Introducing custom lookup fields in the Tickets, Contacts, and Accounts modules

Introducing custom lookup fields in the Tickets, Contacts, and Accounts modules

Hello all,

 

We are excited to announce a new enhancement that will empower you to further customize the Tickets, Contacts, and Accounts modules. Now, you will be able to create custom lookup fields in your Tickets, Contacts, and Accounts layouts for more flexibility when managing your data.

 

We will be releasing this feature in a phased manner. To request early access, click the registration link below and provide your details. We will enable the feature for your Desk account. 


Registration link >>> https://zoho.to/ZohoDeskBetaForm

 

Here is a quick overview of custom lookup fields.  

What are custom lookup fields? 

Custom lookups are additional fields that can be added to the Contacts, Accounts, and Tickets modules, aside from the default standard lookups (Contact Name and Account Name) that are already available. These fields are customizable and can be tailored to meet various business needs. 

What are the benefits of custom lookups? 

  1. Streamlined data selection: By setting up criteria-based filters, users can limit the records that are displayed when searching for a value in the lookup field, making it easier to find and associate the appropriate records.
  2. Easy creation of related records: Create records in a related module directly from the layout. Users can seamlessly create and associate relevant information without navigating away or switching screens.
  3. Auto-filled field values: Fields in the layout can be prefilled with values from a related module's field. Save time and simplify data entry by populating relevant information for users.

 

When creating a custom lookup field, you can:  

Perform basic configurations 

You can tailor a custom lookup field to meet your business needs through basic configurations. Here are some basic configurations you can perform:

 

  1. Establish Relationship: Choose a related module to establish a relationship. For instance, in the Tickets module, you can create a custom lookup field to establish a relationship with the Contacts module, linking tickets to their respective contacts.
  2. Search and Sort Records: Narrow down the custom lookup field search results and sort the records based on the related module. For example, if you choose Accounts as the related module, you can search and sort the records by Account Name, Created Time, or Modified Time.
  3. Customize Suggestion Pop-up: Enhance the user experience by customizing the suggestion pop-up. Display additional information in the search box to help users find the most appropriate record. For example, when an agent uses a Related Category lookup field, the suggestion pop-up can be configured to display relevant categories based on the category name, priority level, or department. 
  4. Create Subtab: Organize related information by creating a subtab in the related module. For example, if you are creating a custom lookup field in the Tickets module and you select Contacts as the related module, you can create a subtab named Associated Tickets in the Contacts module, which will display all the tickets associated with a particular contact.



  5. Personalize Tooltip: Provide helpful information to users by personalizing the tooltip for the custom lookup field. For instance, in a Customers module, you can create a custom lookup field with a tooltip that provides hints or instructions to users while they're entering a field value.


Perform advanced configurations 

In addition to the basic configurations, you can perform the following advanced configurations:  


  1. Prefill values from a related module: Auto-populate fields in the current layout (where the custom lookup field is added) based on a selected field in the related module. 
    Let's say you are creating a custom lookup field in the Tickets module and choose "Phone Number" as the related module field and "Contact Number" as the current layout field. You can pre-populate the Contact Number field in the Tickets module (current layout field) based on the corresponding data in the Phone Number field of the Accounts module (related module field).



  2. Set filter criteria: Display records separately in the suggestion pop-up based on filter criteria. For example, you can filter records based on a specific account name.



  3. Create a new record in the related module: Add new records directly to the parent layout. For example, in the Tickets module, a custom lookup field named "Referral Contact" can be created with the related module set as Contacts. When a new contact name, such as "John Smith," is entered in the custom lookup field, a corresponding record for John Smith can be created in the Contacts module.



Refer to our help documentation for more information on configuring and working with custom lookups.


If you want to try out the custom lookup feature, please fill out the registration form given-above and let us know. 

 

Share your valuable feedback and suggestions in the comments below.

 

Have a great day! 


