Introduction of Canvas for Zoho CRM

Introduction of Canvas for Zoho CRM



All industries function in a way that is very different in many aspects. There is no one size fits all approach. The companies should be able to modify the CRM design to suit their needs after a purchase has been made. This is where customers can control their experience completely. Zoho CRM is a giant that has created a new benchmark for customization.

With Canvas, Zoho plans to offer the best possible consumer experience that there is. The customers can create their own experience using Canvas. Zoho introduces Canvas as a design so that the customers can redesign the visual interface of Zoho CRM services to suit their requirements.

Using Canvas, users can remodel the look and feel of their CRM without writing even a single line of code since a simple drag and drop interface is used. Canvas creations can immensely improve the end user’s experience that helps in increasing productivity and morale. It sets the precedent for users to experience autonomy where the user can control the experience with the product.

In this blog, we will get to know all about Canvas and everything it can do for CRM.

What is Canvas?

Canvas is a design studio that is built into the Zoho CRM. The customers can redesign the user interface from an entirely blank canvas using Canvas. It offers a better CRM user interface and supports a wide range of formatting options that help companies to re-imagine the look and feel of any module down to small details. This is how the data meets design.

The use of Canvas is similar to photoshop for databases but it is much more nuanced. Canvas completely understands how the modules, fields, buttons, and related lists in the interface get created. Hence, it offers a much more thoughtful and contextual designing experience for the customers.

You can think of Canvas as a unique tool by Zoho CRM, something that no other CRM vendor has ever considered creating. Zoho has actually pioneered the design autonomy movement allowing the customers to curate the user experience that they are looking for. With the use of Canvas, Zoho CRM has become the most customizable CRM in the market.

Canvas as a no-code design platform is one of the most powerful things to change your Zoho CRM user experience from a visual and a functional perspective. It is a simple user interface management platform that is created into the native CRM system and is applicable in various ways of the CRM. The UI can be customized with the following CRM pages using Canvas.

A unified user experience can be created at various engagement points across platforms with internal CRM, partner portals, and self-service customers. Finally, regardless of the fact if they are your customers, partners or employees, all of the groups that work with a consistent UI when it comes to page design, look and feel, yet the data organized in all layouts can be customized based on various functions and requirements.

Working of Canvas

Canvas helps companies create a custom view that is readily available as an option along with the default views. The customers can click to create a new Canvas view from a listing page or the record page so that a blank canvas is opened as the powerful editor. Some of the things that are responsible for making Canvas stand out are:

1. Right Information in the Right Place
Customers can look for all the related lists, fields, and buttons available on the left side of the menu in editor mode. This actually means that no information is lost and all associations will remain intact just the way they are. 

Canvas plays the role of helping users change the appearance of Zoho CRM with multiple design variants.

2. Drag-and-drop Interface
There is no need to become a programmer or even a designer for using Canvas. You just need to have good design taste. Canvas is the first CRM design studio that also comes with a drag and drop interface to offer a much-simplified design experience for everyone. 

With the editor, users can easily choose some components from the left menu, drag them on the interface, drop them at the desired location, and then finally click to see available formatting options. It only takes a couple of clicks to create a new design.

3. Formatting Options
Canvas provides many formatting options for playing around with so that the companies can find the exact style that fits their team the best.

Right from changing the shape of the contact image or the color of a button to changing the padding, the shadow, and the width, Canvas enables the users to make sure that all details are suitable for a personal view.

4. Templates
Templates
Canvas also comes with a set of templates that the customers can choose in case they want a good start with their design or in case they are looking for inspiration.

The templates can be easily customized to a wide range of industries and they can also be changed to suit the customers in an improved way.

5. Uniform Design All Over Modules
Canvas is a no-code design platform that can be easily copied to other modules for maintaining a uniform design and color style.

Almost any detail that is not associated with the new module can be easily reconfigured at any time. This leads to a uniform design across all possible modules.

How Does Canvas Help Users?

