Introducing Connected Records to bring business context to every aspect of your work in Zoho CRM for Everyone

Introducing Connected Records to bring business context to every aspect of your work in Zoho CRM for Everyone

Hello Everyone,

We are excited to unveil phase one of a powerful enhancement to CRM for Everyone - Connected Records, available only in CRM's Nextgen UI.

With CRM for Everyone, businesses can onboard all customer-facing teams onto the CRM platform to provide the best services for their customers. Teams work in their own designated spaces on the platform, and more often than not, business context gets lost as tasks transition from one team to another. To address this challenge, we have introduced Connected Records, a powerful feature that will help multiple teams coordinate seamlessly. Connected records enable teams to focus on their processes while the CRM handles coordination, delivering the right customer context to the right team at the right time.

So what are connected records? 

Connected records help users link records between two modules. This feature helps improve coordination across teams and eliminate the need to rely on email and chat for task coordination. 

Whether it's linking a deal to a product demo request and then linking the same deal to an onboarding request when the deal is closed won or linking a deal directly to a contract request or to a customer advocacy request if the onboarding is successful, this feature ensures all teams have the right context at the right time to execute their work. (See image below)


From the above image, we can understand that the connection for each record will differ depending on the specific task or use case, making it unique to that record.

How can you create connected records?

You can create connected records in two ways :
  • Manual creation : Create connected records manually from within an organization module linking it to a record in the team module or from within a team module linking it to another team module.

    For instance, we can create a product demo record in the pre-sale team module directly from a new deal in the deals module or create a customer advocacy record in the advocacy team modules directly from an onboarding record in the onboarding team module.

  • Auto-connect records using workflows : When you have a clear outline of the various steps in your sales process, you can connect records from one step to another automatically using a workflow rule.

    For instance, we can automatically create an onboarding record in the onboarding team module when the deal stage is marked as closed won or create a win/loss analysis record in the marketing team module when the deal stage is marked as closed lost. This will help maintain continuity between the two steps and also provide the teams working on these records at both steps with clear customer context.      

What else do connected records offer? 

With connected records, requesters can raise requests from any module instead of navigating to the My Requests tab every time.
When records are linked between two modules, users can use public fields to display record details to team members who are not part of the module, so essential information is available for those members to complete their process efficiently. 

Use Case: Managing a Deal in CRM with Connected Records  

A prospect has inquired about a product for their business, leading to the creation of a deal record named Zylker Deal in the CRM system. To ensure the deal progresses smoothly and is closed successfully, multiple teams need to collaborate and access relevant data to execute their processes for this deal. Imagine the number of emails or chat messages required to coordinate this process across teams. This is precisely where connected records come into play.

With connected records, the Zylker deal record can be connected across various modules managed by different teams within the CRM platform, enabling the deal to be closed successfully. This eliminates the need to rely on emails and chats, providing a seamless way to link and share critical information across teams.

Let's see how this can be done:

Step 1 : Linking the Deal to the Case Study Module

The first step involves connecting the Zylker Deal record with the Case Study module managed by the Marketing team. This allows the sales team to access the relevant case study to persuade the prospect and strengthen their decision to purchase the product.

The sales executive can manually create a connected record from the Zylker Deal record of the Deal module directly to the Case Study module. Thereby, requesting the marketing team for a relevant case study and creating a connection from an org module to a team module.


Step 2 : Connecting the deal record to the Demo Module

If the prospect is convinced and is moved to the second step, they will require a demo of the product. So, the deal record can be linked to the Demo module managed by the Pre-sales team.

The sales executive can manually create a connected record from the Zylker  deal record from the Deals Module directly to the Demo module. Thereby raising a request to the Pre-sales team to conduct a demo for the prospect and creating a connection between two team modules.



From Step 1 and Step 2, we understand that each record's connection will be different. They will differ on a record level based on the use case or task at hand. Connected records will achieve connections between org modules and team modules or between two team modules.  

Step 3 : Onboarding After the Deal is Closed (Won)

The prospect likes the demo and decides to purchase the product. Once the Zylker Deal is successfully closed as won, the deal record can be linked to the Onboarding module managed by the onboarding team. This facilitates the transition from sales to onboarding, and most often, manually creating an onboarding request for every record that reaches the Deal won stage can be time-consuming and repetitive for the sales team. So they can simply automate this process.

