Episode III : Powering Automation: Custom Functions in Action

Episode III : Powering Automation: Custom Functions in Action

Hello Everyone,

In our previous episodes, we explored custom functions and the Deluge programming language. If you’ve been wondering why the Episode series have been quiet, here’s the reveal!
On our community, we've been showcasing custom functions integrated with various automation tools on the Automation Series – to perform specific operations. Over the past few weeks, we’ve introduced how custom functions work within different automation types.


In this episode, we’ll explore the five key automations in Zoho Desk that support custom functions:
  • Workflows
  • Macros
  • Schedules
  • Blueprint
  • Guided Conversation
Do you remember how we closed Episode II with this line:
Quote
"To make a custom function work, it must be integrated with Automation"?
The automation tools within Zoho Desk shape your processes to fit your business needs. Now, let’s dive in and explore how they can work your way.

Workflow Rules : Automate with Ease

Workflow rules in Zoho Desk are simple yet powerful tools that trigger actions based on specific execution points like ticket create, edit, customer reply and criteria. With a steady stream of queries from both new and existing customers, automation is key. Depending on customer needs and ticket volume, you may want to:
  • Auto-assign tickets
  • Update fields
  • Add tags
  • Send instant replies
Workflow rules help streamline these routine tasks, boosting both efficiency and response times.
For more complex automation, you can enhance workflows using custom functions, enabling tailored operations that go beyond standard actions.
Here's an example of how custom functions can elevate your workflows and make your support process smarter and more efficient. Automation #4 - Auto Delete Tickets based on Rules  

Blueprint : Define your process

Every organization operates with defined processes and department structures to be consistent, efficient, and offer customers a fulfilling experience. While much of this is documented and shared through verbal training, there can be gaps, especially while onboarding new agents.
That’s where Zoho Desk's Blueprint comes in. It lets you build a structured flow, guiding agents through every step of ticket handling: assigning, resolving, seeking approvals, or escalating, ensuring consistency without overwhelming them.
This workflow framework supports:
  • Clear status transitions
  • Better customer communication
  • Efficient hand-offs between teams
  • Time tracking and compliance
The intuitive drag-and-drop interface allows you to set conditions, actions, and transitions. You can also enhance the process using Custom Functions to automate approvals, share tickets, and perform advanced operations tailored to your needs.
The "After Transition" section in Blueprint helps you trigger tasks, alerts, updates, or custom functions.
Let’s explore how to use Custom Functions with Blueprint in Zoho Desk here: Automation#36: Auto-create time-entry after performing the Blueprint transition  

Macros :Perform Single Action

When you need to update a field, send bulk emails, or create tasks for multiple tickets with a single click, Macros are the go-to solution.
In cases where a group of customers is affected by the same issue or waiting for an update, following up individually can be time-consuming. Macros help you handle these repetitive actions efficiently, saving time and effort.
You can also enhance Macros with custom functions, enabling more advanced, tailored operations beyond the standard actions:

Schedule actions : Schedules in Zoho desk

Schedules let you automate actions at a specific date and time, with the option to repeat them as needed. They are ideal for time-based automation and work seamlessly with custom functions.
You can either link existing custom functions from the gallery or create new ones directly within Schedules to handle tailored tasks.
To learn how to configure schedules, refer Creating and Managing Schedules in Zoho Desk.
To learn to configure custom function with Schedules, try this out: Automation#28 Notify Agents on Article Expiry  

Guided Conversations : Formatter

Self-service empowers customers, and Zoho Desk’s Guided Conversation (GC) feature makes it easy to create interactive, kiosk-style support flows. You can embed these conversations across messaging platforms like WhatsApp, LINE, Messenger, the Help Center, and ASAP, allowing users to find answers from your Knowledge Base.
GC includes blocks to:
  • Connect with an agent
  • Create tickets
  • Integrate with Zoho products
Guided Conversations support Custom Functions within the Webhook block, enabling advanced automation and personalized responses.
Here’s an example of how to configure a Custom Function within a Guided Conversation: Automation#23: Automate Guided Conversations in Zoho Desk with Business Hours  

Let’s wrap things up!

