Scenario

1. CRM and Zoho Books Integration

• View POs, invoices, and payments for deals directly in CRM
  
• Synchronize financial data between CRM deals and Books POs
  
• Automate the mapping of deals to POs via custom fields
  

1. Go to Setup > Developer Hub > Connections
   
2. Create a connection to Books(OAuth) with the scopes ZohoBooks.contacts.All and ZohoBooks.purchaseorders.All.
   
   

2. Prerequisites

1. Zoho Books organization ID – needed for REST API calls.
   
2. Custom field in Books PO module:
   Field Name: CRM Deal ID
   Type: Single-line
   Purpose: Store the CRM deal ID that each PO relates to.
   Why do we need this custom field?
   By default, Books POs are not directly linked to CRM Deals. To bridge this gap, we create a custom single-line field(CRM Deal ID) in Books POs to store the CRM Deal’s record ID. This makes it possible to filter POs in queries(cf_crm_deal_id == {{deal_ID}}) and reliably display only the related POs in CRM.
   
   You can store the record ID of the deal in CRM in this field either manually or via a custom function. When you use a custom function, use the Update a Purchase Order API to update the CRM Deal ID field in Books with the record ID of the deal in CRM. You can then associate this function to a button or automation to constantly update the PO in Books every time a deal in CRM is created or updated in CRM. You can also use Zoho Flow to achieve this instead of a function.
3. Trusted domain and source:
   
1. Ensure you have added Books API domain to trusted domain for API calls.
   
   
2. Add Zoho Books as the source of the query to get the PO details from Books. You can add the Books' organization ID as a parameter either here or while creating the query.
   
   

3. Single Deal, Multiple POs

Scenario

• A CRM deal requires multiple POs from different vendors.
  
• Each PO in Books stores the same Deal ID in the CRM Deal ID field.
  
• This allows a related list in CRM to show all POs associated with the deal.
  

Why a Single-line Field Works?

• Each PO references one deal.
  
• Queries in CRM can filter using cf_crm_deal_id == {{deal_ID}}. cf_crm_deal_id is the API name of the custom field in PO of Books. You can find it under Setup > Purchases > Purchase Orders > {the custom field} > Edit.
  
• Works reliably for related list display.
  

4. Creating a REST API Query in CRM

Since we will use Books API to get the list of POs, we will create a REST API type query.

1. Go to Setup > Developer Hub > Queries > Create Query.
   
2. Enter the details as shown in the following image:
   
   
3. Choose the Books source that you added recently.
   
4. Give a name for the query.
   
5. The API name will be auto-populated, and the URL will be populated from the source.
   
6. Enter the endpoint to access the resource from Books. In our case, purchaseorders.
   
7. To filter based on the value in the CRM Deal ID field in Books, enter the parameter as cf_crm_deal_id and its value as a variable. This variable takes the Deal's record ID as the value during run time. This ensures that the query takes the deal residing in the CRM Deal ID(which is also the record ID of the deal in CRM) field in Books and filters only those POs related to this Deal.
   
8. If you have not given org_id as a parameter while creating the source, include it here.
   
9. Click Next. You will get a pop-up asking for the value to the variable cf_crm_deal_id. Give a value to see the query in action.
   
10. The query returns the list of POs from Books that are related to this particular deal in CRM.
    
11. Save the query.
    

5. Serializing(to return a table for the related list)

Click Save and configure the Schema.

6. Adding the Query to a Related List

1. Navigate to the Deals module in CRM.
   
2. Click the three-dot icon on the right corner of the record, and click Add Related List. Alternatively, you can also click the Add Related List option on the left in the Related List pane.
   
   
3. From the pop-up, select Queries.
   
   
4. From the list of available queries, select the Get Purchase Orders query you created and click Associate.
   
   
5. Give a name for the related list.
   
6. Under Variable Mapping, type #(to view merge fields) to get the list of modules available. Choose Deals and the Deal Id field. This means that the record ID of the deal will be passed as the value of the cf_crm_deal_id variable at runtime. The query will then fetch the list of POs for this Deal ID from Books, and display it in this related list.
   
   
7. Click Save and you will see the related list under the Related Lists section of the record.
   
   
8. Reload the page to see the query in action.
   
   

Automation Options

1. Using Function

• Function triggers on deal creation or a button click in CRM.
  
• Fetches the PO in Books and updates the CRM Deal ID field using the Books connection.
  

2. Using Zoho Flow

• Event: Deal created or updated in CRM.
  
• Action: Update the corresponding PO(s) in Books.
  
• Works without writing Deluge code.
  

Summary/Best Practices

• Single Deal, Multiple POs: Use single-line CRM Deal ID field in Books.
  
• Queries and serializer: Filter POs based on cf_crm_deal_id == {{deal_ID}}.
  
• Automation: Use functions or Zoho Flow for real-time updates.
  
• Multi-Deal, Single PO: Not supported for related lists; use custom reporting instead.
  

See Also

• Queries in Zoho CRM
  
• Previous Kaizen - 205 - Managing Picklists and Enabling History Tracking via Zoho CRM APIs
  
• Kaizen Directory