Spotlight #7 - Automatic Transitions in Blueprint

Spotlight #7 - Automatic Transitions in Blueprint



Previously, records could not be moved from one state to another without user intervention. With automatic transitions, move records from one state to another automatically, when it elapses its pre-defined time. This Spotlight discusses how automatic transitions optimise your sales conversion process in Blueprints. If you'd like a deeper understanding of how Blueprint works, check this out.

Automatic Transitions in Blueprint 

Automatic transition, as the name suggests, auto-moves a record from one state to another state when it exceeds a pre-defined time. We can set the time, varying from 15 minutes to even months for the automatic transition of a record to another state. It fills the process gaps where mistimed or delayed transitions can be triggered, as fail-safe default transitions in a sales process. Thus preventing sales process delays and helping to optimize conversion.

Business use-case



For a better understanding, let us consider the sales process of Zylker, a software product company. The sales team gathers the client requirements and analyses them carefully. Once suitable products are identified, a demo is set up for the client. The client is then sent a quote, post which the record enters the negotiation stage. If the client accepts the quote, the deal gets marked as Won. Most of you must be familiar with Blueprints in Zoho CRM that helps execute this process in a systematic manner.  

Assume Joey, one of Zylker's sales reps has gone on an unplanned leave. Before going on leave, he had asked for detailed requirements from the client. Let's say the client has already submitted his requirement through an email. As Joe has not validated the requirements and performed the next transition in the sales pipeline, the deal is stuck in the "Needs analysis" stage. This delays the sales process. 
 
By defining a set time for each stage, Joey can ensure that any record that lapses the pre-set time can then be moved to the next stage automatically. If the deal elapses the wait time in "Need analysis" state, the record gets moved automatically to the 
"Negotiation" state. 



This ensures that the record is not left idle for want of human intervention. Of course, not all stages require an automatic transition. This can be set in line with the sales process.

Now let us check out how to configure automatic transition 
  • To configure automatic transition, create a new transition between need analysis and negotiation
  • Below the transition name, there is a small check box called automatic transition - "Check" and "Save" it. 

  • Choose the wait time - days, hours or minutes. 
  • If the record stays in the current state for more than the defined time, it will be transferred to the AT configured state automatically. 
  • Customise actions such as email notification, webhook, actions and much more to get executed upon the transition. 
To check how it gets executed. Create a new deal.  In case none of the Transitions are selected in the automatic transition configured state, an info message gets displayed that states <this transition> will be executed automatically on <date> and <time>.



Leveraging automatic transition ensures that the record is not stuck beyond a point in a particular state and helps further sales conversion. 



      • Sticky Posts

      • How to reach the official Zoho Support channels and avoid fake ones.

        Dear Customers, Thanks a lot for choosing Zoho! Our applications are built to help achieve your day-to-day business goals. We are committed to engaging with you, to understand and develop solutions that enhance your productivity.  We are happy and ready to help you use our services effectively. Understanding and avoiding fake support Just like using popular bank names and financial applications for phishing purposes, using Zoho and claiming to be providing Zoho Support or services with false numbers

      • Function #35: Close all tasks associated with a lead and create a new task.

        Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to close all tasks of a deal depending upon the deal stage. This week, let's look at a custom function that lets you close all of the tasks associated with a lead while simultaneously creating a new task, like when you need to halt all progress towards a lead while the lead is not available at the moment but create a reminder task. Business scenario: The success of a company, in one way or another, is determined by the leads it gets. Each lead is just

      • Zoho CRM Webinar - Redesigning Daily User Experiences with Canvas

        &lt;br&gt; Your users across roles use the CRM for day-to-day tasks that are necessary. Whether they perform their tasks on time, the right way, or at all depends on a lot of factors, including User Experience. Many businesses struggle with rigid layouts,

      • Join us at the Canada ZUG Meetup: What’s New in Zoho CRM

        Hello Zoho Community! Start your year with fresh insights into Zoho CRM’s latest updates and tools. Whether you're a CRM beginner or a experienced user, this meetup is crafted to help you optimise your processes and leverage new features. Explore practical

      • CRM Hack #2: Automate sending of birthday greetings to your customers.

          Hello everyone! What sets you apart as a sales person is your ability to add that personal touch to your business relationship with your customers. Sending a gift on a special day, or leaving a note wishing them on their birthdays, are small, yet significant actions that show your customers that you care. And these are actions done without any expectations :) You must be engaging with a lot of customers and it is highly unlikely that they all are your friends on Facebook or some social channel,

        • Recent Topics

        • How to Push Zoho Desk time logged to Zoho Projects?

