Zoho CRM Community Digest - May 2024

Zoho CRM Community Digest - May 2024



This May, we shipped several features and enhancements requested by the Community. Dive in to learn more about them and explore the engaging conversations awaiting you in the Zoho CRM Community. 

Product Updates:


Buttons in Zoho CRM got an upgrade! You can now tailor buttons to specific layouts, adding more context and reducing clutter. Even better, buttons are now available for Zoho CRM portals. This extended functionality allows your customers to launch a pre-configured Kiosk from within the portal with a single click, taking customisation to a whole new level. Check out the announcement post for more details, complete with use cases to help you understand this update better. 
Zoho CRM's timeline has received a major makeover with some exciting new capabilities. We've extended the timeline view to three years, replacing the previous six-month limit, allowing you to see more of the record's history at a glance. This highly requested enhancement from our community doesn't stop there. You can now add notes directly to timeline entries for quick updates, filter events to zoom in on specific information, and even see email statuses — all within the timeline view. Check out this post to learn all about these enhancements.

Introducing Custom Email Field Support in Zoho CRM:

Zoho CRM now lets you send emails and sync conversations with email addresses added to custom email fields in Zoho CRM. This feature, in addition to the existing support for primary and secondary email fields, provides a more comprehensive email history across multiple email addresses within the CRM record. Supported for Leads, Contacts, Vendors, and custom modules, this feature is optional. Follow the steps in this announcement post to enable it for your CRM account. 

Introducing Lead History for Converted Leads: 

The timeline view stores the historical changes made to records, helping with the audit trail. Previously, lead history became unavailable once leads were converted to contact records, a major pain-point expressed by many of our community members. With the revamped timeline view, we have addressed this gap by making the lead history of converted leads accessible within the timeline view of the corresponding Contact, Account, or Deal record. This update is tied to the revamped timeline feature, which is being rolled out in a phased manner. For more details and updates on the availability of this feature, follow this announcement post. 

You can now customize the columns displayed in the Contact Roles section inside the Deals module of Zoho CRM. This update allows you to rearrange the information and choose which details are most important for your team to see quickly. Check the latest comment by @Anonymous User in this post for the specifics.

We've enhanced the integration capabilities of Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects. A new Client Configuration section has been added in the setup to ensure you're aware of how your project clients are mapped to CRM Contacts and Accounts. Alongside the previously supported modules (Contacts, Accounts, and Deals), we've now included support for additional Zoho CRM modules like Products, Cases, Quotes, Invoices and Campaigns. This enables seamless access to all project-related information across related CRM modules. Automatic field mapping ensures that relevant details from the source module are populated when you create a project, eliminating the need for manual data entry. Additionally, the permission management of this integration is now simpler. Check out the post for more details!

Enhanced Validation Rules: 

The recent enhancements to validation rules introduce much-needed flexibility, allowing for quick validation of data at the individual field level. You can choose to prevent saving or allow it with a prompt when a validation fails, and decide where error messages appear —either at the field level or at the top of the page. Additionally, validation rules now extended to lookup fields. Dive into the post to learn more in detail. 

Useful discussions:

Moving Mail Merge Templates Between Modules:
@Caroline wanted to change the module associated with existing Mail Merge templates in Zoho CRM. Check out @838536863@zohoclosedAccount.com's suggested workaround in this post: download the original template, import it to the required module and re-map the merged fields. 

Mailchimp Extension for Zoho CRM:
Use this extension to seamlessly sync your campaigns and subscribers in Mailchimp with Zoho CRM. Send personalised emails based on your customers' interests and trigger email Campaigns with automated workflows based on CRM actions. To learn more about this extension, check out this post!

Enabling Clients to Update Data and Track Progress in Zoho CRM: 
@Salmaswco wants their clients to fill out a form in Zoho CRM, fetch previously filled data, review and update details, and track their progress over time. Depending on the depth of the requirement, this can be done natively in CRM using customer portals or by integrating with Zoho Forms or Survey. Check out this post for suggestions from @Anonymous User and @Amy on how to make this work. 

