Organizations are a way to manage users and your ticket handling workflow. They’re primarily a collection of your end users, but can also include team members.
At times, you may need to merge two organizations into one. For example, company acquisitions, restructuring, or general maintenance could all require organization merges. Merging organizations save admins time and effort by automating the updates to the organizations themselves as well as the associated tickets and users.
Related articles
About merging organizations
Admins can merge one organization into another. The organization being merged into another is referred to as the merging organization. The target of the merge is referred to as the receiving organization.
When organizations are merged, all users, tickets, and domains are merged into one organization - the receiving organization. The merging organization is deleted after the merge completes. All changes related to an organization merge are recorded in the audit log. Additionally, tickets that are part of the merge show the change in their ticket events log.
Essential facts
Before you begin an organization merge, make sure you understand the following essential facts:
- Organization merges are permanent and can’t be undone. If an organization merge is already in progress, then it can’t be undone, updated, or resubmitted.
- The organization that’s being merged into another organization (the merging organization) is deleted upon completion.
- Only admins can merge organizations.
- The merging organization can’t be edited or deleted during an in progress merge. With the exception of the domains, the receiving organization can be edited during a merge.
- Business rules that check or set the organization value can break when you merge organizations. Review your triggers, automations, macros, views, and SLAs.
- Lookup relationship fields that point to organizations can also break when you merge organizations. References to the merging organization aren’t updated to the receiving organization during the merge.
Considerations and limitations
Consider the following before deciding to merge organizations. Learn more about how data is merged.
- To be eligible for merging, the merging organization must have 10,000 or fewer tickets and 10,000 or fewer users. Otherwise, the merge will be blocked.
- Group assignments aren’t updated on tickets that are merged to the receiving organization. However, the group mapping of the receiving organization applies the next time a ticket is updated and to all new tickets. This may result in tickets being assigned to an unexpected group.
- Users may belong to multiple organizations but can have only one default organization. If a user’s default organization is merged into another, then their default organization is updated. If the merging organization isn’t their default organization, then their default remains unchanged and only the membership is updated.
- End users won’t see the merging organization in their profile if they submit a new request, update a request, or look at open requests. However, if end users were part of an organization that was merged into another, they will see the details of the receiving organization when they log into their Guide profile.
- Notifications don’t appear when an organization merge is in progress, completes successfully, or fails. Instead, you can check the audit log for details.
Merging organizations
You must be an admin to merge organizations.
To merge one organization into another
- In Support, click the
Organizations icon (
) in the sidebar.
- Find the organization you want to merge and click its name.
- Click the drop-down icon at the top-right of the page and select Merge into another organization.
- Begin typing the name of the receiving organization and select it from the list. Click
Next.
- If you select two organizations with different group mappings or sharing permissions, you'll see a warning. Click Continue merge to proceed.
- Review the organization merge summary to ensure it’s correct, then click Confirm
merge.Note: If an organization has different ticket access permissions, a warning appears in the confirmation message. If you proceed, tickets could be exposed to unintended end users.
This can't be undone.
When the merge completes, all changes are recorded in the audit log. Additionally, tickets that are part of the merge show the change in their ticket events log.
Understanding how organization data is merged
When two organizations are merged, the merging organization loses all data except for open tickets, users, and domains. The following table provides more detail about how an organization’s data and settings are handled as a result of the merge.
Organization data | Merge results |
---|---|
Tickets | All of the merging organization’s tickets, including archived and closed
tickets, are merged into the receiving organization.
Tickets
that are part of the merge, including archived and closed tickets, show that their
organizations are updated in their ticket events log.
|
Users | All of the merging organization’s users are merged into the receiving organization. |
Domains | The merging organization’s domains are appended to the receiving organization. |
Tags | Merging organization’s tags are lost. |
Notes | Merging organization’s notes are lost. |
Details | Merging organization’s details are lost. |
Custom organization fields | Merging organization’s custom fields are lost. |
External ID | Merging organization’s external ID is lost. |
Group mapping | The merging organization’s group mapping is lost. |
Shared organization setting | The merging organization’s shared organization setting is lost. |
Related records | The merging organization’s related records are lost. |
32 comments
Josh Keller
Pleeeeeease tell us that the API for merging organizations is coming soon. This isn't very useful for large Zendesk customers until we can do this via API.
0
Matt Davis
After an organization is Deleted following its merge, what happens to its Archived and Closed tickets?
The article here indicates they are not updated to point at the new organization, but it's unclear what state they are in after the merge. Do they remain under the old (deleted) organization, breaking the "breadcrumb" in the top bar? Or do they become unassigned from all organization entirely and become orphaned?
