Leverage layout rules to customize workflow

Leverage layout rules to customize workflow

Layout rules in Zoho Sprints primarily aim to customize the field layout of your creation forms to meet complex requirements. But it doesn't stop there. Its customization can push the boundaries of how your fields behave, how data is gathered, how processes are branched out, and how workflow is channeled.

Based on conditions, you can tailor field behavior, direct the life cycle of an item, mandate specific actions, restrict the field options, or auto-assign users. The possibilities are aplenty.

We've tried to provide a few sample scenarios that help you automate your data collection and progress tracking flow. If you have any specific requirements, please state them in the comments, and we'll find out if layout rules can help you.

Use case 1: Restricting item statuses based on work item types

With layout rules, each item type can have its own workflow. This means it can have its own unique set of statuses that align with its specific lifecycle.

Let's assume you have three item types: Bug, Story, and Task.
Each type follows its own lifecycle, represented by the following statuses.
  • Bug goes through the To Do, In Progress, Bug Fixing, Bug Testing, and Done statuses.
  • Story has To Do, Ideation, In Progress, Development, Review, and Done.
  • And Task moves through a simple To Do, In Progress, and Done.
To align with these flows, certain statuses should not be available to specific item types. For instance, a story or a task should not be moved to the Bug Fixing status. Similarly, a bug or a task should not be moved to the Development status.

To enforce this, we can create layout rules that control which statuses are available based on the item type.

So, we'll create three conditions with each item type as the primary field.
  • If the item type is Bug, specify the condition with the trigger action to restrict the status pick list to To Do, In Progress, Bug Fixing, Bug Testing, and Done.
  • If the item type is Story, specify the condition with the trigger action to restrict the status pick list to To Do, Ideation, In Progress, Development, Review, and Done.
  • If the item type is Task, specify the condition with the trigger action to restrict the status pick list to To Do, In Progress, and Done.
Together, these conditions control the status progression for each item type. So, when you create a bug, it will only progress into the statuses that belong to the Bug lifecycle.


Use Case 2: Restricting future statuses based on the item's current status

When your team requires a pre-defined strict workflow where an item can be moved from a specific status to only a few statuses, layout rules can help implement this. For example, an item in the Bug Fixing status should only move to Bug Testing, and no other status. This way, each status controls the next status in the workflow.

To ensure this, create layout rules specifying conditions for each of the item status:
  • If the status is To do, specify the condition with the trigger action to restrict the status pick list to In progress and Rejected.
  • If the status is In progress, specify the condition with the trigger action to restrict the status pick list to In progress and Development.
  • If the status is Development, specify the condition with the trigger action to restrict the status pick list to Review Level 1.
  • If the status is Review Level 1, specify the condition with the trigger action to restrict the status pick list to Reopen and Review Level 2.
  • If the status is Reopen, specify the condition with the trigger action to restrict the status pick list to In progress.

Use case 3: Making a field mandatory based on item status or item type

Let's assume you want a field to be made mandatory only when the item is moved to one particular status. Which implies the field will remain non-mandatory during other statuses and will be mandatory only at that particular status. So, the progress to that status must be allowed only when the mandatory field is updated.

For instance, when an item is moved to the Done status, the Approver field must become mandatory to record completion approval. To ensure that this process is executed, you can create a layout rule where the primary field is the Status Name. If the status field is updated to Done, specify the condition with the trigger action to set the Approver field as mandatory.
​
​

Use case 4: Showing or hiding a section or field based on item types

Layout rules enable you to show or hide fields or sections based on item type conditions.

Let's say a section with fields related to a new feature should only be visible when the item type is New Feature.

Similarly, when the item type is Security Issue, the section with fields related to Security issue must be visible.

To achieve this, create a layout rule with Item Type as the primary field.
  • Create a condition for the New Feature item type with a trigger action to show the New Feature Details section.
  • Create a condition for the Security Issue item type with a trigger action to show the Security Issue Details section.

Use case 5: Selecting specific assignees for item types and priorities

Layout rules can help you assign users based on the item type and priority. Let's say your team has a group of developers with varied levels of experience and expertise. You want to assign the high priority items to a more experienced member like John, while assigning low priority items to a novice like Peter.

If the item type is Bug and the priority level is Critical, you can assign the bug to John. If the priority level is High, it goes to Peter.

