The order in which you set Zendesk up

Zendesk lets you configure anything in any order, which is exactly why so many first setups have to be unpicked later.

Zendesk lets you configure anything in any order, which is exactly why so many first setups have to be unpicked later.

Why order matters

Later things read earlier things. A trigger reads a ticket field. A view reads a group. An SLA reads business hours. Build them the other way round and you spend the afternoon editing rules you wrote in the morning.

The order that works

1. People. Groups first, then agents into groups, then roles. Everything downstream refers to these.
2. Business hours. Before any SLA or time-based rule.
3. Channels. Email first. Get one address working end to end before adding a second channel.
4. Ticket fields. Decide what you need to know about a ticket. Keep it short; you can add later, and removing is harder.
5. Ticket forms, if you need more than one.
6. Views. Now that groups and fields exist, the lists can be built properly.
7. Triggers. Read the standard ones, then add only what is missing.
8. Macros. Once you know what your team actually types every day.
9. SLAs. Last of the core set, because they depend on almost everything above.
10. Reporting. After a few weeks of real tickets, not before.

What to postpone deliberately

AI agents, automations that close tickets, complex routing and multiple brands are all easier once you have watched real traffic for a month. Building them on assumptions produces rules that fire on the wrong things.

See also

• Your first week as an admin: what to set up
• Adding your first agents
• Connecting your first email address
• Zendesk glossary