This can be done by setting up a workflow rule to automatically connect records from one module to another. So the sales executive can set up a workflow rule saying whenever a new record is created with the deal won stage, create a new connected record in the onboarding team module, thus automatically raising a request to assist the customer in setting up their account.


Thus, when you know your sales pipeline, you can create a connected record from within a workflow to link a record from one step to the next.

Step 4 : Linking to the Training Team for Ongoing Assistance

Finally, after the customer completes the onboarding process, they can choose to receive training to use the product efficiently. So the Zylker deal record can be connected to the Training module managed by the Training team.

Here, the sales executive being assigned as the requester for the Training team can raise a request directly from the Zylker Deal record of the Deals module to the Training module instead of navigating to his My Request tab to do so. This step ensures that the customer receives proper guidance in using the product’s features through training sessions, enhancing their overall experience and satisfaction.

Why is connected records more suitable than a lookup relation?

One may argue that linking of modules can be achieved by a lookup relation as well. However, the key difference between a Look-up and Connected Record relationship is flexibility. Connected Records are dynamic and flexible and can link any two modules anytime, whereas Look-up relationships are not dynamic and should be configured by the admin during the CRM configuration.  


We hope this new enhancement brings you as much excitement as it does to us, and that your work is simplified as you navigate through the new version of CRM. Please reach out to us in the comments below if you have questions about this enhancement.


 




        • Recent Topics

        • Form Submission Emails

          Is there a current delay with submission emails being sent? We've had 10-20 forms completed today but only a handful of emails.

        • 【Zoho CRM for Everyone】設定画面のアップデート

          ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの藤澤です。 今回は「Zoho CRM アップデート情報」の中から、Zoho CRM for Everyone の設定画面のアップデート情報をご紹介します。 目次 設定ホーム画面の追加 設定画面での検索結果の表示形式の変更 設定画面でのよく使用する機能の表示 設定メニューの展開/折りたたみ状態の保持 1. 設定ホーム画面の追加 ホーム画面の設定項目は、直感的に分類できるように"カテゴリごと"で分けられています。 このような一元化された表示により、各ツールが1つの画面に集約され、必要な機能をより簡単に見つけられるようになりました。

        • What's New - November 2025 | Zoho Backstage

          A new month, a new set of updates. With a mix of new features and thoughtful improvements, you get smoother workflows and better control across registrations, exhibitors, and communications. Let's take a look at what's new and enhanced in Zoho Backstage

        • Zoho Checkout - Duplicate Customer record created for each payment received

          Hi All. We are using Zoho Checkout to capture online payments for a club membership form (in Zoho Forms). We've noticed that each new payment seems to create a new customer record, regardless of whether the customer already exists in the Zoho Finance

        • Templates for Zoho Desk - Knowledge Base

          We are looking at migrating our Knowledge base into Zoho Desk. Is there a way of creating templates for article in Knowledge base. We want to be able to set templates for certain types of content. Is this possible

        • Import KB template OR Export template for zoho desk?

          Greetings. Can you tell me if there is a way to get an EXPORT of my KB articles? OR is there a template you supply for importing KB articles into my zoho desk? I am looking for a method of understanding what fields can be imported, and what their possible

        • What KPIs Do You Use to Measure Your Support Team’s Performance in Zoho Desk?

          Hi everyone, We hope you’re all doing well. We are trying to improve how we measure the performance and effectiveness of our support department, and we would really appreciate learning from the community. We assume there are several common and widely-used

        • Backorder quantity change

          New Purchase Order × Almost there, but... Quantity of items in this purchase order is greater than the quantity that can be backordered from that sales order. Why can't I change the quantity of a backorder purchase? It looks like a normal order form and I would like to use it as one because I increased the amount and added some items. 