Canvas plays an excellent role in helping companies experiment seamlessly with multiple designs taking input from the salespeople and other end users. These are the people who end up spending a large amount of time using the Zoho CRM.

 The admins can easily remodel the list page and detail page of all modules so that everyone’s needs are solved on the basis of suggestions. Canvas can effectively solve important challenges that businesses face in the present day including lack of personalization, employee experience, and complex implementations.

Canvas is the first CRM design studio that helps the users in the following ways:

1. Creating Personalized Instances:
Canvas is responsible for helping companies design a version of CRM that suits the industry and the working culture. Administrators can easily design views with fields, buttons, lists, and labels that are relevant to business so that the end-users can get the maximum results out of Zoho CRM. The customers can also enjoy tailored experiences of a vertical CRM that comes with all possible capabilities of a general-purpose CRM.

2. Enhanced Employee Experience
Using Canvas as a no-code design platform, companies can easily build a CRM that is easy to work with. The users can create views with a minimal design and great colors that are soothing for the eye and the mind. The customers can also highlight, record, hide, and reposition fields, lists, and buttons for helping salespeople work much better.

3. Removes Complexity
Canvas makes it very simple for businesses to get started with the Zoho CRM. The implementation phases including extensive training, data prep, and onboarding experiences need less time and effort all thanks to a simple and customized design. Successful implementation is necessary for reducing any complexity of the system while ensuring that there is high usage and streamlined ROI.

Canvas Serves the Purpose of Everyone

Canvas is literally for everyone. It helps in the following things.

1. Collaborative Selling
Collaborative SellingThe companies can effectively share their Canvas views with the vendors, consultants, and partners with the use of various portals. The sales process can also become increasingly collaborative where different parties need to get involved at various stages of a sale. Canvas helps in facilitating this collaboration.

2. Superior Self-Service
It is a well known fact that millennial customers are highly protective of their data and the option of self-service is appreciated much more. The customers can fill in important information and review it directly in the company’s very own custom Canvas creation which improves the overall experience considerably.

3. Thriving Community

Thriving CommunityCanvas is a one of a kind first CRM design studio where the customers can create new Canvas views and share them with the community. In this way, other businesses can use them as well. With Canvas, Zoho CRM works to create a community of designers who can submit, edit, and implement templates very similar to the community WordPress created for websites.

Canvas sets the precedence of UX Rich Autonomy

Zoho plans to introduce Canvas to the entire Zoho CX suite and finally to complete the product range. In this way, the companies can enjoy the Zoho environment with a design all across the board. When the companies have greater control over the user experience, the results are incredibly beneficial for the end-user, organization, and even the vendor.

Conclusion

Zoho CRM is on a mission to make sure that the specific needs of all industries, companies, and teams are met with the use of Canvas. As Zoho CRM continues its journey to pioneer the new era of personalized CRM, continuous work is being done on user experience enhancements focused on making it simple for end-users to keep using Zoho CRM. Canvas – the first CRM design studio is an example of that.

Zoho claims that this is a journey that never ends and it is in it for a long time. This is one of the major milestones of Zoho for creating a high standard of CRM experience and the company continues making changes.


I hope that you learned something new today :)
Stay Tuned for more!

Cheers!
Abhi
(Seasoned Zoho Authorized and Certified Partner)

Feel free to contact me if you have any queries
Email: abhishek(@)encaptechno(dot)com
Call: +1-416-405-8185

    Access your files securely from anywhere







                            Zoho Developer Community




                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Digest


                                                  • Functions


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner


                                                  • Word of the Day


                                                  • Ask the Experts





                                                            Manage your brands on social media



                                                                  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

                                                                                      • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                                        CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                                      • Kaizen

                                                                                        Kaizen

                                                                                      • Functions

                                                                                        Functions

                                                                                      • Meetups

                                                                                        Meetups

                                                                                      • Kbase

                                                                                        Kbase

                                                                                      • Resources

                                                                                        Resources

                                                                                      • Digest

                                                                                        Digest

                                                                                      • CRM Marketplace

                                                                                        CRM Marketplace

                                                                                      • MVP Corner

                                                                                        MVP Corner







                                                                                          Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                          Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                          Get Started Now


