Zoho CRM Digest
Hello Everyone!
The second half of March 2026 arrived with a wave of announcements, from AI becoming more intuitive to security authorization protocols getting tighter, and a few community threads that quietly solved problems a lot of you have likely encountered.
Let's get into it!
Product Updates:
CommandCenter Just Leveled Up
CommandCenter has been upgraded from a CRM feature into a standalone application within Zoho One and CRM Plus. Three new Journey Builder enhancements headline this transition: Common Transitions merge multiple stages into one without repeating signals, Multi-org Authorization pulls signals across different organizations into one CommandCenter, and CommandCenter-exclusive Actions handle webhooks, custom functions, and emails outside of CRM.
Kiosk Studio Gets Smarter Controls
Two new enhancements make Kiosk Studio more precise and easier to navigate. Note Actions now allow you to add notes with merge fields directly to CRM records as part of a kiosk workflow, creating an automatic audit trail without manual input. Complementing this is Dynamic Visibility, which lets you show or hide a kiosk on record detail pages based on specific field conditions, ensuring reps only see the tools relevant to their current task.
User Imports Just Got More Complete
Shift data used to get left behind during user imports, requiring admins to fill in the gaps manually post-import. Now, shift-related fields like Current Shift, Next Shift, and Shift Effective From can be mapped directly during import, either manually or through auto-mapping. This ensures that user availability and assignment rules are accurate from the moment of onboarding without any secondary cleanup.
Queries Now Speak the Language of Your Database
CRM Queries can now connect directly to external databases and cloud platforms, bringing live data from MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Amazon RDS, Google Cloud, and Azure straight into CRM. Pull it on demand, blend it with your CRM records. The post walks you through real use cases and exactly how to set it up.
The New Zoho CRM UI Is Here for Everyone
The Zoho CRM For Everyone interface transition is reaching its final milestones. Organizations with fewer are already on the new UI by default, while larger organizations (50+ users) are currently in Phase 3. Admins now have the flexibility to switch their teams immediately or schedule the transition for April 3rd. During this period, users still have the option to switch back to the old UI from their profile panel if they need more time to adjust.
Portal Security Just Got a Serious Upgrade
Strengthening your client portal is now a more seamless process. You can enforce org-wide MFA across all portal users with a single toggle, ensuring every external login is protected. For a more flexible approach, portal users can also opt-in and manage their own MFA settings individually. Additionally, password management is now streamlined. Portal users can utilize the "Change Password" option in their portal to update their passwords instantly, removing the need to trigger a "Forgot Password" flow every time.
Forecasting Gets Smarter with Upgraded Zia Intelligence
Click on any rep's card in the Forecast hierarchy and get a full picture of their progress. Zia now provides a Performance Summary, Achievement and Gap Analysis, and Suggestions for Improvement. These insights are generated daily so you're not waiting for historical data to pile up. Users in the CEO role also get an additional Key Business Patterns section. This surfaces which teams, activities, and regions are driving the best results for the organization.
Meet Your New Digital Employee
Zia Agents in Zoho CRM can now be deployed as Digital Employees. These are actual users in your CRM with their own email, role, profile, and identity. Every action they take, such as updating records, assigning leads, sending emails, is logged under their own name rather than the admin who set them up. That means clear audit trails and precise permission control, just like any other team member. You can also browse the new Agent Store to hire pre-configured agents that are ready to deploy without any setup.
Your Dashboards Can Now Explain Themselves
Spotting a dip or spike in your dashboard is easy. Understanding why has always been the hard part. Zia Dashboard Insights adds a Zia icon to your KPI and Target Meter components. Click it to get a plain-language explanation of what changed, why it changed, and what's driving it, right where you're already looking. These insights come in two views: Text for quick narrative summaries and Chart for visual detail that backs them up.
Quick Wins:
API Clarification: Insert Records Response Order
@Simon Mares pointed out that our documentation was unclear regarding the Insert Records API response order, which highlighted a potential risk for data mapping errors. We have since updated the help document to clarify this behavior, ensuring you have the technical certainty needed for stable bulk inserts. This quick update is a direct result of the specific gaps identified by our community members.
Building an Email Funnel With a Decision Tree? Start Here
@Holly Katko wanted to build a 10-email decision-tree funnel and organize her outreach into groups like Attorneys and Franchises. @Qscript laid out a step-by-step setup using workflow rules for the funnel and clarified that Tags and Custom Views are the best tools for contact segmentation. This distinction ensures that your internal users organization stays separate from your marketing lists.