        • How to Associate multiple contacts with deal in Sales Inbox

          Hello, I have many deals that have multiple potential customers associated with a single deal, for example an engineer and a manager. The manager is the Deal's primary contact in CRM and the Engineer is added to the deal in the "Contact Roles" Associated

        • "code": "500","description": "Account not exists", mail api

          I have been through all the steps and have a functioning Oath access_token etc etc... I then GET https://mail.zoho.com/api/organization And get my zoid then GET http://mail.zoho.com/api/organization/<hidden>/accounts and get the account details, which

        • RTL Support for Webforms in Zoho CRM

          Dear Zoho CRM Support Team, We are writing to request an enhancement to the webform builder functionality within Zoho CRM. Currently, to create a webform in a right-to-left (RTL) language, the entire CRM instance must be set to RTL, which can be inconvenient

        • Imported contacts succesful but contacts do not show up in Contacts

          I imported +300 contacts. I can see them in import history. When clicking on a contact in import history I see all the imported contact details for any given contact. So import seems to be successful.   However the imported contacts do not show up in the contacts tab. Not in All contacts, and not in a filtered view where they absolutely should show up. The search function also does not find any imported contact.   Help?

        • Zoho Voice lance BYOC (Bring Your Own Carrier) : intégrez votre opérateur

          Pour accompagner sa croissance, une entreprise a besoin d’une infrastructure téléphonique flexible et évolutive. Les solutions de téléphonie s’adaptent aux exigences du centre de contact, tout en intégrant aisément les opérateurs locaux de votre choix.

        • Digest Novembre - Un résumé de ce qui s'est passé le mois dernier sur Community

          Bonjour chers utilisateurs, Avec l'arrivée du dernier mois de l'année, il est temps de résumer les activités de novembre dans la communauté Zoho France. Ce mois-ci, Zoho Webinar se dote de deux nouvelles intégrations ! La première est avec Zapier : connectez

        • E-Invoicing in Belgium with Zoho Books

          Starting January 1, 2026, Belgium is introducing mandatory electronic invoices (e-invoicing) for all B2B transactions between VAT-registered businesses. This means that invoices and credits notes must be exchanged in a prescribed digital format. How E-Invoicing

        • Announcing new features in Trident for Mac (1.30.0)

          Hello everyone! We’re excited to introduce the latest updates to Trident, bringing you a more seamless, intuitive, and secure communication experience. Let’s take a quick look at what’s new. Work with PST/EML files more efficiently. You can now do more

        • Open Form in Same window as Page from embedded Report

          I have a page that has an embedded report, as shown below. When I click the + sign to add a new record, the form shows up inside the page where the report was embedded. I know that I can add a custom action to the report grid or report detail view and

        • Pricing Strategies: #4 Counting on Discounts

          "Is there any chance I can get a little discount on this month's service?" Maya hears this almost every time at her fitness studio. She offers monthly subscription plans for various services, including yoga, strength training, wellness sessions, and personal

        • Introducing Query Workbench in Zoho CRM

          Hello everyone! We’re excited to announce the Query Workbench, a brand-new interface designed to improve developer experience of building Queries in Zoho CRM faster, simpler, and more intuitive. In the past, constructing queries required navigating across

        • Limitation with Dynamic Email Attachment Capture

          I've discovered a flaw in how Zoho Creator handles email attachments when using the Email-to-Form feature, and I'm hoping the Zoho team can address this in a future update. The Issue According to the official documentation, capturing email attachments

        • Add Customer in Books on Creator Form Submit Params

          Hi guys, Were integrating a creator app with books however what were doing is adding a books customer on submit of creator form.  We have some parameters but some fields aren't coping, All were seeing is the contact name in books,.  Any help of the params for this would be great. below is a sample of the script... response = zoho.books.createRecord("contacts", "XXXXXXXXX", { "contact_name" : input.Name, "address" : input.Email }); 

        • Suggestion : link KB with Accounts

          Hi Zoho teams.  I think it could be good to link KB articles with  : accounts in order to easily  find articles dedicated to some account specificities. I tried to use tags , but tags are free text with not easy way  to retrieve it directly from ticket or list article for one tag. Tickets : It would be a good way to measure usage of KB directly from ticket when we don't need to copy/paste KB in solution. And : Great Tool , keep going ! 

        • Drag and Drop in Creator Application

          Hi, I am in the planning phase of a new application and I would like to use 'Drag and Drop' in the user interface of my new Creator application that I am sketching out, but I don't seem to be able to find any reference that this is available to developers. In my instance I have table of entries and I would like to be able to allow users to move an entry to another table (much like you do in your own interface when creating a Pivot Table report. In addition, I would like the user to be able to re-order

        • Is there any way to integrate Zoho with Zapier?