6
Colleen Hall
Hi Josh Keller,
The API is planned for the GA release. Please see this post in the Organization Merge beta community for more information about planned improvements. You can also share your feedback in the community! I apologize that the link to the community wasn't live yet when I published the article but you should be able access it now.
1
James Hanley
Hey Matt, thanks for your question.
When the organization is deleted after the merge the closed and archived tickets remain connected to the ticket requester (user), but not to the deleted organization – much like if the organization was deleted manually.
The updates to closed and archived tickets are in a testing phase and will hopefully be released to the beta very soon.
1
Santino Scibelli
Hey team - please let us know when the ability for closed and archived tickets to be carried over is available. This is a primary requirement of this feature and makes this basically unusable.
I ran a smoke production test on a record to observe the behavior after reviewing this guide - I feel the guide is not clear. Although it states that "the merging organization loses all data except for open tickets, users, and domains" I feel the following "Merge results" are not clear:
Please provide a timeline if available for when Zendesk plans to address this as it makes the feature basically unusable that you cannot merge orgs and maintain historical data.
2
James Hanley
Thanks Santino Scibelli, we're actively working to extend org merge to closed and Archived tickets, and will publish an update as soon as it is integrated into the Beta.
You can see the full list of improvements to the beta in our org merge community topic.
2
Robert Elliott
I would like to add here as well that the fact that the Closed and Archived tickets are not updated to the target organization, makes us very hesitant to use this feature. almost unusable. as we cannot lose the data and information that was on those tickets.
Once this is added that closed/archived get updated to the target org. then we would gladly use this.
2
Mirek Kokes
0
Colleen Hall
Hi Mirek Kokes,
The team is aiming for early next year for updates to closed and archived tickets. Please check out the Community topic for the most up-to-date information.
0
James Hanley
13th Feb: The rollout of updating closed and archived tickets is back underway.
6th Feb: Due to some errors on updating closed and archived tickets, we've paused the rollout. We expect to be back on track in a few days.
Hey Zendesk Community,
I'm pleased to share that we've started rollout of updating closed and archived tickets as part of an org merge.
At the moment, this is only available in Pod 26 (How to learn which pod I'm on), but we will be rolling this out to all accounts by the end of next week. I will update this post when the rollout has completed.
As a reminder, the beta community is open and available for feedback, including our Planned improvements to the beta.
Thanks,
James
2
Rodrigo Feltrin
Hello James Hanley
I hope this message finds you well.
Do you have any news related to the update of the closed and archived tickets as part of an org merge?
Do you know when is it going to be available for other Pods?
Thank you.
1
James Hanley
Hey Rodrigo Feltrin
Thanks for reaching out, I've actually just updated my post; we've started rolling out the updates to closed and archived tickets once again and should be completed by the end of the week. I will post an update when it's completed.
By the end of the today it will be on pods 15, 26, and 29.
James
0
Moises Morales
Hello team, it is stated that All of the merging organization’s tickets, including archived and closed tickets, are merged into the receiving organization, however, this was not our experience. We don't see the tickets from the old organization in the new organization. Is there something we are missing?
Also, what will happen to the tickets? Will there be a fix eventually when the feature is not in beta anymore?
Thanks,
Moises
0
James Hanley
Hey Moises Morales, I'm sorry about the confusion.
The feature to update closed and archived tickets is still in rollout and not yet available in all pods, it's currently live in pods 15, 26, and 29. I will post here when the rollout is complete.
You can check which pod you are on within Admin Center, if your account is on one of the pods list above, and you still found closed or archived tickets were not updated, please let me know and we'll immediately start to investigate.
Thanks,
James
0
Moises Morales
We're on pod 19. Does it mean the tickets will never show, what exactly happened to them and will the rollout fix them?
Thanks,
-Moises
0
Graham Robson
We are testing out the Hubspot integration has with Zendesk (not Zendesks).
Not sure if this is a Zendesk or Hubspot issue, but it appears that the merged Organization may be marked as deleted, but may still exist via the API?
The Hubspot integration picked up a duplicate Organization. If we delete a duplicated Organisation, all is fine. However, if we merge an orgnaization, the Hubspot integration still complains that there is a duplicate object.
Hubspot has some specific support for re-syncing Zendesk delete objects, but its greyed out and saying there of no deleted records detected.
Can Zendesk advise?
