Kaizen #77 - Multi-select Lookup Fields in API V4

Kaizen #77 - Multi-select Lookup Fields in API V4

Hello everyone!
Welcome back to another post in the Kaizen series!
This week, we will discuss how to add data to multi-select lookup fields using the insert records API.
Note that this support is available only from CRM API version 2.1 and up. We have used the V4 API in examples, here.

What is a multi-select lookup field?

Consider an insurance company using CRM to track its policies, customers and their purchased policies. In CRM, we will use the custom modules Policies and Holders to store policy details and customers' personal details, respectively.

Here, each holder can have multiple policies and the same type of policy can be held by multiple holders.
So, there is a need to establish many-to-many relationships which you cannot achieve through a lookup field.

Multi-select lookup fields solve exactly this!
They allow you to associate multiple records with each other from two modules. The related modules' records are also available as related lists.

Linking Module 

When you have a multi-select lookup that connects two modules, a linking module is created that contains data of the two connected modules.
Here, there will be two lookup fields—one pointing to Policies and the other pointing to Holders.



This is how the linking module looks in the UI:




Earlier, using V2 APIs, you had to make a POST call to this linking module and add data related to the two modules. Refer to this post for details.

From V2.1, you can directly add data to a multi-select lookup field while inserting a record itself.

Example Scenario

Let us consider the same example of Policies and Holders.
Policies and Holders contain Holders and Policies_Held multi-select lookup fields, respectively.
There are four policies viz., Life, Health, Auto, and Home.
Similarly, Allison, Smith, Jack, and Derek are policy holders and hold single or multiple policies.

Here is how a policy record looks like in the UI.
Holders is the multi-select lookup field and contains the details of the holders of this policy. You can also see Holders as a related list.



Here is how a record from the Holders module looks like in the UI with the Policies_Held related list.



Let us discuss how to associate a policy holder directly while creating a policy through the Insert Records API.
API names you need before using the API:
  • API names of the multi-select lookup fields in the modules they appear.
  • API names of the lookup fields in the connected module. Example, the API name of the multi-select lookup field in Holders is Policies_Held, while that of the lookup in the connected module is Policies.
    You can use the Fields Metadata API for Policies and Holders to get these details.

Request URL: {{api-domain}}/crm/v4/Policies
Request Method: POST
Scope: ZohoCRM.modules.ALL or ZohoCRM.Policies.ALL/CREATE

Input Body:

{
    "data": [
        {
            "Name": "105_Travel",
            "Policy_Type": "Travel",
            "Policy_Period": "5 years",
            "Premium_Amount": 5000.00,
            "Payment_Model": "Annual",
            "Holders": [ //API name of the multi-select lookup field in Policies module
                {
                    "Holders": { //API name in Policies
                        "name": "Allison",
                        "id": "3652397000011357033" //Record ID in the Holders module
                    }
                },
                {
                    "Holders": {
                        "name": "Jack",
                        "id": "3652397000011357001" //Record ID in the Holders module
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

UI after successful insertion:


Deluge Code:
Policyinfo =  {
 "data":[{
  "Name": "105_Travel",
            "Policy_Type": "Travel",
            "Policy_Period": "5 years",
            "Premium_Amount": 5000.00,
            "Payment_Model": "Annual",
            "Holders": [
                {
                    "Holders": {
                        "name": "Allison",
                        "id": "3652397000011357033"
                    }
                }
            ]
   }]};
response = invokeurl
[
 type: POST
 content-type: "application/json"
 parameters: Policyinfo.toString()
 connection: "ZohoCRM"
];

info response;
return "";

Here is the input body to insert a holder in the Holders module with the multi-select lookup field Policies_Held.

{
    "data": [
        {
            "Name": "Sandra",
            "Policies_Held": [ //API name of the multi-select lookup field in Holders
                {
                    "Policies": { //API name in the connected module  
                        "name": "105_Travel",
                        "id": "3652397000011358003" //Record ID in Policies
                    }
                },
                {
                    "Policies": {
                        "name": "101_Home",
                        "id": "3652397000011353001"
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Deluge Code:
Holderinfo =  {
    "data": [
        {
            "Name": "Sinatra",
            "Policies_Held": [
                {
                    "Policies": {
                        "name": "105_Travel",
                        "id": "3652397000011358003"
                    }
                },
                {
                    "Policies": {
                        "name": "101_Home",
                        "id": "3652397000011353001"
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
};
response = invokeurl
[
 type: POST
 content-type: "application/json"
 parameters: Holderinfo.toString()
 connection: "ZohoCRM"
];

info response;
return "";

We hope you found this post useful. We will meet you next week with another interesting post.
Write to us at support@zohocrm.com if you have any questions, or let us know in the comment section.