          Is there any way to integrate Zoho with Zapier? I'd like to use it to create a workflow, sharing posts from our Wordpress website to all our channels.

        • Popular Articles Report

          From data to decisions: A deep dive into ticketing system reports Content management teams can use various metrics to assess the effectiveness of knowledge base articles, improve content quality, and ensure articles are regularly updated. Predefined article

        • Invoice Ref. Field

          Hello Team, Currently, the Invoice Ref. field is set to a Number type with a maximum limit of 9 digits. However, we often receive customer invoices that contain up to 12 digits. In some cases, the invoice reference includes not only numbers but also letters

        • 60 Days Into Zoho - Tiktok Branding Startup -7 Questions?!

          Wsp Everybody I co-own a TikTok Branding / Consulting Startup & have been using Zoho for the past 60 days - Am now looking to make our overall operations & processes more Efficient & Effective! Curious to know how others are using the platform & what's

        • Turning off the new UI

          Tried the new 'enhanced' UI and actively dislike it. Anyone know how to revert back?

        • XML format to import knowledgebase into Zoho Desk

          Hi, We just started to use Zoho Desk and want to import our knowledgebase from our old support system (Freshdesk) to Zoho Desk. Can anyone give us information about the format of xml file to import? There is no explanation on the related page.

        • Pushing Zoho People leave into Microsoft calendar: how to chose how "event" is shown (busy, free etc)

          Hi, how can I select how a "leave" event is pushed into Microsoft calendar? I want for leave "working elsewhere" to show as working elsewhere and NOT as busy.

        • Duplicate Accounts

          Hi There, I am looking for a solution, script, workflow or anything to solve an issue we have - in our customers section we have a rule that doesn't allow duplicates, however Zoho will allow customers with xxxxx and xxxxx PLC or LTD so effectivley we

        • Error with If formula

          I've got this super simple If formula, what is the reason for the error? If ( LEN(${Leads.Trial Slot Option}) == 3,'y','n') Syntax Error. Check the examples for any functions you're using to see if you formatted them correctly. Make sure your fields are

        • Announcing Multi-language Support in Zoho FSM

          Zoho FSM now speaks your language. The much-awaited multi-language support is now available in Zoho FSM. The following languages are supported in Zoho FSM: Dutch (Nederlands) English - United Kingdom English - United States French (français) French -

        • Creating multiple CRM leads from a Zoho Forms subform

          Hi all, We have a heavily used intake form that is used for new leads as a part of our intake. There is a subform that allows the lead to add additional team members, their titles and other basic info. That form submission creates a new Lead and the subform

        • Free webinar! Build smarter apps with Zoho Sign and Zoho Creator

          Hello, Bring the power of digital signatures to the apps you build in Zoho Creator! Connect Zoho Sign as a microservice and enable seamless e-signature workflows in your applications. This integration allows you to automate signing tasks using Deluge.

        • Restrict Addresses in Zoho Forms?

          In the address field, is there a way to restrict the addresses that auto populate (via Zoho Maps or Google Maps) to a specific state (I know it's possible with the country). Additionally, how often does the address in Zoho Maps get updated? Certain addresses

        • Weekly Tips: Secure your attachment downloads with Zoho Mail

          Safety is one of our main concerns, whether it’s about device security or online protection. We use tools like fingerprint scanners, facial recognition, and two-factor authentication to keep our devices and email accounts secure. We use methods like OTP

        • Resume Harvester: New Enhancements for Faster Sourcing

          We’re excited to share a set of enhancements to Resume Harvester that make sourcing faster and more flexible. These updates help you cut down on repetitive steps, manage auto searches more efficiently, and review candidate profiles with ease. Why we built

        • Looking for best practices to import data from SAP Business One (on-prem) into Zoho Analytics via Zoho DataPrep / Databridge — daily automated schedule

          Hi all, I’m using SAP Business One on-prem (SQL Server / or HANA — depending on DB backend) as our ERP. I want to build a pipeline that, every morning at 9:00 AM IST: pulls transactional data (invoices, customers, products, stock, etc.) from SAP B1, loads

        • Zoho One Unified Portal - Applications

          Hello, It is great to see the work on the New Unified Customer Portal. Thanks for that. The number of applications is limited though. It is now only around the Zoho Books ecosystem (Books, Expense...) and Zoho Social. = Are other applications planned

        • Next Page