Functions & Client Script:
CRM Integration: Auto-Fill Creator Form via Client Script
@Bhuvaneshwaran needed a CRM button on the Deal Detail page that opens a Zoho Creator form with deal fields already populated, no manual selection. @Subhash Kumar provided a Client Script solution that automates this hand-off, ensuring the form is pre-filled correctly on the first try.
Kaizen:
CRM Automation: AI powered Deal Hand-offs (Kaizen #234)
When a deal is reassigned, the new owner shouldn't have to dig through endless notes, emails, and history to get up to speed. This Kaizen demonstrates how to build an automated hand-off system using the Zia Assistant API, Workflow, and Deluge. By surfacing a clean, AI-generated summary via a Widget, the new owner gets the full context the moment they take over. The post includes the full code and a step-by-step setup guide to implement this transition.
Data Management: Automating Record Restoration (Kaizen #235)
Restoring a deleted Deal from the Recycle Bin manually is easy. But what if your integration needs to do it automatically when a failed order gets corrected? This Kaizen walks through using the Recycle Bin APIs to search, identify, and restore the right Deal record programmatically, preserving history, notes, and associations. The post includes the full Deluge function and REST API setup to help you automate your data recovery workflows.
And with that, we wrap up this March's Zoho CRM Community Digest. Caught something cool we missed, or have a favorite from this edition? Drop it in the comments! We'd love to hear from you.
If you haven't already, don't forget to check out Part 1 of the March Digest to explore the earlier updates and discussions from the month and complete the roundup. We'll be back with more updates and community gems. Until then, stay tuned!
Topic Participants
Swetha S
Sticky Posts
Zoho CRM Community Digest - April 2026 | Part 2
Hello Everyone! We're back with Part 2 of the April Zoho CRM Community Digest to wrap up our monthly roundup. This week, the spotlight is on smart database connections, proactive error tracking, and optimizing subform line items without breaking yourZoho CRM Community Digest - April 2026 | Part 1
Hello Everyone! April brought a lot to unpack! From a long-awaited field renaming update to MCP (Model Context Protocol) support that lets AI tools talk directly to your CRM, the first half of the month was packed with updates. The community had someZoho CRM Community Digest - March 2026 | Part 1
Hello Everyone! March kicked off with a strong mix of AI-driven enhancements, smarter data handling, and practical workflow improvements across Zoho CRM. From leveraging Zia for automated communication to optimizing cross-platform data retrieval, thisZoho CRM Community Digest - February 2026 | Part 2
In this edition, we’re highlighting a few more product enhancements, along with some helpful community discussions that explore everyday CRM scenarios from automating reminders and managing lead outreach to making the most of APIs and client scripts.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
Recent Topics
Using Email Triggers on Zoho Flow
Hello, I'm sending the email to create the variables as this article says: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/flow/user-guide/create-a-flow/articles/email-trigger#How_email_trigger_works But the collection of the variables only seems to work when theNumber of Reopn
Hi Zoho, Is there any appropriate API call for This URL "http://support.zoho.com/api/v1/dashboards/reopenedTickets?...." what I thought is the resulting output of this call has data for number of reopen... "https://desk.zoho.com/api/v1/tickets/" + Ticket_IDCliq iOS can't see shared screen
Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? RegardsHow to customize the "Placeholder Text" separately from the "Field Label" on the Booking Form?
Hi, I am currently customizing the Booking Form for one of my Workspaces in Zoho Bookings, and I need some help adjusting a custom text field. Right now, when I create a custom text field, the gray "placeholder text" inside the text box automaticallyWhat's New in Zoho Inventory | April & May 2026
Hello users, We're excited to roll out the latest Zoho Inventory updates for April and May 2026. These enhancements are designed to make your daily operations smoother and more efficient, from advanced inventory management and flexible pricing to automatedIntroducing Spotlight Forms
Hey form builders! If someone opens your form, sees the wall of fields ahead, and quietly closes the tab. It may not be because the questions were hard. It could be because the experience felt like too much. Which is why we have now introduced a new formWorkflow Assistance in Zoho CRM
Our client's sales team visits customers on-site and currently fills a physical paper form to capture customer details, and then separately re-enters the same data into Zoho CRM via the mobile app — resulting in double data entry. We want the salespersonBlueprint Not Triggering When Lead Status Is Updated by Workflow (IndiaMART Integration)
I have set up a blueprint that triggers when a lead’s status is “New Lead.” Our CRM is integrated with IndiaMART, and when leads are created from IndiaMART, their Lead Status is initially set to None. To handle this, I created a workflow that automaticallyRelated products & AI product recommendations through commerce API.
