Custom fields

Every custom ticket field in your Zendesk account becomes a column on the Tickets table, with no setup. Custom user and organization fields aren’t exported.

Column names

The column is named after the field’s title in Zendesk:

• Spaces are kept. Order Return Date stays Order Return Date.
• Punctuation and symbols are removed. Letters in any alphabet, digits, _ and - are kept.
• A title that starts with a digit gets a leading _.
• A title with nothing usable left, such as one made only of emoji, becomes field_<field ID>.
• If the name matches a standard ticket column or another custom field (ignoring case), the field ID is added: Priority (360001234567).

Types

Zendesk field type	Power BI type
Number	Whole number
Decimal	Decimal number
Date	Date
Checkbox	True/false
Text, multi-line, drop-down, multi-select, regex, credit card, lookup	Text

Values

• Drop-down fields give the option’s tag value (for example sentiment__very_negative), not its display name. To show friendly names, map them in Power Query or add a lookup table.
• Multi-select fields give the selected tag values, separated by commas.
• Checkbox fields are true or false.
• A ticket without a value, or with a value that doesn’t fit the type, gets an empty (null) value.
• Inactive fields are still exported, so older tickets keep their values.

Changing fields in Zendesk

• Adding a field is safe. The new column appears within about 10 minutes. In Power BI, refresh the table’s schema (Transform data → Refresh Preview, or edit the query) to see it. A normal data refresh doesn’t add columns.
• Renaming a field renames its column. Reports that use the old name break and have to be updated.
• Deleting a field removes its column, with the same effect.