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Getting StartedHome → Users Manual → Filters → Filter Display Columns Glossary & Definitions
6.11. Filter Display Columns Glossary & Definitions
Updated: 3 Sep 2026, 10:01 PM EDT
This is a glossary of every column you can add to a filter, including what it shows and how it behaves.
To change which columns a filter uses, see Filter Display Columns. This article covers what each column contains once you've added it.
How to read this reference
The columns are listed in the same groups and in the same order the filter editor's column picker uses, so you can scan this alongside the dropdown.
- Column — the name as it appears in the picker.
- Grid header — the label that appears at the top of the column in the ticket view (this could be in an inbox or in a filter). For several columns this is shorter than the picker name (the picker says "Request ID", the grid header says "ID"). Where the two differ, both are given.
- Sortable — whether you can click the grid header to sort by that column. Non-sortable columns show a plain header with no link. Sorting is not available in the Run Filter preview; save the filter and open it first.
The CSV export uses the grid header name, not the picker name. A few columns behave differently in the export — those are called out in Columns in the CSV export at the end.
Special Columns
| Column | Grid header | Sortable | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Replied To | (blank) | Yes | An icon when the most recent reply on the request came from staff rather than the customer. Hover the icon to see which staff member replied. Nothing displays when the customer replied last. This is one of the default columns on a new custom filter; it is not among the Inbox or My Queue defaults. |
| Take it | (blank) | No | A Take it button on each row that assigns the request to you and opens it, without needing to open the request first. |
Customer Information
| Column | Grid header | Sortable | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer ID | Customer ID | Yes | The customer's ID from your own system, if one has been set on the request (via Live Lookup, the API, or manual entry). Blank otherwise. |
| Customer | Customer | Yes | The customer's full name. One of the default columns on new filters and on the Inbox and My Queue. |
| Last Name | Last Name | Yes | The customer's last name only. Useful when you want a narrow, tidily sortable name column. |
| Yes | The customer's email address. | ||
| Phone | Phone | Yes | The customer's phone number. |
Request Details
| Column | Grid header | Sortable | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open/Closed | Open | Yes | Whether the request is currently open. Exports as Yes/No. |
| Request ID | ID | Yes | The request's numeric ID, linked to the request. |
| Assigned To | Assigned To | Yes | The staff member the request is currently assigned to. Blank when unassigned. A default column on new filters. |
| Category | Category | Yes | The category the request is in. |
| Mailbox | Mailbox | No | The mailbox the request arrived in. Only meaningful for email requests. |
| Sending Mailbox | Sending Mailbox | No | The mailbox replies to this request are sent from. This can differ from the receiving mailbox — see Default Send From and Send Outbound Email Via Settings. |
| Reporting Tags | Reporting Tags | No | The reporting tags applied to the request. Multiple tags appear in one cell. |
| Portal | Portal | No | The portal the request was submitted through, for requests that came in via a portal. |
| Opened By | Opened By | Yes | The staff member who created the request. Blank for requests the customer created themselves. |
| Status | Status | Yes | The request's current status. |
| Email Subject | Email Subject | Yes | The subject line of the originating email. This is a flexible-width column — see Column widths below. |
| Contacted Via | Contacted Via | No | An icon showing how the request arrived — email, phone, web form, and so on. A default column on new filters and on the Inbox and My Queue. Exports as the text name rather than an icon. |
| AI Detected Out of Office | AI Detected Out of Office | No | A checked box when HelpSpot AI identified the most recent customer message as an out-of-office auto-reply. Requires HelpSpot AI. |
| AI Auto Categorized | AI Auto Categorized | No | A checked box when the request's category was set by HelpSpot AI rather than by a person or a rule. Requires HelpSpot AI. |
| Attachments | Attachment Count | No | A paperclip icon when the request has at least one attachment. A default column on the Inbox and My Queue. Exports as Yes/No. |
Request History
| Column | Grid header | Sortable | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Request Summary | Request Summary | No | The AI summary of the request if one exists; otherwise the opening text of the initial request, cleaned up for display. This is the column most people mean by "the request text". A default column on new filters and on the Inbox and My Queue. Flexible width. |
| Initial request | Initial request | No | The initial request text, always — this column never substitutes the AI summary. Use it when you want the customer's own words even on requests that have been summarized. Flexible width. |
| Latest Public Note | Latest Public Note | No | The most recent customer-visible note on the request, whoever wrote it. Flexible width. |
| Latest Private Note | Latest Private Note | No | The most recent internal staff note. Available as of HelpSpot 5.8.4. Flexible width. |
| Latest Public Note By | Latest Public Note By | No | Who wrote the most recent public note. Shows "Customer" for customer replies and the system name for notes HelpSpot generated itself. |
| Latest Update By | Latest Update By | No | Who made the most recent update of any kind, public or private. Same "Customer"/system handling as above. |
| Public Update Count | # | Yes | How many public notes are on the request. A high count on an open request usually means a conversation that's gone back and forth without resolving. |
| Time Tracker Total | Time | Yes | Total tracked time on the request, formatted as hours and minutes. Requires time tracking to be enabled. Exports as a raw number of seconds, not the formatted time. |
Custom Fields
Every custom field defined under Admin > Custom Fields is available as a column, listed under its own field name. All custom field columns are sortable.
