Kaizen 224 - Quote-driven Deal Reconciliation Using Zoho CRM Functions and Automation

Kaizen 224 - Quote-driven Deal Reconciliation Using Zoho CRM Functions and Automation


Hello everyone!
Welcome back to another instalment in the Kaizen series.

This post covers quote-driven deal reconciliation, emphasizing Functions and Automation to address practical sales challenges.

Business Challenge

Sales organizations often mark deals as Closed Won before commercial transactions fully conclude. Quotes generate promptly upon closure, yet businesses typically provide a brief window such as one week for renegotiation or payment. During this period, currency fluctuations, payment delays, and risk thresholds can significantly alter the final deal value.

This Kaizen demonstrates how Zoho CRM Functions and Automation work together to reconcile deal financials with quote activity over time. Sales, finance, and operations teams can thus access accurate, policy-compliant values.
Here is a typical sequence:
  1. Deal closes with Closed Won status
  2. Quote generates immediately
  3. Customer receives grace period (e.g., one week) for payment or adjustments
Key factors during this window:
  1. Exchange rates fluctuate
  2. Payments may succeed or fail
  3. Business absorbs limited losses(up to 10%, for example)
  4. Major variances trigger renegotiation
CRM must reflect actual outcomes rather than initial closure assumptions. Quotes serve as the authoritative commercial record, with final deal values depending on execution timing. This approach captures intermediate and final financial states to enable automated decisions and audits.

Key business scenarios covered

Scenario 1: Payment is made during the grace period

  1. Quote is generated on day 0
  2. Customer completes payment on day 7
  3. Exchange rate has changed since quote generation

Business Requirement

The business wants to calculate the actual payable amount using the exchange rate on the payment day and store it explicitly in CRM.

Outcome

The realized value is captured and stored, ensuring that reports and downstream systems reflect the true commercial result.

Scenario 2: Acceptable loss threshold (10%)

  1. Exchange rate movement results in a loss
  2. The business is willing to absorb losses up to 10%
  3. Loss exceeds the acceptable threshold

Business requirement

If the loss exceeds the defined tolerance, the quote should move to renegotiation instead of being accepted automatically.

Outcome

CRM enforces pricing policy consistently, without manual intervention or subjective judgment.

Scenario 3: Significant currency fluctuations

  1. Exchange rate volatility is unusually high
  2. Even if loss is within limits, risk exposure is significant

Business requirement

Large fluctuations should trigger renegotiation, regardless of absolute loss percentage.

Outcome

Financial risk is handled proactively based on measurable criteria.

Scenario 4: No payment after the grace period

  1. Customer does not pay within the allowed window
  2. Updated exchange rate is favorable to the business

Business Requirement

If the updated rate is profitable, the quote can be revised and reissued with the new amount.

Outcome

CRM reflects market-aligned pricing while maintaining transparency around why the amount changed.

Why Zoho CRM Functions is the best fit?

This reconciliation pattern requires the following capabilities beyond static configuration.
  1. Reading and reconciling data across Deals and Quotes
  2. Applying time-based and threshold-based business rules
  3. Writing calculated values into dedicated fields
  4. Supporting multiple decision paths(accept, renegotiate, revise)
  5. Running logic at specific business moments
Zoho CRM Functions provide the flexibility and control required to implement this logic cleanly, while automation ensures it runs consistently and reliably.

Custom fields used in this post

Deals

  1. Final Accepted Amount - Currency - Amount finally agreed and accepted
  2. FX Impact Percentage - Percent - Gain or loss due to exchange movement
  3. Reconciliation Status - Picklist - Accepted or Renegotiate
  4. Reconciled On - DateTime- Timestamp of final reconciliation

Quotes

  1. Quote Reference Amount - Currency - Amount at quote generation
  2. Quote Exchange Rate - Decimal - Exchange rate used in quote
  3. Payment Due Date - Date - End of grace period
  4. Potential Payable Amount - Currency - Recalculated amount at evaluation time
  5. FX Variance Percentage - Decimal - Difference vs quoted amount
  6. FX Evaluation Status - Picklist - Pending or Evaluated
  7. Recalculate FX - Checkbox - Explicit recalculation trigger
These fields capture commercial intent and outcome, not just static numbers.

