Administrators need to define conditions and actions when creating time-based automations.
Understanding Conditions
In the “Configure the conditions” section, Administrators need to set conditions as filters so that time-based automations run on cases that meet ALL the conditions or ANY of the conditions. A time-based automation condition contains:
- Condition: A case field, tags, or time-based events (for example, Hours since open).
- Operator: Compare the value set in the automation with the actual value in cases.
- Value: The value of a condition can be default or custom values of a case field, tag keywords, or positive integers.
See the following table for condition details.
| Condition | Operator | Description |
| Status | Is
Is not Less than Greater than |
The case status indicates the stage a case is in as the Agent handles the case. Allowed values are New, Open, Pending, On-hold, and Resolved.
You can use Less than or Greater than to contain cases in multiple statuses, with New being the lowest value (namely, Resolved > On-hold > Pending > Open > New). |
| Type | Is
Is not |
The case type helps categorize cases. Allowed values are Question, Incident, Problem, and Task. Administrators can add other values to this field. When added, these can also be selected. |
| Priority | Is
Is not Less than Greater than |
The level of case urgency. Allowed values are Low, Normal, High, and Urgent.
You can use Less than or Greater than to contain cases at multiple priority levels, with Low being the lowest value (namely Urgent > High > Normal > Low). |
| Source | Is
Is not |
The channel the request comes from, such as Voice. Allowed values depend on the channels that Talkdesk Cases supports in your account. |
| About | Is
Is not |
Indicates what the requester has asked about in the case. Administrators need to specify the field values beforehand so that an option can be selected. |
| Group | Is
Is not Is empty Is not empty |
The group that is assigned to the case. You can search for a group by name. |
| Assignee | Is
Is not Is empty Is not empty |
The Agent that is assigned to the case. You can search for an Agent by name. |
| Requester | Is
Is not |
The person (for example, a contact or an Agent) making the request. |
| Tags | Contain
Don’t contain |
You can select existing tags and add new tags. Multiple tags can be set as values. Contain means cases that contain any of the defined tags will be returned. Don’t contain means cases that contain none of the defined tags will be returned. |
| Hours since created | Less than
Greater than Is |
The elapsed time measured in hours since the case is created. Only positive integers are allowed. |
| Hours since open | Less than
Greater than Is |
The elapsed time measured in hours since the case status changes to “Open”. Only positive integers are allowed. |
| Hours since pending | Less than
Greater than Is |
The elapsed time measured in hours since the case status changes to “Pending”. Only positive integers are allowed. |
| Hours since on-hold | Less than
Greater than Is |
The elapsed time measured in hours since the case status changes to “On-hold”. Only positive integers are allowed. |
| Hours since resolved | Less than
Greater than Is |
The elapsed time measured in hours since the case status changes to “Resolved”. Only positive integers are allowed. |
| Hours since first assigned | Less than
Greater than Is |
The elapsed time measured in hours since the case is first assigned to a group or an Agent. Only positive integers are allowed. |
| Hours since updated | Less than
Greater than Is |
The elapsed time measured in hours since the case is updated. Any case update is counted, including updates triggered by automations. Only positive integers are allowed. |
| Hours since assignee update | Less than
Greater than Is |
The elapsed time measured in hours since the case is updated by its last assignee. Only positive integers are allowed. |
| Hours since last SLA breach | Less than
Greater than Is |
The elapsed time measured in hours since the last SLA breach of the case. Only positive integers are allowed. |
| Hours until next SLA breach | Less than
Greater than Is |
The elapsed time measured in hours until the next SLA breach of the case. Only positive integers are allowed. |
You can also add custom fields as conditions, while some field formats are not supported. Available custom fields are displayed below default conditions. The operators available for them may be different depending on their field formats. See the following table for details.
| Field format | Operator | Description |
| Checkbox | Is | Allowed values are Checked and Unchecked. |
| Drop-down | Is
Is not |
Cases are returned based on the value of the drop-down field. |
Keep in mind the following rules when defining conditions:
- A time-based automation must contain at least one of the following properties in its conditions: Status, Type, Group, Assignee, and Requester.
- If you set Is as the operator for a time-based condition (for example, Hours since pending), the defined time-based automation may not fire on cases that meet the condition at the expected time point. That said, the Is operator gives the automation a one-hour window (1-59 minutes) after the elapsed time is reached. During the window, conditions can be met and the automation will fire. This is because the automation runs every hour, probably before or after the exact time point when the elapsed time is reached. For example, you set an automation to fire on cases 2 hours after they are resolved. When the automation runs, there are some cases that have been resolved for 2 hours and 39 minutes. Talkdesk sees these as 2 hours, and fires the automation. As such, it is recommended that you use Less than or Greater than as the operator for time-based conditions.
- All active automations can have overlapping conditions, but the automations can't be identical.
Understanding Actions
In the “Configure the actions” section, Administrators need to set the actions to be performed on cases. Specifically, after time-based automations run, they fire on cases that meet the conditions with the predefined actions executed. There are three types of actions:
- Update case field values: Set the value of a case field to the defined value in cases that meet conditions.
- Update tags: Replace, add, or remove tags in cases that meet conditions.
- Send notifications: Send internal notifications to a specific Agent or an Agent group.
| Action | Description |
| Status | The case status indicates the stage a case is in as the Agent handles the case. Allowed values are New, Open, Pending, On-hold, Resolved, and Closed. |
| Priority | The level of case urgency. Allowed values are Low, Normal, High, and Urgent. |
| Type | The case type helps categorize cases. Allowed values are Question, Incident, Problem, and Task. Administrators can add other values to this field. After added, they can also be selected. |
| Group | The group that is assigned to the case. You can search for a group by name. |
| Assignee | The Agent that is assigned to the case. You can search for an Agent by name. |
| Set tags | You can select existing tags and add new tags. Multiple tags can be set as values. Existing tags in cases that meet the conditions will be replaced with the tags defined. |
| Remove tags | You can select existing tags. Multiple tags can be set as values. The tags defined will be removed from cases that meet the conditions. |
| Add tags | You can select existing tags and add new tags. Multiple tags can be set as values. The tags defined will be added to cases that meet the conditions. |
| About | Indicates what the requester has asked about in the case. Administrators need to specify the field values beforehand so that an option can be selected. |
| Notify: Group | Set an Agent group that will receive the notification. After the group is set, you need to define the notification subject and body. The group will only be notified once. |
| Notify: Assignee | Set an assignee that will receive the notification. After the assignee is set, you need to define the notification subject and body. The assignee will only be notified once. |
Keep in mind that a time-based automation must contain a true-only-once condition or an action that cancels at least one of the conditions defined in the automation. Otherwise, the same automation would be executed continuously as its original conditions are always met. To make sure the automation to be created is valid, you can preview cases that meet the conditions defined by clicking the Preview button. You will be prompted with error messages if the automation is invalid.