To meet this requirement, you can create a layout rule with Item Type as the primary field.
  • Create a condition for the item type Bug with a subcondition where the priority level is Critical and the trigger action has the Set Field Value Assignee as John.
  • For the same condition, add a subcondition where the priority level is High and the trigger action has the Set Field Value Assignee as Peter.
Similarly, say you want the Task item type with a medium priority level to go to Helen, and a low priority level should go to James.
  • Create a condition for the item type Task with a subcondition where the priority level is Medium and the trigger action has the Set Field Value Assignee as Helen.
  • For the same condition, add a subcondition where the priority level is Low and the trigger action has the Set Field Value Assignee as James.


These are just a few examples of how layout rules can streamline your project management. Do you have any particular scenario that needs resolution? Please share it with us.

Thanks,
Zoho Sprints Team


      • Sticky Posts

      • Tip #28 - Plan less and deliver more using WIP limit in Zoho Sprints

        Hello, It's been a while since we met with a quick, interesting tip. As the saying goes, "Too much of anything is good for nothing", today the focus is on delivering your outcomes with the right amount of planning. Your plan should be practical, calculative, and achievable for driving a qualitative success.    Laura's plan   Laura has a habit of planning her project deliverables before assigning work to her team-mates. Once the plan is finalized, she schedules a general meeting with her team and

      • Tip # 3- Working on the Scrum board

        Continuing from our Tip #2 on leading to a sprint, let's see how to manage the work items on the Scrum board.  Once you start the sprint your work items are automatically displayed on the Scrum board where you will actually manage the work items. It is a snapshot of the backlog items identified for the current sprint.    The layout of the Scrum board Simply put, the scrum board is just like a physical board with sticky notes on which the work items of the active sprint are displayed.  The scrum board

      • Tip#2- Leading you to a Sprint

        Product Backlog After the user stories are written and finalized, they are sorted to create the Product Backlog for the project during the Backlog Grooming meeting. This is a master list of all the work items that have been identified for the project and sorted by priority. Requirements are not constant during this period.The Product Backlog is dynamic and is an ongoing process. Every user story in the Product Backlog is customer centric. The Product Backlog includes: User centric stories based on

      • Tip #1- Why swimlanes?

        Lanes define a clear path to reach your destination. In Agile, swimlane is one such concept that sets a simple and clear process of the work that you do.   The concept of swimlane can be related to the pool, where the swimmers gather in their respective lanes to start off. Similar to the pool, work items are grouped in different categories. Each category is referred as a lane and is displayed in horizontal format. Swimlanes are effective in categorizing the work items with respective to specific

        • Recent Topics

        • Introducing Version-3 APIs - Explore New APIs & Enhancements

          New Update - The end of life timeline for V2 APIs has now been extended to 30th June, 2026 Happy to announce the release of Version 3 (V3) APIs with an easy to use interface, new APIs, and more examples to help you understand and access the APIs better.

        • Correlated subqueries not supported in Zoho Analytics. This creates huge limitations

          Running into a major limitation in Zoho Analytics: correlated subqueries simply don’t work, even in completely standard SQL patterns inside a JOIN. Example: LEFT JOIN "Bills" b ON d."Id" = b."Deal ID" AND EXISTS ( SELECT 1 FROM "Bill

        • Unknown table or alias 'A1'

          I would like to create a subquery but i am getting the following error: Unknown table or alias 'A1' used in select query. This is the sql statement:  SELECT A1.active_paying_customers, A1.active_trial_customers, A1.new_paying_signup, date(A1.date_active_customers), 

        • Feature announcement - Introducing recipient authentication via Didit in Zoho Sign

          Hi everyone! Zoho Sign already integrates with trusted providers like IDology (US), eID Easy (EU), and Stripe Identity. Today, we're excited to add another powerful option: Didit. Some benefits of using Didit: Unified ID verification Streamlined eKYC

        • CRM x WorkDrive: File storage for new CRM signups is now powered by WorkDrive

          Availability Editions: All DCs: All Release plan: Released for new signups in all DCs. It will be enabled for existing users in a phased manner in the upcoming months. Help documentation: Documents in Zoho CRM Manage folders in Documents tab Manage files

        • Super Admin Logging in as another User

          How can a Super Admin login as another user. For example, I have a sales rep that is having issues with their Accounts and I want to view their Zoho Account with out having to do a GTM and sharing screens. Moderation Update (8th Aug 2025): We are working

        • Regarding the integration of Apollo.io with Zoho crm.