We hope this gave you a clear view of how to configure custom functions within Zoho Desk's automation tools. Whether it's Workflows, Macros, Schedules, Blueprint, or Guided Conversations—each one opens new possibilities for making your support process smarter and smoother.
If there’s a topic you’re curious about or would love to see us cover next on the community, drop your ideas in the comments below. We’d love to hear you speak and write to us.

​
Happy automating!
See you in the next post,
Lydia | Zoho Desk
 

    • Sticky Posts

    • Register for Zoho Desk Beta Community

      With the start of the year, we have decided to take a small step in making the life of our customers a little easier. We now have easy access to all our upcoming features and a faster way to request for beta access. We open betas for some of our features

    • Share your Zoho Desk story with us!

      Tell us how you use Zoho Desk for your business and inspire others with your story. Be it a simple workflow rule that helps you navigate complex processes or a macro that saves your team a lot of time; share it here and help the community learn and grow with shared knowledge. 

    • Tip #1: Learn to pick the right channels

      Mail, live chat, telephony, social media, web forms—there are so many support channels out there. Trying to pick the right channels to offer your customers can get pretty confusing. Emails are most useful when the customer wants to put things on record. However, escalated or complicated issues should not be resolved over email because it's slow and impersonal.  When you need immediate responses, live chat is more suitable. It's also quick and convenient, so it's the go-to channel for small issues. 

    • Welcome to Zoho Desk Community - Say hello here!

      Hello everyone! Though we have been here for a while, it’s time to formally establish the Zoho Desk Community; we’re really happy to have you all here! This can be the place where you take a moment to introduce yourself to the rest of the community. We’d love to hear all about you, what you do, what company or industry you work for, how you use Zoho Desk and anything else that you will like to share! Here’s a little about me. I am Chinmayee. I have been associated with Zoho since 2014. I joined here

    • Webinar 1: Blueprint for Customer Service

      With the launch of a host of new features in Zoho Desk, we thought it’ll be great to have a few webinars to help our customers make the most of them. We’re starting off with our most talked about feature, Blueprint in Zoho Desk. You can register for the Blueprint webinar here: The webinar will be delivered by our in-house product experts. This is a good opportunity to ask questions to our experts and understand how Blueprint can help you automate your service processes. We look forward to seeing

    • Recent Topics

    • Allow customers to choose meeting venue and meeting duration on booking page

      My business primarily involves one-to-one meetings with my clients. Given the hybrid-work world we now find ourselves in, these meetings can take several forms (which I think of as the meeting "venue"): In-person Zoom Phone call I currently handle these

    • Approval-based booking with Zoho Creator and Zoho Bookings

      Hi community members, We have developed a workaround for approval-based booking using Zoho Creator and Zoho Bookings! This provides a temporary solution as we work on the native feature, and it's useful for anyone needing an approval workflow when confirming

    • Member Accounts in Related List

      Hi Team, Currently, when a parent account is associated with an account in FSM, there is no related list displaying the associated member accounts under the parent account’s related list section. To view member accounts, I have to manually search using

    • how do i remove a specific Zoho Service from my account

      I no longer need Zoho CRM, ZRM Assist nor ZRM BugTracker. How do I remove them from the list of apps for my account?

    • I Want migarte all invoice details to zoho sheets

      I want to migrate all existing invoice details to Zoho Sheet, and automatically update the sheet whenever a new invoice is created.

    • were can i find my invoices i need this for my accountant

      were can i find my invoices i need this for my accountant, how can i get id direct to my email?

    • ONLY email field not populating Writer fillable document (randomly)

      I have a Zoho Writer fillable document that has pulled all my data from my Zoho Sheets file, EXCEPT the email column. It pulled every data before and after that column with no issues. Screenshots attached. It's not my first time using the app or the feature,

    • My number is marked as spam

      Hello Zoho Mail Support, My phone number was incorrectly flagged as “spam” during sign-up. This is my personal number, and I have not engaged in any spam activities. Kindly review and verify my account so I can proceed with my email setup. Thanks.

