Zoho CRM Integration

Zoho Projects supports Zoho CRM integration which helps you manage the deals you win and track them using projects from CRM with ease.

You must configure Zoho Projects and Zoho CRM integration before you can sync data. Please note, this integration can only be enabled and setup from Zoho CRM.

Use case

Zylker is a product manufacturing company whose sales team uses Zoho CRM for its sales processes. They are working on selling routers to a multinational software company. When a sales deal is won, Alicia, the sales manager, wants to create a project for the same in Zoho Projects to continue with project management. Alicia also wants to make this process simple by creating a project directly from Zoho CRM, and she would like to automate parts of this process.

To achieve the requirement of our Zoho client, our Zoho Projects team worked on integration of Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects. When they are integrated, the sales team can directly create a project from the Potential or Deal record, and the same would be reflected in Zoho Projects where the project management team can start working on the project.

Benefits

Keep all internal users and customers in sync
Monitor all project activity related to your clients from a single place
Measure project progress
Automate client account mapping

Create a Project from Zoho CRM

Projects can be created in two ways: from supported CRM records or directly from a CRM Teamspace.

Projects created from CRM records are associated with the corresponding customer record, while Teamspaces let you create both client and internal projects. Existing Zoho Projects projects can also be associated with CRM records or Teamspaces, allowing teams to collaborate from a single workspace.

Supported CRM modules

Projects can be created or associated from the following CRM modules:

Accounts
Contacts
Deals
Sales Orders
Invoices
Campaigns
Cases
Quotes
Purchase Orders
Products
Teamspace

Module availability depends on your Zoho CRM edition.

Projects created from an Account are associated with that customer in Zoho Projects.

Projects created from a Contact are associated with the contact when it is not linked to an Account.

Create a project from a CRM record

Projects can be created from any supported CRM module. The following example uses the Deals module.

Navigate to the required CRM module.
Open the required record.
In the Zoho Projects related section, click New Project.
Enter the project details and click Next.
Review the users under the Project Users tab.
Enable Associate this project to the current Teamspace if you want to add teamspace users to the project.

If Teamspace association is enabled, choose whether the project should be accessible to Selected Users or All users in this Teamspace.

Review or manage users under the Client Users tab.
Select the destination root folder.
Click Save.

Associate an existing project from a CRM record

Navigate to the required CRM module.
Open the required record.
In the Zoho Projects related section, click Associate Project.
Select the required project and select the project and client users.
Enable Associate this project to the current Teamspace if you want to add teamspace users to the project.

If Teamspace association is enabled, choose who should have access to the project.

Review or manage users under the Client Users tab.
Click Save.

Create and manage projects from Teamspaces

Creating projects directly from a Teamspace allows teams to organize customer and internal projects, alongside the other modules available in the Teamspace.

Feature Availability : All DCs in Zoho CRM Standard, Professional, Enterprise editions.

Project types

Client Projects : Linked to CRM records and are intended for customer-facing work such as onboarding, implementation, and service delivery.
Team Projects : Internal projects that are not associated with CRM records. They can be used for product development, documentation, marketing initiatives, operational improvements, and other internal work.

Add a project to a Teamspace

Click the + icon in the top bar.
Under New Collaboration Items, click Projects.
Choose one of the following:

Create New
Associate Existing

If creating a new Client Project, select Client Project and click Next.

Choose Accounts or Contacts, and select the required record.
Enter the project details and click Next.
Review the users under the Project Users tab.
Enable Associate this project to the current Teamspace if you want to add teamspace users to the project.

If Teamspace association is enabled, choose whether the project should be accessible to Selected Users or All users in this Teamspace.

Review or manage users under the Client Users tab.
Select the destination root folder.
Click Save.

If creating a new Team Project, select Team Project and click Next.
Follow the same steps as above mentioned for Client Project except:

The Client Selection step is not available since client users cannot be added to a team project.

Associate an existing project

Click the + icon in the top bar.
Under New Collaboration Items, click Projects.
Select Associate Existing.
Choose Client Project or Team Project.
Choose Accounts or Contacts, and select the required record.
Select the project and select project users to add,

Enable Associate this project to the current Teamspace if you want to add teamspace users to the project.

If Teamspace association is enabled, choose who should have access to the project.

Review or manage users under the Client Users tab.
Click Save.

When a project is associated with a Teamspace, the Teamspace name is displayed within the project in Zoho Projects.

If project access is set to All users in this Teamspace, Zoho Projects automatically creates a Team using the Teamspace name. This Team:

Cannot be edited from Zoho Projects.
Automatically stays synchronized with Teamspace membership.
Grants access to users added to the Teamspace and removes access when users leave.

If the Zoho Projects user license limit is exceeded, additional users are added as deactivated users. A portal administrator must activate them before they can access the project.

A maximum of 30 projects can be be added to a Teamspace, with an overall limit of 500 projects across all Teamspaces.

CRM Task Integration

Bi-directional sync (Two-way sync) is enabled for task updates and comments from Zoho CRM to Zoho Projects and vice versa. i.e, When a task field is updated or when a task comment is added in Zoho CRM, the change is synced with the respective task in Zoho Projects and vice versa.

The sync is enabled for the following task fields:

Task Title
Task Description
End Date
Priority
Closed / Reopen Status
Task Owner

Add a Task in Zoho Projects and Save to Zoho CRM

Navigate to the project where the client account is mapped to a CRM account.
Click Add Task.
Enter the task details and then click Save and Add to Zoho CRM. This button is not shown if the project is not associated to a CRM account.
Select a CRM account or deal to associate the task.
- Mapped Accounts / UnMapped Accounts:
  - Mapped Accounts: The CRM account to which the Zoho Projects client account is already mapped is displayed in this section. The account should have the same name in both Zoho Projects and CRM.
  - UnMapped Accounts: When a CRM account and a Zoho Projects client account share the same name and they are yet to be mapped, its name is displayed in this section.
- Only the deals associated with the selected project are displayed in the drop-down.
Click Save.
Click at the top right corner in task detail page and select Add to Zoho CRM to add the existing tasks to Zoho CRM.

After you add a task to Zoho CRM, the task is shown with a CRM icon in the Zoho Projects tasks List view.

View Zoho CRM Details from Associated Project

Navigate to the associated project from the left navigation bar.
Click CRM info icon () next to the project title.

The associated Zoho CRM module such as Accounts, Leads, Teamspace will be listed.

Click any Zoho CRM module to view its details.
Click () to open the details in the CRM.

Known limitations

Use case 1: Updating the Due Date of a Strict Project Task in Zoho CRM

George works for a Data Migration project that runs on a fixed schedule(i.e a strict project). He is also a CRM user and he updates the due date of a task in the Data Migration project from Zoho CRM. He notices that the due date update didn't reflect.

What happens next and why?

In this case, George will receive a notification Email stating that his recent due date update has failed because it falls beyond the associated project's schedule. So, A user cannot update the due date of a task in Zoho CRM when the new date falls beyond the strict project's schedule in Zoho Projects.

Use case 2: Reopening a subtask in Zoho CRM

Linda has a Projects account integrated with Zoho CRM. She reopens a completed task that belongs to the associated Projects account in Zoho CRM, but notices that the update didn't reflect.