          I have been seeing for the last 3 months that your Apollo.io beta version is available in Zoho Flow, and this application has not gone live yet. We requested this 2 months ago, but you guys said that 'we are working on it,' and when we search on Google

        • Message as bot

          I would like to be able to send a Cliq message truly as a bot. the current implementation of this function, while it sends the message as a bot it sends that message inside a chat from the user how authenticated the flow cliq connection instead of directly

        • Using a custom single line External ID form as merge fields in templates

          Hey everyone, We're looking to integrate a few external systems better with our Zoho CRM, and we had hoped to use external fields for this purpose. In this case, it would mean being able to use our own inoice system's invoice numbers are a direct id compatible

        • Build an approval management system with Custom Modules

          Dear users, Task management is at the heart of project management. But not all tasks are created equal. You can have your tasks reviewed before any work begins, to improve transparency or stay within budget or as part of your process. Zoho Projects allows

        • CRM's sandbox now supports the Zoho Desk integration

          Hello everyone, Sales and customer support teams often collaborate to solve tickets and identify pain points. In Zoho's suite of products, sales teams primarily use Zoho CRM while customer support teams work in Zoho Desk. These two tools are often integrated

        • Countries List Global Set- Complete with Phone Country Code and Continent.

          Dear Zoho Team I saw your recent addition to the Global Sets regarding the Countries list and states. While working on it, why didn't you also add things like Continent and Phone Country Code? Also, some ISO codes from some Countries/regions are mis

        • mask Customer phone number and agents cant see customer phone number

          Is there any way we can integrate Zoom Phone with Zoho CRM while ensuring that customer phone numbers remain masked? We need a solution where agents can make outbound calls but cannot see customer phone numbers. Please let us know if there is any solution

        • Can not send or reply to mails

          Hello, I can not send mails or reply. If I try to send a mail i get "Unable to send message;Reason:553 Replaying disallowed. Invalid Domain - invata-programare.ro" Can you help me, please? Thank you!

        • Zoho Community Digest — Marzo 2026

          ¡Hola, comunidad! Un mes más os traemos las novedades más interesantes de Zoho para marzo de 2026, incluyendo actualizaciones de producto publicadas oficialmente, cambios de políticas y noticias del ecosistema. ¡Gracias por venir a los Workshops de Madrid!

        • Files Uploaded to Zoho WorkDrive Not Being Indexed by Search Engines

          Hello, I have noticed that the files I upload to Zoho WorkDrive are not being indexed by search engines, including Google. I’d like to understand why this might be happening and what steps I can take to resolve it. Here are the details of my issue: File

        • How can we get payment status updates for payment links in Zoho Books using webhooks?

          When we create and share a payment link in Zoho Books, is there a way to know when the payment is updated? Can we use webhooks to get real-time updates for payment link status instead of checking manually?

        • Uplifted homepage experience

          Editions: All editions. Availability update: 17th February 2026: All editions in the CA and SA DC | JP DC (Free, Standard and Professional editions) 23 February 2026: JP (All Editions) | AU, CN (Free, Standard, Professional editions) 27 February 2026:

        • 【Zoho CRM】住所項目のアップデート：構造化された正確な住所入力を実現

          ユーザーの皆さん、こんにちは。Zoho コミュニティグループの中野です。 今回は「Zoho CRM アップデート情報」の中から、住所項目に関するアップデートをご紹介します。 アップデートの概要 これまでの住所項目は、自由入力形式のテキスト欄が中心でした。 そのため、入力者によって書き方がバラバラになりやすく、データの検索やレポート集計が難しいという課題がありました。 今回追加された新しい住所項目では、住所を構造化されたフォーマットで管理できるようになりました。 以下の要素をそれぞれ個別の項目として分割して管理します。

        • Edit a previous reconciliation

          I realized that during my March bank reconciliation, I chose the wrong check to reconcile (they were for the same amount on the same date, I just chose the wrong check to reconcile). So now, the incorrect check is showing as un-reconciled. Is there any way I can edit a previous reconciliation (this is 7 months ago) so I can adjust the check that was reconciled? The amounts are exactly the same and it won't change my ending balance.

        • Zoho Desk - Event Calendar View

          Hi Desk team, Are there any plans to introduce a calendar or timeline view for Events in Zoho Desk? It would be very helpful if we could see Events visually in a calendar and/or timeline. This is very helpful when desk side support activities need to

        • Re-Apply SLA When Ticket Reopened from Closed Status?

