CRM Hack #3: How to update formula functions for already created records.

CRM Hack #3: How to update formula functions for already created records.

Hello everyone!

 

It’s Wednesday and we are back with yet another hack.. 

 

I'm sure you've used formula fields to meet some requirements specific to your business. Let's consider an example each for external (customer-facing) and internal facing scenarios where you'd have used formula fields. 

 

i) You are an insurance company and have added a formula to determine the age of your customers to check eligibility for a particular policy. 

ii) You have over a hundred potentials and have created a formula to calculate the commission for your sales representative based on the amount in the potential and stage.

 

Now, in both these cases, you'd want to apply to the earlier records as well, right? Here's a simple hack that lets you do update the formula to the records already created.

 

1. Click on the tools icon at the top right corner and go to Setup.



2. Go to the module concerned, say Leads.




3 You'll find a list of new fields that can be used inside the layout on the left side panel. Select the check box, and drag and drop the field inside the layout and rename it appropriately and save the layout. 





4.Go to leads and select the records that are already available using the corresponding checkbox and click on the three dots at the top. Now,select mass update for the checkbox field that you created .



 




What happens now is a mass update of all the records triggering the formula action as well.


PS: Please note that you can only mass update up to 500 records at a time, by selecting 100 records and navigating to the next 5 pages thus selecting 500 in total.

 

 

Try this and let me know if it helped! Until next Wednesday!


PS: Edit to the post. Initially we had the option to update the formula field based on a field update, but this would update the formula field every time when a record is updated. Hence, now to update a formula field you have to make sure the field to be updated must be invoked with the formula field. Here is a example based on a user a requirement. I have a checkbox field called "Mass update check" In order for the formula field to update based on the checkbox field I have to invoke this field within the formula. Here is the formula with the "Mass update check" check box field invoked.

If(Tostring(${Candidates.Mass update check})=='true',Abs(Datecomp(${Candidates.Candidate Updated Time},${Candidates.Phone screen complete}))/24/60,0)

Check and let us know if you have any further clarification.





    • Sticky Posts

    • 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

      <br> 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,
    • Q4 Europe In-person Zoho User Group Meetup: Streamlining Your Business Processes & Introduction to Zoho CRM for Everyone

      Hello Zoho Community, We are excited to announce our upcoming Zoho User Group meetup in Europe! This session is designed to help you streamline your business processes using Zoho CRM, with a special focus on enhancing customer interactions and leveraging
    • Recent Topics

    • Global Sets for Multi-Select pick lists

      When is this feature coming to Zoho CRM? It would be very useful now we have got used to having it for the normal pick lists.
    • Color of Text Box Changes

      Sometimes I find the color of text boxes changed to a different color. This seems to happen when I reopen the same slide deck later. In the image that I am attaching, you see that the colors of the whole "virus," the "irology" part of "virology," and
    • Issues with certain CRM, Desk & webhook blocks in Guided Conversations

      Good day I have been attempting to add a block on our guided conversations, which give our customers relavent information based on their queries. The issue is that when I attempt to use a block that fetches data I get the following error popup: Cannot
    • Zoho Sign API lacking clarity

      I'm trying to use Zoho Sign to embed a document for signing into a web application, and the documentation is proving to to be lacking something. Some issues... 1) No clarity if the API only works with a document uploaded through the API -- it would be
    • 【Zoho CRM】キャンバス機能のアップデート

      ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの藤澤です。 今回は「Zoho CRM アップデート情報」の中からキャンバス機能のアップデートをご紹介します。 新たに追加された「可変式ボックス」では、データの表示方法を柔軟にカスタマイズ可能です。画面サイズやデバイスに応じてレイアウトが自動調整されるため、より快適なユーザー体験が実現します。 【目次】 可変式ボックスとは 主要機能の詳細 より高度な可変式ツール 1.可変式ボックスとは 可変式ボックスをレイアウトに組み込むことで、高いカスタマイズ性と柔軟なデザインが可能になり、データの視覚化やユーザーインタラクションがより効果的に行うことができます。以下が可変式ボックスが備える主要な機能の概要です。
    • Unable to delete Attachment on Modules/Record

