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How do I read the Activity Timeline on an agent's scorecard?

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The Activity Timeline on an agent's scorecard lays out their actual day next to their published schedule, so you can see what they were scheduled to do, what their tools say they actually did, and where those two things lined up or didn't. Because it pulls from several sources at once, it can look busy at first glance. This article walks through each row, using the numbers in the screenshot above to match each row to its explanation below.

🔒 Access: the agent state mappings link at the bottom of the timeline, and the settings page it leads to, are only visible to admins. Everyone with scorecard access can view the timeline rows themselves.

Table of contents

What's shown above the six rows?

At the top of the timeline is the agent's scheduled shift for the day, shown as colored blocks (for example, Chat and Email, QA Live Session, or Meal). Everything below is measured against this schedule.

Two dropdowns in the top-right let you control what the timeline shows:

  • Metrics — turns the three metric rows (Schedule adherence, Productive adherence, Occupancy) on or off. The number in parentheses shows how many are currently enabled.
  • Highlight — highlights blocks that match a condition you choose, such as scheduled productive events, occupied states, or available states, so they're easier to spot across the timeline.

At the bottom of the timeline, a note tells you when the data was last refreshed (see How fresh is this data? below), and a link — agent state mappings — takes admins to the settings page that controls how every row above is calculated.

1. What does "Schedule adherence" show?

Whether the agent was doing what they were scheduled to do, for every minute of their scheduled shift — meetings, training, breaks, QA time, chat and email time, all of it. Time off is the one exception: we don't track adherence to time off, so those hours are never scored.

  • Green means in adherence. The agent's actual state at that moment matched something mapped to the event they were scheduled for.
  • Red means out of adherence. The agent's actual state didn't match their scheduled event.

For each scheduled event, we check the agent's real state across their connected platforms during that window. Each raw state (for example, a Zendesk status) is mapped, in agent state mappings, to the event types it's allowed to satisfy. If the scheduled event type is on that list, the agent is in adherence; if not, they're out of adherence.

⚠️ Keep in mind: this compares the agent's mapped state to their scheduled event type, not whether they were logged in. An agent can be logged into every tool all day and still show red if their reported state isn't mapped to what they were scheduled for. If red seems wrong, check the mapping before assuming the agent was off task.

2. What does "Productive adherence" show?

The same in-adherence comparison as Schedule adherence, but scoped only to events flagged as productive, such as Chat and Email. Meetings, training, QA, and breaks are excluded from this row entirely — they're not scored green or red here, they're simply not evaluated.

  • Green means in adherence during a scheduled productive event.
  • Red means out of adherence during a scheduled productive event.

No bar is drawn for scheduled time that isn't productive, which is why this row has gaps where meetings, breaks, and QA sit.

💡 Note: Schedule adherence and Productive adherence use different denominators, so their percentages for the same day will rarely match. That's expected: one scores all non-time-off scheduled time, the other scores only scheduled productive time.

3. What does "Occupancy" show?

Of the time the agent was logged in and available, how much was spent actively occupied with customer work versus available and idle. Occupancy isn't compared against the schedule — it's based purely on the agent's actual state.

  • Blue means occupied. The agent's state at that moment is mapped to count toward occupied time.
  • Gray means available. The agent was logged in and available, but not mapped as occupied.

Occupancy is calculated as occupied time divided by occupied time plus available time.

This row looks different from the two above it because it isn't merged into a few solid blocks. Schedule adherence and Productive adherence combine consecutive matching time into larger blocks, while Occupancy draws one thin bar per underlying state segment. That's why it looks like a dense strip of blue and gray stripes rather than a couple of continuous bars — it's a rendering difference, not a data quality problem.

⚠️ Keep in mind: only states that are explicitly mapped as "counted towards occupied" or "counted towards available" in agent state mappings are included. A state mapped to neither is left out of the calculation entirely, which is one reason occupied and available time don't always add up to the full shift length.