                                                                                            Zoho Show Resources

                                                                                              Zoho Writer

                                                                                              Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                              Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                                Zoho CRM コンテンツ



                                                                                                  Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                                      ご検討中の方




                                                                                                              • Recent Topics

                                                                                                              • All new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs

                                                                                                                The address field will be available exclusively for IN DC users. We'll keep you updated on the DC-specific rollout soon. It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition. Latest update
                                                                                                              • Copy, Paste, Highlighted text

                                                                                                                when i copy paste text it gets highlighted. Fix this.  WTF is with this black highlight ? Fix copy pasting. Some people pay for using this mail service. 
                                                                                                              • Pricing Strategies: #6 Common Mistakes while Configuring Pricing

                                                                                                                "Why does this month's billing feel messy again?" That was the exact line Priya muttered while staring at the spreadsheet full of edited pricing, one-off discounts and mismatched subscription details. Her business was growing, but the pricing machine
                                                                                                              • Publish to LinkedIn via API

                                                                                                                Hi, Is it possible to publish a job opening to LinkedIn (paid job slots) if creating a job opening via api / deluge function? Or is the user required to manually publish via the job boards process? Many Thanks Adrian
                                                                                                              • FSM - Associating and selecting Contacts based on Service Addresses

                                                                                                                Hi FSM team, I've come across an FSM limitation I wanted to share for improvement. I'm currently configuring FSM for a client who provides heating system install and maintenance services. The are often sub contracted by building management companies to
                                                                                                              • 日本語フォントの選択肢拡充についての要望

                                                                                                                日本語フォントの選択肢がとても少ないと感じたことはありませんか? 多くのアプリ(たとえば Invoice)ではフォントが1種類しかなく、正直あまり使いやすい・見た目が良いとも言えません。 そろそろ、もっと多くの日本語フォントを追加してほしい、そしてすべてのアプリで同じフォント選択肢を使えるようにしてほしいと、私たちユーザーが声を上げる時期だと思います。 ご存じのとおり、現状ではアプリごとにフォント周りの仕様にほとんど一貫性がありません。 みなさん、一緒に要望を出していきましょう!
                                                                                                              • Do Unpublished Products in Shopify Sync to Zoho POS?

                                                                                                                Will an unpublished product in Shopify sync to Zoho POS? I would like to know how Zoho POS handles products that are in draft/unpublished status in Shopify.
                                                                                                              • Problem in Zoho POS frontend ERP.

                                                                                                                We are facing some difficulties in our billing and inventory processes and require your support to resolve them at the earliest. Customer Advance Payments We receive advance payments from customers for upcoming sales. Please guide us on how to record
                                                                                                              • How to create estimates/Invoices with sub-totals

                                                                                                                Every other accounting package can create estimates and invoices with Sub-totals. How can I do that in ZohoBooks?
                                                                                                              • Categorize Items with Item Headers

                                                                                                                Hello customers, Did you ever want to classify items based on specific categories to help your customers understand your invoice better? With the new Item Header feature, you can easily categorize items in your invoices and estimates and give them a common title.  Item Headers are available in the Invoices, the Recurring Invoices and the Estimates module. It can be carried forward from estimates to invoices at the time of converting the estimates.  To add an item header: Go to the Estimates, Invoices
                                                                                                              • Emails sent through Bigin are not posting in IMAP Sent folder

                                                                                                                I have set up my email to work from within Bigin using IMAP.  I am using IMAP so I can sync my email across multiple devices - phone / laptop / desktop / iPad / etc.  I want all my emails to populate my email client (outlook & iphone email) whether or
                                                                                                              • Ask the Experts 26: Brighten every customer interaction with Zoho Desk all year long