      Hi Team, Could you please check the backend. Looks like today, CRM decided not to allow deletion of Attachment on Modules or Records. No error message but when you click Delete > Move to recycle bin, nothing happens. Please fix ASAP.
    • Simple Text Search Function

      Would it be too much to ask for a simple text search function? My slide decks are often simply collections of slides of a random over, and I often have to find the slide I need at a moment's notice. A text search function, no matter how rudimentary, would
    • Removed email address - can't access account

      Hi Zoho Support Team, I recently removed my email address from my Zoho Desk account (which is part of our organization's Desk setup) and then signed out. Now, I’m unable to log back in because there is no email address associated with the account, even
    • Customers not receiving emails

      So, a little backstory, we have been using Zoho Forms for the past eight years. And when we initially started, we would have email notifications be sent from inside Zoho Forms after a submission. We recently started using Zoho CRM as we wanted a better
    • Clone a Module??

      I am giong to repurpose the Vendors module but would like to have a separate but very similar module for another group of contacts called Buyers. I have already repurposed Contacts to Sellers. Is it possible to clone (make a duplicate) module of Vendors
    • Share passwords/secrets and folders/chambers with external users

      Currently you allow sharing passwords with internal users, internal user groups, and third parties. The third party feature gives temporary access of 30 minutes and it does not have any sign up. What we really need is to properly share secrets/passwords (and ideally folders/chambers) with Zoho Vault users that are not part of our organisation - even if they are on the free plan. If they accept the share, the password would be stored in their Zoho Vault as long as I maintain the share. If I revoke
    • Does Zoho US Payroll now support employees in multiple states?

      Does Zoho US now support having employees in multiple US states? I looked at the site and can't find and of the restrictions on multiple states anywhere.
    • Zoho Payroll: Product Updates | April 2025

      At Zoho Payroll, we’re always working to make every payday feel effortless. And sometimes, that means listening closely to your unique needs. This month, we’ve focused on adding features that give you the flexibility to pay your employees based on your
    • Notebook for watch no longer in Play store.

      I had to reinstall Notebook on my Galaxy Watch 7. Alas: the app is no longer available in the Play store. What now?
    • move notebooks to another notebook?

      Do I have the ability to add one or more existing notebooks to another notebook? For example, I have an existing notebook named Dog, with several articles in it, and I would like to move it to another notebook called animals?
    • Import from OneNote

      Is there a way to import notes from OneNote? 
    • Add export option that only export one or selected notebooks

      Currently the export function will export ALL data every time, this not only wastes user bandwidth, disk I/O and local storage space, but also consumes more resources on the server. Partial export should be a very basic and easy-to-implement feature.
    • Make other sub fields mandatory, if first subfield is not empty

      I am not finding an option in the rules to make other sub fields mandatory if the first sub field is not empty. I am using the name field to collect parts info, with sub fields of Part Name, Part Number, and Quantity. But I don't want these mandatory
    • Is Zoho Marketing Plus part of Zoho One?

      Hi, Is the new fancy Zoho Marketing Plus part of the Zoho One package? Is there any benefit in using this rather than the standalone products? Many thanks Jon
    • Ability to Initiate WhatsApp Template Messages in Zoho SalesIQ Without Preexisting Chat

      Hi Zoho SalesIQ Team, I hope you're doing well. I understand that with the WhatsApp integration in SalesIQ, clients can contact us via WhatsApp, and we can use WhatsApp templates to send messages outside of the 24-hour window by reopening an existing
    • Duplicating Forms doesn't duplicate Forms attachment path to workdrive

      Hi, I have this user, who uses one forms and duplicates it when needed and update the content. For him, it's important to have the submission forms saved in a specific folder inside Workdrive (as this PDF is transmitted later to another team). However,
    • Zoho Creator Mobile app no Default Workspace

      When I use the Zoho Creator mobile app I do not get a default workspace. This is occurring for me and another new user. I believe this is an issue with Zoho One / Zoho Creator. I have tried working with support and it's been over a week of no solution
    • Kaizen #189: Manipulating Multi-Module Lookup (MML) Field using Zoho CRM APIs

