Leverage layout rules to customize workflow

Layout rules in Zoho Sprints primarily aim to customize the field layout of your creation forms to meet complex requirements. But it doesn't stop there. Its customization can push the boundaries of how your fields behave, how data is gathered, how processes are branched out, and how workflow is channeled.

Based on conditions, you can tailor field behavior, direct the life cycle of an item, mandate specific actions, restrict the field options, or auto-assign users. The possibilities are aplenty.

We've tried to provide a few sample scenarios that help you automate your data collection and progress tracking flow. If you have any specific requirements, please state them in the comments, and we'll find out if layout rules can help you.

Use case 1: Restricting item statuses based on work item types

With layout rules, each item type can have its own workflow. This means it can have its own unique set of statuses that align with its specific lifecycle.

Let's assume you have three item types: Bug, Story, and Task.

Each type follows its own lifecycle, represented by the following statuses.

• Bug goes through the To Do, In Progress, Bug Fixing, Bug Testing, and Done statuses.
  
• Story has To Do, Ideation, In Progress, Development, Review, and Done.
  
• And Task moves through a simple To Do, In Progress, and Done.
  

To align with these flows, certain statuses should not be available to specific item types. For instance, a story or a task should not be moved to the Bug Fixing status. Similarly, a bug or a task should not be moved to the Development status.

To enforce this, we can create layout rules that control which statuses are available based on the item type.

So, we'll create three conditions with each item type as the primary field.

• If the item type is Bug, specify the condition with the trigger action to restrict the status pick list to To Do, In Progress, Bug Fixing, Bug Testing, and Done.
  
• If the item type is Story, specify the condition with the trigger action to restrict the status pick list to To Do, Ideation, In Progress, Development, Review, and Done.
  
• If the item type is Task, specify the condition with the trigger action to restrict the status pick list to To Do, In Progress, and Done.
  

Together, these conditions control the status progression for each item type. So, when you create a bug, it will only progress into the statuses that belong to the Bug lifecycle.

Use Case 2: Restricting future statuses based on the item's current status

When your team requires a pre-defined strict workflow where an item can be moved from a specific status to only a few statuses, layout rules can help implement this. For example, an item in the Bug Fixing status should only move to Bug Testing, and no other status. This way, each status controls the next status in the workflow.

To ensure this, create layout rules specifying conditions for each of the item status:

• If the status is To do, specify the condition with the trigger action to restrict the status pick list to In progress and Rejected.
  
• If the status is In progress, specify the condition with the trigger action to restrict the status pick list to In progress and Development.
  
• If the status is Development, specify the condition with the trigger action to restrict the status pick list to Review Level 1.
  
• If the status is Review Level 1, specify the condition with the trigger action to restrict the status pick list to Reopen and Review Level 2.
  
• If the status is Reopen, specify the condition with the trigger action to restrict the status pick list to In progress.
  

Use case 3: Making a field mandatory based on item status or item type

Let's assume you want a field to be made mandatory only when the item is moved to one particular status. Which implies the field will remain non-mandatory during other statuses and will be mandatory only at that particular status. So, the progress to that status must be allowed only when the mandatory field is updated.

For instance, when an item is moved to the Done status, the Approver field must become mandatory to record completion approval. To ensure that this process is executed, you can create a layout rule where the primary field is the Status Name. If the status field is updated to Done, specify the condition with the trigger action to set the Approver field as mandatory.

​

​

Use case 4: Showing or hiding a section or field based on item types

Layout rules enable you to show or hide fields or sections based on item type conditions.

Let's say a section with fields related to a new feature should only be visible when the item type is New Feature.

Similarly, when the item type is Security Issue, the section with fields related to Security issue must be visible.

To achieve this, create a layout rule with Item Type as the primary field.

• Create a condition for the New Feature item type with a trigger action to show the New Feature Details section.
  
• Create a condition for the Security Issue item type with a trigger action to show the Security Issue Details section.
  

Use case 5: Selecting specific assignees for item types and priorities

Layout rules can help you assign users based on the item type and priority. Let's say your team has a group of developers with varied levels of experience and expertise. You want to assign the high priority items to a more experienced member like John, while assigning low priority items to a novice like Peter.

If the item type is Bug and the priority level is Critical, you can assign the bug to John. If the priority level is High, it goes to Peter.

To meet this requirement, you can create a layout rule with Item Type as the primary field.

• Create a condition for the item type Bug with a subcondition where the priority level is Critical and the trigger action has the Set Field Value Assignee as John.
  
• For the same condition, add a subcondition where the priority level is High and the trigger action has the Set Field Value Assignee as Peter.

Similarly, say you want the Task item type with a medium priority level to go to Helen, and a low priority level should go to James.

• Create a condition for the item type Task with a subcondition where the priority level is Medium and the trigger action has the Set Field Value Assignee as Helen.
  
• For the same condition, add a subcondition where the priority level is Low and the trigger action has the Set Field Value Assignee as James.
  

These are just a few examples of how layout rules can streamline your project management. Do you have any particular scenario that needs resolution? Please share it with us.

