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 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

                                                                                                            • Writer sing up problom

                                                                                                              Zoho writer sing up prolom face
                                                                                                            • Where to integrate Price Book and Product List Price

                                                                                                              Hello, We sync zoho crm all modules with all data to zoho analytics. In zoho crm, we have "Price Books" and "Products" modules, where each product is assigned to a few price books with different list prices. From zoho crm, I am able to export a dataset
                                                                                                            • Form / CRM Integration Not entering into workflow

                                                                                                              I have a simple form setup with company name, first name, last name and lead source. Each of the fields are mapped to CRM Leads module. When the form is submitted, the lead is populated properly. I also have a workflow created that when the lead source
                                                                                                            • Automating CRM backup storage?

                                                                                                              Hi there, We've recently set up automatic backups for our Zoho CRM account. We were hoping that the backup functionality would not require any manual work on our end, but it seems that we are always required to download the backups ourselves, store them,
                                                                                                            • Zoho Slowness - Workarounds

                                                                                                              Hi all, We've been having intermittent slowness and Zoho just asks for same stuff each time but never fix it. It usually just goes away on it's own after a couple weeks. Given that speed is a very important thing for companies to be able to keep up with
                                                                                                            • First day of trying FSM in the field.

                                                                                                              What we found. 1. with out a network connection we were unable to start a service call? 2. if you go to an appointment and then want to add an asset it does not seem possible. 3. disappointed not to be able to actually take a payment from within the app
                                                                                                            • Don't understand why Forms Mobile Scan and Fill not working

                                                                                                              I have configure enabled mobile scan and fill, I have enabled QR and Bar code on two fields name and position, I have mapped seq 1 to Name and seq 2 to position, I have created a 2d QR code with the person names and position, seperated by a comma. When
                                                                                                            • Recurring Supervisor Rule Reminders for Open/In-Progress Tickets

                                                                                                              Hello Zoho Support Team, I would like to suggest a potential improvement regarding reminders for tickets and activities in Zoho Desk. Currently, it is possible to set reminders only once. In the Supervisor Rules section, it is possible to configure reminders
                                                                                                            • Template usage

                                                                                                              Hi, We are using some templates as a response to customer questions. Is it possible to analyze the usage of these templates? We want to know if the use of our templates has increased over time
                                                                                                            • Round 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 I
                                                                                                            • How to mute chat notification sound by default in Zoho SalesIQ?

                                                                                                              We’ve recently embedded the Zoho SalesIQ chatbot on our website, and we’ve noticed that notification sounds sometimes play even when the visitor hasn’t interacted with the chat widget yet. We’re trying to understand two things: Why do these sounds occur
                                                                                                            • Ticket Status Colors

                                                                                                              Can i change the colors of Ticket Status in the admin panel? Or even change the background of the entire cell of a Critical ticket? This way its easy for my agents to see a urgent ticket when it comes in. Right now everything is black text. Here Right
                                                                                                            • Sync Lookup Fields from Zoho CRM

                                                                                                              HI Team, I have synced a lookup field from my CRM data to Campaigns. When I view the synced data the field appears to display a Zoho CRM record ID rather than the text value. Is it possible to get the sync to import the text value rather than the CRM
                                                                                                            • New From Address cannot verify

                                                                                                              I have created a new From Address, which is the support@ address for my domain, that forwards to the default support mailbox. Presumably then, the verification email that is sent, should turn up as a ticket, but it does not. How can I verify my from address so that I can use my own domain?
                                                                                                            • Closing Accounting Periods - Invoice/Posting dates

                                                                                                              Hi, I have seen in another thread but I'm unsure on how the 'transaction locking' works with regards to new and old transactions. When producing monthly accounts if I close December 24 accounts on 8th Jan 25 will transaction locking prevent me from posting
                                                                                                            • How to update/remove file in zoho creator widgets using javascript API

                                                                                                              Hi Team, I have developed a widget which allows inserting and updating records I have file upload field with multiple file upload. Now while doing insert form record, I am using uploadFile API to upload files for that record. I am using updateRecord API
                                                                                                            • issue with image thumbnails not showing in Image Selector

                                                                                                              We have been using Zoho Campaigns for over a year, maybe close to two years, and this issue just started happening in the last month. I wanted to wait to see if it would resolve on it's own, and it doesn't seem to be. The thumbnail images for all new
                                                                                                            • Deluge Script for adding tag

                                                                                                              Trying to create a custom function where a tag is added to a record - but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how. Help please! Moderation Update: Adding the help doc and sample to add Tags to records via deluge here for everyone's benefit. tag1 =
                                                                                                            • Automatically embed short AI-generated product videos in Zoho Mail campaigns

                                                                                                              Hi Zoho team, I've been experimenting with AI-generated product videos and wanted to suggest an automation idea for Zoho Mail and CRM campaigns . For example, here's a quick demo video I created automatically using AI — no filming or editing required:
                                                                                                            • Unlock your Zoho Vault with OneAuth, Windows Hello, TouchID, YubiKey, and many more!

