Custom Project Status Changes Unexpectedly Affect All Layouts

Custom Project Status Changes Unexpectedly Affect All Layouts

EDIT: Posted this 3 weeks ago accidentally in the ZOHO One forum, zero replies there so posting it here in hopes of someone at ZOHO either explaining how this is intentional, or letting me know it's added to a bug tracker to fix (or maybe even just document it).

Well that was a fun couple hours.  We have 60-100 ongoing projects at any one time and Project Status is a critical way for us to tell where things are at in our pipeline.  I hopped on Projects to get current status for a customer, and  saw several statuses - with multiple projects - that I did not recognize.

I won't go through all the stuff we did to figure out how to get Project Statuses back correctly and eventually figure out the bug, but here's the problem.

There are two "scopes" of Project Status in ZOHO Projects:
 - Global
 - Layout-Specific

Didn't know that?  Me neither.  Because there is no way to know - within any given layout - what kind of custom Status value you're working on.  What does this mean?

We have a default layout for most of our projects - call it Layout A.  We have another type of project that deserved its own layout because it requires different fields, a different status, etc.  So, we created Layout B as a clone of Layout A.  Then, they started modifying the statuses and values in Layout B to make them what they want.  What none of us realized until too late was that ALL EXISTING PROJECTS based on Layout A received the status changes from Layout B!!!!

Why?  Because apparently when you create a new Layout as a clone of an existing, you're automatically getting "Global" scope statuses.  So, any changes you make in your new layout get applied to ALL OTHER LAYOUTS using those Globally-scoped statuses.  How do you tell where those are?  You can't.  Just make updates (status name or color) and then go searching for projects that look changed.

If you manually add statuses to a Layout, you can select from a dropdown that pops up (now it's a Global status) or free-type it in (now it's a Local status) but, again, once it's in there's no way to tell.

Fortunately I stumbled onto it only a few minutes after Layout B had been modified.  Had I not, the 5 man-hours we just wasted would have been far more.

I can understand a use case for both types of statuses, but to have them just hidden behind the scenes with no way to tell which is which is catastrophic.

Steps to Reproduce:
  1. Create a new layout, call it LayoutA
  2. Add a Custom Status to LayoutA called Hold
  3. Create another layout LayoutB by cloning LayoutA
  4. Edit the Status in LayoutB from "Hold" to "Holding", Apply and Save
  5. Open LayoutA to see that it no longer has a status "Hold" as it's also been updated to "Holding"
  6. Add another status to LayoutA called "Wait", Apply and Save
  7. Open LayoutB, add a Status, type "w" and select "Wait" from the dropdown that pops up, Apply and Save
  8. In LayoutB, update the status "Wait" to "Waiting", Apply and Save
  9. Open LayoutA to see that "Wait" is no longer a status, it's now "Waiting"

    Zoho Desk Resources

    • Desk Community Learning Series


    • Digest


    • Functions


    • Meetups


    • Kbase


    • Resources


    • Glossary


    • Desk Marketplace


    • MVP Corner


    • Word of the Day


      • Sticky Posts

      • Tip: How to print the Gantt View

        Though we move from the traditional project management system (using papers) to an online project management system, we still prefer to have a printed copy of the activities/tasks that are to be done in the project. This way, we can carry the to-do lists with us for the meetings and refer when we are offline. The print option, available at the right side of the page, allows the users to print the project information across all the modules. However, this option failed to print all the tasks & milestones
      • Project Management via Emails in Zoho Projects

        We write mails to communicate. In Zoho Projects, we can write mails to collaborate. Yes, Zoho Projects supports Email based project management. The mails that you send turn into tasks, bugs, project comments, forum replies, etc. The following are some of the frequently asked questions that might be of some help to you. What are the pre-requisites to manage my projects through Emails? You need to have a personal / business mail ID that is registered and confirmed with accounts.zoho.com To learn more
      • Four types of task dependencies

        "Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs."                                                                                                                  - Henry Ford Projects, small or large, are driven by simple work units called tasks. Monitoring standalone tasks might look simple but as the workflow becomes elaborate, tasks may start relying on one another. In project management, this relationship between tasks is termed as "Task Dependencies". Dependency between tasks arise
      • Task and Project numbering

        Zoho Projects now generates a unique number for each project, task, and issue added. The auto-generated ID is a combination of a prefix and a number which is assigned by Zoho Projects. The unique IDs for projects, tasks, and issues will be useful to track, identify, and search easily. You can modify the settings to enable or disable the Project and Task IDs.  Learn more on how to modify Prefix & ID settings for projects and tasks. Issue IDs cannot be disabled, only its prefix can be changed (tasks
      • Task Inline Editing Enhancement

        Hi All, Today, we have made an enhancement in task inline editing. In 4.0, task edit is moved in a single screen in a pop-up. We designed this in-order to make the task edit across the product to be the same. Let it be in Feeds, Tasks & My Tasks tab, Calendar & My Calendar tab, a click on the task title will open the popup and user can edit the values. Customers pointed us the inline editing was very useful to them & how much they miss that in 4.0. Based on the feedback, we have rolled out this enhancement.

      Zoho CRM Plus Resources

        Zoho Books Resources


          Zoho Subscriptions Resources

            Zoho Projects Resources


              Zoho Sprints Resources


                Zoho Orchestly Resources


                  Zoho Creator Resources


                    Zoho WorkDrive Resources



                      Zoho Campaigns Resources

                        Zoho CRM Resources

                        • CRM Community Learning Series

                          CRM Community Learning Series


                        • Tips

                          Tips

                        • Functions

                          Functions

                        • Meetups

                          Meetups

                        • Kbase

                          Kbase

                        • Resources

                          Resources

                        • Digest

                          Digest

                        • CRM Marketplace

                          CRM Marketplace

                        • MVP Corner

                          MVP Corner




                          Zoho Writer Writer

                          Get Started. Write Away!

                          Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                            Zoho CRM コンテンツ




                              ご検討中の方