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.






      Zoho Campaigns Resources


        • Desk Community Learning Series


        • Digest


        • Functions


        • Meetups


        • Kbase


        • Resources


        • Glossary


        • Desk Marketplace


        • MVP Corner


        • Word of the Day


        • Ask the Experts


          • 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

            <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,

          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 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

                                  • Recent Topics

                                  • SalesIQ Chat Owner to CRM Lead Owner Mapping

                                    There is no proper mapping between the SalesIQ chat owner and the CRM lead owner. When a chat is assigned to an agent, the lead created in CRM is often assigned to a different user, forcing admins to manually change ownership every time. This creates
                                  • Product line search in quotes

                                    Is there a way to change the search setting when you add a product line to a quote. We have created a field in products called 'Part Number' and I would like when I'm adding a product line to the quote that I can search on that field. At the moment it only searches on product description. In products I can search on the 'Part Number' field Any help welcome.
                                  • 🚀 WorkDrive 6.0 (Phase 1): Empowering Teams with Content Intelligence, Automation, Accessibility, and Control

                                    Hello, everyone! WorkDrive continues to evolve from a robust file management solution into an intelligent, secure, and connected content collaboration platform for modern businesses. Our goal remains unchanged: to simplify teamwork, strengthen data security,
                                  • Storage Limits

                                    Hello, What is the storage limitations for each user on professional edition?  Thanks, Mekki
                                  • Zoho Recruit Community Meetup - London 🇬🇧

                                    Hello Recruiters! We’re excited to announce that the Zoho Recruit team is coming to the UK for an in-person Zoho User Group (ZUG) Meetup in London! This is your chance to connect with fellow Zoho users, learn from experts, and walk away with actionable
                                  • Power Pivot and Data Modeling functionality in Zoho Sheet

                                    When will MS Excel functionalities like Power Pivot and Data Modeling functionalities be available in Zoho Sheet?
                                  • Global Search placement in the new UI

                                    Having a hard time with the global search placement in the UI redesign. Surely I can't be the only one. Previously global search placement was perfect. A bar at the top/center of the page. Exactly where you would expect it to be. Since the new UI has
                                  • What's New - January 2026 | Zoho Backstage

                                    Welcome to 2026! If you thought last year was big, buckle up. We’re stepping into this year with a singular focus: unimaginable growth, elite scalability, and performance benchmarks that leave the old ways of event management in the rearview mirror. As
                                  • Cliq on your mobile phone

                                    Some of the employees in my company get their cliq on their mobile phones but it will not let them answer the call. The employee has to go to their laptop to access it. 
                                  • Bulk Delete Messages in Cliq

                                    Isn't it possible to bulk delete messages in Cliq? I have them delivered to me as notifications from another service but most of them need to be deleted as not of value. I get dozens of them per day, and deleting them is already difficult is the "Delete"
                                  • stock movement report by each transaction for each item

                                    Dear Sir we are using zoho inventory for foodstuff and we lack the transaction report which clearly shows movement of an item from Opening balance of the month to Goods received in, Supplier return out, Invoice out, Sales return In, Transfer out and Transfer
                                  • Select the task view on the board in the Zoho Connect iPhone app

                                    Hello. How do I select the task view on the board in the Zoho Connect iPhone app? The Android app has this functionality.
                                  • Unable to change Company Logo

                                    Hi Guys, I have an issue where I've uploaded a Company image in Gif format and the logo has now got a black background whereas the logo is supposed to be black not the background. I didn't think it would be an issue so I created a PNG version to upload
                                  • Metadata API Access to Functions

                                    I think it would be incredibly helpful to have api access to every function's code. Our team primarily uses deluge functions to update fields across modules according to business logic. I would like to create a visual dependancy model for our CRM, but
                                  • Historical Sales Info - Blend with Finance Invoice Line Items, Access in CRM and Desk

                                    My company has been using Zoho One since 2021, with sales data going back through 2020. However, we have been in business much longer, and we have historical sales information that we want to have at our fingertips when talking with customers (usually
                                  • Introducing Record Category in CRM: Group options to see record status at a glance.

                                    Release update: Currently available for CN, JP, and AU DCs (all paid editions). It will be made available to other DCs by mid-March. Hello everyone, We are pleased to introduce Record Category in Zoho CRM - a new capability where the user can get an overview
                                  • Service disruption in Zoho Cliq (EU Region) – February 9, 2026

                                    Hello everyone, We’d like to inform you about a brief service disruption that affected Zoho Cliq users in the EU region earlier today. The issue has been resolved, and all services are now operating normally. Summary On February 9, 2026, Zoho Cliq experienced
                                  • Spotlight series #26 - Build slides with visual clarity using Diagram

                                    Hello all! The feature in the spotlight this month is Diagram. Let's say you are a part of a project kickoff meeting and your teammate starts explaining the project life cycle like this: "First we ideate, then we create an initial prototype and share
                                  • Client scripts for Zoho Books ?