High level automation flow

  1. Deal is marked Closed Won
    1. Workflow triggers a function to generate a Quote
  2. Business updates evaluation inputs when needed
  3. User explicitly triggers FX recalculation
  4. Function
    1. Calculates financial impact
    2. Updates quote and deal
    3. Applies business decisions
  5. CRM reflects finalized commercial reality

Function 1: Generate a Quote from the Deal

This function creates a Quote automatically when a Deal is closed, ensuring downstream processes start immediately and consistently.
void automation.generateQuoteFromDeal(int dealId)
{
deal = zoho.crm.getRecordById("Deals", dealId);
if(deal == null) return;

amount = deal.get("Amount");
exchangeRate = deal.get("Exchange_Rate");
account = deal.get("Account_Name");

productItem = Map();
productItem.put("product", {"id":"<PRODUCT_ID>"});
productItem.put("quantity", 1);
productItem.put("list_price", amount);

productList = List();
productList.add(productItem);

quoteMap = Map();
quoteMap.put("Subject", "Quote for Deal");
quoteMap.put("Deal_Name", dealId);
quoteMap.put("Account_Name", account.get("id"));
quoteMap.put("Product_Details", productList);
quoteMap.put("Quote_Stage", "Draft");
quoteMap.put("Valid_Till", zoho.currentdate.addDay(7));
quoteMap.put("Quote_Reference_Amount", amount);
quoteMap.put("Quote_Exchange_Rate", exchangeRate);

zoho.crm.createRecord("Quotes", quoteMap);
}

Function 2: Reconcile Deal from Quote

This function calculates payable values, evaluates financial impact, and updates the Deal with finalized financial information.
void automation.reconcileDealFromQuote(Int quoteId)
{
info "Starting FX reconciliation for Quote ID: " + quoteId;

// -------------------------------------------------
// Fetch Quote
// -------------------------------------------------
quote = zoho.crm.getRecordById("Quotes", quoteId);
if(quote == null)
{
info "Quote not found";
return;
}

dealInfo = quote.get("Deal_Name");
if(dealInfo == null)
{
info "Quote not linked to Deal";
return;
}

dealId = dealInfo.get("id");

deal = zoho.crm.getRecordById("Deals", dealId);
if(deal == null)
{
info "Deal not found";
return;
}

// -------------------------------------------------
// Mark FX Evaluation as PENDING
// -------------------------------------------------
zoho.crm.updateRecord(
"Quotes",
quoteId,
{"FX_Evaluation_Status" : "Pending"}
);

// -------------------------------------------------
// Read required FX inputs
// -------------------------------------------------
quotedAmount = quote.get("Quote_Reference_Amount");
quoteRate = quote.get("Quote_Exchange_Rate");
evaluationRate = quote.get("Evaluation_Exchange_Rate");

info "Quoted Amount: " + quotedAmount;
info "Quote Rate: " + quoteRate;
info "Evaluation Rate: " + evaluationRate;

if(quotedAmount == null || quoteRate == null || evaluationRate == null)
{
info "Missing required FX inputs";
return;
}

// -------------------------------------------------
// FX Calculations(rounded)
// -------------------------------------------------
payableAmount = (quotedAmount * evaluationRate / quoteRate).round(2);
fxVariance = (((payableAmount - quotedAmount) / quotedAmount) * 100).round(2);

info "Payable Amount: " + payableAmount;
info "FX Variance %: " + fxVariance;

// -------------------------------------------------
// Decide Quote Stage(Business decision here)
// -------------------------------------------------
quoteStage = "";
reconciliationStatus = "";

if(fxVariance <= 10)
{
quoteStage = "Acceptable FX Impact";
reconciliationStatus = "Accepted";
}
else
{
quoteStage = "FX Impact Exceeds Threshold";
reconciliationStatus = "Renegotiate";
}

// -------------------------------------------------
// Update Quote(Final state)
// -------------------------------------------------
quoteUpdate = Map();
quoteUpdate.put("Potential_Payable_Amount", payableAmount);
quoteUpdate.put("FX_Variance_Percentage", fxVariance);
quoteUpdate.put("FX_Evaluation_Status", "Evaluated");
quoteUpdate.put("Quote_Stage", quoteStage);
quoteUpdate.put("Recalculate_FX", false);

quoteResp = zoho.crm.updateRecord("Quotes", quoteId, quoteUpdate);
info "Quote update response:";
info quoteResp;

// -------------------------------------------------
// Update Deal
// -------------------------------------------------
dealUpdate = Map();
dealUpdate.put("Final_Accepted_Amount", payableAmount);
dealUpdate.put("FX_Impact_Percentage", fxVariance);
dealUpdate.put("Reconciliation_Status", reconciliationStatus);
dealUpdate.put(
"Reconciled_On",
zoho.currenttime.toString("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssXXX")
);

dealResp = zoho.crm.updateRecord("Deals", dealId, dealUpdate);
info "Deal update response:";
info dealResp;

info "FX reconciliation completed successfully";
}

Workflow


Module: Quotes
Trigger: On create or edit
Condition: Recalculate FX = true
Action: Execute reconcileDealFromQuote
Argument: quoteId -> ${Quotes.id}

All decision logic lives inside the function.

