Blueprint enhancements - Parallel and multiple transitions, and more

Blueprint enhancements - Parallel and multiple transitions, and more

Last modified on Sep 4, 2023: All Zoho CRM users can now access these enhancements. Initially, these features were available only on an early access basis and by request. However, as of August 2, 2023, they have been made available to all users in all DCs.

Dear all,

Zoho CRM's Blueprints provide structure to business processes by mandating a version of it in your CRM and guiding your records through. It necessitates steps to be taken and serves as a template sales process for a salesperson. So far, Blueprint has allowed us to draw up different stages of a business process through different states and connect it through certain triggers that allow the transition of a record. 

While it’s not just that most business processes aren’t set in stone, it’s that different stages in business processes vary based on salespeople/users involved, type of customer, and even the product or service we sell. It’s not always the case that a record needs to move directly downstream without having to meander through multiple transitions before it needs to get to the next state. 

Parallel and multiple transitions provide the flexibility required for a record to move to its next state. 

Let’s take a business example: 

An SMB in the Real Estate sector with 10-15 Real Estate agents, connecting buyers and sellers, representing rental houses, houses for lease etc. The typical business process involves bringing in leads from various sources, validating them, and trying to close deals. There’s an inspection followed by a negotiation process once the buyer finds a property they like, document verification, contracts that are drawn up, loan processes and so on. 

We’ve set up a blueprint in place to ensure that the record moves freely through these different steps. Our blueprint includes relevant stages with transitions that enable the movement of the record to its next state. However, we’ve run into a few challenges between a few states where just one transition is not going to cut it. 

Parallel Transitions: 

Before our deal goes into the negotiation phase, the property needs to be thoroughly inspected. So, in our Blueprint, the record moves from the "Under inspection" state to the "Inspection completed" state. The inspection itself isn't a single process but includes four different checks: Mold inspection, Water Damage check, Structural damage, and Pest Inspection. Each of these processes will need to happen between these two states. 



Parallel transitions allow us to add all four of these as individual transitions that the record needs to go through before it reaches the "Inspection completed" state. 



Multiple transitions: 

As mentioned earlier, the real estate agency not only handles property sales but also rentals and leases. So when it comes to the contract signing part of the business process, we have three different options. Regardless of what contract is signed, however, the state the record reaches next is the same, "Contract Signed." 



Multiple transitions allow the sale contract signed, Rental contract signed, and Lease contract signed to each be added as transitions, allowing any one of them to be chosen for the record to move to its "Contract Signed" state. 



Combination and Sub-transitions: 

The documentation verification process is pretty overspecified in the Real Estate sector. Once the record lands on the "Legal Verified" state, there's a lot of paperwork involved before it gets to the "Loan processing" state. One major section is collateral assessment, which is pretty straightforward, and the other is document verification. 
Further, under document verification, we have Sale deed verification, Building plan approval, and Possession letter verification. 



The new enhancements in Blueprint not only let us create two transitions between these two states, i.e.: "Collateral assessment" and "Document verification", but allows for sub-transitions within the "Document verification" transition. So we'd be able to add "Sale deed verification", "Building plan approval", and "Possession letter verification", as individuals under the parent-transition, "Document verification". 



Reorder transitions: 

For any parallel or multiple transitions, you don't need to go through the checks in a specific order. These checks can happen in whichever order for each record. The current linear blueprint restricts you from offering this flexibility, which is what parallel transition solves. It helps you have simultaneous or "parallel" transitions side-by-side giving you the flexibility you need.



We'd love for you all to try out Parallel and Multiple transitions in your Blueprint processes and let us know how it's working for you. 


Thank you!

      • Recent Topics

      • What is the Desk API?

        I'm trying to fetch a lookup field data from desk to our creator application and it doesn't work. I'm guessing that my search parameter is wrong? On my trial function fetch if I use these: tickets = invokeurl [ url :"https://desk.zoho.com/api/v1/tickets/351081000145244764"

      • How to Parse XML Data Returned by API?

        I have several APIs integrated with my CRM and they work great. I am having some trouble though parsing data out of a large string/array in Funtions? I need to be able to pull the DeviceId and the WebSiteDeviceName from each PanelDevice. I would appreciate

      • Can the meeting location be specified by the customer?

        I own a painting company. I offer free estimates to customers, and I'd like them to be able to enter the meeting address in the booking form... so, the place they want me to give a painting estimate for. I need the customer to be able to tell me where

      • Zoho Bookings - Reserve with Google

        Does Zoho Bookings plan to to integrate with Reserve with Google?

