I am using Zoho CRM, Books, Projects and Reports.

I have created a workflow as follows:

1. Create Account, Contact in Zoho CRM

2. Link the Account and Contact in Zoho CRM to a customer in Zoho Books

3. Link the Account and Contact in Zoho CRM to a project in Projects

The problem is that new/rushed/inattentive employees could create a project directly in Zoho Projects which is then not connected to an Account in Zoho CRM.  Similarly with Customers in Zoho Books.

We can't make a perfect mapping between CRM and Projects, because some projects are not linked to a company.

Proposal 1 (simplest):

Setting in Zoho Projects admin interface - checkbox that says warn when creating unlinked project.

If the user goes to create a new project directly in Zoho Projects, they get the following message:

"Warning: Your setup associates Accounts in Zoho CRM with prjects in Zoho Projects.  You are about to create a project that is not linked to an Account.  You can:

1. Cancel the creation, then set up the account in Zoho CRM and start the project from there

2. Continue to create a project now.  You can then link the project to an account at a later stage

Button for Cancel, another for Proceed.

Proposal 2:

A tool for highlighting the disconnects (which customer in Zoho CRM is not in Zoho Projects or Books etc

Thanks

Brendon