                                                                                                                Hello everyone, Greetings and welcome to Ask the Experts 26. As we wrap up 2025, we are excited to invite you to the 26th episode of our Ask the Expert series. 🎄The Merry Metrics Edition = Best of Zoho Desk [Best Practices + Holiday Automation + Year-End
                                                                                                              • Painfully Slow Zoho mail

                                                                                                                Since yesterday Zoho Mail seems to have starting functioning very slowly and having a few bugs. It's slow to open mails, slow to send, slow to change between email accounts. Sometimes clicking on a particular folder (eg Sent folder) stops working and
                                                                                                              • Discount on the transaction level in POS

                                                                                                                "Is it possible to apply a discount on the total bill before tax in Zoho POS?" I want to apply a discount on the total transaction amount in Zoho POS, but the discount should be calculated before the taxes are applied. Is there an option to do this in
                                                                                                              • Zoho DataPrep switching Date Format

                                                                                                                When using a pipeline that is importing Zoho Analytics data into Zoho DataPrep, the month and day of date fields are switched for some columns. For example, a Zoho Analytics record of "Nov. 8, 2025" will appear in Zoho DataPrep as "2025/08/11" in "yyyy/MM/dd"
                                                                                                              • Create Tasklist with Tasklist Template using API v3

                                                                                                                In the old API, we could mention the parameter 'task_template_id' when creating a tasklist via API to apply a tasklist template: https://www.zoho.com/projects/help/rest-api/tasklists-api.html#create-tasklist In API v3 there does not seem to be a way to
                                                                                                              • Send Automated WhatsApp Messages and Leverage the Improved WhatsApp Templates

                                                                                                                Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. We're excited to announce a major upgrade to Bigin's WhatsApp integration that brings more flexibility, interactivity, and automation to your customer messaging. WhatsApp message automation You can now use
                                                                                                              • Jobs at multiple locations

                                                                                                                Hi A lot of times we have same job open at multiple locations. So I would like an option where we can create a job and choose multiple locations. Currently we have to create individual jobs for each location. If we can create one job and mention multiple
                                                                                                              • From Zoho CRM to Paper : Design & Print Data Directly using Canvas Print View

                                                                                                                Hello Everyone, We are excited to announce a new addition to your Canvas in Zoho CRM - Print View. Canvas print view helps you transform your custom CRM layouts into print-ready documents, so you can bring your digital data to the physical world with
                                                                                                              • 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
                                                                                                              • Tag Adding Option in Kanban Card Customization Bigin CRM Mobile App

                                                                                                                I would like to request an option to add and display tags on Kanban cards in the Bigin CRM mobile app. This feature would make it easier to categorize deals and quickly identify priorities while working on the go.
                                                                                                              • Empowered Custom Views: Cross-Module Criteria Now Supported in Zoho CRM

                                                                                                                Hello everyone, We’re excited to introduce cross-module criteria support in custom views! Custom views provide personalized perspectives on your data and that you can save for future use. You can share these views with all users or specific individuals
                                                                                                              • WhatsApp Voice Message Sending Option in Bigin CRM

                                                                                                                I would like to request a feature that allows users to send WhatsApp voice messages directly from Bigin CRM. This would help improve communication efficiency and make it easier for teams to respond quickly to customer inquiries.
                                                                                                              • CRM: hosting a single html file in Zoho and displaying it as a widget

                                                                                                                I have seen that CRM offers the option of uploading a web project to Zoho itself and displaying it as a widget in CRM. The instructions then talk about setting a development environment with Node and developing an application to upload to Zoho. But I
                                                                                                              • Synchronise item image between Zoho Commerce and Zoho Books/Inventory/CRM

                                                                                                                Here is a blindingly simple idea to tie several Zoho products together. Zoho - please include a method to synchronise the item image (or images) from one Zoho application to another. For example, if you upload an item image in Zoho Inventory, a user should
                                                                                                              • How to change position button transtition of Blueprint?

