Glossary of TOPdesk reporting terms

When you report on TOPdesk, the same terms keep coming up, and a few of them mean something slightly different from one report to the next. For each term, this page says what it means and where you can read more.

API account

A separate account in TOPdesk that an integration uses to sign in, apart from anyone's personal account. For AureaDesk, the account gets API access and read-only rights on the data of the modules you want to use. If you switch the account off, the connection ends. In TOPdesk SaaS, API accounts have had their own API Account card since October 2025. An account on that card cannot log in to the operator section and does not use an operator licence. If an integration still runs on a regular operator card, that card does count, as long as it is allowed to log in and has paid permissions. More on this in Getting started.

Application token

The token you create in TOPdesk for the API account, which the integration uses to sign in. Older TOPdesk versions called it the application password. For the TOPdesk reporting connection, you create a second application token on the same account. More on this in Getting started.

Backlog

The work that is still open. The backlog grows when more comes in each period than gets closed. If it grows while staffing stays the same, you are looking at a question of capacity or of how the work is distributed. The TOPdesk API only returns the current state, so AureaDesk records it daily and you can see, day by day, how many incidents were open and how many of those had been open for more than 7 or 30 days. More on this in Incident Management.

Change activity

A task within an extensive change. Each activity belongs to a phase and has a planned end date. Because every activity is handled by its own operator or operator group, a single change can pass through several departments. Besides the totals, your reports should show which activities have gone past their planned end date. More on this in Change Management.

Major incident

An incident that records and combines the incidents about the same large outage, for example when impact or urgency is high or many users are affected. TOPdesk's English documentation calls this a major call. In AureaDesk the open major incidents sit at the top of the Overview, with the number of linked incidents and a completion check for a restored major incident that still has open linked incidents. More on this in Overview.

OData feed

Alongside the REST API, TOPdesk has a separate interface for reporting, the OData feed, which the documentation also calls the Reporting Layer API. TOPdesk recommends it when its own reporting is not enough and you want to build your own reports in a BI tool, and names Power BI and Excel as examples. You then have to set up the data model yourself. Any licences that people viewing the reports may need, and the upkeep after a new version of the feed, are also your responsibility. More on this in Reporting on TOPdesk in Power BI.

On Hold

On Hold pauses an incident, for example when you are waiting a while for the caller or a supplier. Whether the target date then shifts depends on the settings of your environment, and even where it does, it only shifts when the incident is taken off On Hold. A snapshot taken while the incident is still On Hold can therefore show it as breached. More on this in SLA reporting in TOPdesk.

Operational activity

Planned work from the Operations Management module, one-off or recurring, such as weekly maintenance of appliances or switching backup tapes. In reports you mainly want to see which planned work has been completed and which activities have passed their planned end date. If you use the Operations Management module in AureaDesk, operational activities are also counted in the Workload view. More on this in Operations Management.

Operator group

In TOPdesk, incidents and changes sit with an operator group and, within it, possibly with an individual operator. The operator group often determines what work reaches someone, and a permission group linked to it applies to all its members. In reporting, the number of handovers between operator groups shows where work is delayed and information is lost. More on this in ITSM dashboard for smaller organisations.

Operator licence

In TOPdesk you pay per operator. The permissions in someone's permission groups determine whether they count, and you pay for every operator with at least one paid permission. Someone who only needs to see information can often manage with free permissions. In AureaDesk, the Operator License Management view (Pro and Enterprise) shows which paid operators have had no registered activity in the past 90 days. More on this in TOPdesk operator licences.

Reopenings

Incidents that are opened again after being completed or closed. Look at the figure together with resolution time, because incidents that were closed too early show up here when they are reopened. TOPdesk's Call Management report fields do not include this figure; AureaDesk reads reopenings from the TOPdesk reporting connection. More on this in TOPdesk KPIs.

Reporting Hub

The part of TOPdesk with standard reports, shown in the menu as Reporting Hub (BETA). As of early October 2026, it is still in beta and available in English only. You pick a ready-made dashboard, such as the Call dashboard or the Workload dashboard, and narrow it down with filters; according to the documentation, you cannot build your own reports in it. TOPdesk says the hub will gradually replace the Report Wizard. More on this in TOPdesk Reporting Hub.

Resolution time

The time an incident actually takes, from registration to closure. In TOPdesk the word duration means the time an incident is allowed to take, so use it with care. For the time actually taken, TOPdesk has the Actual duration, which includes time On Hold, and the Adjusted duration, which leaves it out. Agree which one you report, and whether you use the average or the median. More on this in TOPdesk KPIs.

Response time

The time until an incident is picked up. In TOPdesk you track it with Responded and a response target date per priority, and according to the documentation this requires a Contract Management and SLM licence. Also check whether your environment automatically marks an incident as responded to at a particular status, because that status then determines your figure. More on this in SLA reporting in TOPdesk.

REST API

TOPdesk's standard API, through which AureaDesk and other integrations read incidents, changes, activities, assets and operators. It returns the current state of an incident, such as its status and operator group, without the history of how it got there. With the REST API alone, you track the handovers between operator groups yourself; for incidents, AureaDesk takes them from the TOPdesk reporting connection. More on this in What the TOPdesk API does and does not return.

Simple and extensive changes

TOPdesk has two kinds of change. A simple change has no underlying activities and is meant for work that one operator can carry out. An extensive change consists of several change activities in phases, often handled by more than one department. Count the two kinds separately in your reports, since ten simple changes and ten extensive changes involve very different amounts of work. More on this in Service desk wallboard.

Target date

The date and time by which an incident must be resolved; TOPdesk calculates it from the duration or priority and the service window. If you work with SLAs, the SLA deadline comes in as a separate field, and a report based on the target date can show a different percentage from one based on that deadline. AureaDesk measures SLA compliance against the target date that TOPdesk sets on the incident. More on this in SLA reporting in TOPdesk.

TOPdesk reporting connection

The connection to TOPdesk's reporting feed, which supplies the route of each incident via operator groups, the status timeline, the time in the current status and the reopened incidents. From that feed, AureaDesk reads only the table that holds the blocks for each incident. The reporting connection uses the same API account as the regular one, with a second application token, and needs no additional TOPdesk operator licence. Your administrator can withdraw the permission for the reporting feed at any time. More on this in Frequently asked questions.