          I am on the last leg of my journey of finally automating time tracking, payments, and invoicing for my minutes based contact center company - I just have one final step to solve - I need time logged in zoho desk to add time a project which is associated

        • Cannot access KB within Help Center

          Im working with my boss to customize our knowledge base, but for some reason I can see the KB tab, and see the KB categories, but I cannot access the articles within the KB. We have been troubleshooting for weeks, and we have all permissions set up, customers

        • Export to excel stored amounts as text instead of numbers or accounting

          Good Afternoon, We have a quarterly billing report that we generate from our Requests. It exports to excel. However if we need to add a formula (something as simple as a sum of the column), it doesn't read the dollar amounts because the export stores

        • why my account is private?

          when i post on zohodesk see only agent only

        • Getting ZOHO Invoice certified in Portugal?

          Hello, We are ZOHO partners in Portugal and here, all the invoice software has to be certified by the government and ZOHO Invoice still isn´t certified. Any plans? Btw, we can help on this process, since we have a client that knows how to get the software certified. Thank you.

        • 500 Internal Server Error

          I have been trying to create my first app in Creator, but have been getting the 500: Internal Server Error. When I used the Create New Application link, it gave me the error after naming the application. After logging out, and back in, the application that I created was in the list, but when I try to open it to start creating my app, it gives me the 500: Internal Server Error. Please help! Also, I tried making my named app public, but I even get the error when trying to do that.

        • Client Script | Update - Client Script Support For Portals

          Dear All! We are excited to announce the highly anticipated feature: Client Script support for Portals. We understand that many of you have been eagerly awaiting this enhancement, and we are pleased to inform you that this support is now live for all

        • Professional Plan not activated after payment

          I purchased the Professional Plan for 11 users (Subscription ID: RPEU2000980748325) on 12 September 2025, and the payment has been successfully processed. However, even after more than 24 hours, my CRM account still shows “Upgrade” and behaves like a

        • how to edit the converted lead records?

          so I can fetch the converted leads records using API (COQL), using this endpoint https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v5/coql and using COQL filter Converted__s=true for some reasons I need to change the value from a field in a converted lead record. When I try

        • Auto Update Event Field Value on Create/Edit

          Hi there, I know this question has been posted multiple times and I've been trying many of the proposed similar scripts for a while now but nothing seems to work... what might I do wrong? The error I receive is this: Value given for the variable 'meetingId'

        • Pre-orders at Zoho Commerce

          We plan to have regular producs that are avaliable for purchase now and we plan to have products that will be avaliable in 2-4 weeks. How we can take the pre-orders for these products? We need to take the money for the product now, but the delivery will

        • Constant color of a legend value

          It would be nice if we can set a constant color/pattern to a value when creating a chart. We would often use the same value in different graph options and I always have to copy the color that we've set to a certain value from a previous graph to make

        • Zoho Pagesense really this slow??? 5s delay...

          I put the pagesense on my website (hosted by webflow and fast) and it caused a 5s delay to load. do other people face similar delays?

        • Payroll and BAS ( Australian tax report format )

          Hello , I am evaluating Zoho Books and I find the interface very intuitive and straight forward. My company is currently using Quickbooks Premier the Australian version. Before we can consider moving the service we would need to have the following addressed : 1.Payroll 2.BAS ( business activity statement ) for tax purposes 3.Some form of local backup and possible export of data to a widely accepted format. Regards Codrin Mitin

        • Problem with Email an invoice with multiple attachments using API

          I have an invoice with 3 attachments. When I send an email manually using the UI, everything works correctly. I receive an email with three attachments. The problem occurs when I try to initiate sending an email using the API. The email comes with only

        • Page Layouts for Standard Modules like CRM

          For standard modules like quotes, invoices, purchase orders, etc, it would be a great feature to be able to create custom page layouts with custom fields in Zoho Books similar to how you can in Zoho CRM. For example, and my current use case, I have a

        • Non-depreciating fixed asset

          Hi! There are non-depreciable fixed assets (e.g. land). It would be very useful to be able to create a new type of fixed asset (within the fixed assets module) with a ‘No depreciation’ depreciation method. There is always the option of recording land

        • Fixed asset management

          I want to know if there is any individual module for fixed assets management

        • One time sale item in billing automatically detects as service

          if i have some items which i don't want to add in my "item" list because its sold only for one time. but when i type item name in invoice, it (system) automatically takes it as a service and despite of HSN , it shows SAC code to be entered. if its selectable i.e. either item or service , it would be very helpful and a must have feature.

        • Project template after project creation

          How can I apply a project template AFTER the project has been created?

