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
Dynamically Fetching Lookup Field Display Value
I have an audit trail form, Audit_Changes, that tracks old vs new values across different forms. For lookup fields, the old/new value is the ID, but I also need the display value. What's a best practice for dynamically fetching the display value of theAbility to Create New Items When Zoho Trident is Minimized via tray or taskbar icon
Allow users to create new items (emails, calendar events, tasks, etc.) directly from the system tray icon or by right clicking the task bar icon, even when the window is minimized or not actively running in the foreground. This enables quick access toI can not see Undeliverable emails from my Mass Email Leads activity in CRM
I am sending email templates and I can not see the Undeliverables? I only receive the "Out of Office" replies and any manual replies from the lead. Can you please let me know where the Undeliverable emails are sent so I can use the information to clean up the database?Select Zoho Contacts as Meeting Participants in Zoho Cliq
Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request an enhancement to the meeting scheduling functionality in Zoho Cliq. Current Limitation: When scheduling a meeting in Zoho Cliq, participants can only be selected from: OrganizationAbility to Select External Users from Participants List When Scheduling Meetings
Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request an enhancement to the meeting scheduling experience in Zoho Cliq. Current Limitation when scheduling a meeting in Zoho Cliq: External users can be selected from the list only underKaizen #212 - Map Dependency Fields in Zoho CRM using APIs
Hi Everyone!! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen series! Over the past few weeks, we have been addressing your questions and feedback shared through our Kaizen 200th feedback form. Thank you for your continued engagement and thoughtful queries. WeOutdated state in mexico
Hello Zoho team, the drop down to add the state for customers, when they introduce their state in mexico has a city named “Distrito Federal” that name changed many years ago to “ciudad de mexico”. could you please update this so my clients can find theIs anyone using Zoho Flow with airtable?
I need to build a flow that collects data from airtable and uses some of that data to create folders and files in google drive. I have fully function version of this in zapier and want to migrate to zoho. I am trying to perform a very basic fetch fromAI in Zoho Workplace: A Sneak Peek into What’s Coming!
Hello everyone, We’re super excited to share something we’ve been working on and we want you to be part of it! You may have seen our announcement blog post introducing a major evolution in how AI works within Zoho Workplace. Want to be among the firstMeet Canvas' Grid component: Your easiest way to build responsive record templates
Visual design can be exciting—until you're knee-deep in the details. Whether it's aligning text boxes to prevent overlaps, fixing negative space, or simply making sure the right data stands out, just ironing out inconsistencies takes a lot of moving parts.Best way to share/download presentation files in Zoho without losing formatting?
Hello Zoho Community, I often work with PPT/PDF files in Zoho Docs and share them with colleagues. While PDFs usually give a direct download option, I’ve noticed that PPT/PPTX files sometimes only open in the viewer without a clear download link. Is thereWorkflow Failure - Notifications
Good afternoon, I have just experienced an error whereby a Workflow failed, for a reason currently unknown. The problem is that one of my users had to flag this manually (thankfully he's very thorough) and this otherwise would have flown under the radar.Introducing Bin Locations In Zoho Inventory
Hello users, We are excited to let you know that your wait for the Bin Locations feature has now come to an end! Yes, you heard us right! We are here to introduce the much-awaited Bin Locations now in Zoho Inventory. But before we dive into the featureError "Invalid client task found corresponding properties" only when triggered from workflow ?
Hi All, I am facing an error message I never encountered previously: Error in executing On Add - On Load script Error in executing thisapp.get_all_projects_api_call function. Line:(2) Error in executing thisapp.getAccessTokenFromRefreshToken function.How to interpret Campaign report statistics - definitions/explanation
I am trying to make sure I understand the Campaign report correctly Do you have a list of definitions for: Delivered - it has reached the recipient's inbox Campaign reach - is this the number that have opened the campaign email? Unique Opens Clicks/OpenFeature request - pin or flag note
Hi, It would be great if you could either pin or flag one or more notes so that they remain visible when there are a bunch of notes and some get hidden in the list. Sometimes you are looking for a particular name that gets lost in a bunch of less importantSchedule a Call by Date and Time when a specific lead status is selected
Hi Wanting to create a workflow where a call can be scheduled by date & time when a specific lead status is selected. Can only currently set the date by Due Date - Trigger Date - Plus 'x' day(s) ThanksZoho CRM's Copy Customization functionality now works across DCs, for customized accounts, and more
Availability This feature is available in Standard, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions. These changes have been rolled out to all users in all DCs. For more information, please refer to these help documents: Overview | Instructions HelloHow can I bold text on Zoho Forms submit buttons?
