The Zoho CRM quotes modules is in need of a few key upgrades and for some reason this module does not seem to be a priority for Zoho.
The Quotes module desperately needs:
- Ability to reorder quote items and insert items.
- Ability to pull descriptions from the products modules
- Ability to export perhaps from either the Sales Orders Module or Invoice Module direct into Zoho Books
- Ability to search the line items of the quote using the global CRM search.
I believe that there is some thinking within Zoho that the estimates feature in Books will cover the quoting needs of the users. I have been offered this as a solution and while it might work for simple quotes, for more complicated quotes with lots of related information stored in the quotes module itself, it is simply not possible.
We want to use the CRM for sales and quoting and Zoho Books just for the accounting. This also matches how we split up the work load in our company with accounting focused on accounting not on the entire sales process that leads to a quote and sales order.
We have been successful in using the quotes modules with custom templates and the other features of Zoho to meet our very specific quoting needs but there needs to be some more development of the module to realize the full potential and I am concerned that this crucial element of the CRM package is being neglected for Zoho books which is really not up to the task when complex quotes are involved. We are hoping to adopt Zoho books as well and it is in test currently for our business, but we really want and need to keep the quoting function in the CRM.
The presence of a quoting module was key in my company's selection of the Zoho product in the first place, but the lack of development for the Quotes module, the very piece of the CRM which we use the most, is causing us to consider other solutions. We really don't want to leave because Zoho has so much potential, but the quoting module really desperately needs some basic updates and lack of these upgrades is slowing our quoting process and costing us productivity. Zoho has such huge potential, but with all the new features getting all the development focus, I hope that making the old core features work correctly is not forgotten.