Hello Zoho team I’m looking to add related products and AI product recommendations to my Zoho Commerce webshop with custom storefront. Is this supported through the API? And if not, is this on your roadmap? Thanks in advance DavidWhy don't Zia agents support file uploads?
I am trying to build a Zia Agent that allows uploading of a PDF file and uses the GLM5 model to process it and extract information. But agents.zoho.com has no way to enable file uploads on the agent. Additionally, GLM5 based agents keep outputting theirPasting Images in Zoho Desk ignores cursor location
My team has reported an issue which started recently where when we paste an image into a new or existing reply or comment, the pasted image seems to ignore the current cursor location instead paste itself at the last character present in the reply/comment,'Pinned' notes feature of a pipeline record
Hi team, Could you please implement a feature which will allow users to pin different notes so that they will appear at the very top of the notes tab in a pipeline record. Sometimes we have a wide range of notes on a record which means more importantCanvas Detail View Related List Sorting
Hello, I am having an issue finding a way to sort a related list within a canvas detail view. I have sorted the related list on the page layout associated with the canvas view, but that does not transfer to the canvas view. What am I missing?Announcing new features in Trident for Mac (1.37.0)
Hello everyone! We’re excited to introduce the latest updates to Trident, which are designed to take workplace communication to the next level. Let’s dive into the details. Import EML archives directly into Trident. You can now import EML archives intoZia Agent activation in Zoho Desk forces new Organization creation instead of deploying to existing one
While attempting to complete the deployment and activation sequence of a new Zia Agent within our existing Zoho Desk environment, the activation process failed on the user interface, throwing a generic error (see print). However, despite the activation#10 Bill While You Sleep
A consultant is reviewing last month's work. Client meetings? Done. Deliverables? Sent. Support requests? Resolved. Then they realize something. "I have completed the work... but I haven't billed the client yet." The work was completed. The client wasTeam Module Issues?
We are testing Team Licenses for use by our Customer Service staff. I created a Teamspace called CSR and only assigned two users to this space: Administrator (me) and “Team License Test.” Team License Test is assigned to the Team User profile, with aAccess images from form submission in power automate
Images from form submission show up as links in power automate. How do I access the image data?Forms cannot be accessed.
https://forms.zoho.com/ is not available, please help to fixAssociate records via the Multi-select lookup RELATED LIST via API
In the REST API, is there a way to associate records for a multi-select lookup related list other than via the linking module? There are two methods for the lookup: 1. via insert records API 2. via the linking module ...as described in https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/kaizen-125-manipulating-multi-select-lookup-fields-mxn-using-zoho-crm-apisProblem with CRM Connection not Refreshing Token
I've setup a connection with Zoom in the CRM. I'm using this connection to automate some registrations, so my team doesn't have to manually create them in both the CRM and Zoom. Connection works great in my function until the token expires. It does not refresh and I have to manually revoke the connection and connect it again. I've chatted with Zoho about this and after emailing me that it couldn't be done I asked for specifics on why and they responded. "The connection is CRM is not a feature toHow do I post a new question in Zoho Community forums?