Cheers!



    Access your files securely from anywhere








                            Zoho Developer Community



                                Bootcamp
                                Community
                                Pricing
                                Webinars
                                What's New
                                Integrations
                                Contact Support
                                Contact Sales
                                  Zoho Survey Resources
                                    Features
                                    Survey Templates
                                    Integrations
                                    Community
                                    iOS Mobile Surveys
                                    Pricing
                                    Android Mobile Surveys
                                    Insurvey Blogs
                                    Insight Blogs
                                    Tips & Tricks





                                                Latest Feature Updates

                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Digest


                                                  • Functions


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner


                                                  • Word of the Day


                                                  • Ask the Experts




                                                      Zoho SalesIQ Resources

                                                            • Sticky Posts

                                                            • Kaizen #222 - Client Script Support for Notes Related List

                                                              Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. The final Kaizen post of the year 2025 is here! With the new Client Script support for the Notes Related List, you can validate, enrich, and manage notes across modules. In this post, we’ll explore how

                                                            • Kaizen #217 - Actions APIs : Tasks

                                                              Welcome to another week of Kaizen! In last week's post we discussed Email Notifications APIs which act as the link between your Workflow automations and you. We have discussed how Zylker Cloud Services uses Email Notifications API in their custom dashboard.

                                                            • Kaizen #216 - Actions APIs : Email Notifications

                                                              Welcome to another week of Kaizen! For the last three weeks, we have been discussing Zylker's workflows. We successfully updated a dormant workflow, built a new one from the ground up and more. But our work is not finished—these automated processes are

                                                            • Kaizen #152 - Client Script Support for the new Canvas Record Forms

                                                              Hello everyone! Have you ever wanted to trigger actions on click of a canvas button, icon, or text mandatory forms in Create/Edit and Clone Pages? Have you ever wanted to control how elements behave on the new Canvas Record Forms? This can be achieved

                                                            • Kaizen #142: How to Navigate to Another Page in Zoho CRM using Client Script

                                                              Hello everyone! Welcome back to another exciting Kaizen post. In this post, let us see how you can you navigate to different Pages using Client Script. In this Kaizen post, Need to Navigate to different Pages Client Script ZDKs related to navigation A.


                                                            Manage your brands on social media
                                                            Access Zoho Social

                                                              Zoho Pagesense Resources


                                                                  Zoho TeamInbox Resources

                                                                    Zoho DataPrep 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

                                                                                                              • Zoho DataPrep and File Pattern configuration

                                                                                                                I'm using Zoho data prep to ingest data from One Drive into Zoho Analytics... The pipeline is super simple but I can't any way to get all the files that I need. Basically I need to bring all the files with a certain pattern and for that I'm using a regex

                                                                                                              • Adding a new section to the related details sidebar when creating a new ticket.

                                                                                                                Hello, I was wondering if you can add a new section to the related details sidebar when creating a new ticket. I was wanting to have it to where it also shows the account information related to the contact chosen as well. This is the section I am referring

                                                                                                              • JWT Token authentication problem that sometimes generates infinite redirect loops

                                                                                                                Description : Nous proposons un bouton sur notre plateforme permettant de rediriger l'utilisateur vers le portail ZohoDesk via un jeton JWT pour une authentification transparente. Cependant, il arrive que certains utilisateurs soient pris dans une boucle

                                                                                                              • Zoho desk desktop application

                                                                                                                does zoho desk has a destop applicaion?

                                                                                                              • No funcionan correctamente el calculo de las horas laborales para informe de tickets

                                                                                                                Hola, estoy intentando sacar estadísticas de tiempo de primera respuesta y resolución en horario laboral de mis tickets, pero el calculo de horas en horario laboral no funciona correctamente cree los horarios con los feriados : Ajusté los acuerdos de

                                                                                                              • How do I bulk archive my projects in ZOHO projects

                                                                                                                Hi, I want to archive 50 Projects in one go. Can you please help me out , How can I do this? Thanks kapil

                                                                                                              • ZOHO Work Drive Back Up

                                                                                                                I am looking for a ZOHO Work Drive backup solution. Something that is cloud based. There's lots of these kinds of options for Google Drive and other providers, but I have not seen anything for WorkDrive. Any suggestions?

                                                                                                              • ZOHO Reports - Filter Logic?