                                    Good day everyone, I am looking for a way to be able to interact with the Quotes and Invoices as they are being created. Think of it like Zoho client script in Zoho CRM. But for the life of me I dont see a way to do this. The issue with having function
                                  • Uplifted homepage experience

                                    Editions: All editions. Release Note: Available in CA and SA DCs (Standard, Professional). Availability update (17th February 2026): The feature has been enabled for the following DCs: All editions in the CA and SA DC | Free, Standard and Professional
                                  • Unable to produce monthly P&L reports for previous years

                                    My company just migrated to Books this year. We have 5+ years financial data and need to generate a monthly P&L for 2019 and a monthly P&L YTD for 2020. The latter is easy, but I'm VERY surprised to learn that default reports in Zoho Books cannot create
                                  • Crossbeam

                                    Does anyone use Crossbeam with their Zoho CRM? I'm looking for a way to import Crossbeam partner leads into Zoho CRM. If so: - What's your experience been like? - Are you able to automatically import Crossbeam leads > Zoho CRM? How? - What doesn't work
                                  • Access forms within a form

                                    I have multiple forms that I would like to create access to for users within one form. Example: I have forms A, B, C, D. I would like to create a form with the links to forms A, B, C, & D. That way we can send one link and then the user can select the
                                  • WorkDrive issues with Windows Explorer Not Responding

                                    We are using WorkDrive to collaborate on editing video content. We have a lot of files and quite a few are a few gigs. Recently anytime I try and work with the files Explorer freezes for a couple minutes whether it's dragging the files into Premiere or
                                  • Issues with Actions By Zoho Flow

                                    Hi, I have a workflow that fires when a deal reaches a stage. This then sends out a contract for the client to sign. I have connected this up through Actions by Zoho Flow. Unfortunately this fails to send out. I have tracked it down to the date fields.
                                  • Fill Mail Merge document up with subform fields of an Inventory module record being in the Related List

                                    Hi, I try to insert subform fields from an inventory module record being on the Related List of another inventory module record into a Mail Merge template without success. For example: we use ratecards in licensing and this ratecard items are available
                                  • Enhancements for Currencies in Zoho CRM: Automatic exchange rate updates, options to update record exchange rates, and more

                                    The multi-currency feature helps you track currencies region-wise. This can apply to Sales, CTC, or any other currency-related data. You can record amounts in a customer’s local currency, while the CRM automatically converts them to your home currency
                                  • Better use of contacts

                                    Zoho inventory has the ability to add multiple contacts to customers. However Zoho inventory doesn't currently provide a way to link a contact to objects like sales orders. This means that while you can tell what company has placed a sales order you can't
                                  • How can we add products using a Wizard?

                                    We want to create a Wizard to add products. Why is there no possibility to use the products module when creating a wizard?
                                  • Orphan email alias blocking user creation – backend cleanup required

                                    Hello Zoho Mail Support, I´m unable to assign or create the address xx@iezzimatica.ar in my organization. Current situation: Alias cannot be assigned to any user (system says it is already in use) New user with this address cannot be created Address does
                                  • Ensure Consistent Service Delivery with Comprehensive Job Sheets

                                    We are elated to announce that one of the most requested features is now live: Job Sheets. They are customizable, reusable forms that serve as a checklist for the services that technicians need to carry out and as a tool for data collection. While on
                                  • Something wrong with client script??

                                    Someone have the same feeling? Client script behavior become very strange..
                                  • API 500 Error

                                    Hello amazing ZOHO Projects Community, I get this message. How can we solve this? { "error": { "status_code": "500", "method": "GET", "instance": "/api/v3/portal/2010147XXXX/projects/2679160000003XXXX/timesheet", "title": "INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR", "error_type":
                                  • Polish signer experience to compete with docusign

                                    I would like to suggest that someone spend the little bit of time to polish the signer experience, and the email templates to more of a modern professional feel. They are currently very early 2000s and with some simple changes could vastly improve the
                                  • how to change the page signers see after signing a document in zoho sign

                                    Hello, How can I please change the page a signer sees after signing a document in Zoho Sign? I cannot seem to find it. As it is now, it shows a default landing page "return to Zoho Sign Home". Thanks!
                                  • Digest Janvier - Un résumé de ce qui s'est passé le mois dernier sur Community

                                    Bonjour chers utilisateurs, Le premier mois de l’année est déjà derrière nous ! Découvrons ensemble comment s'est passé janvier pour Zoho Community France. Nous avons démarré le mois avec une nouvelle intégration entre Zoho Desk et Zoho Contracts. Cette
                                  • contact support

                                    I have 2 request for a phone call and not received one call as promise!
                                  • Can we fetch Deal owner and Deal owner email with COQL?

                                    While fetching deal deatils with coql api and while fetching deal owner name and email it is just giving owner id not ginving name and email https://www.zohoapis.in/crm/v2/coql
                                  • Zoho Social - Cliq Integration / Bot

                                    Dear community / zoho, I am looking for a way to create a bot within Zoho Cliq to update my colleagues about our Zoho Social activities. For example, if a new post is published, it would be great if this post automatically would be shared in our social
                                  • Comment to DM Automation

                                    Comment to DM automation feature in Zoho Marketing Automation, similar to what tools like ManyChat offer. Use case: When a user comments on a social media post (Instagram / Facebook), the system should automatically: Send a private DM to the user Capture
                                  • Next Page