You can add numerous types of custom fields to ticket forms and make them visible to agents only or to both agents and end users.
After you create your custom ticket field, you can use it in triggers, automations, macros, and views. On Suite Professional and above, you can report on custom ticket fields in Explore.
You must be an administrator to create custom ticket fields and add them to ticket forms.
Topics covered in this article:
- How custom ticket fields work
- Adding a custom ticket field for agents and end users
- Understanding the persistence of custom field data
Related articles:
How custom ticket fields work
Drop-down list, multi-select, and checkbox custom fields generate tags that can also be used in automations, macros, triggers, reports, and views (see Understanding custom ticket fields, tags, and business rules). Lookup relationship fields can be used in triggers and views (see Using lookup relationship fields in triggers and views. All custom fields can be referenced as placeholders (see Placeholders for custom fields).
Creating custom ticket fields
You can add custom fields to tickets to gather more information about the customer or issue. Fields can be visible to agents only or to both agents and end users.
You can permit end users to view the custom field in their ticket by making the field visible, or you can add the custom field to the Support Request form by making the field both visible and editable.
Before you begin, see Optimizing your ticket form to understand ticket fields and do some planning to build an optimal ticket form.
You must be an administrator to create custom ticket fields.
The following video gives you an overview of how to create custom ticket fields:
Creating custom ticket fields [1:41]
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields.
- Click Add field.
- Select a field type, then enter a Display name.
- (Optional) Enter a Description for the custom field. This is visible to admins only.
- Under Permissions, select an option:
- Agents can edit: Only agents can view and edit the field. It appears in tickets.
- Customers can edit: Agents and end users can view and edit the field. It appears in tickets and in the support request form in the help center.
- Customers can view: Agents can view and edit the field. End users can only view the field. It appears in tickets and on end users' requests, but isn't included in the support request form in the help center.
For a single ticket form, the new field automatically appears in your ticket form. If you use multiple ticket forms, you'll have to manually add the field to any ticket forms you'd like to include it in.
- If the field is visible to customers, enter a Title shown to customers and
Description shown to customers.
The customer title and description options aren't available if the field is only visible to agents. Descriptions appear in plain text, with no line breaks.
- If the agent must complete the field to solve the ticket, select Required to solve
a ticket.Note: Required fields for solving a ticket can be bypassed by triggers and automations . These fields are also bypassed when an agent merges a ticket.
- If the end user must complete this field to submit the ticket, select Required to submit a request.
- Enter an optional Description shown to end users.
- Configure any additional options, depending on your field type.
-
Field option (checkbox fields only, optional):
Enter a tag to apply to a ticket when the checkbox is selected.
-
Field validation (regex fields only):
Enter a regular expression to create an input mask to validate entry.
-
Field values (drop-down and multi-select fields):
- Enter Field options to include in the list. Click the X to remove a
value.
You can bulk import field values if you have a large number to add.
- Click Sort ascending or use the drag-and-drop icon
(
) to manually reorder the field values.
- To create a nested drop-down list, separate categories and values with a double colon (::). See Organizing drop-down lists.
- Enter Field options to include in the list. Click the X to remove a
value.
-
Related object and Set a filter (lookup relationship fields
only)
Select the type of object to relate, and optionally define filters that restrict possible values for the field. See Adding lookup relationship fields.
-
Field option (checkbox fields only, optional):
- (Optional) Specify a Default value for the custom field.
In a drop-down list, the default value applies only to new tickets created by agents through the Support interface or created by users wherever the ticket form is displayed. If you change an existing ticket form to one with a drop-down list with a default option, the default option is not displayed and is shown as blank.
- Click Save or, to create another custom field, click the drop-down icon and
select Save and add another.
If you have a single ticket form, the new field automatically appears in your ticket form.
(Enterprise only) If you have multiple ticket forms, edit the ticket forms where you want the field to appear, drag the field from the right onto the ticket form, then click Save. Repeat for additional ticket forms.
- If needed, you can reorder your custom ticket fields.
The custom field appears on new tickets. It also appears on less-than-closed, closed, and archived tickets with a null '-' or empty value.
If the field does not appear on a new ticket, you might need to restart your browser.
Not all custom field types are available across business rules and views. For a list of which custom fields apply, see Using custom ticket fields in business rules and views.
On Suite Professional and above, you can report on custom fields in Explore.
Cloning custom ticket fields
Administrators and agents in custom roles with permission can create new custom fields from scratch or clone existing ticket fields and modify them as needed.
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields.
- Hover over the row of the user field you want to clone, then click the option menu
icon (
) and select Clone.
