> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.zaapi.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.zaapi.com/ticket-fields/understanding-ticket-fields.md).

# Understanding ticket fields

Ticket fields are the structured data captured on every Ticket. They turn unstructured customer conversations into reportable data — so you can answer questions like "how many refund Tickets did we get this month?" or "what's our average resolution time for shipping issues?".

### Where ticket fields fit

Zaapi's data model has three levels:

* **Contact** — the customer
* **Conversation** — the message thread on a single channel
* **Ticket** — the unit of work, with its own ID, owner, status, and resolution

Ticket fields live on the Ticket. They describe **what this specific issue is about and how it was resolved** — not who the customer is (that's the Contact), or which channel it came in on (that's the Conversation).

### Why ticket fields matter

Without ticket fields, every customer issue is just a thread of messages. You can read them, but you can't measure them.

With ticket fields, you can:

* **Report on volume by category** — how many Tickets were about shipping vs. returns vs. product questions.
* **Track resolution outcomes** — what percentage of refund Tickets ended in a refund vs. an exchange vs. no action.
* **Route Tickets automatically** — send Priority = High Tickets to your senior team.
* **Spot trends early** — a spike in "defective product" Tickets for a single SKU surfaces in analytics before it shows up in returns.
* **Export structured data** — pull Tickets into BI tools or warehouse with clean columns instead of raw text.

### Default fields in every workspace

Every Zaapi workspace comes with a set of ticket fields ready to go:

* **Summary** — a short description of the issue. Used in Ticket lists, search, and analytics.
* **Enquiry Type** — what the customer is contacting you about (e.g. shipping, returns, product question).
* **Resolution** — how the Ticket was resolved (e.g. refunded, exchanged, answered, no action).
* **Priority** — how urgent the Ticket is.
* **Product Enquired** — the product the Ticket is about, linked to your product catalogue.

You can edit, disable, or remove any of these, and add as many custom fields as you need.

### Next

* Creating ticket fields — set up the fields your team will use.
* Populating ticket fields — how fields get filled in, manually and automatically.