Dependency Mapping in Zoho Desk enables support teams to control how field values cascade across related ticket fields, ensuring data consistency and streamlining agent workflows. By defining parent-child relationships between picklist and radio button fields, you can automatically limit available options based on earlier selections, reducing manual data entry and preventing invalid field combinations.
What is it
Dependency Mapping is a field configuration feature that establishes conditional logic between two or more fields on a ticket layout. When an agent selects a value in a parent field, the system automatically filters the available options in child fields to show only relevant choices. This keeps ticket data structured, improves data quality, and accelerates ticket creation by eliminating irrelevant field options at each step [1].
When to use it
- Multi-tier categorization workflows — Map product categories to subcategories, then to specific SKUs, so agents only see valid product options after selecting a category [1].
- Department-based routing — Link department selection to team assignment, ensuring tickets route to the correct support group without manual reassignment [1].
- Issue severity and priority alignment — Restrict priority options based on issue type, so critical issues automatically surface high-priority choices while routine requests show standard options [1].
- Compliance and SLA enforcement — Create dependencies that enforce required field combinations (e.g., linking contract type to applicable SLA tier) to prevent misconfigured tickets [1].
- Regional or account-specific workflows — Map customer region to available service levels or product lines, ensuring agents only offer services available in that geography [1].
How to access it
Dependency Mapping is configured in the module settings. Navigate to your Desk module configuration page and select the Map Dependency tab. Alternatively, open the layout editor, hover over any picklist or radio button field, select More Options, and choose Create Map Dependency. The layout must contain at least two picklist fields or two radio button fields; multiselect picklists are supported only as child fields [1]. Once configured, the mapping applies automatically when agents create or edit tickets using that layout.
Related features
- Blueprint automation — Combine Dependency Mapping with Blueprint workflows to auto-route tickets based on mapped field values, eliminating manual escalation steps [7].
- Custom ticket layouts — Design department-specific or role-based layouts that leverage Dependency Mapping to show only relevant field combinations for each support team [1].
- SLA policies — Link mapped field combinations to SLA rules so that ticket priority and response times align with the categorization enforced by dependencies [7].
- Ticket analytics and reports — Track how mapped field values correlate with resolution times and CSAT scores to validate and refine your dependency structure over time [7].