Zoho crm digest

Zoho crm digest




Hello Everyone!


Second
half of November brought several exciting updates, especially around Zia, making AI assistance smarter, faster, and more context-aware. We also feature engaging community snippets highlighting members who went the extra mile to help their peers. Dive into the Community Digest to explore all the details.

Product Updates:

Smart Prompt Upgrade: Record-Level AI Assistance and Support for New AI Models

Smart Prompt now provides deeper, contextual assistance through the new Record Assistant, offering quick summaries of conversations, records, and notes, along with AI-generated content suggestions. The Template Assistant helps craft email templates by expanding, rephrasing, or adjusting tone based on simple prompts. This update also adds support for multiple AI models, including Zia, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and others giving admins the flexibility to choose what best fits their organization. It is available for Professional and above editions across all DCs. Explore more about it in this post!

Zia Conversation Summary: Instant Context for Every Customer Interaction

Zoho CRM now provides a single snapshot of all customer interactions with Zia Conversation Summary. It consolidates recent emails, calls, meetings, and notes, giving reps, managers, and cross-functional teams a quick recap of what happened, what was promised, and what still needs attention. Zia also flags delays, missed follow-ups, sentiment, and intent for a complete view of each record. This feature works through Record Assistant and requires Smart Prompt permissions, available for Professional and above editions. Check out the post for full details.

 

Zia ICR Adds Zero Shot Field Prompting to Automate Data Extraction

Zia’s Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) now uses zero-shot field prompting with Visual Language Models (VLM) to extract data from images and update CRM fields without training or manual setup. It reads printed or handwritten text, handles rotated or custom-shaped images, and fills multiple fields at once, speeding up tasks like capturing RFQs, onboarding sellers, processing car registrations, and other routine operations. This update is available for Enterprise, Ultimate, CRM Plus, and Zoho One in US, EU, and IN data centers. Learn more in this post.  

Zoho CRM for Everyone: The NextGen UI Just Got Smarter

Users are loving the upgraded Nextgen UI! Navigate from a single sidebar, access Global Search and Quick Create at the top, and open Setup, Reports, and Dashboards in just one click. Filters and record views are grouped, and custom views appear as tabs for quick switching. The new layout improves visibility, reduces clicks, and gives you more screen space. Rolling out gradually for standalone CRM accounts, with CRM Plus and Zoho One support coming soon. Check out the full post for details.

 

Quick Wins:

Filtering Dropdown Data by Another Field

@Tom Mitchell wanted to restrict lookup fields in the Quotes module based on a specific criteria. Specifically, the Reseller lookup to show only Accounts marked as “Reseller,” and the Reseller Rep field to display Contacts linked to that selected Account. The solution provided by @Hugh Marshall, using lookup filters, was tailor-made for this need. With this approach, related fields display only the relevant options without requiring custom scripts. Check out the full post for all the details.

Running Two Actions After Mail Merge

@Sophie wanted to streamline their mail merge so the merged document saves to WorkDrive and to the original Deal record without having to run two separate merges. Each action worked individually, but getting them to run together was a challenge. @Sunderjan Siddharth explained that this can be handled by using a single custom function through “Merge and Invoke Custom Function,” or by triggering a workflow that runs a unified action after the merge, allowing both actions to execute in one smooth sequence. Check out this post to learn more on handling multiple post-merge actions.


Dev's Corner:

 

Control Which Fields Users See on Record Creation Pages:

@Naomi Cerny wanted to show only the fields they consider necessary on the record creation layout, while keeping all fields accessible afterward for edits [Ref].@Rodger Brehaut shared a separate post with an On Load Client Script that lets admins control which fields are visible to users during the record creation stage. If you want a simple way to control what users see on Create pages, take a look at this post!

Send Emails with Inline QR Codes and Dynamic Images

@David wanted to embed a dynamic QR code directly in an email template rather than sending it as an attachment. @Andres noted that inline images are natively supported only in mail merge templates, while @Haiku Technical Support suggested generating the image via a URL or embedding it using base64 (a way to convert a file into text so it can be included directly in the email body) in Deluge. Since URLs weren't an option in David’s case, the base64 approach offered a practical way to include true inline images. If you’re looking to embed images directly in emails, this discussion clearly explains the feasible methods.

 

Kaizen:

(Kaizen #217): Automation Tasks API

This Kaizen post talks about how the Automation Tasks API helps add accountability to workflows by auditing existing tasks, creating follow-ups, updating priorities, and cleaning up old tasks. Tasks can be triggered by events such as onboarding or lost deals, using execution time, static values, and merge fields. Automating these actions ensures teams stay on top of critical follow-ups while keeping operations running smoothly. Check out the full post to learn more.

(Kaizen #218): Field Updates API

This Kaizen post shows how Field Updates can automatically change key fields when a workflow triggers, helping teams prioritize important leads without manual checks. The example focuses on marking high-score leads as High Profit and tagging them instantly. It also outlines how to create, edit, and manage Field Updates through API v8. If you want a clean way to auto-update fields based on conditions, this post lays it out clearly.