Regards,

Varsha P | Zoho Desk


    • Sticky Posts

    • Using Agent Email Address as From Address

      Currently, while replying to a ticket, it is possible for agents to choose their own email addresses as 'from' addresses. Although we built this just for that little extra flexibility, in hindsight, it hasn't figured much in conventional usage.  Almost all businesses prefer that responses to their customers' tickets be sent from the common support/service email address and NOT from those of individual agents. During personal interactions at events, some of you have even made passing mentions about

    • Edit and Delete options in Comments

      A lot of teams have been using ticket comments extensively to collaborate everyday. Notification Center further improved this experience by bringing real-time updates. As we continue to build more improvements to this experience, we've shipped a small-yet-important

    • Webinar 2: Supercharged customer support for growing business

      Join us for this webinar and learn how to step up your support game using a real-time communication platform to generate happier, more successful customers. In this live webinar, we will will discuss the importance of SalesIQ for your support team and how it can help you:  Understand your customers better and their journeys to proactively support and engage them even before they ask for help.  Integrating real time conversations into Zoho Desk’s Support, providing a conversational customer service

    • Customize Colors of your Customer Self Service Portal

      You asked for it. We heard you. We're happy to roll out the most sought after feature request, Customizing the Colors of your Customer Self-service Portal. Now you can set the color of your customer portal to mimic your company's web site, so that your customers visiting the portal will not feel alienated by the default theme.  Go ahead and configure the color of the header, tabs, fonts and background according to your needs. You can either choose between default color themes like Blue, Grey, Green

    • 2024 Email Authentication Standards: Elevating Security with Google and Yahoo

      In contemporary email communication, email authentication plays a pivotal role in mitigating email fraud, spam, and phishing attacks. Brace yourself for a new level of security. Starting February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo will be implementing robust email

      • Recent Topics

      • Revenue Management: #5 Revenue Recognition in SaaS

        If you're building or running a SaaS business, you've probably encountered this. You get paid upfront for a subscription and a one-time onboarding fee, but you end up with confusion about when to consider it revenue. Can I book all of it now? Should I

      • MS Teams for daily call operations

        Hello all, Our most anticipated and crucial update is finally here! Organizations using Microsoft Teams phone system can now integrate it effectively with Zoho CRM for tasks like dialling numbers and logging calls. We are enhancing our MS Teams functionality

      • Zoho Learn Course Access Issue

        One of the learners in a specific course can't see any lessons. They are registered as both a user and learner for this course in Zoo Learn. What could be the reason?

      • ZOHOLICS Japan 2025 開催のお知らせ（再投稿）

        【コミュニティユーザーの皆さまへお知らせ】 Zoho 最大のユーザーイベント「ZOHOLICS Japan 2025」を9月19日（金）に開催します。 AI活用に関する特別講演、ユーザー事例、Zoho 製品の活用例のご紹介など、Zoholicsならではのセッションをご用意しています。 Zoho コミュニティ開催のMeetupとはまた違った雰囲気のイベントです。 ご都合のつく方はお気軽にご参加ください✨ 詳細はこちら https://events.zoho.jp/zoholics2025#/?affl=forumpost2

      • Phone Number format for Bulk Upload via csv for Zoho Sign

        What is the phone number format that we need to use for a bulk recipient upload via csv in zoho sign, should the country code be included for ex if its US should it be +18889007865 ior 18889007865 or without country code 8889007865? the sample csv provided

      • Filter Page Elements By Selectable Date Range

        I have created a basic Page that will serve as a client dashboard with elements that will provide simple counts & sums of data in reports. There are no reports or forms added to the page, just elements. It currently functions as needed, but shows the

      • Can’t Enter my Notebook is Locked

        I’ve been using Notebook for taking notes at my college for a month and I never signed in and I never established a password. Today I tried to enter the app after the update and it asked me for a password. I need to access to my notes urgently and I can’t

