Use this article to open the Tickets lifecycle report, understand the Ticket handoff Sankey chart, measure time per team and teammate, count ticket handoffs, and build your own charts from the Ticket assignments dataset. The Tickets lifecycle report is available on VBP plans only.
Tickets lifecycle report
What the Tickets lifecycle report does
Previously, a ticket's time was only ever counted against the team currently holding it. When a ticket moved from Support to Technical Support to Billing, the earlier teams' time disappeared from reporting. The Tickets lifecycle report (available on VBP plans) fixes that by tracking each assignment visit separately — so every team and teammate that touched a ticket gets credit for the time they held it.
What you can do with the Tickets lifecycle report
Measure how long a ticket sits with each team and each teammate, in office hours or wall-clock time
Count handoffs and see which team pairs pass work back and forth
Visualize full ticket paths end to end with the Ticket handoff Sankey chart
Get all of it in one place with the prebuilt Tickets lifecycle report — no setup required
How to use the Tickets lifecycle report
Step 1: Open the prebuilt report
Go to Reports.
Click New report.
Select the Tickets lifecycle template.
The Tickets lifecycle report opens with seven charts: the Ticket handoff Sankey (full width at the top) and six bar and table charts below it for time per team, time per teammate, handoff counts, and more.
Step 2: Read the Ticket handoff Sankey
The Ticket handoff Sankey chart is the headline chart at the top of the Tickets lifecycle report. It draws every path tickets took between teams, full width. Each column is one handoff hop — read left to right to follow a ticket's journey from its first assignment through to its final team. The Sankey covers at most the first 8 reassignments per ticket, and each column shows the top 6 teams by volume — smaller teams are grouped into an "Other teams" node.
Note: A reassignment to a different teammate within the same team counts toward the 8-reassignment limit, even if the team didn't change. The Sankey cannot be edited — use the other charts in the report to slice the same data. It does not render in snapshots, scheduled reports, external shares, or exports — bar, column, and table charts do.
Step 3: Find the time per team
Use the Ticket time per assignment chart in the Tickets lifecycle report, broken down by Assigned team, to see which teams hold tickets longest. Switch the breakdown to Assigned teammate to see the same data per person, or to Assignment order (first touch, second bounce, third hand-off, and so on) to see where time accumulates across the ticket's journey.
Tip: Use median aggregation, not mean — a single long unassigned visit can skew averages significantly.
Step 4: Identify ping-pong between teams
Open the Ticket handoffs by previous team and assigned team table in the Tickets lifecycle report. Set View by to Previous team and Segment by to Assigned team. Read Support → Billing and Billing → Support off the same table — the second number shows you how many times the work bounced back.
Step 5: Build your own charts
Go to Reports > New report > Create your own > Add chart. Pick a metric from the Ticket assignments dataset (the dataset that powers the Tickets lifecycle report), then set View by and Segment by as needed. The Sankey chart template is available in the chart-template picker under Tickets.
Ticket assignments dataset metrics
The Ticket assignments dataset — which powers the Tickets lifecycle report — contains four metrics. Each row in the dataset is one assignment visit, not one ticket. The table below shows what each metric measures and when to use it.
Metric | Type | What it answers |
Ticket time per assignment | Duration | How long each team or teammate held the ticket |
Ticket time per assignment (team office hours) | Duration | Same, measured within the assigned team's office hours only |
Ticket handoffs | Count | Total number of moves — including teammate changes within the same team |
Tickets handed off | Unique count | How many distinct tickets were handed off at least once |
Note: One row in the Ticket assignments dataset is one assignment visit, not one ticket. A ticket that moved Support → Technical Support → Billing produces three rows. Use Tickets handed off when you want to count tickets, not assignment visits.
FAQs
What counts as one assignment in the Tickets lifecycle report?
What counts as one assignment in the Tickets lifecycle report?
One assignment in the Tickets lifecycle report equals one continuous period during which a ticket was held by the same team and same teammate. An assignment starts when a ticket is assigned to a team or teammate. It ends when the team or teammate changes, or when the ticket resolves. A change from Support/Alice to Support/Bob is a new assignment — the team didn't change, but the teammate did.