Auto-Send Emails to Deal Contacts on a Monthly Basis: 
@Pam wants to send recurring emails every month to Deal contacts based on specific criteria. They figured out that Workflow rules are the way to go for this but needed some reassurances on whether they are doing it the right way. @Anonymous User and @Anonymous User provided some pointers to reassure them and added more details to it in this post.

Automating VAT Calculations for Quotes:
@Coen | Heative was struggling with manually setting the VAT on quotes each time. which lead to sending incorrect quotes to their customers when missed. Check out @Ishwarya SG's suggested solution in this post to add an aggregate field that automatically rolls up the VAT values from individual products to the quote. 

Functions: 

Automatic Field Updates Between Contacts and Deals Module:
@Tyler Christie sought a way to automatically update select fields in deal records whenever related fields are updated in the Contact module. In the discussion thread, @Hugh Marshall provided a Deluge script function to achieve this. Tyler even shared an enhanced version of the code that allows mirroring multiple fields at once. Check out the post to learn more!

Chain Workflows in Zoho CRM: 
@Oscar brought up an interesting use-case that involves two workflows working in tandem. The first workflow triggers a field update in the Contacts module whenever a Deal is marked as "Closed Won". This in turn triggers the second workflow from the Contacts module to send an email to Deal Contact. They got it all right except for a parameter that needs to be added in the Function code to make the output of the first workflow trigger for the next one. Check out the solution, shared by @Vigneshwaran K and @Ishwarya SG in this post.

@Reynald needed help integrating their website with Zoho CRM. They were unsure of specific API details such as the URL, API Key, client ID, etc., as well as how to integrate them. @Ishwarya SG suggested using Zoho APIs to push website information to the CRM and shared the API documentation. Meanwhile, @Bhoomi Joshi explained the steps to generate the required credentials. Join the discussion to learn the process. 

Automatically Count Emails Open for Lead Engagement Tracking:
@Antonio wanted to track lead engagement with emails sent through mass emails. He needed a way to increment a numeric field each time an email is opened. Check out @Vigneshwaran K's response in this post, which provides an API-based solution to achieve this. 

Prevent Editing In Lookup Fields: 
@kparikh44444 wants to make a lookup field in a subform with the Deals module as read-only once the deal reached specific stage. They had successfully made other fields read-only using client scripts but were stuck with the lookup field. Check out this post for the script provided by @Hugh Marshall to achieve this requirement.

Auto-fill Time Zones Based on Postal Codes:
@K-CRM wants to populate the Time Zone field for Contacts automatically and Leads. Their goal is to send bulk emails to these Contacts/Leads at the beginning of their local day, and wanted to know if this can be done using their client's Postal Code. Check the solutions shared by @Vigneshawaran K and @Haiku Technical Support in this post.

Hiding Custom Based on Lead Stage: 
Revisiting an old discussion on hiding/disabling the convert button unless the lead reached a specific stage, @Dan had a similar requirement with a custom button but wanted it to work without reloading the page. @Hugh stepped in with a solution, prompting @Dan to post a glowing tribute for Hugh, quoted below! 
Check out this post for an interesting discussion.

Kaizen: 

Kaizen#136 - Zoho CRM Widgets using ReactJS:
Learn how to create custom widgets for Zoho CRM using frameworks like ReactJS. check this post for step-by-step instructions on setting up the project, including installing, creating, building and packaging the widget for Zoho CRM. 

Kaizen #137 - Lead Conversion using Zoho CRM APIs: 
Learn how to leverage Zoho CRM APIs to convert Leads into Contacts, Accounts, and Deals while avoiding duplicate records in this post. 