    • Personnalisation des paramètres dans Zoho Mail

      Pourquoi cela compte-t-il ? La personnalisation des paramètres dans Zoho Mail permet aux administrateurs de configurer l’environnement de messagerie en fonction des besoins spécifiques de leur organisation. Que ce soit pour alléger l’interface pour certaines

    • How To Save Data Into Zoho CRM Sandbox

      Hi Community, I want to save data into my zoho sandbox , for this I am using this api endpoint - https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v8/Patients but I am getting this error - { "success": false, "message": "Zoho API request failed", "error": { "code": "INVALID_MODULE",

    • Automate pushing Zoho CRM backups into Zoho WorkDrive

      Through our Zoho One subscription we have both Zoho CRM and Zoho WorkDrive. We have regular backups setup in Zoho CRM. Once the backup is created, we are notified. Since we want to keep these backups for more than 7 days, we manually download them. They

    • Question about retrieving unsubscribed contacts (outside of lists) via API

      Hello, I am currently using Zoho Marketing Automation and would like to integrate it with our company’s core system. For this purpose, I am exploring the API options available to retrieve contact information. Specifically, I would like to know if there

    • Getting “mandatory field missing: Service_Line_Items” When Creating Work Order via Zoho Flow Deluge

      Hi Team, I’m trying to create a Work Order in Zoho FSM with only a Service Line Item (no Parts). However, I keep getting this error: Work Order Response: {"code":"MANDATORY_NOT_FOUND","details":{"api_name":"Service_Line_Items"},"message":"required field

    • How to customize the colors of the Client Portal login screen and add the company logo?

      As title, how to customize the colors of the Client Portal login screen and add the company logo?

    • Daily updates/fixes and how to see what was changed?

      When I receive the notification that zoho was updated and I need to refresh it. How can I see what was changed or fixed? Sometimes they change things that effect my books and I need to know what they did. For example over this past weekend something was

    • Upcoming Change: Snowflake Username/Password Authentication Deprecation – Action Required

      Hello Users, Snowflake has officially announced that username and password-based authentication will be deprecated by November 2025. You can find the official announcement [here]. If you're using a Snowflake connection in Zoho Analytics to import data,

    • Why should I choose Zoho Inventory vs Odoo?

      Hello there! I have used Zoho in different companies I've worked in, and I have a positive perception of it. I am starting a new import business for pipes, tubes, fittings, valves, elbows, etc., which all have serial numbers, cast numbers, etc., so I

    • Product Updates in Zoho Workplace applications | July 2025

      Hello Workplace Community, Let’s take a look at the new features and enhancements that went live across all Workplace applications this July. Zoho Mail Import bookmarks from Pocket Worried about losing your Pocket bookmarks? Don't worry we have got you.

    • PLEASE FIX YOR BUGS

      PICTURES ARE BEING REJECTED DESPITE THEM FOLLOWING THE GUIDELINES ON DIMENTIONS.

    • Kaizen# 204 - Answering Your Questions | Perform Field Updates before Blueprint transition via Client Script

      Hello everyone! Welcome back to another exciting Kaizen post. One of the questions we received through your Kaizen feedback was: “How can I update fields before Blueprint transition and how to prevent a transition based on a condition using Client Script?”

    • Create online meetings for Booking Pages with Zoho Meetings and Zoom

      Greetings, We hope you're all doing well. We're excited to share some recent enhancements to Bigin's Booking Pages. As you know, Booking Pages let you create public pages to share your availability so that your customers can easily book time slots with

    • Filters in audit logs

      Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. We're happy to announce a few recent enhancements we've made to Bigin. We'll go over each one in detail. Previously, there were no filters available to narrow down data in audit logs. Now, we've introduced

    • Enhanced help options in Bigin

      Greetings, We're excited to introduce a new enhancement to Bigin's Help section: a comprehensive Help Options panel that brings together all your support resources in a single, well-organized space. Previously, the Need Help? menu provided only a limited

    • Zoho FSM API Developer Needed

      Hi, I’m looking for a developer with experience using Zoho FSM APIs. Scope: Connect WordPress website booking form to Zoho FSM Check availability (date, time, region) Create Work Orders + Service Appointments automatically Notify both customer and scheduler

    • Revenue Management: #4 What if there are uncertainties in project or service delivery?

