Spotlight #2 - Part 1: 5 Custom Features you shouldn't miss in Zoho Sprints

Spotlight #2 - Part 1: 5 Custom Features you shouldn't miss in Zoho Sprints

Welcome back to our next spotlight on ' Customization'.

The product's reach is determined by how well it is customized for the end user. When customization is the key element in a product's growth, a scrum project requires tailor-made features to deliver outcomes in iterations effectively. Here is the list of five custom features that will be covered in part 1 of this spotlight. 

Let's see how these custom features in Zoho Sprints can help Helen solve her business problems. 

 

Business background

Helen is the 'Technical Lead' of a software sector 'Yards'. Her team is developing a new e-shopping website. They handle work across different teams and as the work items pile up they require an organized way of handling things. Let's see how the custom features can help the team. 

Work Item Type and Priority

Case
Solution
Helen wants to add all the requirements in specific types. Instead of using the default work item types (Story, Task, and Bug), she can customize the types.       

Helen can use  CUSTOM WORK ITEM TYPE   and add new work items type. She can create all the categories in her website as the work item types: 

  • Electronics - Requirements related to gadgets are added to this type.  
  • Fashion  - Requirements related to men and women clothing are added to this type.  
  • Decors  - Requirements related to home decors are added to this type.   


This works similar for priority. She can access CUSTOM PRIORITY  and set new priorities for her team.  

Custom Layouts and Fields

Case
Solution
The default work item form has general fields for work items across domains. However, Helen would like to specify specific fields related to every department of her team. For example, she likes to have a specific layout for clothing related work items, shipping etc.  

Helen can create CUSTOM LAYOUTS and FIELDS  for every department. These layouts can be associated with specific projects and the work becomes organized.    

  • Shipping Layout - It has all the work item fields right from customer ordering the material to the shipping team working on the delivery.   

  • Decoration Layout - It has the custom fields related to user requests for interior and exterior decors.   

  • Textiles Layout - All the clothing related work items across categories (Men, Women, and Kids) are included in this layout.  

Each of these layouts are associated with the relevant projects and the work is made easy for Helen. 

Project Templates

Case
Solution  
Helen and her team have enrolled in a new project that is similar to the current project they are working on. They have a similar request from the customers for creating a new category for  'KIDS - CLOTHING '. How can they recreate all the items and sprints? 
The new project will have sections and layouts similar to the existing project.

  • Helen can create a TEMPLATE by importing all the work items and sprints. She can now associate it to the KIDS - CLOTHING project. This will break the hurdle of recreating the same set of work items multiple times. 
 

Custom Status on Scrum Board 

Case  
Solution  
Since, Helen handles work across different teams, she can track a clear progress of each stage in the sprint. Working with default three statuses: To do, In progress, and Done will work for projects with small goals. However, Helen works for deliverables across different domains. For example, she has to categorize the progress of the work items based on the users purchase order.   

Helen's constraint is resolved by creating  CUSTOM STATUS . She can create different statuses that are specific to her departments. This can help her in managing deliverables in an organized way across sprints. Every stage is added as a status. For instance, the initial work will be added to To Do and later moved on to any of the following status: 

  • Orders Placed 
  • Items packed in Dispatch warehouse 
  • Shipped  
  • Orders delivered 
  • Orders returned 
  • Redelivery  

Work Item Linking

Case   
Solution   
Helen has got a bulk order for 'Denim Jeans' and this work item is passed on to the warehouse team. Unfortunately, they found a bug in the delivered materials. Now, the warehouse team has to order a new box of materials from the company. The team calls Helen and asks the shipping team to hold back the order. How can she handle this situation?
The customer's order is now dependent on the issue. Only when the issue is resolved the team can ship the product. Helen can now use the WORK ITEM LINKING  feature and link work item with the issue.   
  • Work item A - Customer Order - Denim Jeans   
  • Work Item B - Bug in the material 
  • Work Item C - Redispatch materials to the company and place an order for the new box  
  • Work Item D - Ship the new material to the customers  

Helen can now set the  ‘Depends on’  link type for Item A and select all the depending items (B, C, and D).   


