The new year is already in motion, and the Zoho CRM Community has been buzzing with steady updates and thoughtful conversations. In this edition, we’ve pulled together the key product enhancements, Kaizen learnings, and helpful discussions from the first two weeks of January, so you can catch up in minutes.

Before we jump into what’s new, here’s a quick thought:

Last year laid the foundation for a lot of what you’re seeing now. If you haven’t already, take a minute to skim through the 2025 highlights. It’s a great way to connect the dots. And if CRM lives on your phone as much as your laptop, don’t miss the mobile recap covering everything that rolled out across Android and iOS.

Now, let’s get into what’s new.

Product Updates:

More control over email fonts and reply-to settings:

Your emails just got more flexible in Zoho CRM. The email composer now supports custom fonts, font sizes, and a default reply-to address. Check out the post to learn more and see how to configure these enhancements.

Create formula fields faster with Zia Formula Expression Generator:

Writing formula syntax from scratch? Not anymore. The new Zia Formula Expression Generator lets you describe your logic in plain language and automatically generates the expression for you. Review, tweak, and insert it directly while creating Formula fields in the Layout Editor. Check out this post to see it in action.

Integrate QuickML models directly into Zoho CRM

Custom AI Solutions in Zoho CRM now offers deeper integration with QuickML, allowing you to connect deployed QuickML models directly to CRM modules and view AI-driven insights within record detail pages. Map CRM fields to your model inputs and instantly access predictions, recommendations, forecasts and analysis as part of your day-to-day operations. Explore more about this integration in this post.

Business day logic update: more accurate Workflow scheduling

We’ve updated how business-day calculations work in Workflows to ensure offsets like +0, +1, and +2 business days behave exactly as intended when triggers occur on weekends. This update makes Workflow execution timing more accurate and predictable, especially for processes that rely on business-day-based scheduling. Learn how it works and what it means for your Workflows in the Forum announcement post.

New VoC enhancements in Zoho CRM for deeper response insights

We’ve introduced new enhancements to Voice of the Customer (VoC) in Zoho CRM that help teams analyze customer feedback more deeply and contextually. These updates include response-level drilldown, summary-based analytical components powered by Zia, and the ability to leverage VoC intelligence in custom views and Workflow criteria. Check out this announcement post to discover how these features can be used in dashboards, views, and Workflows.

CRM gets location-smart with the new Map View

We have introduced Map View in Zoho CRM to help teams visualize and work with records based on location. Powered by the new address field and Mappls (MapMyIndia), Map View lets you plot records on an interactive map, apply nearby filters, sort by distance, and plan visits more efficiently, all within your CRM modules. This feature is available in all paid editions but only for the Indian Data Center (IN DC). Explore this post to learn how Map View works and how you can use it for location-based planning and execution.

Enhance your CRM records with data enrichment:

In Zoho CRM, data enrichment helps enhance company and person records with additional information gathered from publicly available sources. Details such as company size, industry, job titles, and contact information are mapped directly to corresponding CRM fields using native enrichment capabilities and supported integrations like WebAmigo. Tip: Instead of enriching records manually, you can automate the process using APIs and Workflow rules to trigger enrichment when records are created or updated. Take a look at this post to understand how data enrichment works and how to configure it effectively.

Quick Wins:

Restrict task deletion and enforce strict stage control in Zoho CRM:

@Rodney D Abernathy asked how to prevent staff users from deleting tasks and enforce forward-only stage progression in Zoho CRM. @Ishwarya SG recommended restricting task deletion by adjusting profile permissions and using Blueprints to control stage progression with admin-only corrections. Read the full discussion for setup details.

Setup notifications for upcoming CRM callbacks in Zoho CRM:

@Dan Newham asked how to notify users before scheduled CRM callbacks. @Haiku Technical Support suggested using built-in Call activity reminders (pop-ups and Cliq messages), creating call-related Workflows for email notifications, or leveraging Zoho Flow for automation, especially when template-based Workflows aren't feasible, as in Dan's case. Haiku also included screenshots that provide additional clarity, so take a look at this post to learn more.

Migrate data between related lists in the same module:

@Sahal Akel asked how to migrate existing Product-related list data in the Leads module to a newly created multi-lookup related list. @Cloud Bound suggested exporting the data using a detailed report with Leads as the primary module and the Product relation as the child module, then importing it into the linking module created by the multi-lookup field. Checkout the post to learn more.

Mapping countries to regions for deal reporting:

@Clement asked how to categorize Deals by region by linking country values to a region lookup table for reporting and analysis. @Pranit explained that this can be done by creating a custom module to maintain country–region mappings, adding a Lookup field on Deals, and using a workflow with a Deluge function to populate the region directly on the Deal record. This approach overcomes the reporting limitation of lookup fields and enables region-based reports and dashboards, while Client Scripts can also be used for UI level updates. Read the full discussion for implementation details.

Dev's Corner:

Associating Zoho Projects with Deals using Deluge:

@Jacob asked how to automatically associate a Zoho Project record with a Deal when creating the project via a Zoho CRM workflow using Deluge. @Ishwarya SG shared a sample script showing how to use the appropriate CRM-Projects API endpoint and explained why it's important to use the right data center–specific OAuth token and required connection scopes for Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects. Once the connection settings were aligned properly, the project–deal association worked as expected. Read the full discussion to review the sample script and setup details.

Kaizen:

Kaizen #223 – Building a File Manager CRM Widget using ZRC methods

This Kaizen explores the Zoho Request Client (ZRC) introduced in Widget SDK v1.5 and shows how to build a related list widget in Zoho CRM. The walkthrough demonstrates how ZRC enables integration with Zoho WorkDrive, letting users list, preview, and upload files directly from a record’s detail page. It also covers automating WorkDrive folder creation and setting up the widget for seamless file management. Read this post to explore the complete implementation and step-by-step guide.

Kaizen #224 – Quote-driven deal reconciliation using Zoho CRM Functions and Automation

This Kaizen demonstrates how Zoho CRM Functions and Automation can reconcile deal values against quote activity over time. The walkthrough covers managing currency fluctuations, grace periods, loss thresholds, and renegotiation logic by treating quotes as the source of commercial truth and updating finalized deal values accordingly. Read the full post to explore the business scenarios, field design, automation flow, and function logic behind this quote-driven reconciliation.

And with that, we wrap up this edition of the Digest. Caught something cool we missed, or have a favorite highlight from this edition?

Drop it in the comments! We’d love to hear from you. We’ll be back soon with more updates and community gems. Until then, stay tuned!