
Hi Zendesk community,
I just downloaded the time tracking app and enabled it. I created the metrics by copy/pasting the code from this article but I can't seem to get it to work. I just get an empty field. Is there someone who can point me in the right direction? Thank you!
1
Dane
I noticed that you have already submitted a ticket for this concern. For visibility it was identified that some tickets with multiple updates can have additional entries for Update Handling Time causing the discrepancy if you manually calculate it.
It will be better to drill-in to all the updates on the ticket before manually calculating for the value.
0
Jay Gianan
Hi Dane,
Thanks for your response. I did open a ticket on this and was able to find out that the calculation of Update Handle time exclude Nulls or tickets that has no handle time. That's why when I did the previous calculation "HANDLE TIME / TICKETS HANDLED" it doesn't match. Excluding the tickets from the calculation that has no handle time gave me the exact result.
So the correct calculation is
Handle Time / Tickets with Handle time
0
Vivian
How can I obtain the time duration for a ticket that is in the "open" status, specifically during working hours? I understand that the requester wait time calculates the total waiting duration, and the time tracking app can track time, but it only starts counting when the agent opens the ticket. The data we are looking for is, for example, when a customer submits a ticket and it remains in the "open" status. After 2 hours, Agent responds, and then the customer replies again, followed by a response from the agent after 5 minutes. Where can I find the duration of 2 hours and 5 minutes in this scenario?
0
Vivian
How can I obtain the time duration for a ticket that is in the "open" status, specifically during working hours? I understand that the requester wait time calculates the total waiting duration, and the time tracking app can track time, but it only starts counting when the agent opens the ticket. The data we are looking for is, for example, when a customer submits a ticket and it remains in the "open" status. After 2 hours, Agent responds, and then the customer replies again, followed by a response from the agent after 5 minutes. Where can I find the duration of 2 hours and 5 minutes in this scenario?
0
Aaron Peace
HELP:
We need to be able to report on agent time activity across any/all Tickets per day/week/month but the metrics don't seem to work unless a Ticket has been closed. Can you provide a report recipe for this?
example:
Rows= Days of the week (mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs, Fri) (alternatively day/week/month)
Columns= Agents
Data= accumulated total time logged across any/all tickets per day whether the ticket is still open or closed
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE: I have managed to work out how to report on day/week but the data shown is still incorrect. Is this because some tickets are still open? How can I report on time logged on open Tickets too?
0
Mark Nino Valencia
It looks like the Time tracking app does not apply to Child tickets. Is this a limitation of this App?
0
Phoebe Morin
0
Cam
Is time tracking app not working with tickets from Messaging channel? How do we get update handling time of agents in messaging tickets?
0
Noly Maron Unson
Hi Cam,
Messaging conversation is not tracked by the Time Tracking app. This means that when an agent is sending messages to users on Messaging tickets the app doesn't see those messages as ticket updates.
It will only work if the agent were to compose a public reply (email) in the composer and then submit that ticket update then the Time tracking app would record the time spent data.
Hope this helps.
0
Gerald J
Following the Update Handling Time, it captures each update done a ticket (public comment, internal note, etc). Averaging this would return a lower number.
We need to capture the total time spent by each agent in a ticket and average them. I want to attribute to each agent/actor the time they spent on tickets they handled.
0
David
To capture the total time spent by each agent on a ticket and average this time across tickets they've handled, you'll want to use a combo of Explore and Time Tracking
Here's a quick example/steps starting from the beginning.
Step 1: Ensure Proper Time Tracking Setup
- Ensure the Time Tracking app is correctly installed and configured in your Zendesk instance. Agents should be trained to accurately log time spent on each ticket update.
Step 2: Access Time Tracking Data in Zendesk Explore
- The Time Tracking app stores data in custom ticket fields, typically named something like "_Time Spent (sec)".
- Navigate to Zendesk Explore and select the dataset that includes your tickets (usually "Support: Tickets").
Step 3: Create a New Report
- Start a new report in Zendesk Explore.
- Add the metrics and attributes relevant to your analysis.
Step 4: Add Metrics for Time Tracking
- Metrics: You'll want to use the custom field(s) created by the Time Tracking app. This might involve adding a custom metric if the field isn't directly available as a predefined metric.
- To create a custom metric for the total time spent, you can sum the time logged in the time tracking field.
- Example formula for a custom metric: `SUM(Time Spent field)`
Step 5: Add Attributes to Your Report
- Attributes: Include "Assignee" or "Updater" to break down the time tracking data by agent. This will allow you to attribute the time spent to each agent who worked on the ticket.
- Optionally, include other attributes such as "Ticket ID", "Status", or "Group" to further segment your data.
Step 6: Calculate Average Time Per Agent
- To calculate the average time spent per agent, you might need to create another custom metric that divides the total time spent by the number of tickets handled by each agent.
- Example formula for average time per agent: `SUM(Time Spent field) / COUNT(Tickets)`
- This calculation gives you the average handling time per ticket, per agent.
Step 7: Apply Filters and Aggregations
- Apply any necessary filters to your report, such as time frame, ticket status (e.g., solved tickets), or specific groups/agents.
- Ensure your report aggregates data by agent to accurately reflect the average time spent per agent across their handled tickets.
Step 8: Visualize and Share Your Findings
- Choose a visualization that best represents your data, such as a bar chart or table.
- Share your report with stakeholders or use it internally to make informed decisions about staffing, training, or process improvements.
Considerations:
- Accuracy depends on agents consistently logging time for each ticket update.
- Time tracking for internal notes versus public comments might need to be distinguished, depending on your specific requirements.
- Ensure you're compliant with any privacy and data handling policies when tracking and reporting on employee activities.
0
Cam
Hello David,
It seems that the steps you have indicated above regarding getting average handle time of an agent are incoherent with this article on Update Handling Time.
I have tried both ways and data inconsistent with the tickets updated by the agent. Here's a sample report. You'd see that update handling time data is not present on all tickets updated by the agent. If handling time is being recorded by the time tracking app, total time spent (min) is not accurate; I have done manual cross-checking of sample tickets and somehow the total time spent are ballooned in the report.
0
Alex Zheng
There was a recent issue with the formula that caused some of the numbers for the update handling time to be shown incorrectly. This has since been resolved and the numbers should now be accurate again. If you do have any issues please feel free to reach out to Support to investigate further.
0