Kaizen #138 - How are Widgets used in Zoho CRM Settings?Interested in learning more about Widgets in Zoho CRM? Check out this Kaizen post for an interesting use-case on how to leverage Widgets to make your Knowledge Base resources accessible right within CRM. Don't forget to explore the recommended reads section at the end of this post to learn more about Zoho CRM Widgets. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this month's round-up. Keep tabs on the digest every month for the latest ideas and discussions. Stay tuned and engage in the forums to be included in the next month's digest. Have a wonderful month ahead!

    • Sticky Posts

    • How to reach the official Zoho Support channels and avoid fake ones.

      Dear Customers, Thanks a lot for choosing Zoho! Our applications are built to help achieve your day-to-day business goals. We are committed to engaging with you, to understand and develop solutions that enhance your productivity.  We are happy and ready to help you use our services effectively. Understanding and avoiding fake support Just like using popular bank names and financial applications for phishing purposes, using Zoho and claiming to be providing Zoho Support or services with false numbers

    • Function #35: Close all tasks associated with a lead and create a new task.

      Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to close all tasks of a deal depending upon the deal stage. This week, let's look at a custom function that lets you close all of the tasks associated with a lead while simultaneously creating a new task, like when you need to halt all progress towards a lead while the lead is not available at the moment but create a reminder task. Business scenario: The success of a company, in one way or another, is determined by the leads it gets. Each lead is just

    • Zoho CRM Webinar - Redesigning Daily User Experiences with Canvas

      <br> Your users across roles use the CRM for day-to-day tasks that are necessary. Whether they perform their tasks on time, the right way, or at all depends on a lot of factors, including User Experience. Many businesses struggle with rigid layouts,

    • Join us at the Canada ZUG Meetup: What’s New in Zoho CRM

      Hello Zoho Community! Start your year with fresh insights into Zoho CRM’s latest updates and tools. Whether you're a CRM beginner or a experienced user, this meetup is crafted to help you optimise your processes and leverage new features. Explore practical

    • CRM Hack #2: Automate sending of birthday greetings to your customers.

        Hello everyone! What sets you apart as a sales person is your ability to add that personal touch to your business relationship with your customers. Sending a gift on a special day, or leaving a note wishing them on their birthdays, are small, yet significant actions that show your customers that you care. And these are actions done without any expectations :) You must be engaging with a lot of customers and it is highly unlikely that they all are your friends on Facebook or some social channel,

    • Recent Topics

    • Taxes for EU B2B Transactions

      Currently, ZC doesn't seem to have a procedure for validating VAT numbers of businesses purchasing in another EU state, and removing local VAT is valid.  This is essential for all inter EU B2B trade.

    • How to upload file to Connect using API?

      Hi there. I looked at the API documentation and nowhere did it mention how to use the API method to upload a file even though it is mentioned that it is possible to be done so. Please help.

    • Group Tax in Service Line Items

      Hi FSM Team! I noticed that when you update a tax in the service line item the group tax is not showing up as an option. Let me know what can be done thank you!

    • FSM Improvement Idea - Show an Import button when there is no data

      I am setting up FSM for a client and I noticed that there is no option to import data, see screenshot below. Even when you click Create Contact there is only an option to Import from Zoho Invoice. It is only after you add at lease 1 record that the Import

    • Zoho FSM API Delete Record

      Hi FSM Team, It would be great if you could delete a record via API. Thank you,

    • OAUTH_SCOPE_MISMATCH Error for Marketing Automation APIs with CRM Plus Account

      I'm trying to integrate Marketing Automation journey triggering via API but getting OAUTH_SCOPE_MISMATCH errors. I need clarification on API access for CRM Plus users.

    • Access token generate from the refresh token not working for API

      Dear Sir/Madam, When I use my refresh token to obtain new access_token, that token return INVALID_TOKEN when the same API is called. I made sure that my api site is correct and match the auth web site. However the original access_token work fine.

