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Zendesk’s native Time Tracking app records time associated with ticket updates and saves it to the ticket. It is suited to measuring ticket handling, not attendance across an agent’s full workday. To report on the data, first decide whether you need total time per ticket or time per update: Zendesk Explore uses different datasets for those questions.
What Zendesk time tracking measures
The native app tracks time spent on ticket updates and stores it with the ticket. Agents can enter or confirm time after an update, pause or resume the timer, reset it, and review the ticket’s time logs. Zendesk’s Time Tracking app guide describes the workflow and the ticket event fields it creates.
Zendesk distinguishes two useful but different reporting questions:
- Ticket handling time: the total time associated with a ticket. This helps answer how much tracked time accumulated across the ticket.
- Update handling time: the time associated with an individual ticket update. This helps show how time is distributed across updates.
As Zendesk Product Manager Eugene Orman explains, “The app tracks the time spent on each ticket update and stores this with the ticket.” See Zendesk’s metrics guide for the distinction and suggested measurements.
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Install and configure the Time Tracking app
An administrator must install and configure the app. Zendesk’s Marketplace instructions explain how to find and install apps. The Time Tracking troubleshooting guidance says the app is available to customers on Professional or higher; check Zendesk’s current plan documentation and your account’s terms before relying on plan eligibility.
- Install and configure the app as an administrator. Confirm that the app is enabled for the agents and ticket workflow where you intend to use it.
- Check the ticket forms. The app creates the custom fields “Total time spent (sec)” and “Time spent last update (sec).” Make sure both fields are available on the relevant ticket forms. Missing fields can cause errors on affected forms.
- Refresh the agent’s browser if needed. Agents may need a one-time hard refresh after installation for the app to load.
- Update a ticket and review the time entry. After an update, the app presents the time entry for the agent to submit or adjust. Agents can also pause or resume, reset the timer, and inspect that ticket’s time logs.
In ticket events, the app exposes “Total time spent (sec)” and “Time spent last update (sec).” A shared-ticket detail matters when interpreting them: time entered by the receiving account contributes to the total, but the sending account’s Events view may not display those updates. Zendesk documents the field and shared-ticket behavior in its troubleshooting article.
Build an Explore report for ticket handling time
Zendesk’s Explore recipe lists Explore Professional or Enterprise, editor or admin permissions, and a configured Time Tracking app as prerequisites. Use the dataset that matches the question; the ticket total and update-level values are not interchangeable.
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| Reporting question | Explore dataset | Value or calculation |
|---|---|---|
| Total tracked time per ticket | Support: Tickets | Use the total-time-spent value. Convert seconds to minutes with VALUE(Total time spent (sec))/60, or to hours with VALUE(Total time spent (sec))/60/60. |
| Tracked time per ticket update | Support: Updates history | Use the change values for the time-tracking fields to analyze update-level time. |
Follow Zendesk’s “Measuring ticket handling time” Explore recipe to create the report. If the app was recently installed, its data may not yet have synchronized to Explore, so a report can initially lack recent entries.
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Time Tracking and Zendesk WFM serve different purposes. The app attaches logged time to ticket updates; WFM’s tracker is for attendance and a broader activity timeline, which can include tickets, calls, chats, breaks, meetings, and general tasks.
WFM may start tracking automatically, depending on account settings, or require agents to start and end the day manually. Closing or logging out of Zendesk does not itself end the WFM day. See Zendesk’s WFM time-tracker guide for its day-start and day-end behavior.
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When to investigate other apps
If you need a measure not provided by ticket update logging—such as time in a particular ticket status—investigate whether another app supports that exact workflow and reporting need. Zendesk’s release notes listed paid Marketplace apps Ticket Time Analyser and Time in Status as of October 3, 2025. Those listings are examples to investigate, not product recommendations: check each app’s current Marketplace listing, compatibility, terms, and pricing before adopting it.
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Zendesk’s native app is the direct option in the documentation for logging time to ticket updates and reporting it through Explore. Third-party apps may measure different things, so compare what starts and stops the clock, where the data is stored, and how it can be reported before switching or adding one.
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