Zoho CRM Digest - April 2024

Zoho CRM Digest - April 2024



Welcome to April, the season of blooming trees and blossoming flowers! As nature comes alive, so does our community. Dive into this month's digest to explore vibrant discussions and exciting announcements. 

Zoho CRM product updates:

Email-related enhancements in Accounts and Deals modules in CRM:

  • We're excited to unveil a highly anticipated feature in Zoho CRM: the ability to send emails directly from the accounts module. The email composer in Accounts module now offers quick suggestions for related contacts' email addresses, and makes it possible to access attachments and email templates specific to the Accounts module. Additionally, in the Deals module, email addresses of "contact roles" linked to the deal record will now be provided as quick suggestions. Explore the announcement for more details.

Resolve Conflicts during Deployment in Sandbox:

  • This announcement introduces notable upgrades to Zoho CRM's Sandbox, specifically targeting conflict resolution and some UI enhancements. Users can now swiftly access comprehensive conflict details right from the "Check Dependency page" and resolve issues directly from there. These updates aim to streamline the deployment of sandbox changes to production accounts, tackling common pain points such as missing associated items, duplicate name conflicts, and developer-user association conflicts. For more details, refer to the announcement post.

Introducing Zia Notes Summary: 

  • Introducing Zia Notes Summary, a new feature in Zoho CRM that offers users quick summaries of their CRM notes. This feature is particularly beneficial when navigating through numerous notes or requiring a concise overview of details captured in the notes section. This update provides two summaries: "Overall Summary" for a bird's-eye view of all notes on a record, and "Last Note Summary" for the most recent update. For a deeper dive into the new feature, check this announcement.

Multiple Kanban Views per Module: 

  • Previously, users were limited to one Kanban view per module, necessitating edits for different categorisations. Now, with the latest update, multiple Kanban views are supported, enabling effortless switching between views. The ability to expand and collapse stages in the card view enhances its compactness. Deal stages can be updated swiftly via drag-and-drop functionality, and stage-specific records can be created directly from the Kanban view. Moreover, access permissions can be set to control viewing and editing privileges for each Kanban view. Additionally, pipeline selection will be persisted until the user changes it, an option that was requested by many community members previously[Ref]. Check out this announcement for full details.

Add Tasks to Zoho CRM Calendar: 

  • We're excited to announce that the option to add tasks to the CRM calendar, a much-awaited feature requested by the community, has now been implemented. With this, you get daily and weekly views of CRM tasks in the Calendar, allowing you to easily keep track of your tasks right alongside your meetings and calls. Additionally, you can switch between single and multi-user views to manage tasks effectively and, create tasks directly from the calendar. For more details and resources related to this release, check out this Idea post.

Useful Discussions: 

  • @Felipe Salomão de Sousa Vale wanted to auto-format the phone numbers by removing special characters and spaces, including the country code if not present, and prefixing phone numbers with only 11 digits with the  "+" symbol. @Bhoomi Joshi and @Rodger Brehau provided the required suggestions for formatting the phone numbers using Functions. Check the post to learn more. 

Sales duo performance tracking:

  • @Bas van den Berk brought up an interesting sales report requirement. Every prospect is assigned to a pair of consultants. They wanted to add a matrix-like component to their dashboard to track the performance of sales duos based on the number of clients they have successfully closed, and to visualize the data to quickly identify the most successful duos. @Anonymous User suggested using a "Heat map" chart as it makes it easy to identify the top performing sales-duos at a glance. Discover the details in this post.

Multi-product purchase tracking at the Account level: 

  • @Ashley was reviewing an old post on tracking multiple product purchases by the same Account. While a Subform based solution was already suggested, @Max Tyack proposed an alternative approach using a custom module and lookup fields, which Ashley welcomed. Max also confirmed that Ashely's additional requirement for auto-updating prices across records can be achieved with either approaches using Workflows and Functions. Check out @Max Tyack's response in this post for further details.

Functions:

  • @Alejandro wanted to automatically capitalize the first letter of each word in a contact's information for all fields, regardless of how users enter it. @Rodger Brehaut shared the Deluge code to be associated with a workflow, which runs when the record is edited. Check this post for the code.

