Your Zendesk configuration is like a garden: left unattended, it becomes overgrown with outdated triggers, conflicting automations, and forgotten workflows. Regular audits are essential maintenance that prevents small issues from becoming major problems.

This guide walks you through a comprehensive Zendesk configuration audit—what to check, how to check it, and what to do with your findings.

Why Configuration Audits Matter

Consider these common scenarios:

  • The ghost trigger: A trigger created by an admin who left the company six months ago is still firing, but nobody knows why it exists or if it’s still needed.
  • The permission drift: Group permissions have evolved organically, and now junior agents can see tickets they shouldn’t access.
  • The broken macro: A macro references a custom field that was deleted three months ago, throwing errors for agents who use it.
  • The redundant automation: Three different automations do nearly the same thing, causing duplicate notifications and confusion.

These issues rarely announce themselves with error messages. They silently degrade your support quality, waste agent time, and frustrate customers.

Regular audits catch them before they cause serious problems.

Audit Frequency Guidelines

Not all audits need to be equally thorough:

  • Daily: Monitor logs and reports for obvious anomalies
  • Weekly: Quick check of recently modified items
  • Monthly: Review active triggers and automations
  • Quarterly: Comprehensive full-system audit
  • Annual: Deep dive with optimization recommendations

What to Audit: The Complete Checklist

1. Triggers

Triggers are the most critical and most fragile part of your configuration.

Check for:

  • Inactive triggers: Are there deactivated triggers that should be deleted?
  • Duplicate logic: Do multiple triggers perform the same or similar actions?
  • Broken conditions: Do triggers reference fields, tags, or values that no longer exist?
  • Order conflicts: Are triggers ordered correctly for dependencies?
  • Overfiring: Are triggers firing more often than intended?
  • Underfiring: Are triggers not catching cases they should?

How to check:

  1. Go to Admin → Business Rules → Triggers
  2. Sort by “Last updated” to find stale triggers
  3. Review each trigger’s description and conditions
  4. Check the activity log (Admin → Logs → Activity) for trigger firings
  5. Look for errors in the error log

Red flags:

  • Triggers with no description or generic names like “Trigger 1”
  • Triggers that haven’t been modified in over a year
  • Triggers with extremely broad conditions (e.g., “Status is changed”)
  • Multiple triggers targeting the same notification recipients

2. Automations

Automations run on a schedule rather than immediately, making their impact less obvious.

Check for:

  • Time-based conflicts: Multiple automations checking the same conditions at the same intervals
  • Stale automations: Rules that apply to processes no longer in use
  • Incorrect timing: Automations running too frequently or not frequently enough
  • Condition drift: Automations that made sense when created but no longer fit current workflows

How to check:

  1. Go to Admin → Business Rules → Automations
  2. Review each automation’s schedule and conditions
  3. Check how many tickets each automation affects (visible in the automation list)
  4. Monitor the activity log for unexpected behavior

Red flags:

  • Automations affecting zero tickets (may be broken conditions)
  • Automations affecting hundreds of tickets at once (may be too broad)
  • Multiple automations running hourly with similar conditions
  • Automations created more than two years ago without recent review

3. Macros

Macros directly affect agent efficiency and data quality.

Check for:

  • Broken actions: Macros referencing deleted fields or invalid values
  • Outdated content: Template text that no longer matches current policies
  • Permission issues: Macros available to the wrong groups
  • Redundant macros: Multiple macros doing essentially the same thing
  • Orphaned macros: Macros created by agents who have left

How to check:

  1. Go to Admin → Workspaces → Macros
  2. Test macros in different scenarios to verify they work
  3. Review macro usage in reports (Admin → Reporting)
  4. Check permissions for each macro or group of macros

Red flags:

  • Macros with zero usage in the past 90 days
  • Macros with error-prone naming (e.g., “Copy of Copy of…”)
  • Personal macros (only available to one agent) that should be shared
  • Macros with hard-coded old dates or references

4. Views

Views shape how agents see and prioritize work.

Check for:

  • Unused views: Views that nobody accesses
  • Slow views: Views with conditions that cause performance issues
  • Overlapping views: Multiple views showing nearly identical tickets
  • Permission gaps: Agents lacking views they need or having views they shouldn’t

How to check:

  1. Go to Admin → Workspaces → Views
  2. Note the “Used by” count for each view
  3. Review conditions for logical consistency
  4. Test view performance by opening each one

Red flags:

  • Views used by zero agents
  • Views that take more than a few seconds to load
  • Views with extremely complex nested conditions
  • Views that return thousands of tickets

5. User Segments and Groups

Proper group organization is fundamental to everything else.