Does the Tickets lifecycle report work for conversations, or tickets only?
Does the Tickets lifecycle report work for conversations, or tickets only?
The Tickets lifecycle report works for tickets only — not plain conversations. A conversation becomes a ticket when a teammate applies a ticket type to it. A conversation with no ticket type applied produces no data in the Tickets lifecycle report.
Does the Tickets lifecycle report include open (unresolved) tickets?
Does the Tickets lifecycle report include open (unresolved) tickets?
Yes, the Tickets lifecycle report includes open tickets. An open ticket produces a row for every assignment completed so far, and the current (ongoing) assignment has no end time recorded yet.
Why is my Tickets lifecycle report data empty, or why does it only start from a recent date?
Why is my Tickets lifecycle report data empty, or why does it only start from a recent date?
Tickets lifecycle report data only starts from the date your workspace was enabled for this feature. Tickets that were closed before that enablement date have no data. If your charts appear empty, check your workspace's enablement date before treating it as a bug.
Why does my Tickets lifecycle report show more rows than I have tickets?
Why does my Tickets lifecycle report show more rows than I have tickets?
The Tickets lifecycle report shows more rows than you have tickets because the Ticket assignments dataset produces one row per assignment visit, not one row per ticket. A ticket that moved Support → Technical Support → Billing produces three rows. To count distinct tickets rather than assignment visits, use the Tickets handed off metric.
Why does the Ticket handoffs metric show zero for a ticket that was assigned to a team?
Why does the Ticket handoffs metric show zero for a ticket that was assigned to a team?
The Ticket handoffs metric shows zero for a ticket assigned once and never moved because the first assignment is not counted as a handoff. A handoff only occurs when a ticket moves from one team or teammate to another. A ticket assigned to one team and resolved there has zero handoffs — this is the expected behaviour.
Why is the Ticket handoffs count higher than I expected?
Why is the Ticket handoffs count higher than I expected?
The Ticket handoffs count is higher than expected because a teammate change inside the same team counts as a handoff — not just moves between different teams. To separate within-team reassignments from cross-team moves, break the metric down by Previous team and Assigned team.
What is the difference between Ticket handoffs and Tickets handed off?
What is the difference between Ticket handoffs and Tickets handed off?
Ticket handoffs counts every individual move a ticket makes (e.g. a ticket moved three times counts as 3 handoffs). Tickets handed off counts each distinct ticket once, regardless of how many times it moved (e.g. that same ticket counts as 1). Use both together — a high Ticket handoffs count alongside a low Tickets handed off count means a small number of tickets are bouncing repeatedly between teams.
Why does "Unassigned" appear as a team in the Ticket handoff Sankey chart?
Why does "Unassigned" appear as a team in the Ticket handoff Sankey chart?
"Unassigned" appears as a node in the Ticket handoff Sankey chart because it represents real time during which the ticket existed but was not held by any team. Hiding the Unassigned node would create a misleading direct line — for example, Support → Billing — when there was actually a gap in between where the ticket sat unassigned.
Why does the Ticket handoff Sankey chart stop partway through a long ticket?
Why does the Ticket handoff Sankey chart stop partway through a long ticket?
The Ticket handoff Sankey chart stops after a ticket's first 8 reassignments. This is a display limit — a note below the chart confirms it. A reassignment to another teammate on the same team counts toward that 8-reassignment limit.
Why is the Ticket handoff Sankey chart missing from my scheduled report, snapshot, or export?
Why is the Ticket handoff Sankey chart missing from my scheduled report, snapshot, or export?
The Ticket handoff Sankey chart does not render in snapshots, scheduled reports, external shares, or exports — this is a known limitation. Other chart types in the Tickets lifecycle report (bar, column, and table charts) do render correctly in those formats.
Does the Tickets lifecycle report affect my SLAs when a ticket moves to another team?
Does the Tickets lifecycle report affect my SLAs when a ticket moves to another team?
No, the Tickets lifecycle report does not affect SLAs. It is a reporting feature only. It shows how long each team held the ticket historically — it does not create, restart, or enforce a per-team SLA when a ticket moves.