      Hello everyone! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen. In this post, we explore the Multi-Module Lookup (MML) field in the Appointments module of Zoho CRM. You learn what an MML field is, how it works, and how to use it with Zoho CRM APIs. Table of Contents:
    • Xcode 16.2

      I am facing multiple bitcode enable issue with Zoho. Which version is compatible with xcode 16.2 or version with out bitcode Flutter 3.27.4 pod 'ZohoDeskPortalCore' pod 'ZohoDeskPortalServices'
    • Unable to invite contacts

      Hi! I'm unable to invite contacts as end-users from my trial account. The green pop-up displays "Invited succesfully" but the email never arrives, nor the re-invitation - even though it's "sucessfully" as well. Tried with several e-mail accounts, even
    • Set expiration date on document and send reminder

      We have many company documents( for example business registration), work VISA documents. It will be nice if we can set a expiry date and set reminders ( for example 90 days, 60 days, 30 days etc.,) Does Zoho workdrive provide that option?
    • Refresh Page Or View After Workflow-Triggered Rule

      Good Morning, Is this feature that's discussed on this CRM thread available on Recruit? https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/refresh-page-or-view-after-workflow-triggered-rule
    • Forward, attach, or flag email to an open ticket.

      Hi, when resolving customer requests through tickets in Zoho Desk, it is very common to receive emails from suppliers or third parties in Zoho Mail accounts or email groups that are not registered in the system. Is there any way to forward these emails
    • Need help adding Zoho Vault License

      "Proceed" is grayed our when i try to add 5 more license on our Zoho Vault account. Thanks
    • Notifications no longer being sent to my email address for any scheduled events

      The last few weeks, I stopped receiving email notifications to my email for events I have scheduled and have a selected reminder option checked.
    • 'call for best price' option

      Hi guys, Pricing of items that we sell to end-customers changes often, so I don't want to put up a 'static' price, but would like to have the option to 'call for best price', or what-ever the best wording is.. Has anybody got a suggestion on how to do
    • Modifying product search in invoice field

      Hello, I imported my product list in Books. Since I have many products with the same name, but with different order units, and that Books doesn't permit same names in items, I used ID's number has product name, and put the product name in the description.
    • How do I embed the webinar into a webpage?

      All I can seem to do is embed the signup form. This is cheesy. Surely they must have fixed this by now, right? How do I do it?
    • Bulk upload image option in Zoho Commerce

      I dont know if I am not looking into it properly but is there no option to bulk upload images along with the products? Like after you upload the products, I will have to upload images one by one again? Can someone help me out here? And what should I enter
    • 404 Error When Using record_cursor in ZOHO.CREATOR.DATA.getRecords (js api)

      Iam working on fetching all records from a Zoho Creator report using the Get Records API (V2.1) with the following recursive function: js CopyEdit // Recursive function to fetch records using record_cursor from the response function fetchAllRecords(recordCursor
    • Add haptic feedback when QR / barcode is scanned

      Hi, One of my user has a Creator App and scan QR codes. He suggests a haptic feedback is a great addition to validate that the QR code is effectively scanned and inserted in to the field. He is using an iPad for scanning. Thank you !
    • Input list of records in Lookup

      Salut, I have 2 scripts that input list of records in a lookup. The first on works fine, the second one doesn't and I do not know why. The only differences, is that the first one input in a lookup a list of records from an actual lookup field, and with
    • Are downloadable product available in Zoho Commerce

      Hi all. We're considering switching to Zoho Commerce for our shop, but we sell software and remote services. Is there a features for downloadable products? I can't find any information about this. Thank you very much Alice
    • Parent-Child Tickets using API or Deluge

      Hi Everyone, We are looking at the parent-child ticketing features in Zoho Desk. We want to be able to create a parent ticket at customer level and nest child tickets underneath. The issue we are facing is to be able to automate this. I'm checking the
    • In line code commenting in Deluge

      A request to enhance readability: currently you can add 'in line' comments for Deluge code, but after you save and reopen, the comments are moved down to the new line. i.e. info "test response"; //this is a info statement for a test response gets changed
    • Next Page