    • Function #4: Schedule Customer Statements

      Regularly sending statements to customers is an imperative part of many business processes as it helps foster strong customer relationships and provides timely guidance on payments. While you can generate the statement of accounts and have it sent over

    • Limiting search or dependencies with an asterisk "*".

      I have a form with several dependency fields with options still developing for each field. Since these options were developing and not yet ready to be a selection in the field, I placed a filter for the dropdown field. In this filter, I selected fields

    • Cross Data Center Support for 1:1 Chats with External Users

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We hope you're doing well. We appreciate the recent enhancement that enables cross data center collaboration in external channels, which has already improved communication across distributed teams. However, we’ve noticed that this

    • Support Bots and Automations in External Channels

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, How are you? We actively use Zoho Cliq for collaboration, including with our external developers. For this purpose, external channels are a key tool since they work seamlessly within the same interface as all of our other channels

    • Answer Bot and Personalized Questions

      Hi there, I have the same problem using the SalesIQ Answer Bot and the Zoho Desk Answer Bot (which really need different names, to be honest, in order to avoid confusion...) Customers that visit our website ask questions in the form of "What do you do?"

    • Handling Greetings/Small Talk at the Beginning of a Zobot Conversation

      Hello everyone, I’m currently configuring a **Zobot** in Zoho SalesIQ and everything is working as expected, except for one specific scenario at the very beginning of the conversation. My target audience has the habit of starting with a **greeting or

    • Regex in Zoho Mail custom filters is not supported - but it works!

      I recently asked Zoho for help using regex in Zoho Mail custom filters and was told it was NOT supported. This was surprising (and frustrating) as regex in Zoho Mail certainly works, although it does have some quirks* To encourage others, here are 3 regex

    • Importing a new list into campaigns

      I'm in the middle of switching my email platform to campaigns. I have a list that I want to import, and it overlaps with my existing Zoho CRM list. The fields in my Zoho CTM are more robust. Will this new list that I upload into my campaigns overwrite

    • when I email a invoice how can i see it was sent and also were i can go to see all emails sent

      when I email a invoice how can i see it was sent and also were i can go to see all emails sent?

    • Showing description in timesheet and timelogs.

      I am wondering if it’s possible in version 5 of Zoho People to have the description show by default or with a manipulation on the user’s part. Let me show you what I mean. As you can see this is the view for the users. Now if they want to see the full

    • How can I see content of system generated mails from zBooks?

      System generated mails for offers or invices appear in the mail tab of the designated customer. How can I view the content? It also doesn't appear in zMail sent folder.

    • CRM Blueprint Notification by Cliq

      Dear Zoho team, In Workflow, there is nofication by cliq, but in blueprint, there is no option as cliq notification. I think it is very convenient to get notified by Cliq , as there are multi modules in apps, but we will always check Cliqs

    • Zoho People Attendance Regularization – Wrong Total Hours Displayed

      While using Zoho People, I observed that the attendance regularization is showing wrong total hours when applied to past dates. For example, if a check-in is added at 10:00 AM and check-out at 6:00 PM for a previous date, the system sometimes calculates

    • Sync Contacts in iOS

      What does the "Sync Contacts" feature in the iOS Zoho Mail app do?

    • Live webinar: Craft the ideal sales pitch deck with Show

      Every great sale starts with a great story. And your pitch deck? That’s where the story takes shape. But too often, these presentations end up looking generic, overloaded with text, or lacking structure. The good news is, it's easier to fix than you think!