        • convert the project to templet

          i have some deployment ME product for different customer , i need to create a fixed template for use it rather then keeping creating this template every time

        • Seriously - Create multiple contacts for leads, (With Company as lead) Zoho CRM

          In Zoho CRM, considering a comapny as a lead, you need us to allow addition of more than one contact. Currently the Lead Section is missing "Add contact" feature which is available in "Accounts". When you know that a particular lead can have multiple

        • Related Module in Sharing Rules

          Zoho CRM team recently added the feature to filter records by Related Records It will be really beneficial if we can have this feature for Sharing Rules as well

        • Assignment Thresholds Resetting After Lead Conversion

          Hello everyone, We're facing an issue with Zoho CRM's lead assignment thresholds that makes them unsuitable for our workflow. I'm hoping to find a potential workaround or solution from the community. Here’s our current process: A new lead is created automatically

        • Zoho CRM Analytics - Allow To Reorder Dashboards

          I would like to suggest that you add the ability to reorder dashboards in the Analytics Module. I can see that this has been requested some time ago, the latest 9 years ago. I am not sure if this is a big or small endeavor, but such a small fix can go

        • Territory view for custom modules?

          I have recently activated territories however I can't seem to find how to use territories for custom modules? These modules have territories:  Contacts /  Accounts / Opportunities These modules don't have territories:   Buildings (custom module) and 

        • Zoho Books - How to Invoke a Custom Function in Schedulers

          We have multiple schedulers that send emails to customers in batches. Currently, we are maintaining the same code across several schedulers. Is it possible to use a custom function inside a scheduler script? If yes, how can we invoke the custom function

        • Approval Process Comments

          Is it possible to view the comments entered during the approval or rejection of a record in the approval process? If not, is there a way to require a field to be completed upon approval or rejection?

        • Login for test case

          Had a few questions regarding authentication test cases and couldn't find an answer in the the docs. 1. If an app like Zoho Creator requires authentication before providing access, do I need to create a login function and add it to each test case? 2.

        • Zoho / Outlook Calendar sync

          The current Marketplace -> Microsoft -> Meetings integration needs 2 changes. 1. The current language for the Two-Way sync option should be changed. It currently states, "Sync both your Zoho CRM Calendar and Office 365 Calendar meetings with each other."

        • Customer members area

          Does FSM support a customer members area? If not what do you propose we use if we want the data used in FSM for customers to give them an area / login to see past orders, create new orders and general announcements.

        • Zoho Books-Accounting on the Go Series!

          Dear users, Continuing in the spirit of our 'Function Fridays' series, where we've been sharing custom function scripts to automate your back office operations, we're thrilled to introduce our latest initiative – the 'Zoho Books-Accounting on the Go Series'.

        • Desktop app doesn't support notecards created on Android

          Hi, Does anybody have same problem? Some of last notecards created on Android app (v. 6.6) doesn't show in desktop app (v. 3.5.5). I see these note cards but whith they appear with exclamation mark in yellow triangle (see screenshot) and when I try to

        • Notes created in mobile can no longer be accessed in desktop

          Working with a 2013 Mac running OS 10.14.6; Desktop Notebook version 4.5.3. Using Motorola Moto G Power 5G - 2024; Android app version 6.7 I have been using Notebook for some years. Starting several weeks ago, the notes newly created ion the phone can

        • Function #49: Manage varying installment payments using Zoho Books

          . Hello everyone, and welcome back to our series! Last week, we discussed automating the collection of fixed installment payments in Zoho Books. But what if your payment structure involves charging varying percentages of the invoice total as installments?

        • Zoho Writer - Option to Export as .zdoc format

          I've noticed that it's not possible to export a Zoho Writer Document in the .zdoc format. Isn't zdoc, Zoho Writer's own format? My use case is that I sometimes need to create quite complex documents with floating elements, which sometimes need to become

        • Is it possible for contacts to "Re-enter" a workflow in Zoho Campaign?

          We are currently working on a way to automatically add users to from one list to other lists based on specific criteria, but can't seem to find a native way of doing this so we are trying to use Workflows to do this. So, for example, if a user's status is set to "Active," then they should be added to the list "Active Users." If the same user's status is then set to "Paused," they should be added to the list "Paused Users" and removed from the list "Active Users." This works fine for the first go

        • Bulk upload images and specifications to products

          Hi, Many users have asked this over the years and I am also asking the same. Is there any way in which we can bulk upload product (variant) images and product specifications. The current way to upload/select image for every variant is too cumbersome.

        • Out of Office for Just One of My Alias Email

          Can I set up the Out of Office Reply for Just One of my Alias Email Addresses?

        • Can I map multiple Surveys into the CRM using the same fields?

          Hello, We are a healthcare practice that offers two distinct services (Nutrition and Primary Care). We use Zoho Survey for our lead generation form (Get Started Survey), which allows people to express interest in one of the two services and even allows

        • Next Page