Previously, the same email address could be used for separate Zoho accounts in the UAE data centre and in other data centres such as US, EU, IN, AU, JP, CA, SA, or SG. Going forward, an email address can be associated with only one Zoho account across all data centres. No immediate action is required, and existing accounts remain accessible through their respective sign-in URLs, though this is only a temporary arrangement, with a follow-up to come on how the change will be implemented.

Zoho RPA Windows Agent 6.0.0 and later no longer support Windows Server 2016 and 2019. If upgrading your server isn't possible yet, stay on Agent 5.2.2 and disable auto-update from the Agent Listing Page to prevent an unsupported upgrade. Your existing automations will keep running, but new features won't be available.

From October 20, 2026, tax_category field values in the Zoho Books to Zoho Analytics integration are being renamed to match Zoho Books' naming conventions. There's no change to functionality or underlying data, just display names, and existing values update automatically. If you use exact tax_category values in query tables, filters, or formulas, you'll need to update those manually on or after October 20. The full list of changes is in the post.

You can now react to notes in Zoho CRM with an emoji instead of adding another note just to say you've seen it. Each user gets one reaction per note, the top three show by default, and hovering shows who reacted. The Notes interface is also refreshed, with record details, author information, and timestamps moved to the top. Currently live in the SA and JP data centres and rolling out to others in phases, though reactions aren't in the mobile app yet.

Funnels show how the path you designed is performing. User Journeys shows what visitors are actually doing, without you defining anything up front. It surfaces routes you never mapped, steps visitors add before converting, unexpected exit points, and paths that convert better than the ones you built. Spot something worth investigating and jump straight to the session recordings or a heatmap from there.

Three updates landed in Zoho Social. You can now send bulk messages on WhatsApp to a contact list rather than messaging people individually, useful for announcements, promotions, and reminders. Arattai, Zoho's messaging app, is supported as a connected channel, so you can publish posts, share Stories, and schedule content alongside your other platforms. And URL properties have moved into the Compose window, so you can add a link, set UTM tracking, and shorten it without leaving the post.

Smart Fields are pre-built, formula-powered field groups you drag and drop into a form. The inputs and the calculation logic come bundled together, so there's no manual formula setup. Over 20 are available at launch across healthcare, finance, insurance, HR, education, real estate, and marketing, covering everything from BMI and loan EMI to GPA, provident fund, and currency conversion. More are on the way.

When approvers don't respond, recruitment slows down. Approval SLA lets you set a time limit per approval request, then configure escalation rules that fire before, on, or after the deadline. Actions include sending a reminder email, auto-approving, auto-rejecting, or delegating to another approver. You can set multiple escalation rules on the same SLA to handle different stages of the timeline, and apply conditions so it only kicks in for the requests that need it.

Every service job can have more than one solution, and now Zoho FSM lets you present all of them in a single estimate. Add up to five named options, each with its own line items and total, so a customer can compare a basic repair against a full replacement side by side. They review and approve the one they want directly from the email, and technicians can build estimates on the mobile app at the job site.

When you're working a sprint, the context you need is often sitting in another module. Related Lists fix that. Add one to the detail view of any sprint, release, epic, or project, define the conditions for which records appear, and they show up as a named tab alongside Details and Comments. Pull from any module in Zoho Sprints, or fetch from an external system through a custom function, with no hopping between modules or windows.

Zoho Sprints previously limited colour coding to a fixed set of defaults, which ran out quickly if you had more statuses or tags than colours. After repeated user requests, you can now click More Colors and pick anything from the full spectrum. It applies to custom priorities, custom statuses, release stages, tags, and the risks and opportunities matrix and statuses, all from Settings in your workspace.

This is a substantial release for Zoho Expense. Employees can now self-book flights and hotels directly from the app once your organization requests it, with a custom approval process you can trigger on your own criteria. Ask Zia answers questions across trips, expenses, reports, advances, and analytics in plain language, and Zoho Expense now supports MCP (Model Context Protocol), so assistants like ChatGPT and Claude can act on your account through prompts. US businesses get the Zoho Prepaid Mastercard® for managed business spend, with card policies, spending limits, and restricted merchant categories. There's a great deal more in the full post, from parallel approvals and custom analytics reports to a sandbox and blueprints, much of it in early access.

Zoho Tables is now included in Zoho One for the IN, AU, CA, and US data centres, bringing a spreadsheet-database hybrid for tracking projects, approvals, and workflows. Zoho Publish joins for the IN, US, UAE, CA, AU, SG, and SA data centres, letting businesses manage online listings, respond to reviews, and keep business details consistent across platforms.

That's your September 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!

Missed an edition? Catch up on Part 1 (September 1-7), or browse the full Zoho Community Digest archive.