      • Single use booking

        Hello everyone! It would be very interesting to be able to generate unique booking links. Once a booking is made through that link, it will no longer work. Calendly has something similar: https://help.calendly.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500001292022-How

      • Features Req: Service-Specific Calendar And Limit number of bookings per guest

        By The Grace of G-d. Hi, I Came across 2 features i believe more users would love to see added to the amazing bookings app: 1. Service-Specific Calendar I dont want to open my whole calendar to all of my services. For Example, Lets say i have a free consultation

      • Generating Discount Coupons for Zoho Bookings

        Hi, Is there provision to generate Discount Coupons for appointment bookings? I could not see that in the settings and this is very much needed. Please suggest us. Thanks

      • Quais são os maiores desafios que você enfrenta ao implementar o Zoho CRM?

        Olá, pessoal da comunidade Zoho Brasil! Sou parceiro autorizado da Zoho e, ao longo do tempo, tenho notado que cada implementação de CRM traz desafios únicos, dependendo do segmento de negócio, das metas da empresa e até da familiaridade da equipe com

      • Featured Blog Image Size

        What is the ideal size for the cover/featured image of a Zoho Sites blog? Because all our cover images are getting these black stripes horizontally or on the sides (look images)

      • Zoho CRM v2.1 deprecation or sunset plans ?

        Hi Team Wanted to know if there is any plan to deprecate v2.1 CRM apis https://www.zoho.com/crm/developer/docs/api/v2.1/ and if yes by when

      • Do I need to migrate to API v7?

        Current workload forces me to ask this question. Even though I know API v7 has better features, I have many previous API calls written in v2 that still function well. Is there any compelling reason (that I may be missing) for me to make time to migrate

      • Has anyone implemented OCR functionality as a text input method for the CRM?

        The users in my organisation are used to writing meeting notes using the pen and paper notebook. Asking them to enter those notes into the CRM is a chore and I suspect is a major hurdle for the digitalisation initiative to take off in this organisation.

      • way to change the interface language (e.g. to English) in the whole Zoho One ecosystem at once

        Hi everyone. I had a need to create a new Zoho One account for a new company. However, since I did it from Germany, I have defaulted to German language in Zoho One interface (in all apps). Can you please tell me if there is a way to change the interface

      • How Can I delete accounts or change type of account?

        My accountant has wrongly categorized many accounts as Other Assets instead of Accounts receivable while putting in opening balances. How can I delete an account or recategorize it?

      • How to have sub heads in Salary account

        Hi How can i have sub heads under salary account, we tried but it is not allowing us to create sub heads Thanks Alka

      • Can I give access of my Zoho Spreadsheet?

        Hello Everbody! I work with a travel and tourism company, and my job is to record the data of clients of the company. And I use zoho for my work. So my question is can I give access of my sheet to the clients and my company. Kindly guide me. Thankyo

      • Is it possible to display formulas in cells instead of calculated results?

        I want to export my Zoho sheet as tab separated text without losing the formulas. In excel, I would use the settings Options - Advanced - show formulas in cells instead of their calculated results then save as tab separated values. How do I do this in

      • Unsuscribe, suscribe and tell a friend links not working

        Hello, I'm new to Zoho campaigns. I created and sent a test campaign to myself but on clicking the subscribe, unsubscribe, view in browser ans tell a friend links, i realize none of them leads anywhere. Instead i get the following error:

      • Tip #5: Setting access rights at the subfolder level

        Hello everyone, We hope you're finding our WorkDrive Tips and Tricks series useful. For today's tip, we'll teach you how to assign higher subfolder permissions to Team Folder members. Team Folders helps you avoid the drawbacks of traditional file sharing.

      • Cross-Data Center Collaboration and / Or allowing users to choose DC

        Dear Zoho Cliq Support Team, We are writing to request a significant enhancement to Zoho Cliq that would greatly benefit our geographically dispersed development team. Current Challenge: Currently, Zoho Cliq automatically routes users to specific data

      • Creating stunning templates for appointment notification emails

        Good day folks! Can you guess what we are going to check out today? We have designed a few samples to showcase the power of customizable email notification templates. Template 1 Template 2 Template 3 Template 4 Template 5 Template 6 Template 7 Template

      • integrating Zoho CRM vendors with Zoho projects

        In most of our projects we collaborate with our Vendors. Being able to integrate only Accounts and not Vendors from CRM, is a huge limitation for our perspective and needs. We would really love to see this feature in the CRM-Projects integration.