And that’s a wrap for this fortnight’s Zoho CRM Community Digest. Caught something cool we missed? Or have a favorite from this edition?

 

Drop it in the comments! We’d love to hear from you. We’ll be back in two weeks with more updates and community gems.

Until then, stay tuned!


    • 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

    • Change Last Name to not required in Leads

      I would like to upload 500 target companies as leads but I don't yet have contact people for them. Can you enable the option for me to turn this requirement off to need a Second Name? Moderation update (10-Jun-23): As we explore potential solutions for
    • Drag 'n' Drop Fields to a Sub-Form and "Move Field To" Option

      Hi, I would like to be able to move fields from the Main Page to a Sub-Form or from a Sub-Form to either the Main Page or another Sub-Form. Today if you change the design you have to delete and recreate every field, not just move them. Would be nice to
    • Passing Info from Function to Client Script

      Hello, I have recently started making use of client script for buttons, allowing me to give the user information or warnings before they proceed. This is great. However, I have never quite managed to pass back any extra information from the function to
    • Reply to Email for SO/PO

      Hello, We are new to Zoho Books and running into an issue. Our support@ email is our integration user. When our team is sending out PO/SO's we are updating the sender email, but for some reason many of our responses are coming back to our support@ email
    • ZOHO Payroll Canada

      Any plans on the roadmap for Canada?
    • What's New in Zoho Billing | January 2026

      Excited about the latest enhancements in Zoho Billing? Our January updates bring an intelligent AI assistant, smarter subscription management, and improved tax compliance, saving you time and reducing manual work. Dive into the details below to see how
    • Zoho Books Sandbox environment

      Hello. Is there a free sandbox environment for the developers using Zoho Books API? I am working on the Zoho Books add-on and currently not ready to buy a premium service - maybe later when my add-on will start to bring money. Right now I just need a
    • Multi-currency and Products

      One of the main reasons I have gone down the Zoho route is because I need multi-currency support. However, I find that products can only be priced in the home currency, We sell to the US and UK. However, we maintain different price lists for each. There
    • Cliq iOS can't see shared screen

      Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? Regards
    • ZOHO Writer Folders

      Hi We would love to have ability to create folders on the left hand side. We would then be able create and store our documents within each folder Hope you can provide this feature soon ! dux.centra
    • Canvas templates can now be shared with different CRM organizations

      ----------------------------------------Moderated on 14th February, 2023------------------------------------------- Dear all, This feature is now open for all users in all DCs. To learn more about importing and exporting canvas templates, read our help
    • COQL API in JS Widget only pulling 200 records

      Hello! We've been building a custom homepage widget using the Zoho JS SDK, and it seems that this https://help.zwidgets.com/help/latest/ZOHO.CRM.API.html#.coql only allows 200 records. I thought the limit was 2000 for COQL queries, but am I mistaken?
    • Passing the CRM

      Hi, I am hoping someone can help. I have a zoho form that has a CRM lookup field. I was hoping to send this to my publicly to clients via a text message and the form then attaches the signed form back to the custom module. This work absolutely fine when
    • Paid Support Plans with Automated Billing

      We (like many others, I'm sure) are designing or have paid support plans. Our design involves a given number of support hours in each plan. Here are my questions: 1) Are there any plans to add time-based plans in the Zoho Desk Support Plans feature? The
    • How can Data Enrichment be automatically triggered when a new Lead is created in Zoho CRM?

      Hi, I have a pipeline where a Lead is created automatically through the Zoho API and I've been trying to look for a way to automatically apply Data Enrichment on this created lead. 1) I did not find any way to do this through the Zoho API; it seems like
    • Merge Fields that previously worked are now giving an Error!

      Saving a URL Link button on the Deal module. The below fields used to save without issue at all, but now produce an error of "URL contains unsupported merge field!" ${Contacts.Mailing Street} ${Contacts.Mailing City} ${Contacts.Mailing State} ${Contacts.Mailing
    • Do buttons and vba msgbox work on mobile, specifially the iPhone zoho sheets app?

      In Zoho sheets on the web, I inserted a button and assigned a VBA macro to it. It pops up a msgbox with some text. When I go onto the iPhone mobile zoho sheets app, the button is there. When I click on that button, the spinning asterisk appears for a
    • Different form submission results for submitter and internal users

      I'm looking for suggestions on how to show an external submitter a few results while sending internal users all the results from the answers provided by the external user. The final page of our form has a section with detailed results and a section with
    • Column letter from number

      Hello, I am trying to select a cell and i have the column number. How do i do this or is there a way of getting the letter from the number? Thank you
    • Help Desk Services Solution

      I am here looking for Help Desk services solution for organization. I also searched this on many different website and found many solutions. We are bit confused to which one to choose. One of my friend suggest me this platform, and i am hoping i will
    • Facing Issues with Sites Mobile font sizes

      my page renediaz.com is facing issues mobile view, when i try to lower font sizes in home page, instead of changing the size, it changes the line space
    • Remove 'This is an automated mail from Zoho Sign' in footer

      Hi there, Is it possible to remove or change the text under the e-mail templates? I can't figure out how to do that: Would love to hear from you. Kind regards, Tristan
    • Formatting and slow

      Creating campaigns are difficult.  I'm fairly computer literate but some of the way Zoho Campaigns formatting works is painful.  Images fail to upload or are very slow. To top it off, syncing the contacts is a pain as well as temperamental links to create Segments. At this rate I'm afraid we might need to migrate back to Mailchimp.
    • Default Ticket View - Table?