Check for:

  • Group membership accuracy: Are agents in the correct groups?
  • Orphaned groups: Groups with no members or no purpose
  • Permission creep: Groups with more permissions than needed
  • Naming inconsistency: Groups with unclear or inconsistent names

How to check:

  1. Go to Admin → People → Groups
  2. Review membership of each group
  3. Check what triggers, automations, and views reference each group
  4. Verify group permissions match current needs

Red flags:

  • Groups with no members
  • Groups containing both agents and non-agents
  • Identical permissions across multiple groups
  • Groups named after former team structures

6. Custom Fields

Custom fields are often created liberally and rarely cleaned up.

Check for:

  • Unused fields: Fields no longer serving a purpose
  • Inconsistent data: Fields with data quality issues
  • Missing documentation: Fields without clear descriptions
  • Type mismatches: Text fields that should be dropdowns, etc.

How to check:

  1. Go to Admin → Objects and Rules → Tickets → Fields
  2. Review the purpose of each custom field
  3. Check field usage in triggers, automations, and views
  4. Export ticket data to analyze field population rates

Red flags:

  • Fields with no description
  • Dropdown fields with overlapping options
  • Fields that are empty in 95%+ of tickets
  • Fields referenced in deactivated triggers/automations

7. SLA Policies

SLA policies need regular review to ensure they match current service levels.

Check for:

  • Outdated targets: SLAs that no longer reflect current commitments
  • Condition gaps: Edge cases not covered by any SLA
  • Overlapping policies: Multiple SLAs applying to the same tickets
  • Measurement accuracy: Ensuring business hours and calendars are correct

How to check:

  1. Go to Admin → Objects and Rules → Tickets → SLA Policies
  2. Review conditions and targets for each policy
  3. Check SLA reports for breach patterns
  4. Verify business hours and holiday calendars are up to date

Red flags:

  • SLAs with very high breach rates (>10%)
  • SLAs with very low breach rates (0%) that may not be enforcing
  • Tickets with no SLA applied when they should have one
  • SLA targets that don’t match published service commitments

Step-by-Step Audit Process

Phase 1: Inventory (Week 1)

Create a comprehensive list of all configuration components:

  1. Export a list of all triggers (manually copy or screenshot)
  2. Document all automations with their schedules
  3. List active macros and their usage
  4. Catalog views and who uses them
  5. Map groups and their members
  6. Document custom fields and their purposes

Deliverable: A spreadsheet or document with complete configuration inventory.

Phase 2: Analysis (Week 2)

Review each component against the checklists above:

  1. Mark items as: Keep, Modify, Investigate, or Delete
  2. Note dependencies between components
  3. Flag potential conflicts or redundancies
  4. Identify components with no clear owner

Deliverable: Annotated inventory with recommendations for each item.

Phase 3: Validation (Week 3)

For items marked “Investigate”:

  1. Review activity logs to understand actual behavior
  2. Consult with stakeholders (team leads, agents)
  3. Test in low-impact scenarios if possible
  4. Make final decisions on keep/modify/delete

Deliverable: Final action plan with specific changes to make.

Phase 4: Implementation (Week 4)

Execute changes carefully:

  1. Start with low-risk items (deleting unused views, etc.)
  2. Move to modifications (fixing broken conditions, etc.)
  3. Test each change before moving to the next
  4. Document what was changed and why

Deliverable: Cleaned-up configuration with change log.

Using Reports and Activity Logs

Key Reports for Auditing

1. Agent Activity Report

  • Shows which macros agents actually use
  • Identifies agents who may need training on available tools

2. Trigger Performance

  • Available through the Activity Log
  • Shows when triggers fire and any errors

3. SLA Achievement

  • Shows breach patterns
  • Helps identify if SLA policies need adjustment

4. Channel Performance

  • Shows ticket volume by source
  • Helps validate that routing triggers are working correctly

Activity Log Analysis

The activity log (Admin → Logs → Activity) is your audit best friend:

What to look for:

  • Patterns of trigger failures
  • Unexpected batch changes
  • Permission changes
  • Integration errors
  • Configuration modifications

Tip: Use the search and filter features to focus on specific time ranges or types of changes.

Error Log Review

Don’t ignore the error log (Admin → Logs → Error):

  • Failed trigger actions
  • Invalid macro operations
  • Integration failures
  • API errors

Many issues caught in the error log don’t cause visible problems immediately but indicate underlying configuration issues.