      • Allocate emails to user in a shared mailbox

        Hi, This might be obvious, but I cannot find the answer. I have 3 shared mailboxes so any team member can see the emails. Is there a way of allocating a specific email to a user so that it is their responsibility to deal with it? Thanks in advance.

      • Multiple Vendor SKUs

        One of the big concerns we have with ZOHO Inventory is lack of Vendor Skus like many other inventory software packages offer. Being able to have multiple vendor skus for the same product would be HUGE! It would populate the appropriate vendor Sku for

      • Include SalesIQ activity when sending Forms data to CRM as a new Lead

        Is there a way that when I get a new lead via a zoho form on my website to include the activity in CRM? I have Sales IQ integrated with the form however, most of my leads do not talk to us through the chat fuction but they do fill out a zoho form. Id

      • ZOho Booking and CRM integration.

        We are using Zoho Booking wiht Zoho CRM in a custom module. Inside our module we use the option to book a meeting with the customer. This part works great we feed the field to the URL and everything work 100%. Now my issue is that I was not able to find

      • Chrome browser issues. Anyone else?

        I am suddenly having multiple issues with Chrome browser interpreting the Zoho Mail interface.  Anyone else?  Any known problems? Thanks, Todd

      • 554 5.2.3 MailPolicy violation Error, help?

        This message was created automatically by mail delivery software. A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its recipients. 554 5.2.3 MailPolicy violation Error delivering to mailboxes I am not sure why i am getting this, please

      • Display comma in number field (thousand separator)

        Love Zoho so far!  How can I add comma as thousand separator in number field upon input by user?  This is essential feature when dealing with larger numbers to make readable.  Is there number formatting script for this? For example, change 600000 to 600,000 This link appears to be related to the topic. https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/amount-display#2266000001410984

      • Any way to Associate a Recurring Invoice with Deal/Potential in Zoho CRM

        When we create an Invoice in Zoho Books, we have the option to associate that invoice with a Potential/Deal that is tied to that same customer. Can we do the same thing with Recurring Invoices? When creating a Recurring Invoice, I want to be able to Associate

      • Tracking leads through the sales process

        Our leads are being generated via paid google ads and are arriving to us with UTM data showing lead sources, campaign mediums and campaign names. I want to track the progress of those leads as they migrate through our sales funnel while maintaining a

      • Elevating Email Security on Zoho Desk: DKIM Now Mandatory

        Hello Zoho Desk Users! It has been a wonderful journey with you on Zoho Desk. As we welcome 2025, we are strengthening our efforts to ensure a secure and seamless experience for you. To enhance email security, DKIM configuration will be mandatory for

      • How to send mail with js SDK

        Hell o I'm using https://live.zwidgets.com/js-sdk/1.2/ZohoEmbededAppSDK.min.js, for my widget in CRM (built with sigma) Is it possible to send email from js file, I try ti use that ZOHO.CRM.API.sendMail({ "Entity": "Accounts", "RecordID": sharedVariableEntityId,

      • How to merge data from Zoho CRM to Zoho Sheet

        Hello! A few months ago, I made a Zoho sheet with the ability to bring in data from Zoho CRM. It worked by adding the email of a Contact to the sheet, and then it would fill in the rest of the information in the row with information that was stored in

      • Create custom rollup summary fields in Zoho CRM

        Hello everyone, In Zoho CRM, rollup summary fields have been essential tools for summarizing data across related records and enabling users to gain quick insights without having to jump across modules. Previously, only predefined summary functions were

      • Zoho Sheets working offline

        Hi,  I am looking for the ability to work offline in Zoho Sheets, but currently I cannot find the process to complete this.  Does someone have any ideas or steps I might have missed?  Also does Zoho Sheets have the "Format as Tables" function as is currently in MS Excel 2016??  Many thanks. 

      • Date format in the Account settings are not reflected in other applications

        The issue where changes to the date format in the Account settings are not reflected in other applications. Not only the date format, but even after switching the language in some part remains the same. This issue has persisted for a week. Could someone

      • Announcing a significant enhancement for Zia Presentation: Personalize the data and distribution of your sales deck

        Dear Customers, We hope you're well! There are two aspects to being a salesperson: Selling and reporting. While the former is the job itself, the latter helps salespeople evaluate their performance from time to time. This evaluation doesn't just help

      • Contacts per department

        Hello, Is it possible to limit Contacts to a Department? Thanks

      • Recipient accidentally added to ticket?

        One of my users copied email text from a client into the description of a new ticket. The ticket was intended to be for internal use only, so imagine our surprise when he received an email notification, replied, and his reply was added to the ticket!

      • Next Page