      Guys, We mostly use the table view to queue tickets. Maybe I am missing it - but how can I set that view as 'default" for all our agents? Thanks JV
    • Boost your Zoho Desk's performance by archiving tickets!

      The longer your help desk operations are, the more likely it is to accumulate tickets that are no longer relevant. For example, ticket records from a year ago are typically less relevant than currently open tickets. Such old tickets may eventually lead
    • Paste emails to create segment

      We are moving over from Mailchimp to ZOHO. However Mailchimp allows me to create a segment by pasting in emails from excel (or importing a .csv) can I do the same in Mailchimp?
    • Getting the Record ID of a form once it is submitted - so that form can be edited later

      In Zoho Forms, where can I access the record ID of a form once the form is submitted? - Record ID is not available in webhook payloads - It is not available to form fields, including in formulas - It is not available as a parameter in a thankyou page
    • Auto-Generate Line Numbers in Item Table Using HTML & CSS Counters (Zoho Books & Zoho Inventory Custom Templates)

      <div> <style> /* Start counter from 0 inside tbody */ tbody#lineitem { counter-reset: rowNumber; } /* Increment counter for each row */ tbody#lineitem tr { counter-increment: rowNumber; } /* Show counter value in first column */ tbody#lineitem tr td:first-child::before
    • Possible to define default font and size in Zoho Campaigns?

      Is it possible to define a default font (font, size and colour) for the text, H1 and H2 in Zoho Campaigns? For example: In a campaign, I add a text block, and the text is automatically century gothic, size 11, grey (6f6f6e) by default? Thank you!
    • Zoho Sites - General Feedback

      Hi Everyone-- Quick question for discussion: is it me or is working with Zoho Sites like entering the Twilight Zone? I've built many sites over the years, but this platform seems impossible. I've spent an entire day and a half trying to get a simple one-color
    • File Upload field not showing in workflow

      Hi, I have added a field on Zoho CRM. I want to use it in a workflow where that particular field is updated based on another field, however it is not showing up in the field list to select it in the workflow. Why is this please?
    • You cannot send this email campaign as it doesn't have any eligible contacts in the selected mailing list. You can try adding contacts or choose other mailing lists.

      please help
    • Strengthening the capabilities of CommandCenter in Zoho CRM Plus

      When you look at the prospect-to-customer journey in most businesses 10 to 15 years ago, it was relatively straightforward. Many of us remember walking into a store, sharing our requirements with a sales associate, reviewing a few options, and making
    • World date & time format

      Hello, Is there a timeline to get the worldwide used date and time format ? I mean not the american one... I mean day month year, and 24 hours clock. Regards
    • Announcing Kiosk 1.1 - Customize screen titles, configure new fields & actions, use values from your Kiosk to update fields, and more.

      Hello all We are back again with more enhancements to Kiosk. So what's new? Enhancements made to the Components Add titles for your Kiosk screens and adjust its width to suit your viewing preferences. Three new fields can be added to your screen: Percentage,
    • Any recommendations for Australian Telephony Integration providers?

      HI,  I am looking for some advice on phone providers as we are looking to upgrade our phone system, does anybody have experience with any of the Australian providers that integrate with CRM Telephony? So far we are looking at RingCentral and Amazon Connect, and would love to hear feedback on any of the other providers you might have tried.  Thank you
    • CRM Cadences recognise auto-responses

      I have leads in a Cadence. I get an auto-responder reply "I'm out of the office..." Normally Cadences seems to know that isn't a real reply and keeps the lead enrolled in the cadence. However, today, Cadences has UNENROLLED a Lead who sent an auto-reponse
    • Zoho Campaigns Workspaces

      Hi, I’m currently working on a Zoho CRM + Zoho Campaigns setup for a franchisee-based organization, where each franchise must only see and use its own contacts. At the moment, franchisees cannot properly access their contact lists in Zoho Campaigns unless
    • Limited System because of Limited Number of Fields for Car Dealership

      Dear Zoho Support, we want to have all the information about a car inside of a car record. We want to have Zoho CRM as our single source of truth for our data, but the limited number of fields are not allowing that. The data consist of: technical data
    • Automatically Update Form Attachment Service with Newly added Fields

      Hi, When I have a Form Setup and connected to a 3rd Party Service such as OneDrive for Form Attachments, when I later add a new Upload Field I have to remove and redo the entire 3rd Party Setup from scratch. This needs to be improved, such as when new
    • Next Page