A detailed view of the ticket field's settings is displayed.
- Edit the Display name so that it is unique.
- Set any other options for your field, depending on the type.
- Click Save.
If you have a single ticket form, the new field automatically appears in your ticket form.
(Enterprise only) If you have multiple ticket forms, edit the ticket forms where you want the field to appear, drag the field from the right onto the ticket form, then click Save. Repeat for additional ticket forms.
- If needed, you can reorder your ticket fields.
Understanding the persistence of custom field data
If you delete a custom field, the data from the custom field is not preserved in existing tickets, including closed tickets. The data is preserved only if the custom field also adds a tag to a ticket. The three custom fields that add tags are the drop-down list, the checkbox, and multi-select fields. If you delete one of these custom fields, then the data in tickets persist as tags.
For example, suppose you have a drop-down list in your ticket form to associate tickets with different product names. After a while, a decision is made to stop providing support for one of the products. If you remove the product from the drop-down list, the product name persists in existing tickets as a tag. If however you use a text field to record a product ID and you delete the text field, the product ID is not preserved in your tickets.
91 comments
Jonathan Cavey
Thanks Jeff, works way better than the simple expression I had! :) happy holidays!
1
Nikki
Constantine Kuks[CSOC] Does using the optional ticket field "description" (shown below the ticket field type) not serve your needs?
1
Ilaria
Hi! Regarding the field "Your email address": we changed it slightly and renamed it "Your [my organization] email address", so that our users write us from the email address they use in our app.
Is it possible to use the dynamic content in order to have this translated into different languages?
If yes, where should the dynamic content placeholder be placed? Right now our customized text is in "new_request_page.hbs" when we select the option to edit the code of our request form.
1
MatchMasters
Hello there,
When I pick read only for end users, or agent only on a specific field, it disappears entirely from the form and also showing up empty on Zendesk.
1
Dane
The contact form is designed so that only editable for end-user fields will appear. Agents can still modify those ticket in the the actual ticket fields. However, end-users will only see it on the ticket list in "My activities". You can review this article and look for permissions.
Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Dane
1
MatchMasters
Hey Dane
We have created custom fields such as User ID, Log, Build etc, that we need to have on our ticket for the agents. However we don't want those fields to be shown to the end-user or at least make them non editable.
When choosing one of the options other than Editable for end-users, those fields will come up empty in the zendesk ticket.
1
Dane
I'll create a ticket for you. Please wait for my update via email and let's continue our conversation there.
Cheers,
Dane
2
Juli Hackenberger
I would like to connect my ticket fields to my user fields. For example, when a consumer uses the ticket form in Guide to create a ticket, I would like the information provided in the form's fields to be added to the user profile for the consumer. How do I do this? Thank you!
1
Charles Gresula
Hello Juli Hackenberger,
At this time, unfortunately we don't support linking ticket fields with user fields.
I've taken a look and found that other users are discussing similar needs here(there's also workarounds provided by community moderators and other users)
You can up-vote that original post and add your detailed use-case to the conversation. Threads with a high level of engagement ultimately get flagged for product managers to review when they go through roadmap planning.
1
Mukesh Kumar
Hi there,


I am having issues locating the support request form. This is what I see online on our support / KB portal.
But the form that I see in ZD is not as same as above including the field, texts, etc.
All these fields are available when we create a ticket within the ZD using the above form.

I must be looking at the wrong place but I can't find it within Admin Centre. The Admin before me has left the business and I am trying to understand if the online form is limited or can be improved and how?
I will really appreciate it if someone could assist me here, please?
Regards
Mukesh
1
Brandon (729)
Hi Mukesh Kumar
Happy to help here, and welcome to the Admin side of Zendesk!
Believe it or not, these forms are actually the same. The key here is that information is presented slightly differently inside of the Help Center. To start, unauthenticated users will automatically be asked to provide their email address, which will then be used to create (or link the ticket to) their user profile inside of Zendesk. This field is hidden when the user is authenticated and is not visible in the "Ticket Fields" section of the Admin Center.
From there, if you click into / edit the Subject and Description fields from within the Admin Center, you'll find on the right hand side that these fields have different names and subsequent descriptions when shown to an end-user. In your case "Subject" is replaced with "Please provide a few words..." and "Description" is replaced with "Please provide the details of your request." You can edit this language by updating the corresponding ticket field(s).
As the remaining fields are set to "Agent Only," they won't be visible on the Help Center currently, but you can always surface them by toggling the option "Editable for End-User." Finally, attachment is another field that shows up automatically without a corresponding field in the Admin Center, as anything uploaded here just becomes an attachment to the ticket.