Business Outcome

After implementing this pattern,
  1. Deals and quotes stay aligned with real-world behavior
  2. FX risk is measurable and auditable
  3. Renegotiation is policy-driven
  4. Reports reflect finalized values, not assumptions
  5. Sales and finance operate on the same truth.

Summary

Zoho CRM extends beyond static closures by reconciling deals against quote behavior. Functions plus Automation enforce pricing, limit exposure, and capture true outcomes reliably at scale.
The true value of this implementation is not the calculation itself, but the fact that it produces stable, auditable financial states that can be reused across reporting, approvals, integrations, and policy enforcement.

Further extensions

Executive reporting and dashboards

You can build Dashboards that answer questions like
  1. Total revenue before vs after FX reconciliation
  2. Total FX gain or loss by
    1. Region
    2. Currency
    3. Quarter
  3. Sales owner
  4. Percentage of deals renegotiated due to FX risk
Without the function,
  1. FX impact is implicit
  2. Numbers keep changing
  3. Finance does not trust reports
With the function,
  1. Final Accepted Amount is stable
  2. FX Impact % is explicit
  3. Reconciled On gives a time anchor

Policy enforcement and compliance

Examples
  1. Automatically flag deals where FX loss > 10% but status = Accepted
  2. Audit trail for
    1. Who recalculated FX
    2. When renegotiation was triggered
  3. SLA checks when Deals are not reconciled within 'X' days of quote creation
For many companies, FX policy violations are discovered at a later point in time, but you now enforce them at the moment of decision.

Sales coaching and deal hygiene

Unlock insights such as
  1. Which sales reps close deals with high FX volatility or frequently trigger renegotiation?
  2. Which regions or currencies produce unstable deals?
  3. Which deals are consistently over-optimistic at closure?

Other scenarios

  1. Approval and exception workflows
  2. Integration with ERP or accounting systems
  3. Predictive insights to forecast FX risk
  4. Historical snapshots for audit and analytics

We hope you found this post useful. Let us know your feedback in the comments or write to us at support@zohocrm.com.

Thanks!



=============================================================================





      • Sticky Posts

      • Kaizen #198: Using Client Script for Custom Validation in Blueprint

        Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – 1 More to the Big Two-Oh-Oh! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.

      • Kaizen #226: Using ZRC in Client Script

        Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. In today's post, lets see what is ZRC (Zoho Request Client) and how we can use ZRC methods in Client Script to get inputs from a Salesperson and update the Lead status with a single button click. In this

      • Kaizen #222 - Client Script Support for Notes Related List

        Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. The final Kaizen post of the year 2025 is here! With the new Client Script support for the Notes Related List, you can validate, enrich, and manage notes across modules. In this post, we’ll explore how

      • Kaizen #217 - Actions APIs : Tasks

        Welcome to another week of Kaizen! In last week's post we discussed Email Notifications APIs which act as the link between your Workflow automations and you. We have discussed how Zylker Cloud Services uses Email Notifications API in their custom dashboard.

      • Kaizen #216 - Actions APIs : Email Notifications

        Welcome to another week of Kaizen! For the last three weeks, we have been discussing Zylker's workflows. We successfully updated a dormant workflow, built a new one from the ground up and more. But our work is not finished—these automated processes are

        • Recent Topics

        • Capture Stripe’s Customer ID

          Does anyone know of a way to capture Stripe’s customer ID that is created when the form/payment is processed? I would like to have the customer ID stored in our CRM so we could utilize in some custom functions down the road.

        • Custom Modules - Where are Comments??