In the old theme builder, I could bold the text on a form's submit button. With the new theme builder, I can only change the text of the header or fields in the form, and not the button itself.Hiding Pre-defined Views
You can enhance Zoho with custom views - but you cannot hide the pre-defined views. Most users focus on 4 or 5 views. Right now for EVERY user EVERY time they want to move to one of their 4 or 5 views - they have to scroll down past a long list of pre-defined views - we don't use ANY of the pre-defined views. Adding the feature to allow a predefined view to be hidden completely or only visible to certain users would be a big improvement in usability for Zoho CRM. This feature is already available[Integration Edition] Deluge Learning Series – Third-Party Integrations with Deluge | October 2025
We’re excited to continue this three-month edition of the Deluge Learning Series: Session 1 – Integrating Zoho Apps with Deluge Using Built-In Integration Tasks Session 2 – Integrating Zoho Apps with Deluge Using invokeURL and invokeAPI Session 3 – Third-PartyFeature Request: Tag, Search, and Report on Individual Private Comments
Zoho Desk Team, First, I want to say that we are extensive users of Zoho Desk and it is a core part of our support operations. We rely heavily on the private comments feature for internal communication, knowledge sharing, and maintaining a clear historyZoho CRM Community Digest - August 2025 | Part 2
Hello Everyone! Here's a quick round-up of handy tips, clever workarounds, and product updates from late August. Product Updates: Meeting Enhancements in Zoho CRM! Track whether a meeting is online, in-office, or at the client’s location using the newAssistance Needed: Ticket Status Not Updating and Sorting by Last Customer Reply in Zoho Desk
Hello, I’m facing two issues in Zoho Desk that I’d like your guidance on: Ticket Status Not Updating: When a customer replies to a ticket, the status does not change to Reopened. Instead, it remains in Waiting on Customer, even after the customer’s responseRound robin
Hi, I'm trying to set up a round robin to automatically distribute tickets between agents in my team but only those tickets that are not otherwise distributed by other workflows or direct assignments. Is that possible and if so which criteria should ITime Entry Notifications
Hi All - I have support staff who place notes of their work in the time entry section of Zoho Desk. Is there a specific workflow or setting I need to enable to have the ticket holder updated via email when an entry is saved?Change text in help desk
Hi, Please let me know how can i change the this text, see screenshot.Customer happiness customisation
Hi, I was wondering if it's possible to somehow customise to whom and when customer happiness request is sent? Can you enable it only for selected tickets for example based on workflow or any other criteria (customer name, tag or anything else)? AlsoNo Zoho Support Response in Months
I want to say that I love Zoho FSM, Books, and CRM, but the support is scary bad. About 2-3 months ago, I emailed Zoho FSM support with two specific issues I needed help with, and I have still not received one single response. I also submitted a supportHas anyone built a custom AI support agent inside Zoho (SalesIQ/Zobot)?
Hi all, I’ve been experimenting with building my own AI support assistant and wanted to see if anyone here has tackled something similar within Zoho. Right now, I’ve set up a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline outside of Zoho using FAISS. ItNull
If a result is null how do I make it so that a custom error pops up instead of the default error? Can someone write an example as if I were using the script builder?Format a "return" message
Good day, Is there a way to format the message of the "return" function in CRM deluge script?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 forHaving Trouble Opening The Candidate Portal
Recently am having trouble opening the Candidate Portal. It keeps loading but cannot display any widgets. Tried Safari, Chrome and Edge. Non of them work. Please solve the problem ASAP.Tip of the Week - Spot Risky Sales with Conditional Formatting
In Zoho Analytics, small tweaks can lead to big insights. One such feature is Conditional formatting based on other columns, your key to instantly spotting where sales success is overshadowed by product returns. Our tip this week shows you how to applyHow do I duplicate / copy a campaign
I am evaluation Zoho Campaigns and sent an email to one of my personal email accounts from Zoho Campaigns. It went into my junk file in Hotmail. I want to duplicate that same (1-page) campaign and send it to another of my personal accounts to try toFor a Bill, can "Pay via Check" - Can we also "Pay via Check" when documenting refund for payment?
We really like when we have a Bill in Zoho Books that we can record payment by selecting "Pay via Check" and that will cut the check for us from Zoho Books. However, when we have to write checks as a result of invoice overpayment, we can not select "PayCreator Change History: Ways to improve
Hi Everyone, Recently been working in developing this change history(an idea from Zoho Forms) - unlike forms that you can this with a click but using Creator, we can use "old" keyword. The concept I come up with is to put the result in a table however,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 expandadd employees and customiz
I want a Zoho software to track employees record. I logged in a demo so now I tried adding employee, first thing when I click on add employee it takes me to a page where it says add user maximum 10 users, my first doubt why users I don't want employeesNext Page