                                                                                                                Hi, I need a way to apply filter logics such as ((1 AND 2) OR 3). All I can see as of now is a way to enter different AND filters in the respective filter column. But how can I add an OR filter? Any advice would be highly appreciated. Mark

                                                                                                              • Scanned Doc - selecting Item overwrites Rate

                                                                                                                I have a Vendor Invoice which was uploaded to Documents. I select Add To > New Bill. The OCR is actually quite good, but it is reading an Item Description instead of an Item Number. I remove the description and select the correct Item Number... and it

                                                                                                              • Recruit API search

                                                                                                                Hi all, Attempting to call the search api endpoint from Postman using the word element as mentioned in api docs Search Records - APIs | Online Help - Zoho Recruit When making the call to /v2/Candidates/search?word=Saudi receive response of { "code": "MANDATORY_NOT_FOUND",

                                                                                                              • Manage control over Microsoft Office 365 integrations with profile-based sync permissions

                                                                                                                Greetings all, Previously, all users in Zoho CRM had access to enable Microsoft integrations (Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks) in their accounts, regardless of their profile type. Users with administrator profiles can now manage profile-based permissions

                                                                                                              • Saving reading position + Keep screen on

                                                                                                                While Zoho Notebook is excellent for saving and annotating articles, its utility is severely limited by the lack of reading progress synchronization. On the Android app, if a user exits a long note after reading 50%, the app fails to save the position.

                                                                                                              • Zoho LandingPage is integrated with Zoho One!

                                                                                                                Greetings to the Zoho One users out there! We're delighted to let you know that Zoho LandingPage is available in Zoho One too! With Zoho LandingPage, you can host custom-made landing pages, and persuade the visitors to dive deeper by making further clicks,

                                                                                                              • Android app sync problem - multiple devices have same problem

                                                                                                                Hello, I am having a problem with synchronization in the Android app. When I create a drawing, the data does not sync correctly—only a blank note is created without the drawing. I tested this on multiple devices, including phones and tablets, and the

                                                                                                              • How can i resend a campaign to only one of the recipients on the original campaign

                                                                                                                How can i resend a campaign to only one of the recipients on the original campaign ? Sincererly, Mike

                                                                                                              • Notes badge as a quick action in the list view

                                                                                                                Hello all, We are introducing the Notes badge in the list view of all modules as a quick action you can perform for each record, in addition to the existing Activity badge. With this enhancement, users will have quick visibility into the notes associated

                                                                                                              • How to show branch instead of org name on invoice template?

                                                                                                                Not sure why invoices are showing the org name not the branch name? I can insert the branch name using the ${ORGANIZATION.BRANCHNAME} placeholder, but then it isn't bold text anymore. Any other ideas?

                                                                                                              • Create CRM Deal from Books Quote and Auto Update Deal Stage

                                                                                                                I want to set up an automation where, whenever a Quote is created in Zoho Books, a Deal is automatically created in Zoho CRM with the Quote amount, customer details, and some custom fields from Zoho Books. Additionally, when the Sales Order is converted

                                                                                                              • Marketing Automation Requirements Questions

                                                                                                                I would like to set up a multi-email drip campaign- please see the structure below and confirm if I can achieve this set up in Zoho marketing automation. Where applicable, highlight gaps and workarounds. Thanks Drip email campaign- Can I create one drip

                                                                                                              • Sharing URLs and direct access

                                                                                                                Hello, I am storing my team's email signature images on Workdrive. I am creating a public image download share and adding “?directDownload=true” so that the image can be accessed without the Workdrive interface. A few questions: 1) Can we generate friendly

                                                                                                              • how to change the page signers see after signing a document in zoho sign

                                                                                                                Hello, How can I please change the page a signer sees after signing a document in Zoho Sign? I cannot seem to find it. As it is now, it shows a default landing page "return to Zoho Sign Home". Thanks!

                                                                                                              • Question about using custom_fields in Storefront Add-to-Cart API (error 2003 – required details)

                                                                                                                Hi everyone, I’m working with the Zoho Commerce Storefront API, specifically the Add to Cart endpoint: POST /storefront/api/v1/cart According to the documentation, this endpoint supports a custom_fields parameter for adding line-item custom data. I’m

                                                                                                              • Can a project be cloned?

                                                                                                                Good afternoon, greetings. I would like to ask if it's possible to clone a project in Microsoft Project. I found a way to do it using templates, but I'm not sure if there's a direct way to clone a project. Thank you in advance for your attention, and

                                                                                                              • Timesheet Tasks in Zoho Books: associate to service item

                                                                                                                How do we associate a service item to timesheet tasks in Zoho Books? For example: Joe spent 5 hours on project:task1 which is Service Item#1 (Income:Service1). When the invoice is issued thru the Project Invoice section, this is not available. When the

                                                                                                              • Why Sharing Rules do Not support relative date comparison???

