Gain control over record sharing with portal users through our new enhancement: criteria-based data exposure
Dear Customers,
We hope you're well!
Portals is a self-service avenue through which your clients can access and manage their direct and related data in Zoho CRM. This empowers them to be more independent and enables them to experience a sense of transparency with your business.
Here, the key term to notice is direct and related data. The current portal setup serves clients only with their own primary and related data via a lookup field. Here's a pictorial representation of the current setup:
While having access only to their records gives customers authority over their information, it presents some notable challenges.
Challenge #1: Lack of control
A record undergoes two types of processes: customer-driven processes like conversion, negotiation, winning a deal, and more, and internal processes like approvals, discussions, and rejections. While the former keeps customers informed about the progress of their deals, the latter reveals the business' internal decision-making process. Administrative information isn't necessarily meant to be seen, but the current portal setup exposes each stage a record goes through, unconditionally. This poses a problem: The business lacks control over the kind of information that's shared.Imagine this scenario: Patricia is your customer. She has access to her profile, deals, and quotes. She can manage data all by herself and track records as they progress. While having access to her own records empower her with independence, witnessing all the process changes—including approvals and rejections of discounts that aren't yet final—might cause her some anxiety. It also violates the business's privacy policies.
Challenge #2: Lack of flexibility
The portals you have now only enable you to share clients' personal and transactional records. Clients can only see their own data. But what if they want to access information other than their own? Or what if they want to view records with a particular trait?
Say, for example, your business sells multiple products across Canada, and you want your portal users to see only the products available in their regions. This is a specific request that's based on the location of the customer. The current setup limits this requirement and fails to preserve context for the customer.Thus, to give the admins control over any exposed information and simultaneously provide portal users with both flexibility and independence, we've developed an exciting addition to portals' data-sharing functionality: criteria-based data exposure.
Introducing criteria-based data exposure
Criteria-based data exposure is the ability to expose modules and data based on conditions that you use to control what data should be exposed and when, or to render contextual results for portal users.Technically speaking, in addition to linking a primary module and a related module using lookup fields, admins can now define two types of criteria to expose other records with a particular trait in the module: match with fields and match with values.
Match with value: This criterion should be familiar to you as a seasoned Zoho CRM user. You can determine record eligibility by defining a field, operator, and qualifying value.
Example: Deal type is new business. All those deals that are new businesses will be displayed to the portal user.
Example: Implementation agent servicing area is the client's billing city.
Let's understand these criteria by addressing our initial challenges:
Solution for challenge #1 (lack of control)
By matching with value, we can allow Patricia to view her quote only after it reaches the approved stage. This way, your business's internal correspondence stays internal, and Patricia can track her quotes without any impact on her experience.
Below is how you can configure this feature. Again, let's suppose Patricia is your customer and that you want her to have access to her transactional data:
- Create a mutual lookup field called "Contact name" between the Contacts and Quotes modules.
- To control who can access this information, use the match by value criterion and add two conditions:
- Quote stage is approved
- Quote stage is not negotiating
This way, Patricia's quote is visible only when it reaches the approved stage.
Solution for challenge #2 (lack of flexibility)
With the match with field criterion, your portal user can view all products that are available in Canada.
Let's look at how you can configure this functionality.
The Products module is a public module, accessible to all portal users, irrespective of their relationship to that module. To bring context to this setup, add a condition using the match by field criterion:
- Available area is mailing country
Note:
In addition to configuring criteria, you can also use an "and/or" conditional to follow these criteria. That is, you can use both criteria and lookup, or either of the three (criteria, or match with values, or match with fields), or one of the criteria and lookup.
For example, let's say your Implementation Specialist module has an exhaustive list of agents that implement servers in different areas, with varying levels and types of expertise. To display the agents the user hired as well as other agents for reference, we can configure conditions, as shown below:
- The primary module and the related module can be linked using the native lookup field to bring up agent records that users have hired directly.
- To display other agents in the location, let's use conditions:
- If the record matches with values, the customer can see all agents who belong to Michigan, Ohio, Chicago, Washington, and Indianapolis will be displayed.
- If the record matches with fields, the customer can see all agents whose service region matches the contact's mailing state.
Thanks to these new criteria, we've updated the UI of the configuration page as well. What used to be called Filter by column (where the lookup value is selected) has been renamed to Linked as and conditions.
To understand the scope and impact of this enhancement, let's look at a couple more examples.
Example 1: Match with value
Let's say you sell electronics and accessories in bulk for large enterprise organizations. You've extended the following modules in portals for enterprise customers:
- Primary module: Contacts
- Related modules: Products, Invoices, Cases, Appointments
- Public module: Channel partners
So that customers can look at all the products applicable for enterprise customers, you've formulated some criteria: Lookup and Match by value. Customer type is Enterprise.
