SupportBee's reports track five core metrics across your organization, agents, teams, and labels. This article explains how each metric is calculated, what affects the numbers, and how to use them to spot patterns in your support workflow.
Metrics at a glance
| Metric | What it measures | Business hours? |
|---|---|---|
| Tickets | New tickets received | N/A |
| Replies | Agent replies sent | N/A |
| Archived Tickets | Tickets archived (resolved) | N/A |
| Avg. First Response Time | Time until the first agent reply | Yes |
| Avg. Time to Archive | Time from ticket creation to archival | Yes |
Both time-based metrics - first response time and time to archive - respect your business hours configuration. Hours outside your schedule are excluded from the calculation, giving you an accurate picture of team performance during working hours.
How each metric is calculated
Tickets
The total number of new tickets created during the selected time period. Spam and trashed tickets are excluded.
How it works by report view:
- Overview: All non-spam, non-trashed tickets created in the period.
- Agent: Tickets currently assigned to that agent, created in the period. If a ticket is reassigned, it counts toward the agent it is currently assigned to.
- Teams: Tickets currently assigned to that team, created in the period. Same reassignment logic as agents.
- Labels: Tickets with that label, created in the period.
Example: Your team receives 100 tickets in a month. You assign 60 of them to agents. The overview report shows 100 tickets. Individual agent reports show only their share of the 60 assigned tickets. The remaining 40 unassigned tickets appear in the overview but not in any agent's report.
Replies
The total number of agent replies sent during the selected time period. This counts every reply, not just the first one.
How it counts:
- Overview: All agent replies across the organization.
- Agent: Replies sent by that specific agent.
- Teams: Replies on tickets assigned to that team at the time of the reply.
- Labels: Replies on tickets carrying that label.
Example: A ticket has 3 agent replies - 2 from Alice and 1 from Bob. Alice's agent report shows 2 replies. Bob's shows 1. The overview shows 3.
Archived Tickets
The total number of tickets archived during the selected time period, regardless of when the ticket was originally created.
How it counts:
- Overview: All tickets archived in the period.
- Agent: Tickets assigned to that agent at the time of archival.
- Teams: Tickets assigned to that team at the time of archival.
- Labels: Tickets carrying that label at the time of archival.
Example: You archive 150 tickets in the last 30 days. 100 of them were created in the last 30 days. 50 were older tickets finally resolved. The archived tickets report shows 150. The tickets report shows 100 (only new tickets created in the period).
Avg. First Response Time
The average time between ticket creation and the first agent reply, measured in business hours.
What this means:
- The clock starts when the ticket is created (when the customer's email arrives).
- The clock stops when the first agent reply is sent.
- Only business hours count. If your business hours are Monday-Friday 9am-5pm and a ticket arrives at 4pm Friday, the clock runs for 1 hour on Friday, pauses over the weekend, and resumes at 9am Monday.
- If an agent replies outside business hours, the response time for that ticket may be zero, since no business hours elapsed between ticket creation and the reply.
- Tickets that have not yet received a reply are not included in the average.
How it counts by report view:
- Overview: Average across all tickets that received a first reply.
- Agent: Average for tickets where that agent sent the first reply.
- Teams: Average for tickets assigned to that team when the first reply was sent.
- Labels: Average for tickets carrying that label when the first reply was sent.
Example: Your business hours are Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm. A customer emails at 4pm on Friday. An agent replies at 10am on Monday. The first response time for this ticket is 2 hours (1 hour on Friday from 4-5pm, plus 1 hour on Monday from 9-10am). The weekend is excluded.
Avg. Time to Archive
The average time between ticket creation and archival, measured in business hours.
What this means:
- The clock starts when the ticket is created.
- The clock stops when the ticket is archived.
- Only business hours count. Weekends and off-hours are excluded, just like first response time.
- Only archived tickets are included. Open tickets do not affect this metric.
How it counts by report view:
- Overview: Average across all tickets archived in the period.
- Agent: Average for tickets assigned to that agent at the time of archival. The time is measured from when the ticket was assigned to that agent, not from when the ticket was created.
