How to set a Zendesk date field a number of business days out

By Jake Marsh · Updated

To set a Zendesk date field a number of business days out, install Leverwell and add a Set a date step to an action set: pick the date field, a number of business days, and optionally a Zendesk schedule for holidays. On a ticket, the agent clicks Preview on the set to see the exact date, then Apply. Leverwell writes the date with an internal note, and Undo puts the old value back.

How Set a date counts

OptionWhat it does
Business daysSkips Saturdays and Sundays
Business days with a scheduleAlso skips the holidays of the schedule you pick
Weeks or monthsAdds whole weeks or months
Calendar days (from another date)Counts every day, only from another date field
From todayCounts from today, in the agent's time zone
From another date fieldCounts from a date already on the ticket

A number of calendar days from today is left to Zendesk macros, which already set that, so Leverwell won't save a step that counts calendar days from today. Zendesk's schedules article explains how to add holidays to a schedule.

Build the action set (admins)

  1. Open Leverwell from the left navigation bar and go to Action sets > New action set.
  2. Name it, for example "Follow up in 3 business days", and add a description agents will see.
  3. Add Set a date. Choose the Date field to set, enter 3 as the Amount with Business days (Mon to Fri) as the Unit, set Counted from to today, and under Also skip the holidays of pick your schedule if holidays should be skipped.
  4. Add anything else the job needs in the same set, such as Add to a number for a contact-attempts counter, or Set text to add a line to a text field.
  5. Under Try it on a ticket, enter a ticket number and click Preview. You see the date it would write; nothing is saved.
  6. Choose where it's offered and Who can run it, then Save action set.

Run it (agents)

  1. Open the ticket and find Leverwell in the apps panel.
  2. Click Preview on the set. The preview shows the field's value before and after.
  3. Click Apply. One update writes the date and an internal note naming the change.

Common setups

JobSteps
Follow-up dateSet a date: 3 business days from today, with your schedule
SLA-style due date from an existing dateSet a date: 5 business days from another date field
Contact attemptsAdd to a number: +1 (an empty field counts as 0) plus Set a date for the next try
Renewal reminderSet a date: 1 month from a contract date field

Several tickets at once (Bulk plan)

On the Bulk plan, Run on many tickets applies the same set to a view or a search such as status<solved tags:warranty, up to 1,000 tickets per run. Each ticket is previewed first, so the date is computed for each one, and Undo this run reverses the lot.

What it costs

Leverwell costs $50 a month per Zendesk account on the Ticket plan, which includes every step from the ticket sidebar. The Bulk plan is $99 a month per account and adds runs on many tickets. Both start with a 14-day trial with a card, billed monthly by Zendesk. The Leverwell documentation lists every step and option.

Leverwell

Advanced ticket actions: change requester, CCs, reply-from and computed fields. Preview and undo. From $50 a month per Zendesk account.

Install LeverwellAbout LeverwellDocumentation

Questions

Can a Zendesk trigger set a date in business days?

Leverwell doesn't run from triggers. It sets the date when an agent clicks Apply, or across a view on the Bulk plan, and shows the exact date before writing it.

Whose time zone decides "today"?

The time zone of the agent running the set.

Does it skip public holidays?

Yes, when you pick a Zendesk schedule in the step: business days skip that schedule's holidays as well as weekends.

Will it overwrite a date an agent typed by hand?

Set a date writes the date you configure each time it runs. The preview shows the field's current value next to the new one, so the agent sees what would be replaced before clicking Apply, and Undo puts the old date back.

More Leverwell guides

More Zendesk guides