Now clients can see their contact records, their products (thanks to the lookup connection), and products for enterprise customers (thanks to the match by value criterion), as well as invoices, cases, and appointments related to them, and, finally, all channel partners.
Example 2: Match by field
Saint Laurent Hospital is a multi-specialty hospital in Iowa. They let their patients manage their profiles, view their prescriptions, order medicines from the pharmacy, view lab results, and book appointments with doctors using a dedicated portal.
This is their setup:
- Primary module: Patient's profile
- Related modules: The Prescriptions module, Lab Results module, and Appointments module are related with the primary module via lookup fields, and the Doctors module via the Match by field criterion.
- Public modules: Medicines
As you can see, records with personal data (prescriptions, lab results, appointments) are directly linked to the patient's profile using lookup fields, and to map the doctors to the patients' ailments, the complaint field from the patient's profile is linked to doctors whose specialization is also the same as the ailment. This means that the patient can see all the doctors whose specialization matches their complaint.
(i.e.) Specialization contains Complaint. IBS specialist contains IBS
That's all for this enhancement to the Portals configuration.
We hope these criteria will enhance your clients' experiences with your business. If you have any questions or concerns, please drop a comment. Let's connect!
Release plan: This enhancement is available for users in all DCs.
Resources: Portals in Zoho CRMThanks and kind regards,
Saranya Balasubramanian
Access your files securely from anywhere
New to Zoho Recruit?
Zoho Developer Community
New to Zoho LandingPage?
Zoho LandingPage Resources
New to Zoho Survey?
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Bigin?
Topic Participants
Saranya Balasubramanian
Yaali Bizappln Solutions
Sticky Posts
In-person ZUG Meetups for Real Estate Professionals - US Q1 2026
The Real Estate Zoho User Group is going on a multi-city, in-person meetup tour across the US, and we’d love to see you there! These meetups are a great opportunity to: Connect with fellow real estate professionals using Zoho Share challenges and discoverGood news! Calendar in Zoho CRM gets a face lift
Dear Customers, We are delighted to unveil the revamped calendar UI in Zoho CRM. With a complete visual overhaul aligned with CRM for Everyone, the calendar now offers a more intuitive and flexible scheduling experience. What’s new? Distinguish activitiesNimble enhancements to WhatsApp for Business integration in Zoho CRM: Enjoy context and clarity in business messaging
Dear Customers, We hope you're well! WhatsApp for business is a renowned business messaging platform that takes your business closer to your customers; it gives your business the power of personalized outreach. Using the WhatsApp for Business integrationTwo new enhancements in Zoho CRM: Introducing new criteria for user fields and displaying group information in users page
Announcement moderated on 14th June, 2023. Dear All, These enhancements are opened for all users in all DCs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear All, Hope you're well! We are here with two usefulPresenting ABM for Zoho CRM: Expand and retain your customers with precision
Picture this scenario: You're a growing SaaS company ready to launch a powerful business suite, and are looking to gain traction and momentum. But as a business with a tight budget, you know acquiring new customers is slow, expensive, and often delivers
New to Zoho TeamInbox?
Zoho TeamInbox Resources
Zoho CRM Plus Resources
Zoho Books Resources
Zoho Subscriptions Resources
Zoho Projects Resources
Zoho Sprints Resources
Qntrl Resources
Zoho Creator Resources
Zoho CRM Resources
Design. Discuss. Deliver.
Zoho Show Resources
Get Started. Write Away!
Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.
