How to track time in a status in Zendesk in business hours

To track how long a Zendesk ticket spends in a status in business hours, create an Hourwell timer whose Runs while (all of these) condition is that status, custom status or field value, and pick a calendar with your working hours, time zone and holidays. Click Save timer. Each ticket's sidebar then shows the working time spent so far, rebuilt from the ticket's own history.

Steps

1. Open Hourwell in the left bar and, under New timer, pick the template closest to your case: On-hold too long for a status, Escalation response for a field value. You change its conditions next.
2. Name it under Timer name, such as "Time in Waiting on vendor".
3. Set Runs while (all of these). Add Ticket status (custom) for a custom status, Status for a standard one, or Ticket field for a drop-down, checkbox, text or number field (such as "Escalation level is L2"). Add a second condition to time a combination, for example a field value while the ticket is in one group.
4. Pick the calendar under Counts time on. Choose Business hours, 24/7, or a calendar you built (below).
5. Choose how stints count. Add up every stint on the ticket gives one total across every time the ticket entered that status. Start over each time the conditions start to hold again times each visit on its own.
6. Set a goal. Every timer has one. Set it to your target, and add actions only if you want something to happen when it's passed.
7. Click Save timer, then Start on open tickets to include unsolved tickets already in that status.

Build a calendar for your hours

Under Calendars, click New calendar:

Daylight saving is handled. Time counts only inside the calendar's hours, so a ticket that enters the status at 16:30 on Friday still shows 30 minutes when Monday opens, not a weekend's worth.

How the time is counted

Hourwell rebuilds each clock from the ticket's audit log. A stint starts when every Runs while condition holds and ends when one stops holding. Time counts only inside the calendar, and only while no Pauses while condition holds. Because the history is the source, time that passed while nobody had Zendesk open still counts exactly.

Find the tickets that sat longest

• Timers running lists every running, paused or overdue timer on unsolved tickets, most urgent first.
• The "Hourwell: tickets with timers" and "Hourwell: overdue timers" views list them in Zendesk.
• A missed stint leaves hourwell_missed_<timer id> on the ticket, so views and reports can count misses.

Hourwell is a per-ticket clock with tags and views. It isn't a dashboard of averages across tickets.

What it costs

Hourwell Standard is $3 per agent per month, every feature included, after a 14-day trial with a card at install, billed monthly by Zendesk. The Hourwell documentation lists every condition.