          In the standard ticket module and in the tasks module, we have an interactive comment box that we can post important details/notes and can tag others if needed. Where is this functionality for Custom Modules? Ideally, custom modules would have very similar,

        • Zoho Mail will not set up in Thunderbird

          I am using Thunderbird 13.0.1 in Linux Mint 13 64-bit.  I cannot set up my Zoho IMAP email in this client.  This is evidently a common problem as evidenced by these postings in the Thunderbird forum: thunderbird can't seem to "find the settings" I cannot configure it for my zoho.com email account I can not get ZOHO to configure. Any suggestions? The best T-bird seems to be able to do is to refer these users to the Zoho forum. I believe the instructions in the Zoho help wiki are correct, although

        • Zoho ShowTime: Certificates of Completion - Award your learners with a sense of achievement

          In our increasingly competitive market, professional trainers need to differentiate themselves if they are to survive. One way to do this is to focus on innovation and deliver an ideal learning experience. By developing a renowned certificate program that provides learners with a specialized skill set for a particular industry, both trainees and future prospects will recognize the trainer's leadership in that field. This can help with long-term growth, revenue generation, and even marketing and branding.

        • IMAP Migration from Gmail

          I have been trying to import my email from a Gmail server and keep receiving the following error. I have reduced the security, activated imap and no improvement. The link to the Google support item has not helped. Unable to connect to your account. Please

        • Your Incoming has been blocked and the emails will not be fetched in your Zoho account and POP Accounts Click here to get unblocked.

          When entering my account, this error is thrown at me, and I deleted a good part of my deleted messages, but I still can not unblock it, I would appreciate your help. reservas@lineasperutravel.com

        • Request for Creating Multiple Email Accounts on One Mobile Number

          Dear Zoho Team, I am planning to shift all my work-related communication to Zoho Mail because of its reliability and features. For my work, I need to create 3–4 separate email accounts for different purposes. Could you please confirm if it is possible

        • Signature issue

          Problem: The signature does not appear when replying or forwarding an email. solve issue: settintgs/Signature Check option place a signature above the content with quotation marks

        • mail admin not loading

          i am trying to login to mailadmin ... gears keeps rotating forever... its not a password issue whats so ever ... not cookies issues whatsoever from android app i can login but there so few things to do from there .. i changed ip address the same... i

        • Unify All Zoho Video Meeting Experiences into One Standardized Platform

          Hi Zoho Team, We would like to share an important user experience concern regarding the current state of video meeting functionality across the Zoho ecosystem. The Problem Within Zoho, there are multiple ways to initiate or schedule a video meeting: Zoho

        • Changing Account in Quote form does not update address information.

          I am trying to update the address information in a quote I've created. I corrected the address in the "Account" but that did not change in the quote. If I re-enter the Account Name in the Quote form, nothing updates. How do I fix this?

        • Zoho One Backup of entire account

          Hello, When using Zoho one is there a way to backup your entire account of all apps that you are using \ activively using in a single step or do you have to backup each applications data individually? Thanks,

        • Issue with “CC” and “Subject Details” of the initial mail when reply / replied all / forward using Zoho Mail Client (Desktop / Web Mail / Mobile App)

          It is observed that when I reply / reply all / forward a mail using Zoho Mail Client (Desktop / Web Mail / Mobile App), the “CC” and “Subject Details” are omitted from the mail which was replied/forwarded. However this is not the case with outlook mail

        • Unable to send Emails - 452 4.3.1 Temporary System Error

          Whene ever i request smtp server to send the email (without attachment). i recieve error "452 4.3.1 Temporary System Error"

        • I can't receive email

          I cannot receive any email sent to my Zoho email after the free upgrade plan trial is finished.

        • Help for the alisa adding

          Sorry, I would like to add a paypal alias on my domain email address. However, the system blocked it. How can I do it?

        • Lite plan attachment said 250mb but actually 25mb ?

          Lite plan attachment said 250mb but actually 25mb ? I can't attach over 25mb files, and can't receive mails has attached files over 25mb too

        • Old vs New Value for Deleted Lookup Values

          Suppose the following scenario, where a value in a lookup is deleted: 1. User has countries form 2. Form A has a lookup to countries form 3. User selects Italy in Form A and saves it with the Italy ID 4. Form A report shows Italy 5. Italy is inadvertently

        • Zoho email using a python or html template

          # main.py import smtplib import csv from email.mime.text import MIMEText from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart from config import SENDER_EMAIL, APP_PASSWORD, SMTP_SERVER, SMTP_PORT # email Subject email_subject = "🎉 Python + Zoho Mail HTML Email

        • customize payment page

          Is there a way to customize, other than the theme colour, the payment page that customers are taken to from invoices? I can't seem to find a way. I just don't like the formatting of the current page and would like to make it look better. I've looked at

        • Solution: How to send email using a python follow up this

          # Step One Setup Your App Password For this url {https://accounts.zoho.in/home#security/app_password} #How to genarate App password {https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/bigin/channels/email/articles/generate-an-app-specific-password#To_generate_app_specific_password_for_Zoho_Mail}

        • Are Environments Worth It?

