Canvas Templates land in Zoho CRM, Dashboard 2.0 reshapes the Zoho One home screen, and Zoho Forms gets a smarter way to validate structured data. There's plenty more across billing, social, and workplace tools too. Here's everything from August 8–15, 2026.

If you use the same Canvas form design across several modules, updating it used to mean editing each module separately. Canvas Templates fix that. Build one master template, link as many modules as you need, and any layout change rolls out to all of them automatically. You can still override styling for an individual module within the template, or unsync a module entirely to make it independent while the rest keep inheriting updates.

Instagram Trial Reels let you test a reel with non-followers first, hidden from your profile grid and your followers' feed, so you can judge how it performs before sharing it widely. Turn on Share to Everyone Automatically and Instagram publishes it after 72 hours. Inbox Automation now sends private replies too: when someone comments with a keyword you've defined, Zoho Social DMs them using a saved template, and you can post a public follow-up so they know to check. You can also sort published posts by likes or comments to see what's actually resonating.

If you've ever received submissions where an employee ID was missing a character, a tax number was in the wrong case, or a reference code didn't follow your format, the new Regex field is for you. Instead of catching those errors afterwards, it validates input against a pattern you define and flags it instantly, while the respondent is still filling out the form, with a custom message telling them what to fix. It works for national IDs, tax registration numbers, license numbers, membership codes, and anything else with a defined format. Preset patterns are included if you're new to regex.

You can now export delivery reports for both email and WhatsApp, so tracking who received your messages is no longer manual. Abstract submissions can be exported directly too, handy if you build your agenda in a spreadsheet before importing it back, though this one is limited to Abstract Management Early Access users. Payment Completion Reminder emails now carry a one-click opt-out for missed registrants, with a delivery report tracking how the reminders land. Note that new events are now capped at three reminder criteria, down from five. Check the announcement for the full list.

A new Audience feature groups users by profile details like department, location, or designation, so you can build a dedicated dashboard for each group. New hires see onboarding resources, the sales team sees its metrics, and so on. Connect now also supports MCP (Model Context Protocol), so a supported AI assistant can find workplace information and complete everyday tasks in Connect, within the permissions you grant it. New dashboard widgets round it out: a Greeting widget, a Sliding Banner for rotating updates, and image backgrounds.

Web Forms let you embed a customizable support form on your website, so customers can raise a request or jump straight into an active session with a session ID, and each request routes to the right team automatically. Session Highlights analyzes every completed session to surface key actions, categorize issues, track the applications used, and generate a concise summary. Filter by technician, category, or tag, and export whenever you want a broader view of support trends.

You can now share a Hosted Payment Page for an individual item, and Zoho Billing creates the invoice or sales receipt automatically once the customer pays. No transaction to set up in advance, no chasing for payment. A redesigned Single Page checkout pulls the order summary, coupons, and tax breakdown into one view, with auto-save and abandoned cart recovery, though it's in early access for organizations created before 24 July 2026. Check the announcement for the full list, including new subscription reports and role-based SKU access.

HTML PDF Templates let you build document layouts for custom modules from scratch in HTML and CSS, with dynamic placeholders, conditional logic, calculations, and full control over the page. UK businesses can now also file Self Assessment Tax Returns to HMRC directly from Zoho Books, and the India edition picks up terminal payments through Zoho Payments. Plenty more in the full post, including approval workflows for sales returns and manual journals.

Build dashboards around a specific role, team, or purpose, add the widgets that matter, and filter each one down to just the data you want. Embedded Dashboards let you pull a dashboard from another Zoho app, Analytics for instance, straight into Zoho One so you're not switching between tabs to check it. You can create custom widgets for metrics that don't fit a standard one, keep several dashboards for different needs and pin your most-used, and share a dashboard so your whole team works from the same view.

That's your August Part 2 wrap-up. Which update stood out for you this week? Drop a comment and let us know, and we'll see you next week!

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