A detailed walk-through on linking work items is published in our previous spotlight. Read more .      

That's how customization helps Helen and her team to organize and manage their project requirements. In the second part, we will discuss the next five custom features and how Helen uses them to manage her team.

PS: If you got any queries comment here or contact support@zohosprints.com  
  
Happy customizing!   

    • Sticky Posts

    • Ask the experts - Live Q and A on the latest releases from Jan-Apr 2019

      Hello all,   We are excited to kick-start the 'Ask the experts' community series for Zoho Sprints. This series is user-centric and we will focus more on the latest releases and queries that are frequently discussed in our customer support tickets. The first version will cover all the features released in the first quarter of 2019.    What's in the first half?   The first half of this year has been successful with some feature releases and enhancements. Take a look at the list below: Custom layouts

    • Focus Group #1 - Epics in Zoho Sprints

      Hello, everyone! As a part of our community learning series, we kick-start "Focus Groups" where you'll get a chance to have a look at a feature that's in its beta phase. "Epic" has been one of the most requested features of late. So, our first focus is on epics.  Our engineering team has developed a module for Epic in Zoho Sprints and the feature is in its testing phase now. We've planned to show a small demo to the folks who register with us through this post. You can also evaluate this feature

    Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


      • Recent Topics

      • Unlocking New Levels: Zoho Payroll's Journey in 2025

        Every year brings its own set of challenges and opportunities to rethink how payroll works across regulations and teams. In 2025, Zoho Payroll continued to evolve with one clear focus: giving businesses more flexibility, clarity, and control as they grow.

      • Can I export all attachments from Zoho CRM?

        Can I export all attachments from Zoho CRM?

      • Please can the open tasks be shown in each customer account at the top.

        Hi there This has happened before, where the open tasks are no longer visible at the top of the page for each customer in the CRM. They have gone missing previously and were reinstated when I asked so I think it's just after an update that this feature

      • What's new in Zoho Sheet: Simplify data entry and collaboration

        Hello, Zoho Sheet community! Last year, our team was focused on research and development so we could deliver updates that enhance your spreadsheet experience. This year, we’re excited to deliver those enhancements—but we'll be rolling them out incrementally

      • Community Digest — Noviembre y Diciembre 2025

        ¡Hola, Comunidad de Zoho en Español! Cerramos el año de la mejor forma con nuestro último Community Digest de 2025, donde podrás encontrar las últimas novedades de nuestros productos. ¿Todo listo para empezar 2026 con el mejor pie? ¡Vamos a ello! Zoho

      • Zoho Projects Plus’ 2025- the year we launched

        We’ve been building project management tools for the past 19 years, and a question we often hear is: Different teams in our organization prefer different project management methods; while the development team prefers agile, the marketing and sales teams

      • Why can't we change the Account type from an Expense to an Asset?

        Like the question. Why in QuickBooks for example if I mistakenly created an account as an expenses and I already captured information in those accounts, I can just change the account type from expense to asset

      • Zoho Books emails suddenly going to Spam since 11 Nov 2025 (Gmail + now Outlook) — anyone else?

        Hi everyone, We migrated to Zoho Books in July 2025 and everything worked fine until 11 Nov 2025. Since then, Zoho Books system emails are landing in customers’ Spam (first Gmail, and now we’re seeing Outlook/Office 365 also starting to spam them). Impacted

      • How do you print a refund check to customer?

        Maybe this is a dumb question, but how does anyone print a refund check to a customer? We cant find anywhere to either just print a check and pick a customer, or where to do so from a credit note.

      • Data Import | Zoho Analytics Custom Query Window Size

        Please increase the window size for the Custom Query Data Import. It's impossible to work with such a small query window.