How the value renders depends on the field type:
| Field type | Displays as |
|---|---|
| Checkbox | A checked or unchecked box |
| Drill Down | The full path, reformatted for readability |
| Date | A short date |
| Date and Time | Date and time |
| Decimal | A number, using the decimal places configured on the field |
| Text, Large Text, Predefined List, Numeric, Regex, AJAX | The stored value as text |
Date and Time
| Column | Grid header | Sortable | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age | Age | Yes | How long ago the request was opened, in plain language ("3 days"). Sorts by date opened. A default column on new filters and on the Inbox and My Queue. |
| Date Opened | Opened | Yes | The date the request was opened, without the time. |
| Date and Time Opened | Opened | Yes | The date and time the request was opened. Pick this one or Date Opened, not both — they carry the same underlying Date value and produce the same grid header. |
| Date Closed | Closed | Yes | The date the request was closed. Blank while the request is open. |
| Date and Time Closed | Closed | Yes | The date and time the request was closed. Same either/or as the opened pair. |
| Last Update | Last Update | Yes | When the request was last updated in any way, including internal notes and staff-only changes. |
| Last Public Update | Last Public Update | Yes | When the most recent customer-visible note was added. |
| Last Customer Update | Last Customer Update | Yes | When the customer last replied. |
| First Response Speed (all hours) | First Response Speed (all hours) | Yes | Elapsed time between the request opening and the first staff response, measured in wall-clock time. |
| First Response Speed (biz hours) | First Response Speed (biz hours) | Yes | The same measurement counting only your configured business hours. Requires business hours to be set up in Admin. On a filter mixing calendar-time and business-hours SLAs, add both columns so staff can see which measurement applies to each row. Note this measurement is available as a column and as a sort option only — there is no business-hours condition, so you cannot filter on it. |
| Customer Wait Time | Customer Wait Time | Yes | How long the customer has been waiting since their last message without a staff response. The metric to sort on for an escalation view. |
Integrations
These columns are for the Thermostat integration and populate only on requests that received a Thermostat survey response. Requests with no response show a dash.
| Column | Grid header | Sortable | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thermostat NPS Score | Thermostat NPS Score | Yes | The 0–10 score, with a colored Promoter / Passive / Detractor label. |
| Thermostat CSAT Score | Thermostat CSAT Score | Yes | The CSAT score, with a colored Satisfied / Dissatisfied label. |
| Thermostat Feedback | Thermostat Feedback | Yes | The customer's written feedback from the survey. |
See Viewing Survey Results In Filters for more on Thermostat data in filters.
Surveys
This group appears only if you have created native HelpSpot surveys. Each survey adds two columns, named for the survey:
| Column | Sortable | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| [Survey name] (#id) Score | Yes | The score the customer gave on that survey, with a colored label for the bucket it falls into. The buckets depend on the survey's scoring type. A dash means no response. |
| [Survey name] (#id) Feedback | Yes | The written comment the customer left on that survey. |
Native surveys are separate from the Thermostat integration and have their own columns and conditions. See Creating Surveys and Using Survey Data in Triggers, Filters and Automation Rules.
Columns you'll see but can't choose
A few columns are added automatically and aren't in the picker:
- Read / Unread — the unread indicator in the Inbox and My Queue. Click it to toggle a request back to unread.
- Customer photo — the avatar shown at the start of a row where one is available.
- Trashed On — the date a request was trashed. Appears in the Trash filter only.
Column widths
Most columns take a fixed pixel width, which you can set by clicking the width value next to the column name in the picker, or by dragging the column border in the request grid.
Five columns are flexible-width instead — they share whatever space is left after the fixed columns:
- Email Subject
- Request Summary
- Initial request
- Latest Public Note
- Latest Private Note
Clicking the width on one of these shows a note rather than a width box. If you add more than one of them to the same filter, they split the remaining space between them, so each ends up narrow. Pick the one that matches what you're scanning for.
Default columns
If you haven't customized anything:
- New filters start with Replied To, Contacted Via, Open/Closed, Customer, Assigned To, Request Summary, and Age.
- The Inbox and My Queue start with Contacted Via, Customer, Request Summary, Age, and Attachments.
Columns in the CSV export
A filter's CSV export contains the columns configured on that filter, with these differences:
- The export uses the grid header name as the CSV header, so a column added as "Request ID" exports as "ID".
- A linked request ID column is added to the front of the export automatically, headed ID, whether or not the filter displays one. This happens only on filters you create — Inbox, My Queue and SPAM exports do not get it.
- Three columns are dropped: Read / Unread, Replied To, and the system Inbox's Take it button. This is a fixed list of three, not a rule about icon columns — Attachments, AI Detected Out of Office and AI Auto Categorized are also rendered as icons and are kept, exporting as Yes/No.
- Yes/No columns (Open/Closed, Attachments, checkbox custom fields) export as the words Yes and No.
- Contacted Via exports the method name as text rather than an icon.
- Time Tracker Total exports a raw number of seconds rather than the formatted time. Convert in your spreadsheet if you need hours.
- A sort you clicked on a column heading in the grid is not carried into the export — the CSV always uses the filter's own saved Order.
- All formatting is stripped, so note columns export as plain text.
See Exporting Filter Results to CSV.
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