                                                                                                                I am creating a Sharing Rule and simply want to share where "Last Day of Coverage" (Date field) is Greater than TODAY (Starting Tomorrow). However, sharing rules don't have the option to compare a date field to a relative date (like today), only to Static

                                                                                                              • Task/Activity indicator in SalesPipeline overview has disappeared

                                                                                                                I Just logged in my ZOHO CRM first 2026 checking my salespipeline overview , Every record card used to show an indication that there was an open task (Yellow if the expiry date was close, red if the expiry date was today and grey when it had expired).

                                                                                                              • Tip #56- Accessibility Controls in Zoho Assist: Hearing- 'Insider Insights'

                                                                                                                As we begin the new year, it’s a great time to focus on making our tools more inclusive and accessible for everyone. Remote support often involves long hours in front of screens, varying lighting conditions, and users with diverse accessibility needs.

                                                                                                              • Zoho Desk Android app update: Table view for All Departments view, custom button

                                                                                                                Hello everyone! In the latest version(v2.9.25) of the Zoho Desk Android app update, we have introduced Table view for the 'All Departments' view in the ticket module. We also have supported an option that allows tickets in the Table view to be sorted

                                                                                                              • What's New - December 2025 | Zoho Backstage

                                                                                                                In December, Backstage introduced a focused set of updates that improve how you manage registrations, communicate with attendees, and track participation. These enhancements are designed to give organizers greater flexibility and clearer control across

                                                                                                              • Need code format to specify default values

                                                                                                                Can someone please direct me to the code syntax or the proper translation per the instructions circled below. These instructions don't seem correct.

                                                                                                              • Add multiple users to a task

                                                                                                                When I´m assigning a task it is almost always related to more than one person. Practical situation: When a client request some improvement the related department opens the task with the situation and people related to it as the client itself, the salesman

                                                                                                              • A Roundup of Zoho Sprints 2025

                                                                                                              • Issue with WhatsApp Template Approval and Marketing Message Limit in Zoho Bigin

                                                                                                                We are facing issues while creating and using WhatsApp message templates through Zoho Bigin, and we request your clarification and support regarding the same. 1. Utility Template Approval Issue Until December, we were able to create WhatsApp templates

                                                                                                              • Sorting Custom Date in API isn't working w pagination limit

                                                                                                                How can we sort a custom field with DATE using pagination? Starting at page=1 then moving to page=2 with a limit of 10 each, its all messed up and even shows some of the same records as page 1? https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v2/INVOICE_MODULE/search?criteria=(FM_Contact_ID:equals:1234)&sort_by=Invoice_Date&sort_order=desc&per_page=10&page='

                                                                                                              • SAP Business One(B1) integration is now live in Zoho Flow

                                                                                                                We’re excited to share that SAP Business One (B1) is now available in Zoho Flow! This means you can now build workflows that connect SAP B1 with other apps and automate routine processes without relying on custom code. Note: SAP Business One integration

                                                                                                              • Enhancement in Role and Profile mapping of agents in Sandbox

                                                                                                                Hello everyone! We have brought in a modification in the way users are mapped to a particular role and profile in Sandbox. What has changed? When agents are copied from production to Sandbox: If a user's current role and profile is available in Sandbox,

                                                                                                              • The reason I switched away from Zoho Notebook

                                                                                                                My main reason for switching to Zoho was driven by three core principles: moving away from US-based products, keeping my data within India as much as possible, and supporting Indian companies. With that intent, I’ve been actively de-Googling my digital

                                                                                                              • Decimal places settings for exchange rates

                                                                                                                Hello, We are facing issues while matching vendor payments with banking feeds. As we often import products/services exchange rate comes into play. Currently, ZOHO allows only six digits for decimal places. We feel that conversions like JPY to INR require

                                                                                                              • Zoho removed ability to see all Scheduled Reports!

                                                                                                                If you are not the owner of a scheduled report, Zoho recently removed the capability to see each scheduled report. As an admin who relies on seeing all scheduled reports being sent, this is a terrible update. Now I cannot see ANY scheduled reports...even the ones I am being sent!!  This should be a setting for admins to control.  This is a bad update.

                                                                                                              • Please can the open tasks be shown in each customer account at the top.

                                                                                                                Hi there This has happened before, where the open tasks are no longer visible at the top of the page for each customer in the CRM. They have gone missing previously and were reinstated when I asked so I think it's just after an update that this feature

                                                                                                              • Next Page