Does unassigning a ticket count as a handoff in the Tickets lifecycle report?
Does unassigning a ticket count as a handoff in the Tickets lifecycle report?
No, unassigning a ticket does not count as a handoff in the Tickets lifecycle report. A handoff is only recorded when the next team or teammate is assigned after the unassignment. The period a ticket spends unassigned is represented as an Unassigned node in the Ticket handoff Sankey chart.
How is the Tickets lifecycle report different from Ticket time to resolve (team office hours)?
How is the Tickets lifecycle report different from Ticket time to resolve (team office hours)?
The Tickets lifecycle report and Ticket time to resolve (team office hours) measure different things. Ticket time to resolve (team office hours) measures the whole ticket from submitted to resolved as a single duration — one number per ticket, in office hours. The Tickets lifecycle report measures each assignment separately, so a ticket held by three teams produces three rows — one per team — showing how long each team held it, not the total.
How is the Ticket handoffs metric different from Reassignments per conversation?
How is the Ticket handoffs metric different from Reassignments per conversation?
The Ticket handoffs metric in the Tickets lifecycle report counts all moves, including those that happen before the first teammate reply. The older Reassignments per conversation metric does not count pre-reply moves. Because of this, the two numbers will not match for the same ticket — that is expected behaviour, as they measure the same event with different start conditions.
A ticket went Support → Billing → Support in the Tickets lifecycle report — why does only one Support row appear?
A ticket went Support → Billing → Support in the Tickets lifecycle report — why does only one Support row appear?
Both Support visits exist in the Ticket assignments dataset, but when you group only by Assigned team the Tickets lifecycle report merges both Support visits into one bucket. To see each visit as a separate row, add Assignment order as a breakdown — this splits the first Support visit and the returning Support visit so they appear individually.
Why is the Ticket handoff Sankey chart in the Tickets lifecycle report wider than my screen?
Why is the Ticket handoff Sankey chart in the Tickets lifecycle report wider than my screen?
The Ticket handoff Sankey chart in the Tickets lifecycle report scrolls sideways when tickets have deep lifecycles. Each handoff hop adds a column, and tickets with many reassignments produce more columns than fit on screen. Scroll horizontally inside the chart to see the full ticket path.
The Ticket handoff Sankey chart in the Tickets lifecycle report says No tickets were handed off — why?
The Ticket handoff Sankey chart in the Tickets lifecycle report says No tickets were handed off — why?
The Ticket handoff Sankey chart shows No tickets were handed off when every ticket in the selected date range stayed with the same team and teammate from start to finish. To resolve this in the Tickets lifecycle report, try extending the date range to include a period with more ticket activity, or check that the report filters are not restricting results too narrowly.
What does Deleted team mean in the Tickets lifecycle report?
What does Deleted team mean in the Tickets lifecycle report?
Deleted team appears in the Tickets lifecycle report when a team that previously held a ticket has since been deleted from Intercom. The time that team held the ticket is still real and is included in the Ticket assignments dataset — the Tickets lifecycle report cannot display the team name because the team no longer exists, so it shows Deleted team instead.
Does the Tickets lifecycle report show ticket state history (submitted, in progress, resolved)?
Does the Tickets lifecycle report show ticket state history (submitted, in progress, resolved)?
No, the Tickets lifecycle report does not show ticket state history. The Tickets lifecycle report covers who held the ticket and for how long — not what state the ticket was in at each point. To report on how long tickets spent in each state, use the Ticket time in state dataset instead. You can filter the Tickets lifecycle report by Current ticket state category, but this reflects the ticket's current state only, not its full state history.
Can I see the most common end-to-end ticket journeys in the Tickets lifecycle report?
Can I see the most common end-to-end ticket journeys in the Tickets lifecycle report?
The Tickets lifecycle report does not currently provide whole-journey rows spanning three or more teams as exportable data. You can see the most common single hops by breaking down the Ticket handoffs metric by Previous team and Assigned team in a custom chart, and the Ticket handoff Sankey chart draws all ticket paths visually end to end. Full end-to-end journey rows are not available as a data export in this release of the Tickets lifecycle report.
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