Hi everyone, I’m new to the Zoho Community and I’m trying to figure out how to properly create and publish a new topic in the forum. When I visit the community page, I can’t clearly find the option like “Add Topic” or “Post Question.” Could someone guideKaizen #245 - Real Time Signal Alerts for High-Value Abandoned Checkouts
Howdy, Tech Wizards! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen. In this post, we will build a real-time abandoned checkout notification system using Stripe, Zoho CRM Functions, Sales Signals, and Widgets. When a customer abandons a high-value purchase, ZohoUnable to attach Fillable File Upload field to Merge Template ever since UI update
Ever since the new UI update, the field for Attachments for sending document for Signing in Writer has had an issue where trying to add a Fillable item in the Attachment field ends up always becoming a "Choose a File From Drive" option instead. No matterLatest updates in Zoho Meeting | An improved Analytics tab and user interface, an invite pop-up revamp, an enhanced Zoho Meeting iOS app, a recording feature in the Android app, and more
Hello everyone, We’re excited to share a few updates and enhancements in Zoho Meeting. Here's what we've been working on lately: Improved analytics for meetings, an invite pop-up revamp, a multi-video feed interface in the iOS app, a recording featureInquiry Regarding Automated Assignment of Zoho TeamInbox Messages using Zoho Flow and Deluge
Hello, Our company is currently using Zoho TeamInbox, and we are interested in automating the assignment of responsible parties using tools such as ZOHO Flow and Deluge. Is it possible to achieve this? Allow me to provide more details. Currently, whenKaizen #125 Manipulating Multi-Select Lookup fields (MxN) using Zoho CRM APIs
Hello everyone! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen. In last week's post in the Kaizen series, we discussed how subforms work in Zoho CRM and how to manipulate subform data using Zoho CRM APIs. In this post, we will discuss how to manipulate a multi-select[Bug] WebAuthn passkey registration blocked on rpIds with TLDs longer than 6 characters (.accountant, .technology, etc.) — isValidDomain regex too strict
Hi, Filing on behalf of an enterprise customer where Zoho Vault is deployed across the company. The Chrome extension blocks WebAuthn passkey registration on legitimate sites whose Relying Party ID (rpId) has a TLD longer than 6 letters. This affects everyCelebrating the businesses behind Bigin: Customer Awards 2026
Hello Biginners, We're excited to announce the very first Bigin Customer Awards! If Bigin has played a role in your organization's journey, we'd love to hear about it. Share your story for a chance to be recognized among the best Bigin users across industries.Client Script Button in Related List become invalid
Hi, I am the admin of our organization. And I setup a client script button in related list to raise payment refund request While this button become non selectable recently. I believe there is something wrong from zoho as this button had run for a year.Send Email Directly to Channel
Hi, We are coming from Slack. In Slack each channel has a unique Email address that you can send emails too. I currently forward a specific type of email from my Gmail InBox directly do this channel for Verification Codes so my team doesn't have to askZoho Desk: Auto-resizing of the "Description" textarea when creating a ticket.
I would like to suggest an improvement for Zoho Desk regarding the Auto-Height-Resizing for Description field on the “Create a Ticket” page. It would be highly beneficial if the editor supported auto-resize functionality, allowing it to adjust dynamically[URGENT] Cannot access Functions tab in CRM
Navigating to /settings/functions/myFunctions gives this error message: "Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again later." I raised this issue with Zoho Support on Monday (3 days ago) but have not heard back. I'm sure it's clear how important it isNot able to see appointements when the territory permission is activated
Hello, I created different territories to separate the various departments within the company that will be working on different projects. The issue I am currently experiencing is that when I enable territory-based permissions, I can see the work orderAccepting Event from Outlook Client
I've noticed this behavior for a few years now. If an Event is created from CRM and sent to participants and the participant accepts the invitation using Outlook client, Zoho event won't be updated as "Going" it only works if the recipient accepts itIs there an API endpoint to retrieve the remaining email credit balance?
Hi everyone, Is there any way to retrieve the remaining email credit balance programmatically through the API? I've gone through the full API documentation and it seems like there's no endpoint for this — everything related to credits is only visibleSwitch between multiple LLMs instantly for tailored Zia experiences
Availability Editions: Professional , Enterprise, Ultimate , CRMPlus , ZohoOne Release Plan: Available for all DCs Hello everyone, Previously, the multi-LLM feature supported only one LLM at a time for Zia Record Assistant, which restricted users' flexibilityZoho CRM Community Digest - April 2026 | Part 2
Hello Everyone! We're back with Part 2 of the April Zoho CRM Community Digest to wrap up our monthly roundup. This week, the spotlight is on smart database connections, proactive error tracking, and optimizing subform line items without breaking your【西日本初開催】「AI and DX Summit 2026」のご案内
ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは！ 西日本初開催となるZoho ユーザー / 検討中の方々向けイベントのご紹介です。 AI・DX大型カンファレンス「AI and DX Summit 2026」を、2026年7月16日（木）に開催します。 会場は、ウォルドーフ・アストリア大阪。 グラングリーン大阪直結のラグジュアリーな空間で、AIとDXの最新トレンド、実践事例、 展示、ネットワーキングが集結する、特別な1日をお届けします。 👉イベントページを見る ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ AIとDXの“今”を、体感。Zoho Desk MCP doesn't expose all functions
Hello, I'd like to be able to draft (rather than send) ticket replies using Claude Cowork. However, the Zoho Desk MCP doesn't currently offer that, despite it being available in the API (https://desk.zoho.com/DeskAPIDocument#Threads#Threads_DraftEmailReply).Next Page