Common Findings and How to Address Them

Finding: Dozens of Inactive Triggers

Why it happens: Fear of deleting something important; easier to deactivate than delete.

Solution:

  1. Review each inactive trigger
  2. Document what it did and why it was deactivated
  3. If inactive for >6 months and no clear need, delete
  4. If might be needed again, export configuration before deleting

Finding: Conflicting Automations

Why it happens: Different admins creating automations without coordinating.

Solution:

  1. Map all automations by what they affect (status, priority, etc.)
  2. Consolidate overlapping logic into single automations
  3. Establish ownership areas for different admin roles

Finding: Macro Sprawl

Why it happens: Agents creating personal macros that should be shared.

Solution:

  1. Identify commonly needed actions
  2. Create standardized macros available to all
  3. Archive or delete redundant personal macros
  4. Train agents on when to create personal vs. shared macros

Finding: Custom Field Chaos

Why it happens: Easy to add fields; no process for removing them.

Solution:

  1. Archive fields that are no longer needed (can’t delete if they have historical data)
  2. Standardize dropdown options across similar fields
  3. Add clear descriptions to all fields
  4. Establish approval process for new custom fields

Documenting Your Configuration

Audit findings are only valuable if they lead to better documentation:

What to Document

For each major component type (triggers, automations, etc.):

  • Purpose and business logic
  • Dependencies on other components
  • Owner or responsible team
  • Last review date
  • Known limitations or quirks

Configuration map:

  • How different components relate
  • Workflow diagrams showing trigger chains
  • Decision trees for routing logic

Change procedures:

  • How to safely modify each component type
  • Testing requirements before deploying changes
  • Rollback procedures if changes cause issues

Where to Document

Choose a location that’s:

  • Accessible to all admins
  • Version-controlled
  • Easy to update
  • Searchable

Options include:

  • Internal wiki
  • Confluence/Notion/similar
  • Git repository with markdown files
  • Comments within Zendesk itself (limited but better than nothing)

How Configly Automates Configuration Auditing

Manual audits are important, but they’re time-intensive and easy to defer. Configly automates much of the audit process:

Continuous Monitoring

Rather than quarterly deep dives:

  • Real-time detection of configuration drift
  • Automatic flagging of broken references
  • Alerts when triggers stop behaving as expected
  • Monitoring for unexpected changes

Automated Analysis

Configly automatically identifies:

  • Redundant or conflicting rules
  • Orphaned or unused components
  • Potential performance issues
  • Security or permission gaps

Built-in Documentation

Configuration changes are automatically tracked:

  • Full version history
  • Change attribution
  • Purpose and rationale captured
  • Dependencies mapped

Impact Assessment

Before making changes:

  • Visualize what will be affected
  • See which components depend on what you’re changing
  • Predict outcomes before deploying

Compliance Reporting

Generate audit reports automatically:

  • Configuration change log
  • Access and permission changes
  • SLA compliance metrics
  • Configuration health scores

Creating an Audit Schedule

Don’t wait for problems to force an audit. Establish a regular schedule:

Monthly Quick Audit (1-2 hours)

  • Review recently modified triggers and automations
  • Check error log for recurring issues
  • Verify no unauthorized permission changes
  • Quick scan of macro usage

Quarterly Comprehensive Audit (1-2 days)

  • Full checklist review (all sections above)
  • Stakeholder interviews
  • Documentation updates
  • Optimization recommendations

Annual Deep Dive (1 week)

  • Complete inventory refresh
  • Strategic alignment review (does configuration support business goals?)
  • Benchmark against best practices
  • Major cleanup and consolidation

Key Takeaways

  1. Regular audits prevent problems: Small issues caught early are easy to fix; neglected issues compound.
  2. Systematic approach is essential: A checklist-based audit catches more issues than ad-hoc reviews.
  3. Documentation is mandatory: If you don’t document what you find and why you made changes, the next audit starts from scratch.
  4. Activity logs are goldmines: Most configuration issues leave traces in logs before they cause visible problems.
  5. Automation helps: Manual audits are important, but continuous automated monitoring catches issues between audits.
  6. Stakeholder input matters: Admins see the configuration; agents and managers see the real-world impact.

A well-audited Zendesk instance is more reliable, easier to manage, and provides better support outcomes. The time invested in regular audits pays for itself many times over in prevented issues and improved efficiency.

Want to automate configuration auditing and catch issues before they impact customers? Learn how Configly provides continuous monitoring and automated analysis at configly.app.