Execute Function only for select deal stages:

  • @Chris wanted to run a Function based on a deal's stage and needed to know how to best exclude select deals stages. @Hugh Marshall and @Bhoomi Joshi came up with different approaches to solve the same need, each, creating a list of stages to avoid and validating if the active deal is is not on that stage list. Check the code they shared in this post.

Automating Quote Management: 

  • @Coen | Heative mentioned that their sales process involves sending multiple quotes to customers, with only one being accepted. Once a quote is marked as "Won", they would like the other related quotes for the contact record to be automatically updated to "Lost". Check the solution proposed by @Ishwarya in this post, which includes a code snippet to be associated with a workflow to meet this requirement.

UpdateRecord Success: 

  • @David Shaw uses an updateRecord call in a Function, triggered by a clicking a button, and wanted to check whether the response indicates a success or failure. They provided a simple code for this requirement, with @Bhoomi Joshi and @Anonymous User making the necessary tweaks to get it to work. Check this post for the working code.

Auto-updation of deal stage:

  • @Benjamin wanted to update the deal stage to "Scheduled" automatically whenever a new meeting is added to a deal record in Zoho CRM. @Anonymous User shared theFunction code to achieve this. Check this post for the code.

Optimize CRM storage by automatically moving or deleting attachments:

  • @Anthony observed that their users were adding multiple attachments to a custom module, which significantly increased the CRM storage usage. They were looking for a way to automatically delete attachments or move them to Zoho WorkDrive when a field's status is set to certain criteria. Check out the solution posted by @Hugh Marshall, complete with code, in this post to achieve this.

Calling Functions linked to a Workflow: 

  • @David wanted to know if there's an efficient way to call a Function running within a Workflow from another similar Function without exposing the first Function via API. @Nicolas Donoso provided the solution: call the first Function using the automation namespace in the code. Check this post for the solution and sample code.

Dev's Corner:

  • @Felipe wanted to show an alert during the deal creation stage if a specific field is duplicated, without blocking the deal creation process. @Hugh Marshall suggested using Client Script, and @Anonymous User provided a detailed explanation including sample Client Script code, to prompt users about duplicates while allowing them to proceed and save if needed. Check this post for the solution. 

Real-time Dropdown popup for CRM field update during deal Creation: 

  • @Javier Molina wanted to open a popup with a dropdown list for users to select an option and pass it to a CRM field in real-time during deal creation. Check this post for Subash Kumar's Client Script code that fulfils this requirement.

Best practices for handling large record sets:

  • @David sought best practices for handling large record sets, especially when iterating over more than 200 records at once. Multiple community members shared their solutions, with @Kiruthiga recommending the use of the COQL API to determine the total record count. Additionally, she provided helpful tips and sample code for effectively handling large data sets. Jump into the post for detailed answers. 

Filtering recent calls by date and time: 

  • @Paul de Geode encountered difficulties retrieving calls made in the last week, particularly in filtering records by date and time using the V2 API. @Christoph Wenzel and others offered workarounds, recommending either the use of V6 API or COQL to address the issue. For more details, check out this post.

Naming variables in Deluge scripting:

  • Big shout out to @Rodger Brehaut for sharing invaluable insights on naming conventions for variables in Deluge scripting based on their type! Rodger suggests opting for descriptive names over generic ones like "response," making future code easier to understand and work with. Read this post to learn more. 

Kaizen: 

  • This post discusses self-client and server-based clients in Zoho CRM. Check out this post for videos and detailed explanations, along with suggestions for further reading to see how they're applied using Java SDKs.

Kaizen #134 - Manipulating Rich Text Field (RTF) using Zoho CRM APIs: 

  • Want to understand the ins and outs of working with Rich Text Field (RTF) and how to manipulate RTF using Zoho CRM APIs? Look no further than this post.


Thanks 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 upcoming 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

    • How to check Leads with no Task (open activity)

      Hi everyone, I was wondering if there’s a way to view leads that don’t have any tasks assigned or open activities linked to them.

    • What can we do on our end to improve the Answer bot answers?

      Hi, I'm using the Answer bot card in the Codeless bot builder. I've input several questions and their answers in the FAQ section to feed the Answer bot. The text is all in French, as this is the language our customers communicate in. I've tried testing

    • 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

    • Next Page