      • Send Email Directly to Channel

        Hi, We are coming from Slack. In Slack each channel has a unique Email address that you can send emails too. I currently forward a specific type of email from my Gmail InBox directly do this channel for Verification Codes so my team doesn't have to ask

      • Secure your external sharing process with OTP Authentication

        For any business, it's crucial to share files externally in a way that is both secure and controlled. Let's say you want to share confidential data with your partners and vendors. You must ensure that only your intended recipients can access the shared

      • Items attribute questions

        Many of my items have attributes, such as size and color. How can I add new fields to the "New Items" screen to capture that in my Purchase Orders, Items, and Sales Order pages? I only see these attribute fields when adding an Item Group. Also, on the

      • Is there a way to search mail for items you haven't yet responded to?

        I'm trying to create a search to show emails that haven't been responded to and that have also been assigned a tag or label. Is there a way to search for the inverse of replied?

      • Zobot and Sales IQ

        What will happen to the Zoho Sales IQ being integrated to the website after creating the Zobot on the website too

      • Subtotals per Header

        Hey, we would like to display subtotals per header in our invoices:

      • upgrade storage

        how to upgrade my storage

      • Linking items from books and subscription

        Linking books and subscription It is a pity that it is not possible to associate with a product an article present in ZohoBooks This would make it possible to manage products composed of a nomenclature of articles of books

      • Add the ability to view number of hours planned for a workorder while in the Dispatch Console

        Hi Zoho, When dispatching a work order through the Dispatch Console, there's currently no way to view the number of planned hours for the service tasks associated with that specific work order. Having to click into the details each time to check planned

      • Uploading Files from uploads api

        I tried uploading the image from the API call but its giving me unauthorized error even i have given valid token in header. After uploading i need that id to pass in create ticket api uploads but its not uploading that file. Please help me out in th

      • Categorize Items with Item Headers

        Hello customers, Did you ever want to classify items based on specific categories to help your customers understand your invoice better? With the new Item Header feature, you can easily categorize items in your invoices and estimates and give them a common title.  Item Headers are available in the Invoices, the Recurring Invoices and the Estimates module. It can be carried forward from estimates to invoices at the time of converting the estimates.  To add an item header: Go to the Estimates, Invoices

      • URLs being masked despite disabling tracking

        Hey, We had disabled click tracking from an email update we are sharing with our users. Despite this, the URL the end user is receiving is masked, and looks like "https://qksyl-cmpzourl.maillist-manage.net/click/1d8e72714515cda6/1d8e72714515ca70" instead

      • Change format of quantity format

        Hi,  I would like to change the qunatity format from 1,00 to 1.  Is this possible?   thanks!

      • square up and Zoho books

        Since we set up the app connection between square up and Zoho books we have realised that when the amounts are getting transferred Zoho is adding VAT again making the numbers 20% more than they should be. We have checked our settings and they VAT/ Tax

      • How to provide Access rights to specific Bank accounts

        We have several bank accounts. I want to provide certain members access to only 2-3 accounts. It appears that when I give permissions, they are for ALL bank accounts. How do I do that?

      • Errors Getting a Bank Transaction

        Using Postman(for testing), I am receiving errors when attempting to get a single bank transaction. I am able to receive the list of bank transactions with https://www.zohoapis.com/books/v3/banktransactions/?organization_id={org_id} but when I try to

      • Subscriptions Plans and CRM Products Integration?