          In concept, Environments in ZC is a great idea. I think the flow is pretty smart when you compare it to GitHub, especially for a low code audience. However, in practice, I've found it to be unpredictable, and I've only used it a few times. Aside from

        • Enhanced duplicate check for Leads in CRM

          Hello Everyone, We are excited to announce that you can now check for duplicate entries in leads by comparing them with similar records in the Contacts Module. Previously, when you added a lead, only the converted leads were checked for duplicates. This

        • Pause(1);

          I'm using scheduler to invoke an interaction via http post with an external service. The schedule code uses a for-each loop that runs so fast my external application's log files get messed-up (they are named by date-time stamp). What I'm suggesting is

        • Integration Request: Elementor

          Integrating Zoho CRM forms with Elementor, the most popular page builder on Wordpress, would be great. I use it for our site, goenergylink.com, and I have had to use Zapier webhooks to be able to connect it with Elementor. The one issue I have run into

        • Ability to Change Visibility of Published YouTube Videos

          Hi Zoho Social Team, How are you? We would like to request an enhancement in Zoho Social regarding the management of already published youtube videos. Currently, after publishing a youtube video through Zoho Social, there is no option to change its visibility

        • Adding anchor links in Zoho CRM email templates

          I know you can add anchor link in Campaigns, but I dont see the option to that in the CRM email template. Am I missing something?

        • openUrl in blueprints

          My customer wants to open a URL at the end of a blueprint transition. Seems this isn't possible right now but it would be very useful. In this thread, https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/openurl-not-working the Zoho agent said that it's logically

        • Ability to Add YouTube Video to Playlist During Publishing

          Hi Zoho Social Team, How are you? While publishing YouTube videos through Zoho Social, we noticed that the platform currently does not allow selecting a playlist at the time of publishing. Instead, we can only add the video to a playlist after it has

        • Introducing Zoho Creator's 2025 Release Projection 2

          Hello Creators! I'm Prakash, from the Creator product management team, and today I'm delighted to unveil our next set of features as part of Release Projection 2 for 2025. With thoughtful analysis and planning, we've curated powerful new capabilities

        • Sharing Form Ownership Among Multiple Users

          I would really like the ability to share form ownership among multiple users. It's frustrating to me that if a co-worker wants to make an edit to a form, I have to transfer ownership to them. It would be great if forms could act like google forms, where multiple people can edit a form and view responses. 

        • Marketer’s Space - Ace Your Spooky-Season Marketing with Pre-designed Templates in Zoho Campaigns

          Hello marketers, Welcome back to another post in Marketer’s Space! We’re in Q4, which means that you have endless opportunities to connect with your audience, starting with Halloween campaigns! In this post, we’ll show you how to design the perfect Halloween

        • Zia expands to China with native features and DeepSeek-powered generative AI features

          Hello everyone, We are glad to support Zia native features and Zia generative AI features for our customers in China. From hereon, all AI-features in Desk will be accessible in China data center with the integration of DeepSeek generative AI model. DeepSeek

        • Email in each module

          We have a contact ,module which then has a link to customer assets which in turn the asset has a multiple link to service visits. When we link assets to customers we choose by name and it brings over the associate email via the lookup. Great feature.

        • Introducing Skill-Based Ticket Assignment

          The goal of every support team is to provide great support, and to do so as fast as they can. To make this possible, it is important that agents spend their time judiciously, especially when they're dealing with a large number of tickets of varying urgency

        • Kaizen #213 - Workflow APIs - Part 1

          Welcome to another week of Kaizen! If you have ever managed complex business processes, you know that Workflows are the quiet backbone of any well-run business process. They keep things moving; assigning owners, sending alerts, keeping deals on track,

        • Browser and address bar hide

          Hi, How i can do hide the address bar with browser headline when i am working on the sheet, because i am using (freeze panes) which i want visible for full work. For your reference here i am attached the screen shot and marked yellow lines which really

        • Cells Border

          Hi I am using Zoho Sheet on S Tab , is there any option to make all border of any cell at once. I think this is very basic which we are missing. This is available in mobile but not in tab or suggest if i am missing this function. And for Tab can you give

        • 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

        • Help Center and SEO: Any Benefit to My Domain-Mapped Website Ranking?

          First of, I love the Help Center which I've just decided to integrate into my website to replace its old-fashioned FAQs. So much more to achieve there now! Lots of new benefits to the site visitors and to me in terms of organizing and delivering all the

        • Next Page