Using Zoho One to manage two (or more) businesses

Using Zoho One to manage two (or more) businesses

We are one company that operates two business, a scenario that Zoho One doesn't really seem to handle very well, and one which I can't imagine is at all unique to us!  (It is basically designed to facilitate branding and use for one business only per subscription).

A bit of background ....

In terms of Zoho One apps, our business operations mostly centre on using Inventory / Books.  Back in the beginning of our time using Zoho, when things were a bit smaller scale, I thought we might be able to run it all under one subscription, by doing such things as disabling the logo and organisation name and addresses, creating separate templates for all documents relating to each business and associating them, using reporting tags in Books so that we could run separate P&Ls for each business etc etc etc ....

BUT it became apparent fairly quickly that this was going to become complicated and messy (especially as we grew to more users etc,) and it would be better to separate the two businesses out into each having their own subscription.  A big, tear-your-hair-out kinda job that I wouldn't wish on anyone, especially having to go through Books with a fine tooth comb and separate out all the transactions!  : / 

Anyway, fast forward and now and the situation is ...

I have two separate super admin accounts, just for myself as the owner for each business.  (Annoying, but that's the way it goes ... and don't even get me started on the whole issue of having to have two separate mobile phone numbers as one individual person to open another account!  Beyond ridiculous, but Zoho appear determined to remain steadfast and not able to see any semblance of reason on that front.) 

Because I also keep an eye on the emails of our main user account at each of our locations, I am basically working across four accounts a lot of the time.  I use Firefox Multi-Container to be able to keep multiple accounts open at the same time, and that works well, but working this way can certainly get a bit higglety-pigglety!

For the most part though, it has worked out ok,  keeping the Inventory / Books separate for each business and then combining the figures when it comes to BAS tax time etc. (as, of course, one company means ONE entitiy in the eyes of the Tax Office). 

It did mean we lost the ability to do certain things like transfer stock between the two businesses, ie by having each one as a 'warehouse' under the one subscription, but we are able to fairly easily work around this by using inventory adjustments at each end instead. 

HOWEVER, the main issue that lingers is on the communications side.  We use the Workplace apps, Mail, Cliq etc within the businesses.  With Cliq as an example, it's ok if I am at my computer, because I have all the accounts open as described above, therefore I can receive / see all messages intended for me.  BUT, on my mobile phone app, because I can only be logged in to one of the Orgs at once, I'm only able to receive messages from one half of my employees!  (Depending which business's Org I am logged in to.)

And because we are one company, there are times when it would be beneficial for users in one of the businesses to be able to directly message users in the other business.  But the way it is at present they are two separate 'silos'.  

Is there anyone else out there with this situation?  If so, how do you deal with it?  With Cliq, could this problem be alleviated by adding the users from one of the Orgs as 'external' users in the other Org? 

Sometimes, I wonder if it would be better to set up a separate 'company-wide' Workplace subscription and we all use that instead of / over the top of Workplace associated with the separate Zoho One Org's but I suspect that could lead to its own set of problems. 

If anyone has any words of wisdom related to this, please let me know!

    • Sticky Posts

    • How to Add Users to your Organization in ZohoMail?

      A better clarity so you can create other users to start using Zoho Mail. You can directly Add Users from the Control Panel to your Organization. You can invite users with the existing email address. If the person (user) already uses ZohoCRM, then you can import users from Zoho CRM. You can also import them using a .csv file. (if you are planning to add them in Bulk)  In this topic, We will be discussing on how to Add and Invite users only.  The Import options are self explanatory. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


      • Recent Topics

      • Pre-orders at Zoho Commerce

        We plan to have regular producs that are avaliable for purchase now and we plan to have products that will be avaliable in 2-4 weeks. How we can take the pre-orders for these products? We need to take the money for the product now, but the delivery will
      • Payroll and BAS ( Australian tax report format )

        Hello , I am evaluating Zoho Books and I find the interface very intuitive and straight forward. My company is currently using Quickbooks Premier the Australian version. Before we can consider moving the service we would need to have the following addressed : 1.Payroll 2.BAS ( business activity statement ) for tax purposes 3.Some form of local backup and possible export of data to a widely accepted format. Regards Codrin Mitin
      • Problem with Email an invoice with multiple attachments using API

        I have an invoice with 3 attachments. When I send an email manually using the UI, everything works correctly. I receive an email with three attachments. The problem occurs when I try to initiate sending an email using the API. The email comes with only
      • Page Layouts for Standard Modules like CRM