Hope this helps!
Brandon
2
Nikki
Mukesh Kumar
I believe what's happening here is that those ticket fields are set to only be visible by agents, not by end users. If you go into
Objects and Rules > Fields
then open the field in question and check the section marked Permissions
2
Mukesh Kumar
Brandon (729) Nikki
Thank you guys, you made my ZD life very easy. :-)
I followed the steps you have provided, and do see the difference. but the text in the Blue boxes is not visible anywhere. Are they somehow hardcoded?

1
Nikki
Mukesh Kumar - nope, you've stumped me! That's weird!
You've definitely saved your changes and refreshed the ticket form page? :D
2
Brandon (729)
Hey Mukesh Kumar -
It looks like someone may have edited the code of your page to input this text (similar to this).
To test this, you can always add a 'new' version of the stock Copenhagen theme by going to your Guide Admin page, Eyeball icon and adding a new theme. This will allow you to compare your live theme with an unedited version. Hope this helps!
Brandon
1
Dainne Kiara Lucena-Laxamana
Hi Mukesh Kumar
That does seem a bit odd since those two look way too different. I've gone ahead & created a ticket on your behalf so the team can check why there is a difference between the description ticket. Please keep an eye out for our email soon!
2
Jacqueline Prempeh
Hi is it possible to change the subject line field to a drop-down to be able to select different subject lines?
1
Dave Dyson
Welcome! I'm afraid it's not possible to do that, as the Subject field is by its nature a text field.
1
Lois
Hi,
I added a multi-select field to my tickets, but I would like to change this to a dropdown field. Do I have to add a new dropdown field with the same values as the multi-select field, and then delete the multi-select field? And would this affect anything in Reporting?
Or is there a way that I can change it to a dropdown field, with exactly the same values?
1
Brett Bowser
Great question! You will actually need to create a new drop-down field and this would also require you to update your reports to include that drop-down field since the ticket field would have a new ID. Once you create your drop-down field I'd recommend deactivating your multi-select field but keep it in your report until you no longer need to report on that historical data.
Additionally, I'd recommend that your drop-down field values have the same tags as your multi-select field values. That way if you decide to report on tags then no changes would need to be made to your reports.
Let me know if you have any other questions!
1
Sean Johnson
Is it possible to cc people on the form?
1
Dave Dyson
Yes, you can enable your end-users to add CCs on tickets they create using your ticket form, by turning on "Enable CCs for end users on Help Center": Configuring CC and follower permissions
If you're not seeing that option, you might not be using the latest CC and followers experience. If that's the case, you can find information on migrating here: Migrating to CCs and followers
1
Sean Johnson
Hi Dave,
Below is the message I receive when adding more than one email in the email line of the web form.
Requester: Email: sjohnson3@quietlogistics.com;mmills@quietlogistics.com is not properly formatted
1
Brandon (729)
Hi Sean Johnson,
Once you enable CC 's for end users on Help Center, you should be afforded a second box for the CC, as only one user can be the requester. Also you should replace your semi-colon with a space:
Let us know if that helps!
Brandon
1
Sean Johnson
Is it possible to cc an email from this web form?
1
Brandon (729)
Sean Johnson Thanks for the clarification. At this time, only authenticated users can add cc's.
Enable CCs for end users on Help Center
Allows signed-in end users to copy (CC) users in these places:
Once authenticated, the end-user will see the CC's field (and not the requester field).
Brandon
1
Hari
We are able to create conditional formatting at agent level for a ticket form. But when it is viewed at customer level (request form)in the helpcenter,the conditional formatting is not appearing instead all the ticket fields are appearing(customers can edit).
I want to have the same level of formatting to the customer as my agents have.
Could you help me with this use case.
1
Christine
Conditions for agents affect ticket fields that appear in the agent interface. While conditions for end users affect ticket fields in forms that appear in the help center and Web Widget (Classic).
1
Edwin Schukking
Hi,
We have a dropdown field in our contact form on the Helpcenter for which we would like to hide some of the field values for the end users. At the moment I am using dynamic content and leave the value empty with a dash but add a distinctive tag to the value.
This shows as dashes in the dropdown list for both end users and agents, is there a better way to filter field values for end users?
Thanks in advance!
1
Christopher Kennedy
This can be done with custom JavaScript in your Help Center theme. The JS would need to listen for the presence of the dropdown menu and then remove the desired option. Here's a rough example demonstrating this, where
FIELD_ID
is the ID of your ticket field andTAG_VALUE
is the tag value of the field option to be removed:1