      • Company Multiple Branch/ Location Accounting

        Hi All, anyone know whether company can maintain their multiple Branch Accounting in Zoho  Books. It will be chart of Accounts & Master Data will be same but different report available as per per Branch. Thanks & regards, Vivek +91 9766906737

      • Zoho Books Invoices Templates

        It would be really helpful to have more advanced features to customise the invoice templates in Zoho Books. Especially I´m thinking of the spacing of the different parts of the invoice (Address line etc.). If you have a sender and receiver address in

      • Support for Developing Zoho Recruit Extensions via Zoho Sigma

        Hi, I’m interested in building an extension for Zoho Recruit using Zoho Sigma. However, when I navigate to Sigma and attempt to create a new extension (via the "New Extension" option), Zoho Recruit does not appear as a listed service—only options like

      • Email Administrators! Join our tips & troubleshooting series

        Greetings to all the admins out there! This announcement is exclusively for you. As we step into the New Year, we’re excited to start a dedicated series of admin-specific tips curated to support you. These posts will help you overcome everyday challenges

      • Notes badge as a quick action in the list view

        Hello all, We are introducing the Notes badge in the list view of all modules as a quick action you can perform for each record, in addition to the existing Activity badge. With this enhancement, users will have quick visibility into the notes associated

      • Deprecation of the Zoho OAuth connector

        Hello everyone, At Zoho, we continuously evaluate our integrations to ensure they meet the highest standards of security, reliability, and compliance. As part of these ongoing efforts, we've made the decision to deprecate the Zoho OAuth default connector

      • Personalize your booking pages with Custom CSS

        Greetings from the Zoho Bookings team! We’re introducing Custom CSS for Zoho Bookings, designed to give you complete control over the look and feel of your booking pages. With this new feature, you can upload your own CSS file to customize colors, fonts,

      • Free Webinar : Unlock AI driven business insights with Zoho Inventory + Zoho Analytics

        Are you tired of switching between apps and exporting data to build customized reports? Say hello to smarter & streamlined insights! Join us for this exclusive webinar where we explore the power of the Zoho Inventory–Zoho Analytics integration. Learn

      • No OR Filter for Views with a Related Modules Criteria

        We would like to create a Deal View where the User can see all their deals. For that, we would need an OR to connect the criteria. One of the Fields is a "multiselect User", these (Related Modules Criteria) can only be Filter with an AND. Even between

      • Import Function: ONLY update empty fields

        When setting up an import from a spreadsheet to CRM, there is a checkbox "Don't update empty values for existing contacts" (see screenshot below). While I see some limited benefit from this functionality, I think there should also be an "ONLY update empty

      • Sales IQ Chat Widget is Only Displaying Last Name

        Can anyone suggest why the widget is only displaying "last name"?! We have the latest version of the wordpress plugin installed. Thanks Thanks!

      • Free Webinar: Zoho Sign for Zoho Projects: Automate tasks and approvals with e-signatures

        Hi there! Handling multiple projects at once? Zoho Projects is your solution for automated and streamlined project management, and with the Zoho Sign extension, you can sign, send, and manage digital paperwork directly from your project workspace. Join

      • Begin the year with best practices in the Zoho Desk mobile app : Part 2

        In focus: Optimizing collaboration and supervision Let's begin 2026 with Part 2 of our tips series on driving your ticketing operations at your fingertips. In Part 1, we explored streamlining operations within tickets. This helped individuals at Omniserve

      • Can we disable add to cart in Zoho Commerce?