          If you have an SLA applied, timers are deactivated when going to "On Hold" status type and reactivated when going back to an Open status type. What we discovered is when a customer replies to a closed case and it reopens, the SLA is not applied and timers

        • Option to Delete Chats in IM

          Currently, there is no option to delete any chats in IM, regardless of their source.

        • Time Zones for Users

          I've searched for this topic, but the only answers I see are from years back. We have users all over the country. is there a way for them to set their own time zone? This is important and should be a standard setting, but I do not see how to do it.

        • Online Payment Fees

          We don't take many online credit card payments so the merchant service provider (PayPal) charges us the 2.9% fee for processing the amount. I would like the ability for the fee to be automatically added to the total amount for "ease of payment". We'd

        • Showing the map along with mileage expense

          When you use the GPS to track mileage, it shows you the map of the actual path travelled. It would be very useful and practical to save that map with the mileage expense, so that when the report is created, it provides a map of each mileage expense associated

        • E-Invoicing Automation

          Do you have an API endpoint for pushing the invoice through the e-tims for Kenya

        • Transaction Rule Matching

          Q1. Is there a method to have the Transaction Rules applied across multiple Bank Accounts? Q2. To match "contains" text in Transaction Rules, is a wildcard or regular expression required? Is it case sensitive? Would searching for "issue" in the following

        • Notebook on Mac: Fuzzy fonts in list view

          Hi, I am running Notebook on Mac OS 26. Generally it works fine, and the font display in the notes themselves is crisp. However, in the notes list (left of the open note) the font of the note titles as well as first lines is noticeable fuzzy. Attached

        • Zoho CRM Email Templates 100% Width No Background How?

          Hi, On the Zoho CRM Email Templates in setup > customization > templates > new templates > I choose blank template, but still it puts in a gray background and a max width for the email. I just want to make an email that looks like an email I would send from gmail that has no background or max width. How do you do this? 

        • ZOHO CRM Quote Export / Quote Report

          How can I either Export my quote list, or create a Report that shows all quotes AND includes the NOTES field in a column. I attempted to Run a Report which includes ALL FIELDS, however it does not include the Notes Field (but oddly does include the fields

        • Introducing Radio Buttons and Numeric Range Sliders in Zoho CRM

          Release update: 1. 2 March 2026: Currently out for CN, JP, AU and CA DCs (Free and standard editions). For other DCs, this will be released by mid-March. 2. 26 March 2026: CA, SA, AU, JP, CN DCs - Free, Standard, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate, CRM

        • Adding a Mark Up

          Can you use the discount column to be a mar up column on estimates and invoices?

        • Subscription Statuses - Dunning

          How are other companies handling the scenario when customers don't pay and dunning takes over? Our issue is that in my situations, we want our customers to be able to catch up their late payments and continue their subscription after the dunning process

        • Logo Doesnt appear on email

          Hi, 1. PROBLEM: mails sent to customer from zoho invoice ( Estimates and incoices etc.) Logo doesnt appaer on email. 2. SUGGESTION: there must be an option to select from google fonts if we want specific font to the pdf templates. thanks

        • How to see Statement Details Shown in Unclassified Transactions in All Transactions?

          All, The list of Unclassified Transactions show the Statement Details and Descriptions. What is the method to see that column in the All Transactions list? -Thanks!

        • Non-Avalara Tax Automation wtih Zoho Books

          We are paying a ridiculous amount for Avalara. Our team wants to make a change, but they're the only software fully integrated with Zoho. We also don't have the bandwidth to do this manually, so we do need some sort of automated software solution. We

        • Migrating to the new outgoing webhook model in Zoho Connect

          Dear User, Outgoing webhooks configured in the Zoho Connect Integrations page, and used as triggers in Zoho Flow and Zapier will stop working after May 31, 2026. This is due to an upcoming upgrade to our outgoing webhook flow. This update is intended

        • Create formula calculations in Assemblies for scaling quantities

          Something we have been encountering with our composite items is dealing with scaling of quantity of one or more items within the composite assembly relative to the number of complete units being sold. I.e. running the equation 2(n-1) on one of the assembly

        • Lastest update

          The latest update to notepad has completely trashed all my notes. If I go to view it it just opens up a screen with a box with dotted lines around it for me to add something I can import saved nodes but you can't view them at all. Anybody else having

        • Next Page