        For standard modules like quotes, invoices, purchase orders, etc, it would be a great feature to be able to create custom page layouts with custom fields in Zoho Books similar to how you can in Zoho CRM. For example, and my current use case, I have a
      • Non-depreciating fixed asset

        Hi! There are non-depreciable fixed assets (e.g. land). It would be very useful to be able to create a new type of fixed asset (within the fixed assets module) with a ‘No depreciation’ depreciation method. There is always the option of recording land
      • Fixed asset management

        I want to know if there is any individual module for fixed assets management
      • One time sale item in billing automatically detects as service

        if i have some items which i don't want to add in my "item" list because its sold only for one time. but when i type item name in invoice, it (system) automatically takes it as a service and despite of HSN , it shows SAC code to be entered. if its selectable i.e. either item or service , it would be very helpful and a must have feature.
      • Project template after project creation

        How can I apply a project template AFTER the project has been created?
      • convert the project to templet

        i have some deployment ME product for different customer , i need to create a fixed template for use it rather then keeping creating this template every time
      • Related Module in Sharing Rules

        Zoho CRM team recently added the feature to filter records by Related Records It will be really beneficial if we can have this feature for Sharing Rules as well
      • Assignment Thresholds Resetting After Lead Conversion

        Hello everyone, We're facing an issue with Zoho CRM's lead assignment thresholds that makes them unsuitable for our workflow. I'm hoping to find a potential workaround or solution from the community. Here’s our current process: A new lead is created automatically
      • Territory view for custom modules?

        I have recently activated territories however I can't seem to find how to use territories for custom modules? These modules have territories:  Contacts /  Accounts / Opportunities These modules don't have territories:   Buildings (custom module) and 
      • Approval Process Comments

        Is it possible to view the comments entered during the approval or rejection of a record in the approval process? If not, is there a way to require a field to be completed upon approval or rejection?
      • Login for test case

        Had a few questions regarding authentication test cases and couldn't find an answer in the the docs. 1. If an app like Zoho Creator requires authentication before providing access, do I need to create a login function and add it to each test case? 2.
      • Customer members area

        Does FSM support a customer members area? If not what do you propose we use if we want the data used in FSM for customers to give them an area / login to see past orders, create new orders and general announcements.
      • Notes created in mobile can no longer be accessed in desktop

        Working with a 2013 Mac running OS 10.14.6; Desktop Notebook version 4.5.3. Using Motorola Moto G Power 5G - 2024; Android app version 6.7 I have been using Notebook for some years. Starting several weeks ago, the notes newly created ion the phone can
      • Function #49: Manage varying installment payments using Zoho Books

        . Hello everyone, and welcome back to our series! Last week, we discussed automating the collection of fixed installment payments in Zoho Books. But what if your payment structure involves charging varying percentages of the invoice total as installments?
      • Is it possible for contacts to "Re-enter" a workflow in Zoho Campaign?

        We are currently working on a way to automatically add users to from one list to other lists based on specific criteria, but can't seem to find a native way of doing this so we are trying to use Workflows to do this. So, for example, if a user's status is set to "Active," then they should be added to the list "Active Users." If the same user's status is then set to "Paused," they should be added to the list "Paused Users" and removed from the list "Active Users." This works fine for the first go
      • Bulk upload images and specifications to products

        Hi, Many users have asked this over the years and I am also asking the same. Is there any way in which we can bulk upload product (variant) images and product specifications. The current way to upload/select image for every variant is too cumbersome.
      • Out of Office for Just One of My Alias Email

        Can I set up the Out of Office Reply for Just One of my Alias Email Addresses?
      • Can I map multiple Surveys into the CRM using the same fields?

        Hello, We are a healthcare practice that offers two distinct services (Nutrition and Primary Care). We use Zoho Survey for our lead generation form (Get Started Survey), which allows people to express interest in one of the two services and even allows
      • Dealing with API responses where integers have more than 16 digits

        Hi there How do I deal with an api response contaning an int or float with more than 16 digits (before any decimal places for a float). I constantly receive the response "Unable to cast the 'BigInteger' value into a 'BIGINT' value because the input is
      • Add Zoho Mail for users who do not need Zoho One

        We have licenses for ZOho One for teams that need to use the suite of products that Zoho One offers.  We have 8 more people who only need email access and we would like to add just a Zoho Mail.  They do not need the Zoho One license.  We are currently
      • ZML vs HTML Snippet - which is better?