        Hello, Our sales happen on the phone. During the call the customer is directed to our website to inspect the products together with the sales rep. So we need a way to present our inventory. I figured Zoho Commerce is a good fit for this use case. However we would have to disable the possibility to purchase products in the shop. Is that possible? Sunny regards, Artjom

      • How to update "Lead Status" to more than 100 records

        Hello Zoho CRM, How do I update "Lead Status" to more than 100 records at once? To give you a background, these leads were uploaded or Imported at once but the lead status record was incorrectly chosen. So since there was a way to quickly add records in the system no matter how many they are, we are also wondering if there is a quicker way to update these records to the correct "Lead Status". I hope our concern makes sense and that there will be a fix for it. All the best, Jonathan

      • Zoho DataPrep and File Pattern configuration

        I'm using Zoho data prep to ingest data from One Drive into Zoho Analytics... The pipeline is super simple but I can't any way to get all the files that I need. Basically I need to bring all the files with a certain pattern and for that I'm using a regex

      • JWT Token authentication problem that sometimes generates infinite redirect loops

        Description : Nous proposons un bouton sur notre plateforme permettant de rediriger l'utilisateur vers le portail ZohoDesk via un jeton JWT pour une authentification transparente. Cependant, il arrive que certains utilisateurs soient pris dans une boucle

      • Zoho desk desktop application

        does zoho desk has a destop applicaion?

      • ZOHO Work Drive Back Up

        I am looking for a ZOHO Work Drive backup solution. Something that is cloud based. There's lots of these kinds of options for Google Drive and other providers, but I have not seen anything for WorkDrive. Any suggestions?

      • ZOHO Reports - Filter Logic?

        Hi, I need a way to apply filter logics such as ((1 AND 2) OR 3). All I can see as of now is a way to enter different AND filters in the respective filter column. But how can I add an OR filter? Any advice would be highly appreciated. Mark

      • Scanned Doc - selecting Item overwrites Rate

        I have a Vendor Invoice which was uploaded to Documents. I select Add To > New Bill. The OCR is actually quite good, but it is reading an Item Description instead of an Item Number. I remove the description and select the correct Item Number... and it

      • Recruit API search

        Hi all, Attempting to call the search api endpoint from Postman using the word element as mentioned in api docs Search Records - APIs | Online Help - Zoho Recruit When making the call to /v2/Candidates/search?word=Saudi receive response of { "code": "MANDATORY_NOT_FOUND",

      • Saving reading position + Keep screen on

        While Zoho Notebook is excellent for saving and annotating articles, its utility is severely limited by the lack of reading progress synchronization. On the Android app, if a user exits a long note after reading 50%, the app fails to save the position.

      • Multiple Vendor SKUs

        One of the big concerns we have with ZOHO Inventory is lack of Vendor Skus like many other inventory software packages offer. Being able to have multiple vendor skus for the same product would be HUGE! It would populate the appropriate vendor Sku for

      • Zoho LandingPage is integrated with Zoho One!

        Greetings to the Zoho One users out there! We're delighted to let you know that Zoho LandingPage is available in Zoho One too! With Zoho LandingPage, you can host custom-made landing pages, and persuade the visitors to dive deeper by making further clicks,

      • Android app sync problem - multiple devices have same problem

        Hello, I am having a problem with synchronization in the Android app. When I create a drawing, the data does not sync correctly—only a blank note is created without the drawing. I tested this on multiple devices, including phones and tablets, and the

      • How can i resend a campaign to only one of the recipients on the original campaign

        How can i resend a campaign to only one of the recipients on the original campaign ? Sincererly, Mike

      • How to show branch instead of org name on invoice template?

        Not sure why invoices are showing the org name not the branch name? I can insert the branch name using the ${ORGANIZATION.BRANCHNAME} placeholder, but then it isn't bold text anymore. Any other ideas?

      • Create CRM Deal from Books Quote and Auto Update Deal Stage

        I want to set up an automation where, whenever a Quote is created in Zoho Books, a Deal is automatically created in Zoho CRM with the Quote amount, customer details, and some custom fields from Zoho Books. Additionally, when the Sales Order is converted

      • Marketing Automation Requirements Questions

        I would like to set up a multi-email drip campaign- please see the structure below and confirm if I can achieve this set up in Zoho marketing automation. Where applicable, highlight gaps and workarounds. Thanks Drip email campaign- Can I create one drip

      • Next Page