Importing from Zendesk
Bringing Zendesk tickets into a helpdesk project, keeping their numbers, requesters, statuses and dates, from Zendesk's CSV export.
Zendesk tickets become tickets in a helpdesk project, with the same numbers, the requester and assignee, the type, status and priority, tags as labels, and the created, updated, solved and due dates. It goes through the CSV import, which this page walks through with Zendesk's own file. The conversation is not in a Zendesk export, nor are attachments, so what comes across is each ticket's record rather than its history; requesters become customers of the helpdesk once they log in.
Export the tickets
In Admin Center, under Account, Tools, open Reports and its Export tab, and request a CSV export. Zendesk emails a link to the file, which holds every ticket in the account. A view can also be exported as CSV from its own menu, which is the way to import one queue or one period at a time, since one file goes into one project.
What the file holds
| Zendesk column | Becomes | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ID | Key | A bare number, so each ticket keeps its Zendesk number when the project has not used it. |
| Subject | Summary | |
| Ticket type | Type | Question, Incident, Problem and Task become ticket types, matched by name to the project's or created. |
| Status | Status | New and Open are to do, Pending and On-hold in progress, Solved and Closed done; each becomes a status in the project's workflow. |
| Priority | Priority | Low, Normal, High and Urgent, matched or created. |
| Requester email | Reporter | The suggestion picks Requester, the name. Choose Requester email instead, so each requester is one person, matched by address. |
| Assignee | Assignee | A name, matched to an agent or made a placeholder. |
| Tags | Labels | Zendesk separates tags with spaces, which the importer reads as one label with hyphens for the spaces (billing-vip-urgent). Put commas between them in a spreadsheet first, or keep the column as a field. |
| Created at | Created | |
| Updated at | Updated | |
| Solved at | Resolved | Not recognised by name; choose it for Resolved yourself. |
| Due date | Due date | |
| Organization, Group, Via, Satisfaction Score, Reopens, Replies and the time columns | Fields, if you keep them | Tick keep unmapped columns as fields to have them. |
There is no description column in the standard export: the ticket's first message and the replies stay in Zendesk. If your export has one, map it as the description and choose Plain text.
Import it
- Pick the helpdesk project, or create one with a key of its own.
- Under Administration, CSV import, upload the file. The page shows the first rows and the suggested mapping.
- Check the mapping: pick Requester email for the reporter and Solved at for the resolved date, and fix the tags column or keep it as a field.
- Leave activate people with an email address unticked unless every requester should be able to log in at once: requesters become placeholders, and a placeholder becomes a customer with an account the first time they log in or answer a request, as Helpdesk describes. Agents are matched by name to members.
- Dry run, read the report, then Import.
After the import
- Requesters see their imported tickets in the customer portal once they have an account, as members of the project with the Reporter role.
- Ticket types from Zendesk are the project's; give each a request type if customers are to raise them from the portal.
- SLAs start counting from the import; Zendesk's timings are numbers in fields, if you kept them.