      Our previous post taught us how Zoho Billing makes life easy for businesses with its automated revenue recognition rule. However, certain businesses have more challenges that an automated system cannot handle, and there are certain situations where automated

    • This mobile number has been marked spam. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com

      Bom dia, estou tentando colocar o número 11 94287-6695 e esta com erro "This mobile number has been marked spam. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com" pode me ajudar, por favor?

    • Feature Request: Ability to Set a Custom List View as Default for All Users

      Dear Zoho CRM Support Team, We would like to request a new feature in Zoho CRM regarding List Views. Currently, each user has to manually select or favorite a custom list view in order to make it their default. However, as administrators, we would like

    • Items Serial Tracking Issue

      We enabled Zoho Items inventory tracking then disabled it after some time now we want to enable it again When I check the missing serial number reports I see one item But I cant see any option to Add the serial numbers Where and how to add the serial

    • Composite Services and Account Tracking

      I am looking to garner support/request the ability to make composite services. A quick search in the forums brings up multiple requests for this feature. I fail to see why an item is mandatory while services are optional. I also would like to see the

    • Zoho Payroll integration with Zoho Books - unable to match multiple bank feeds to one wage payment

      For one employee's wage, I make two partial payments. Those bank feed transactions come into Zoho Books via bank integration. I make one pay-run for the month in Zoho Payroll and that comes into Zoho Books via the Zoho integration. Zoho Books doesn't let me match multiple bank feed transactions against a single wage item. Please fix urgently. I can't complete my books because of this.

    • Add Checkbox Selection & Bulk Actions to Delivery Challans Module

      Hi Zoho Team, I’ve noticed that in the Sales Orders module, there are checkboxes beside each entry that allow users to select multiple records for bulk actions such as print, email, or delete. However, in the Delivery Challans module, this option appears

    • Can't be able to check-in in laptop

      even after giving location access still i can't be able to check-in in laptop.

    • Compensation Cess on Coal ₹400 per tonne. ?????

      The compensation cess rate varies by the type of product. And the cess is calculated based on the value of the product without GST. Coal, for example, comes with a cess of ₹400 per tonne. That means that if you sell 2 tonnes of coal that have a value

    • 7 month over zoho book purchase but still not immpliments Golive

      7 month over zoho book purchase but still not immpliments Golive one problems zoho team short out then other problems come still very poor mangments and immliments team . struggling with the templates in ZOHO Books. Especially with the placement of some

    • Average Costing / Weighted Average Costing

      Hello fellow maadirs. I understand Zoho Books uses FIFO method of dealing with inventory costing, but do you guys have any plans to introduce average costing? We indians need average costing. It's part of our culture. Please. I beg thee. Thanks.

    • SMS to customers from within Bigin

      Hi All, Is there anyone else crying out for Bigin SMS capability to send an SMS to customers directly from the Bigin interface? We have inbuilt telephony already with call recordings which works well. What's lacking is the ability to send and receive

    • How to update/remove file in zoho creator widgets using javascript API

      Hi Team, I have developed a widget which allows inserting and updating records I have file upload field with multiple file upload. Now while doing insert form record, I am using uploadFile API to upload files for that record. I am using updateRecord API

    • Parent & Member Accounts (batch updating / inheritance)

      Hello, I find the Parent Account functionality very useful for creating custom views and reports, but was wondering if I can also carry out batch editing on all members (aka children) of a Parent Account at the same time. Alternatively, can I set members to automatically inherit the values of the parent? For example: We have a chain of supermarkets that buy our products. These supermarkets are all members of a Parent Account in our CRM. We release a new product and all of the member stores wish to

    • Edit Legend of Chart

      I would like to edit the legend of the chart. Every time I enable the legend, I get a very unhelpful (1), and when I try to type to change to what I would desire, nothing happens, which is very frustrating. I've gone through your online tutorials and nowhere can I find a legend settings button. This seems a simple fix, where can edit the legend? Thanks.

    • Extended timeouts for APIs beyond 40secs for to accomodate LLMs

      A 40 second max response time for API calls is fine when connecting to most services, however is unsuitable when dealing with LLMs (ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini) where the response timing is very uncertain. Is there any way to increase this? It would be great

    • Next Page