4–6. What are the three Zendesk-related rows, and how do they differ?

These three rows aren't three views of the same data. Each one comes from a separate integration, and which ones you see depends on what your organization has connected.

4. Zendesk UAS

Data from Zendesk's Unified Agent Status API — Zendesk's newer, more granular status system (for example, Online, Away, or Transfers only, depending on how your Zendesk admin has configured it).

5. Zendesk

Data from Zendesk's core Sessions API — essentially a logged-in signal, not a detailed status system. The many thin segments you see in this row usually reflect frequent session pings rather than distinct manually set statuses.

6. Activity tracker for Zendesk

Data from Assembled's own browser extension, which tracks agent browser activity independently of anything Zendesk reports. This row generally gives the most detailed picture of what the agent was doing at their desk.

How do I read the colors in rows 4 through 6?

  • Hover any block to see its exact state name, time range, and, where applicable, ticket count.
  • A solid gray block, often labeled "Offline," means no activity was reported for that platform during that window — including the time before an agent's shift starts.
  • A block that spans several very short, rapidly changing states may show as a striped block with more than one color, rather than dozens of illegibly thin slivers. Hover it to see the full breakdown.
  • Colors come from agent state mappings when a state has been explicitly configured there. A state that hasn't been configured yet is assigned a color automatically, which is why the same status name can appear in different colors until someone sets it explicitly.

💡 Note: statuses reported through Zendesk UAS are largely custom to your Zendesk setup, so the same color won't necessarily mean the same status across different companies. Use the hover tooltip rather than memorizing colors.

Where do these colors and rules come from?

Every row above is driven by one settings page: Settings > Agent states, linked at the bottom of the timeline as agent state mappings. For each raw state your integrations report, that page lets an admin configure:

  • Matched events — which scheduled event type(s) this state satisfies for adherence. If "Away" isn't mapped to a productive event type, an agent sitting in "Away" during Chat and Email will show red on Productive adherence.
  • Counted towards occupied or available time — whether the state counts as occupied or available for the Occupancy row. A state can be mapped to neither.
  • Display color — the color used for that state everywhere it appears in the timeline.

If a metric looks wrong or a color looks off, check this page first. It's usually a mapping gap, not a data problem.

How fresh is this data?

The note at the bottom of the timeline ("Agent metrics data above updated X hours ago") reflects when our backend last recomputed the metrics for the date range you're viewing. It isn't a live feed, and it doesn't update on a fixed schedule you can predict from the clock. If a recompute is in progress for the range you're viewing, you'll see an in-progress note instead of a fixed time. If numbers look stale, wait a few minutes and check again rather than assuming the underlying integration data is missing.

Why do Schedule adherence and Productive adherence show different percentages for the same day?

They measure different things. Schedule adherence scores every non-time-off scheduled event. Productive adherence scores only scheduled productive events. It's normal, and expected, for the two numbers to diverge.

Why is a block marked "out of adherence" when the agent looks like they were working?

Red only means the agent's mapped state didn't match what they were scheduled for at that moment — it doesn't mean they were idle. Check agent state mappings to see whether the state they were actually in is mapped to the scheduled event type. This is the most common cause of adherence looking wrong.

Why are there three Zendesk rows, and which one should I trust?

Zendesk UAS, Zendesk, and Activity tracker for Zendesk are three separate data sources, not duplicates of each other. If your organization has more than one connected, use whichever one your team has standardized on for coaching. Activity tracker for Zendesk generally gives the most detailed view of actual desk activity, while Zendesk (Sessions) is the coarsest signal.

Can a state count toward Occupancy without affecting adherence, or the other way around?

Yes. Matched events (for adherence) and occupancy type (occupied, available, or neither) are configured independently for each state on the agent state mappings page. A state can be mapped for one purpose, both, or neither.

Questions? Contact support@assembled.com and we'll be glad to help.

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