    • Project Statuses

      Hi All, We have projects that sometimes may not make it through to completion. As such, they were being marked as "Cancelled". I noticed that these projects still show as "Active" though which seems counter intuitive. In fact, the only way I can get them

    • 👋 Welcome to the Zoho MCP Community

      Hello all, glad to have you here! This is your space for everything AI agents, MCP tools, and intelligent business apps. This community is for you — developers, partners, creators, and businesses exploring how agents can transform work. Whether you’re

    • Suitability of Zoho One (Single User License) for Multi-State GST Compliance & Cost Analysis

      Hello Zoho Team, I am an e-commerce business owner selling on platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, and Meesho, and I'm currently using their fulfillment warehouses. I have two GSTIN registrations and am planning to register for an additional 2-3 to expand

    • DNS Manager

      Where Can I find my DNS manager so I can link this to click funnels or AWEBER

    • Forwarder

      Hi, I tried to add a forwarder from which emails are sent to my main zoho account email . However, it asks me for a code that should be received at the forwarder email, which is still not activated to send to my zoho emial account. So how can I get the

    • Forwarder

      Hi, I tried to add a forwarder from which emails are sent to my main zoho account email . However, it asks me for a code that should be received at the forwarder email, which is still not activated to send to my zoho emial account. So how can I get the

    • How do I sync multiple Google calendars?

      I'm brand new to Zoho and I figured out how to sync my business Google calendar but I would also like to sync my personal Google calendar. How can I do this so that, at the very least, when I have personal engagements like doctor's appointments, I can

    • Need to extract date from datetime field

      I have a datetime field and need only the date part from it. I am unable to find a built-in function that would be <DateTime>.Date(). I don't think I want to go the string conversion route of converting the datetime to string and then parsing out values and create a date out of it. Any one out there has a better solution to this? Thanks in adavnce. Regards Moiz Tankiwala Smart Training & IT Solutions

    • How to Hide Article Links in SalesIQ Answer Bot Responses

      I have published an article in SalesIQ, and the Answer Bot is fetching the data and responding correctly. However, it is also displaying the article link, which I don’t want. How can I remove the link so that only the message is shown?

    • New in Cadences: WhatsApp follow-ups, upgraded limits, and options for add-ons

      Hello everyone, We're rolling out two key updates to help you engage better and scale smarter with Cadences in Zoho CRM. Reach customers on WhatsApp, directly from Cadences Previously, Cadences have enabled you to automate follow-ups through emails, calls,

    • additional accounts

      If I brought 5 emails to my account. Can I later buy additional emails.

    • Issue in Zoho People Regularization – Incorrect Hour Calculation

      I have noticed that when applying attendance regularization in Zoho People for previous dates, the total working hours are not calculated correctly. For example, even if the check-in is 10:00 AM and check-out is 6:00 PM, the system shows an incorrect

    • Why I am unable to configure Zoho Voice with my Zoho CRM account?

      I have installed Zoho Voice in my Zoho CRM, but as per the message there is some config needed in Zoho Voice interface. But when I click on the link given in the above message, I get an access denied page.

    • Issue with Hour Calculation in Zoho People Attendance Module

      I have noticed an issue in the attendance regularization feature of Zoho People. When trying to regularize past dates, the total working hours are not calculated correctly. For example, if I enter a check-in and check-out time for a previous day, the

    • Cliq Meeting Calls No Audio and Screen Share

      When in a Cliq channel meeting, the audio does not work at all on pc. When i use my phone as audio source, screen share on pc does not work. I have updated audio drivers but the strangest thing is that during a 1 on 1 call, it works well. Therefore the

    • Bug in Total Hour Calculation in Regularization for past dates

      There is a bug in Zoho People Regularization For example today is the date is 10 if I choose a previous Date like 9 and add the Check in and Check out time The total hours aren't calculated properly, in the example the check in time is 10:40 AM check

    • Work anniversary and birthdays on connect

      Hello, I like the idea of having employee's work anniversary and birthdays on the dashbaord. Do you have to have the employee complete this information themselves in connect settings, or does it pull from their directory settings? (ie. we use Zoho one

    • Alias Email Id already exists

      Hi I'm trying to create an alias : contact @ yoavarielevy.co.il but i get the message  Alias Email Id already exists I had an account with the same name but I deleted it. Can you help? Thanx Yoav

    • Next Page