Zoho CRM コンテンツ
-
オンラインヘルプ
-
Webセミナー
-
機能活用動画
-
よくある質問
-
Ebook
-
-
Zoho Campaigns
- Zoho サービスのWebセミナー
その他のサービス コンテンツ
Nederlandse Hulpbronnen
ご検討中の方
Recent Topics
Zoho Webinar et Zapier : de la prise de rendez-vous aux relances — une automatisation performante
Organiser un webinaire réussi et gérer efficacement les participants peut être un véritable défi. Avec Zoho Webinar et Zapier, vous pouvez rendre vos processus plus simples. Vous gagnez du temps en automatisant les tâches répétitives. Résultat : une expérienceTicket Stages Report
From data to decisions: A deep dive into ticketing system reports Ticket stages refer to the series of transitions from the moment a support ticket is created until it is closed. It moves through various stages based on the actions taken at each preceding【参加無料】今年最後のZoho ユーザー交流会｜東京・大阪・名古屋で開催！ 活用事例＆ユーザー同士の情報交換
ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの中野です。 11月に東京、大阪、名古屋の3都市でZoho ユーザー交流会を開催します！ 毎回ご好評いただいている本イベントでは、実際の Zohoユーザーによるリアルな活用事例の共有や 参加者同士でノウハウを交換し合うグループワークを予定しています。 「他社の活用を参考にしたい」「Zoho をもっと使いこなしたい」方にぴったりの場です。 初参加の方もぜひお気軽にご参加ください！ ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーSlow Performance on desk.zoho.com. 11/3/2025
I’m not seeing any active service alerts for desk.zoho.com, but everyone on our account is currently experiencing very slow load times when opening or navigating tickets. We’ve already tried the standard troubleshooting steps — clearing cache and cookies,Create View to See Tickets Closed within the last 3 days
I'm trying to create a view in Zoho Desk that shows me "recently closed ticket," which I will define as tickets closed in the last 3 days. I want this view to update so that whenever I click to view it is recalculates and shows me tickets closed withinMy notes from the past 2 months have disappeared
Hola, necesito ayuda urgente. Hoy, al iniciar sesión en mi Zoho Notebook como todos los días, me llevé una gran sorpresa al descubrir que todas mis notas de los últimos dos meses habían desaparecido. Estas notas son muy importantes para mí, ya que usoRecurring Events Not Appearing in "My Events" and therefore not syncing with Google Apps
We use the Google Sync functionality for our events, and it appears to have been working fine except: I've created a set of recurring events that I noticed were missing from my Google Apps calendar. Upon further research, it appears this is occurringExport your notes from Notebook!
Dear users, The long awaited feature is now live. Yes, you can now export your notes from Notebook app in bulk. But the feature has just started with web app alone for now. You can try the export feature as mentioned below: Go to our web app, https://notebook.zoho.com Go to 'Settings' > 'Export' Now, select the format: You can select either ZNote or HTML Once done, you can use the same to import or can have this a local backup of your notes. Note: Export for other platforms are in development andDissociate account from contact
Hello, When I make the call through the API to "Dissociate account from contact" using, /api/v1/contacts/**integer**/accounts/**integer**/dissociate I get this response back, 422Unprocessable Entity (WebDAV) (RFC 4918) { "errorCode": "INVALID_DATA", "message":Zoho Desk and Zoho People Integration - is it possible in order to alert whether an agent is available
Hi, We use Zoho People for our employees to log absence (Paid Time Off etc). I was wondering if it was possible that this information can be shared in to Zoho Desk, so that when allocating a ticket to an agent, if they are on leave there is an onscreenAdd Save button to Expense form
A save button would be very helpful on the expense form. Currently there is a Save and Close button. When we want to itemize an expense, this option would be very helpful. For example, if we have a hotel expense that also has room service, which is aCall transcrition working for ringcentral?
I don't see anything about what telephony providers can be used. The Zoho support person A said that RingCentral isn't supported. Zoho support person B said that it works, just make sure the call recording link works. Excellent instructions here: CallIssue with Booking Confirmation Page Not Displaying, Leading to Customer Anxiety and Unnecessary Support Calls
I am writing to express my growing concern regarding the confirmation process in Zoho Bookings, particularly the inconsistent display of the confirmation page after a successful payment. As a mobile service provider, I rely on Zoho Bookings platform forHow to Send Email from within a custom module (with or without an email template)
It is possible to send an email from the Deals module. However, I can't find a way to send an email from any of our custom modules. I have tried adding an email field to the modules (even though we don't really want one or need it there). That doesn'tZoho Inventory - Managing Items With Multiple Suppliers
Hi community, I'm working on a project at the moment for a car parts wholesale business. Each Item (part) has its own original manufacturer part number (sometimes more than one part number for the same item). When purchasing parts from 3rd party suppliers,How do I see the total leads during a certain period?
I understand I can get the count of leads and potentials but the total number of leads in a certain period should be equal to Leads+potentials because when we convert a lead it gets moved to potentials and no longer exists there. is there a way i couldWhere is the Global Search field?
I am looking for an alternative to SF.com. Zoho CRM seems to be work fine, and be customizable in terms of the fields and reports. But there's one big thing missing and it's going to prevent us from using it: there's no global search box at the top ofAPI 500 Error
Hello amazing ZOHO Projects Community, I get this message. How can we solve this? { "error": { "status_code": "500", "method": "GET", "instance": "/api/v3/portal/2010147XXXX/projects/2679160000003XXXX/timesheet", "title": "INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR", "error_type":In place field editing for candidates
Wondering about any insight/best practices for efficiently updating candidate records while reviewing them in a Job Opening pipeline. We can do in-field editing (e.g. update job title or City) only when we have the full candidate record open, howeverDefault tax type for mileage?