Thanks, Graham
0
James Hanley
Hey Moises Morales, the closed and archived tickets still exist in your account, and they are still connected to the ticket requester, just not the merged org. The Org Merge beta is the first phase to allowing updates to closed and archived tickets which is a long term feature request. It's an incredibly complicated feature, but when it's available you'll be able to reattach the old tickets.
If you require something more urgent than that, please create a support request with our team and reference this comment to have it forwarded myself and the team.
Cheers,
James
0
James Hanley
Hey Graham Robson, is this the Hubspot integration you're referring to? If that's the case, this question might be best directed to the Hubspot support team or Hubspot community.
I will say the following however, the Org Merge Beta does not yet have a public API, which means that merges are not going to be kept in sync across both apps regardless of where they happen – you will have to manually complete the merge in both locations to keep them in sync.
In Zendesk, the very final step of an org merge is deleting the merging organization (aka the "loser"). Once done, this org would no longer be retrievable via API, and whatever record on Hubspot's end that is connected to the now deleted org, will no longer find it's counterpart on the Zendesk side. I am unsure how Hubspot is finding a duplicate org, or what is leading to that situation, but deleting an org and merging an org into another has the same end result; the record is deleted in Zendesk.
I'm hoping this helps put you on the right path, but until we have a public API which will be part of the general availability release of Org Merge, there may be sync issues.
Cheers,
James
0
Josh Brewington
I'm in Pod 20 - just need to know if we need to manually move those tickets and if so, if I can be notified via mention when all pods are completed. Thanks!
0
James Hanley
Hey Josh Brewington, I'm hopeful that we'll be live in Pod 20 in a couple days. After that point, you won't need to manually move anything.
James
0
Mirek Kokes
James Hanley
Do you have an ETA on Pod28 please? I am eager to test it.
0
Graham Robson
Thanks James - Thanks for confirming it is a full delete on merge. I'll pursue with Hubspot.
0
Tyler Hux
Hello James Hanley! I'm very excited about to test this once it's released on Pod 23.
My question though, is the API available in this beta? If so, is there documentation somewhere for this endpoint?
0
James Hanley
Hello again folks, a quick status update on the rollout of closed and archived ticket changes in an org merge, it is currently live in pods;
15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 27, and 29
Assuming we have no issues over the next 24 hours, we will complete the rollout to all remain pods tomorrow.
Cheers,
James
0
Graham Robson
Thanks James
I'm very happy to confirm that we are seeing the glory of a full merge on POD29 :-)
One behaviour I spotted was that the UI was lagging and possibly needed some poking with refreshes. After the merge, no transferred tickets or users appeared to be listed As per the count's indicator, but after a short while, it all caught up. I mention for the super keen to see it working audience here :-)
Many Thanks to the Zendesk Team - this truly opens up a lot here; we'll be able to start cleaning up data duplicates and syncing data across systems.
Thanks, Graham
0
James Hanley
Hello folks, I'm pleased to say updates to Closed and Archived tickets has now been fully rolled out to all pods.
Graham Robson you are correct about the counts lagging. For performance reasons, we don't do counts on the core database rows. Instead we use a different system that is updated intermittently - anywhere from 1 minute to 5 minutes. On most occasions, the lag is not noticeable - but when we're copying users and tickets across orgs it becomes extremely noticeable. We've investigated options to make the counts update as the job is happening, but the effort is significant and instead we've decided to invest our time in ensure we have a confirmation message when the org merge completes. Apart from this, I'm very glad you've been able to use this and that it's going to be really helpful for you and your team.
Cheers,
James
0
Jimmy Rufo
Hi James Hanley ,
Looks like this disruption is going on 3 weeks with no further updates. Can your team update this thread over whats going on, and why the delay in getting this resolved?
0
James Hanley
Apologies Jimmy Rufo, I had been updating the Org Merge Beta Community, but not this article.
I can confirm the outage has been resolved and Org Merge has been re-activated in all accounts. I'm also pleased to tease that we'll have a public API for Org Merge very soon.
Please let me know if you need anything else.
Thanks,
James
0
James Hanley
Hey everyone,
I'm pleased to provide a small but exciting product update that we have just released our public API's for organization merge.
I have created a post in our Organization Merge Beta community which details the changes, and provides a place for asking related questions.
I hope this change is helpful.
Thanks,
James
0
Viktor Hristovski
We have our company as organization, but also we have tickets from users created via chat or different way where they misspelled their email.
for instance @acme.com is our company email, but they entered @amce.com.
If I put all users from @amce.com in a separate organization, and then merge it with our company organization, will that automatically merge the duplicate users? a.b@acme.com with a.b@amce.com ?
thanks
0