- Teams: Average for tickets assigned to that team at the time of archival. The time is measured from when the ticket was assigned to that team.
- Labels: Average for tickets carrying that label at the time of archival. The time is measured from when the ticket was created.
Example: Your business hours are Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm. A ticket is created at 3pm on Wednesday. The agent resolves and archives it at 11am on Thursday. The archive time is 4 hours (2 hours on Wednesday from 3-5pm, plus 2 hours on Thursday from 9-11am).
Business hours and reporting
Both time-based metrics - first response time and time to archive - respect your business hours configuration:
- Hours outside your configured schedule are excluded from the calculation.
- If an agent works outside business hours (evenings or weekends), the time recorded may be zero for that period, since no business hours elapsed.
- If you have not configured business hours, both metrics default to wall clock time (total elapsed time including nights and weekends).
Example: Your business hours are Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm (40 hours per week). A ticket is created at noon on Friday and archived at noon the following Monday. Without business hours, the elapsed time would be 3 days (72 hours). With business hours, the time is 11 hours (5 hours on Friday from noon to 5pm, plus 3 hours on Monday from 9am to noon, plus the 3 remaining hours from the next business slot). This gives you a more accurate picture of how long your team actually spent on the ticket during working hours.
Changing your business hours configuration only affects future tickets. Historical report data is not recalculated.
Report views explained
Reports are available in four views. Each view shows the same five metrics, filtered differently.
Overview
Shows metrics for your entire organization. Use this to track overall volume and performance trends.
Agent
Shows metrics for individual agents based on ticket assignment. A ticket counts toward an agent's metrics based on the current assignment at the time of the event:
- Tickets: Assigned to the agent when the ticket was created (or reassigned).
- Replies: The agent who sent the reply.
- Archived: Assigned to the agent when the ticket was archived.
- First response time: The agent who sent the first reply.
- Time to archive: Assigned to the agent when the ticket was archived. Measured from when the ticket was assigned to that agent.
Important: Only assigned tickets appear in agent reports. If your team does not consistently use ticket assignment, agent reports will undercount activity.
Teams
Works the same as agent reports, but grouped by team assignment. If a ticket is assigned to both an agent and a team, it appears in both the agent's and the team's reports.
Labels
Shows metrics for tickets with a specific label. If a ticket has multiple labels, it appears in each label's report. This is useful for tracking performance by category, priority, or topic.
How reassignments affect metrics
When a ticket is reassigned from one agent or team to another, the metrics follow the current state:
- Ticket counts reflect the current assignment. If you reassign a ticket from Agent A to Agent B, it moves from A's count to B's.
- Archive time is attributed to whoever is assigned when the ticket is archived. If Agent A handles a ticket for 3 days, then reassigns to Agent B who archives it the same day, the full archive time appears under Agent B. For agents and teams, the clock starts from the assignment time, not the ticket creation time.
- First response time is always attributed to the agent who actually sent the first reply. This does not change with reassignment.
Exporting report data
You can export your report data as a CSV file for further analysis. From any report view, click the export option to download the data for the selected time period. Exports are available for overview, agent, team, and label reports.
Tips for interpreting your reports
Watch for trends, not absolutes. A single day's data can be misleading. Look at the 30-day trend to identify patterns. A gradual increase in first response time may indicate growing volume that your team size cannot keep up with.
Compare agents fairly. An agent handling complex technical tickets will naturally have longer response and archive times than one handling simple questions. Use labels to categorize tickets by complexity, then compare within categories.
Configure business hours for accurate time metrics. If you have not set up business hours, response time and archive time metrics include nights and weekends. This can make your numbers look worse than they are. Configuring business hours gives you a true picture of team performance during working hours.
Use labels to find bottlenecks. If tickets with a specific label consistently have longer archive times, that category may need more resources, better documentation in your knowledge base, or a dedicated team.
Unassigned tickets are invisible to agent/team reports. If your overview shows significantly more tickets than the sum of all agent reports, you have unassigned tickets that nobody is tracking. Consider setting up filters to auto-assign incoming tickets.