Where we are, mileage includes a government tax. Is there any way to set a default tax for the Personal Car Mileage category of expense? (Or any other way?)Show price book list price
When using price books, once you add products to the price book in the Products related list you can display the Unit price which is the default list price; however, there is no option to show the price book list price. To see the price book list priceCliq File Upload
While uploading large file like 500MB, it takes time, that fines. But if you resize window or move window in other screen, that uploading disappears. After upload complete & sent it will be visibleZia Actions: AI-powered Workflow Automation for Faster and Smarter Execution
Hello everyone, Workflows got a notch better with AI-based actions. Actions such as field extraction, prediction, auto reply, and content generation facilitate quick execution with improved speed and accuracy. Zia can intercept useful details in newlyConstant color of a legend value
It would be nice if we can set a constant color/pattern to a value when creating a chart. We would often use the same value in different graph options and I always have to copy the color that we've set to a certain value from a previous graph to makeWhat's New in Zoho POS - October 2025
Hello everyone, Welcome to Zoho POS's monthly updates, where we share our latest feature updates, releases, changes, and more. Let’s take a look at how October went. Process returns for refunds, exchanges, or offer store credit Returns and exchanges canLoan and purchase
My husband is lending me mobey to buy a vehicle intersst free ... I need to know how to record the cash receipt and how I pay it back... the money is for a vehicle do I just post the invoice for that as I normally would usung the loan money to pay forZoho Connect Module in Zoho Trident
Hi I really like where Zoho Trident is going. Having Mail and Cliq in one place is especially powerful. However, Zoho Connect really needs to be included to make this a true communication and collaboration hub. I would like to request that Zoho ConnectZoho FSM API Delete Record
Hi FSM Team, It would be great if you could delete a record via API. Thank you,File Field Validation
Hello all, We are tracking our customer NDA agreements in our CRM and have created 2 fields to do so, an execution date field and a file upload field. I want to create a validation rule to ensure that when the execution date field is populated that the100 record view limitation
I have just migrated from another CRM and am starting in ZOHOcrm with over 5000 contacts. It seems that my searches and sorts are limited to 100 live records....or am I missing something. This seems to be very limiting...in a lot of scenarios (mass email,ZUG Meet-ups are back - Across India (December 2025)
The Zoho User Group (ZUG) meet-ups are back, and this time, we’re travelling across India to reconnect with our amazing community! From Chennai to Delhi, Bengaluru to Mumbai, we can’t wait to meet you all in person and talk everything Zoho SalesIQ, automation,Categorise Attachments
We take ID, proof of address, right to work documentation and more. I can upload a single file in to field, but we often receive multiple files for each category e.g. someone may send a separate file for the front and back of their national ID card. My team don't have time to manipulate the files in order to upload them as a single file. The options, as far as I can tell, would be to create additional fields on attachments in order to categorise what the file is, or to be able to upload singleScheduling a meeting for just a 1:1 phone call
My business is B2C and many of my customer's don't want to engage in an online meeting for what can be handled in a regular phone call. I am trying to create a new meeting invitation, but there is no venue optoin for "phone call". How are other's handlingNeed more details on API Usage Dashboard
Hi Team, We have implemented Zoho Expense for a client and has done some integrations with well known third party ERP via api. Recently we have noticed a huge spike in the API consumption. But we couldn't get the root cause for the same. I accept therePower of Automation:: Automating SLA Timelines for First Response & Resolution for Issues module.
Hello Everyone, Ever wished SLAs could update automatically based on issue severity i.e no manual tracking, no missed timelines? That is exactly what one of our customers, Alex, wanted to achieve in the Issues module. So, we have setup a simple automationPower of Automation :: Quick way to associate your Projects with Zoho CRM
A custom function is a software code that can be used to automate a process and this allows you to automate a notification, call a webhook, or perform logic immediately after a workflow rule is triggered. This feature helps to automate complex tasks andFree webinar! Build smarter apps with Zoho Sign and Zoho Creator
Hello, Bring the power of digital signatures to the apps you build in Zoho Creator! Connect Zoho Sign as a microservice and enable seamless e-signature workflows in your applications. This integration allows you to automate signing tasks using Deluge.Move orders scan ISBN
Hi We have ISBN setup to be searched in items zoho but move orders dissent recognize the ISBN is there q missing configuration? regards, JSWhat's New - October 2025 | Zoho Backstage
Hey everyone! We’ve been busy rolling out a host of upgrades for Zoho Backstage. While some major features are still going through final rounds of testing to make your event experience smooth as butter, here’s what was new and improved in October 2025.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 calculatesNext Page