        Are there certain use cases where one is better than the other?
      • Auto CheckOut Based On Shift.

        This Deluge script runs on a scheduled basis to automatically set the 'Actual_Check_Out' time for employees who haven't manually checked out. If the current time is past their scheduled 'Shift_End_Time', the script updates the check-out time to match
      • Load PO_Date field (Purchase Order) with current date in Deluge

        Hi, I'm not a full time developer, just helping to customize our CRM, in the small company I work for. There must be something wrong with me, because I can't do something so simple as complete a field with the current date in a function using Deluge.
      • Zoho CRM in Microsoft Power Automate Custom Connector

        Hi everyone, I’m building a Power Automate flow that integrates Microsoft Bookings with Zoho CRM. The goal is to automatically create a meeting (event) in Zoho CRM whenever a new appointment is booked via Microsoft Bookings. To achieve this, I created
      • Spell check sucks

        Come on guys, it's 2024 and your spell check is completely retarded. You gotta fix it.
      • Zoho One Login Issue - Unable to receive OTP

        Hi Support Team, I am experiencing a unique login issue with Zoho One. I am attempting to log in from India using Zoho Login credentials provided by a USA-based client. Their Zoho account is hosted on a US data center. After entering the username and
      • In the Zoho Creator Customer Payment form i Have customer field on select of the field Data want to fetch from the invoice from based on the customer name In the Customer Payment form i Have subf

        In the Zoho Creator Customer Payment form i Have customer field on select of the field Data want to fetch from the invoice from based on the customer name In the Customer Payment form i Have subform update Invoice , there i have date field,Invoice number
      • Problem of Import Client Users From CRM and or Expense

        I am premium plan user on Projects. I have about 500 customers on Expense and CRM that integrated with each other. According to at below link, I am trying to import clients from CRM, system not allowed to select any customer. If I import from Expense,
      • equest to Disassociate Bigin from Zoho One and Migrate to Standalone (Upgrade to Bigin Premier – 3 Seats, Annual)

        Dear Zoho One Support Team, I’m writing to request your assistance to disassociate (remove) the Bigin application from our Zoho One organization while preserving all existing Bigin data. After the disconnection is successfully completed, we intend to
      • Unable to enable tax checkboxes

        Hi Zoho Commerce Support, I'm writing to report an issue I'm having with the tax settings in my Zoho Commerce store. I've created several tax rates under Settings > Taxes, but all of them appear with the checkbox disabled. When I try to enable a checkbox,
      • Zoho Commerce - Enable Company Name and Tax Number collection for B2B orders in Global Edition

        Please enable Company Name and Tax Details option on checkout settings in Zoho Commerce Global Edition. It is still important to collect Company Name and Tax Number for B2B sales in many countries. My business is based in Ireland (in the EU) and I have
      • ZohoSign and ZohoBooks Integration/Workflow

        Hello All, We utilize ZohoSign for signatures on tax eFiles. We utilize Dynamic KBA. Additionally, we use ZohoBooks for invoicing for these services. Is there a way to accomplish the following: Send a copy of the Tax Return, Invoice and eFiles in one
      • Manage monthly tasks with projectsf

        Hi All I run a finance and operations team where we need both teams to complete monthly tasks to ensure we hit our deadlines. Can Zoho projects be used for this. There many finance focused tools but we have Zoho one so want to explore Thanks Will
      • Zoho Suite is very slow

        Since today Zoho is incredibly slow over all applications! What's going on?
      • Combine and hide invoice lines

        In quickbooks we are able to create a invoice line that combines and hides invoices lines below. eg. Brochure design         $1000 (total of lines below, the client can see this line) Graphic Design           $600 (hidden but entered to reporting and
      • Zoho Devops

        We have a Zoho one account which we have integrated with an SAS educational product, sold on a subscription model, using webhooks and API calls. We make some use of custom fields and cross module lookups and relationships. We utilize CRM, Books and billing
      • Fuel up your sales with the Zoho SalesIQ + Bigin integration

        Hi everyone! We’re happy to bring you the all-new Zoho SalesIQ + Bigin integration. With this, every prospect from your website instantly becomes a contact in Bigin, complete with transcripts and follow-up tasks, so you never lose a lead again. Let's
      • Next Page