                                                                                                                Hi Everyone, Look at my screenshoot, it is possible move the reject button to the right? I couldn't find that setting in the blueprint. Thank you.
                                                                                                              • Marketer’s Space - WhatsApp Pricing Update: What Marketers Need to Know and Do

                                                                                                                Hello Marketers, Welcome back to Marketer’s Space! WhatsApp made changes to their pricing model on July 1, 2025, moving from conversation-based pricing to a per-message pricing model. This week’s post focuses on what these changes mean for your WhatsApp
                                                                                                              • Multi file upload

                                                                                                                Hi, I just wonder if one could upload multiple files in one shot, say between one and three files, without adding multiple File Upload fields? Thanks, Alalbany
                                                                                                              • Sorting Descending in a lookup

                                                                                                                I have a case number lookup on multiple forms. I need the most recent added to appear at the top of the lookup or as the list of cases grom it's too much to scroll. Is there a way to have a look up sort descending?
                                                                                                              • Importing customer comments and multiple shipto addresses

                                                                                                                I am evaluating Zoho Books and have most of my data imported with two exceptions: (1) Import customer comments - in my current system I have several comments of different types, and I need to bring these into Zoho. Preferably Books customer records, but
                                                                                                              • Can we add custom fields to portal community profiles?

                                                                                                                How do we add custom fields to our profile pages in our portal community? If we have the ability to add custom fields, will we be able to access those fields via API? We want to use our Desk community in our help portal as our primary community and would
                                                                                                              • Auto-upload Creator Files to WorkDrive

                                                                                                                Hi everyone, I’m working on a workflow that uploads files from Zoho Creator to specific subfolders in Zoho WorkDrive, as illustrated in the attached diagram. My Creator application form has two multi-file upload fields, and I want—on successful form submission—to
                                                                                                              • Asap Widget 2.0

                                                                                                                Where's the documentation for the new ASAP widget? https://www.zoho.com/desk/developers/asap/#introduction this one is outdated How can we dynamically navigate between different views? How can we prefill ticket forms using ASAP 2.0?
                                                                                                              • Update date & time when a cell is edited

                                                                                                                Hi All, I am desiring to have a cell update with the current date and time when another cell is edited. Any ideas?  Thank you
                                                                                                              • CRM x WorkDrive: File storage for new CRM signups is now powered by WorkDrive

                                                                                                                Availability Editions: All DCs: All Release plan: Released for new signups in all DCs. It will be enabled for existing users in a phased manner in the upcoming months. Help documentation: Documents in Zoho CRM Manage folders in Documents tab Manage files
                                                                                                              • Can the Trigger be changed?

                                                                                                                I'm afraid I already know the answer, but here goes... After activating a workflow (under Campaigns > Automations), Then later choosing to Edit the workflow, Can the Workflow's Trigger be changed? Currently the entire Trigger section + options are gone
                                                                                                              • Marketer's Space: Proven tips to improve open rates – I

                                                                                                                Hello Marketers! Welcome back to another post in Marketer's Space! In this week's post, we'll discuss the ever-important concept of open rates. This will be a multi-part series, as we have a range of topics to cover. Open rates—which measure the percentage
                                                                                                              • Creating Custom PDF Template from Form

                                                                                                                I am trying to create a custom PDF from form submissions. I have the standard subscription and it indicates that PDF forms are included. I cannot find anywhere to create PDF forms. I try to follow the instructions from here: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/forms/form-settings/pdf-settings/pdf-editor/articles/creating-your-own-pdf-template#Creating_your_template_from_the_scratch
                                                                                                              • Important Update: Facebook Metrics Deprecation & Impact on Zoho Analytics

                                                                                                                Dear Zoho Analytics users, Facebook has deprecated a set of metrics from the Facebook Pages Insights API, effective November 15, 2025. As a result, these changes will affect any reports and dashboards in Zoho Analytics that rely on Facebook Pages data.
                                                                                                              • Quick Copy Column Name

                                                                                                                Please add the ability to quickly copy the name of a column in a Table or Query View. When you right-click the column there should be an option to copy the name, or if you left-click the column and use the Ctrl+C keyboard shortcut it should copy the
                                                                                                              • Next Page