        Is there any way to set up plans and pricing in Zoho Subscriptions and have those available as Products in the CRM? We are trying to set up the CRM and the Products seem to be more geared toward selling products that are not subscription based.  So if we sell annual or monthly contracts which are $10/seat/month, I can set this up as a plan in Subscriptions, but how can I set the same thing up in the CRM for the salespeople to sell/quote? What is the best practice for setting up the CRM Products to

      • Mapping Zoho Subscription Plans and Products to CRM and Books

        We have products that are one time products and subscription products.   1) We would like to have the ability to create an opportunity in CRM that includes both one-time charge products and subscription products.  Currently the only way of creating a subscription product is by defining a "Product->Plan" hierarchy in Zoho Subscription.  It appears that the only SYNC between Subscription and CRM is around contacts and the Product->Plan hierarchy doesn't sync to CRM, thus, you would need a duplicate

      • Zoho People Attendance Module - Split Shifts

        Hello, Our business employs a number of college students who often split their workdays between work hours and class schedules, resulting in split shifts. For example: Employee 1 works 9am to 11:30am and then leaves for class, returning to work at 3pm

      • Bulk update fields based on date

        Hi! I need all the quotes with "Quote Stage" set to "Next Year" to update to "Draft" every January 8 (every year). Can you help?

      • Target for a campaign

        Hi, Hope you can help me. I need to create a report (for a marketing campaign) that combines Deals and Contacts to export all the contacts with closed deals. I can easily do that, what I cannot do is to remove from the target the contacts that have more

      • Zoho Desk + Jira integration - Email notifications and comments posted by administrator instead of real user

        Dear All, I set up the integration under my admin account, and now when users leave comments in Jira (to created tickets in Zoho Desk), the email notifications show that the ‘Administrator’ left a comment, not a real user. The same happens in the ticket

      • Celebrating the power of visuals

        On World Photography Day, we would like to highlight the power of visuals in customer service. Visuals promote learning and understanding in less time. A photograph can rekindle a memory, convey more than words, and give a fresh perspective. How does

      • Customer address in Zoho Bookings

        Hello,  Is it possible to add customer address information to the Zoho bookings appointment screen? Or have it pull that information automatically from the CRM? We are wanting to use this as a field management software but it is difficult to pull the address from multiple sources when it would be ideal to have a clickable address on the appointment screen that opens up the user's maps.  It would also be advantageous for the "list view" to show appointment times instead of just duration and booking

      • Blocking / black listing customers

        Hi, We have a situation, we observed that certain customers are blocking multiple appointments with our advsiors but not showing up. Some of these are repeat offenders. This leads to those service hours getting blocked and not available for genuine customers.

      • Option to block bookings from specific email address or ip adresss in zoho booking

        Sometime few of our client keep booking irrelevant booking service just to resolve their queries and they keep booking it again and again whenever they have queries. Currently its disturbing our current communication process and hierarchy which we have

      • Feature Request: Email Templates for notifications accross all services

        Currently in Zoho Bookings, email notifications (such as booking confirmations, reminders, and cancellations) must be customized individually for each service. This becomes time-consuming and error-prone when managing multiple services that require consistent

      • Allow customers to choose meeting venue and meeting duration on booking page

        My business primarily involves one-to-one meetings with my clients. Given the hybrid-work world we now find ourselves in, these meetings can take several forms (which I think of as the meeting "venue"): In-person Zoom Phone call I currently handle these

      • Approval-based booking with Zoho Creator and Zoho Bookings

        Hi community members, We have developed a workaround for approval-based booking using Zoho Creator and Zoho Bookings! This provides a temporary solution as we work on the native feature, and it's useful for anyone needing an approval workflow when confirming

      • Member Accounts in Related List

        Hi Team, Currently, when a parent account is associated with an account in FSM, there is no related list displaying the associated member accounts under the parent account’s related list section. To view member accounts, I have to manually search using

      • how do i remove a specific Zoho Service from my account

        I no longer need Zoho CRM, ZRM Assist nor ZRM BugTracker. How do I remove them from the list of apps for my account?

      • I Want migarte all invoice details to zoho sheets

        I want to migrate all existing invoice details to Zoho Sheet, and automatically update the sheet whenever a new invoice is created.

      • were can i find my invoices i need this for my accountant

        were can i find my invoices i need this for my accountant, how can i get id direct to my email?

      • Next Page