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, We are thrilled to introduce one of the most highly requested features – the ability to unlock your Zoho Vault using various authenticators. The primary purpose of a password manager is to remember just one master password and securely
                                                                                                            • Blueprint or Validation Rules for Invoices in Zoho Books

                                                                                                              Can I implement Blueprint or Validation Rules for Invoices in Zoho Books? Example, use case could be, Agent confirms from client that payment is done, but bank only syncs transactions tomorrow. in this case, Agent can update invoice status to done, and
                                                                                                            • Creator roadmap for the rest of 2022

                                                                                                              Hi everyone, Hope you're all good! Thanks for continuing to make this community engaging and informative. Today we'd like to share with you our plans for the near future of Creator. We always strive to strike a good balance of features and enhancements
                                                                                                            • How can I get base64 string from filecontent in widget

                                                                                                              Hi, I have a react js widget which has the signature pad. Now, I am saving the signature in signature field in zoho creator form. If I open the edit report record in widget then I want to display the Signature back in signature field. I am using readFile
                                                                                                            • Add Setting Values to the Rules

                                                                                                              Hi, It would be great to use the rules to set values in fields for submission, such as if a Type is X then set the Field Y to 10. Thanks Dan
                                                                                                            • So we ran with it for the week

                                                                                                              In our company i bit the bullet and ran with FSM for a whole week. Service calls, deliveries and surveys. Covering about 30-120 miles a day to domestic properties. Loved the appointment list and satnav integration. Loved the timer to measure the appointments.
                                                                                                            • Is there a way to set Document Owner/Sender via the API

                                                                                                              When sending requests for zoho sign, it would seem zoho uses the id of the person that created the zoho api cred to determine the owner_id, is there a way to set a default for this?
                                                                                                            • What's New - September 2025 | Zoho Backstage

                                                                                                              September has been a different month for Zoho Backstage. Instead of rolling out a long list of new features, we focused on something just as important: Performance, reliability, and stability The event season is in full swing, and organizers are running
                                                                                                            • Prevent stripping of custom CSS when creating an email template?

                                                                                                              Anyone have a workaround for this? Zoho really needs to hire new designers - templates are terrible. A custom template has been created, but every time we try to use it, it strips out all the CSS from the head.  IE, we'll define the styles right in the <head> (simple example below) and everything gets stripped (initially, it saves fine, but when you browse away and come back to the template, all the custom css is removed). <style type="text/css"> .footerContent a{display:block !important;} </style>
                                                                                                            • Stock Quotes/Spreadsheet

                                                                                                              It would be nice if we could download security and mutual fund prices from Yahoo Finance (or?) in order to maintain an up to date investment portfolio on Zoho. Any chance?
                                                                                                            • link to any Belgian bookkeeping software?

                                                                                                              Hello, Does anyone on this Forum can help me with the question whether the ZOHO CRM (Invoices) or ZOHO Book can be linked to software that is used for Belgian Bookkeeping/accountancy? By linking, I mean either with the help of a middleware program or either by the ability to export the custom made reports as CSV-files... If someone has an experience with online CRM-Accountancy in Belgium, with ZOHO (or other), it would be great to read it... Thank you
                                                                                                            • marketing automation

                                                                                                              wants to know about the zoho marketing automation
                                                                                                            • Problems with email templates (HTML - Outlook)

                                                                                                              Hi there, I've been trying to create a newsletter from the template "Business 4". Everything looks great in the preview, but when I send it to my Outlook inbox, the layout doesn't seems to stick. More particularly: - The line-height is way more reduced, even though I used the line-height tool from the template - Columns but they are sometimes misaligned - Font size is not always the one I've selected. Could you help? Thanks!
                                                                                                            • Zoho CRM IP Addresses to Whitelist

                                                                                                              We were told to whitelist IP addresses from Zoho CRM.  (CRM, not Zoho Mail.) What is the current list of IP Addresses to whitelist for outbound mail? Is there a website where these IP addresses are published and updated?  Everything I could find is over
                                                                                                            • How to create a drop down menu in Zoho Sheets

                                                                                                              I am trying to find out, how do I create a drop down option in Zoho sheet. I tried Data--> Data Validation --> Criteria --> Text  --> Contains. But that is not working, is there any other way to do it.  Thanks in Advance.
                                                                                                            • Introducing Keyboard Shortcuts for Zoho CRM

                                                                                                              Dear Customers, We're happy to introduce keyboard shortcuts for Zoho CRM features! Until now, you might have been navigating to modules manually using the mouse, and at times, it could be tedious, especially when you had to search for specific modules
                                                                                                            • Zoho CRM's custom views are now deployable from sandboxes

                                                                                                              This feature is now available for users in the AU, JP, and CN DCs. This feature is now available for users in CA and SA DCs. New update: This feature is now available for users in all DCs. Hello everyone, We're excited to announce that you can now deploy
                                                                                                            • Where are Kanban swimlanes

                                                                                                              So i've been playing with Zoho Projects Kanban view a bit more. It appears that task lists are being used as the Kanban columns, which makes sense from the implementation point of view but not the logical one.  Kanban columns are statuses that a task can flow through, while a task list has been a logical way to organize related tasks and relate them to a mislestone. In other words a task in a particular task can go through several stages while remaining in the same task list. After doing some research
                                                                                                            • 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
                                                                                                            • Scheduling Calls in CommandCenter / Blueprints

                                                                                                              I would love it if you could add a function to schedule a call in the lead's record for a future date. I know you can add a Task by going to Instant Actions > Task and completing the form: These tasks go into the lead's record under Open Actions. But
                                                                                                            • Zoho One - Syncing Merchants and Vendors Between Zoho Expense and Zoho Books

                                                                                                              Hi, I'm exploring the features of Zoho One under the trial subscription and have encountered an issue with syncing Merchant information between Zoho Expense and Zoho Books. While utilizing Zoho Expense to capture receipts, I noticed that when I submit
                                                                                                            • Next Page