Thanks,

Zoho Sprints Team

• Topic Participants

• Neethinila R

  

• Sticky Posts

• Tip #28 - Plan less and deliver more using WIP limit in Zoho Sprints

  Hello, It's been a while since we met with a quick, interesting tip. As the saying goes, "Too much of anything is good for nothing", today the focus is on delivering your outcomes with the right amount of planning. Your plan should be practical, calculative, and achievable for driving a qualitative success.    Laura's plan   Laura has a habit of planning her project deliverables before assigning work to her team-mates. Once the plan is finalized, she schedules a general meeting with her team and

• Tip # 3- Working on the Scrum board

  Continuing from our Tip #2 on leading to a sprint, let's see how to manage the work items on the Scrum board.  Once you start the sprint your work items are automatically displayed on the Scrum board where you will actually manage the work items. It is a snapshot of the backlog items identified for the current sprint.    The layout of the Scrum board Simply put, the scrum board is just like a physical board with sticky notes on which the work items of the active sprint are displayed.  The scrum board

• Tip#2- Leading you to a Sprint

  Product Backlog After the user stories are written and finalized, they are sorted to create the Product Backlog for the project during the Backlog Grooming meeting. This is a master list of all the work items that have been identified for the project and sorted by priority. Requirements are not constant during this period.The Product Backlog is dynamic and is an ongoing process. Every user story in the Product Backlog is customer centric. The Product Backlog includes: User centric stories based on

• Tip #1- Why swimlanes?

  Lanes define a clear path to reach your destination. In Agile, swimlane is one such concept that sets a simple and clear process of the work that you do.   The concept of swimlane can be related to the pool, where the swimmers gather in their respective lanes to start off. Similar to the pool, work items are grouped in different categories. Each category is referred as a lane and is displayed in horizontal format. Swimlanes are effective in categorizing the work items with respective to specific

• Recent Topics

• Is there a way to disable the Activity Reminders Pop-Up Window every time I log in?

  Just wondering if there is a setting to disable the window from opening every time I open my CRM? Thanks Chris

• Auto-sync field of lookup value

  This feature has been requested many times in the discussion Field of Lookup Announcement and this post aims to track it separately. At the moment the value of a 'field of lookup' is a snapshot but once the parent lookup field is updated the values diverge.

• Hide fields only for creation

  Hello, I'd like to hide some fields only during the creation of a contact in Zoho CRM. In fact I have some fields that are automatically calculated thanks to an automation, so when my users create a contact I don't want them to fill those fields. I know

• Rich-text fields in Zoho CRM

  Hello everyone, We're thrilled to announce an important enhancement that will significantly enhance the readability and formatting capabilities of your information: rich text options for multi-line fields. With this update, you can now enjoy a more versatile

• Font Size 11 - Zoho CRM Email Templates

  Our company communicates with our vendors exclusively using Calibri Font Size 11, as this is the standard formatting for professional emails. Since the CRM only allows for the selection of font sizes 10 & 12, we have been unable to utilize the CRM email

• Error 400 Booking

  Added a custom domain to Booking. Am Getting a SSL Error that has some other domain on the SSL and giving a 400 error. Followed instructions and it stated it verified our domain.. However it is not working. Please Help!

• Error AS101 when adding new email alias

  Hi, I am trying to add apple@(mydomain).com The error AS101 is shown while I try to add the alias.

• New feature request: Allow copy of email message to another folder

  Hello Zoho team, This is a suggested new feature to allow copy an email message to either another folder or the same folder. Within the same Zoho account. This is not a support request about "label". This is a suggested new feature to allow copies of

• Can No Longer Access Zoho Email Accounts from iPhone or iPad Apple Mail Apps ,.

  Keeps asking for password, Says ID or password incorrect. Tried creating a new app specific password. Same result. Is this possibly related to the server maintenance. Have verified all email settings, userid and password. This has worked for years until

• Link Purchase Order to Deal

  Zoho Books directly syncs with contacts, vendors and products in Zoho CRM including field mapping. Is there any way to associate vendor purchase orders with deals, so that we can calculate our profit margin for each deal with connected sales invoices

• Hotmail is blocking the zoho mail IP

  Greetings, Since last Tuesday (5 days ago today) I wrote to Zoho support and I still haven't received a single response (Ticket ID: 2056917). Is this how you treat people who pay for your email service? I am making this public so that those who want to

• Zoho Projects - Email Notifications for Feed Updates

  Hi Projects Team, I'm working with a client who wants a simple way to communicate with their customers on projects. Getting the customer to add comments to Tasks or Bug records is not ideal, as we need a way which is easy with minimal training, and has

• Zoho Analytics Export API

  Hi Team, I’m working on some integration tasks and wanted to confirm if it’s possible to retrieve a Zoho Analytics table as JSON data using a Deluge script. I’ve already stored my custom data from multiple sources and combined it into a single source.

• Loading Project Balances in ZOHO Books for each project

  Hello, What is the best method for loading project balances actual and budget into ZOHO books to provide tracking to our project managers. We have projects and federal awards (also treated as projects) which span multiple years. We are converting from

• Yahoo blocks e-mail sent from Zoho servers

  Getting this for a bunch of Yahoo addresses. Do you know if some of your servers got blacklisted? Diagnostic-Code: 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 136.143.169.51 temporarily deferred due to unexpected volume or user complaints - 4.16.55.1; see https://postmaster.yahooinc.com/error-codes

• Yahoo is rejecting e-mails sent from a Zoho server

  Diagnostic-Code: 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 136.143.169.51 temporarily deferred due to unexpected volume or user complaints - 4.16.55.1; see https://postmaster.yahooinc.com/error-codes Remote-MTA: dns; mta5.am0.yahoodns.net

• Request to Remove LinkedIn Verification from My Emai

  I would like to submit a complaint regarding my Zoho Mail account. I previously used this email address to verify a LinkedIn account, but that LinkedIn account has now been closed. I need to remove or cancel the verification associated with the closed

• Migrate data from old to new account

  Hy, Have one Old Zoho Notebook Account with Data , want to migrate that whole Data to New Zoho Notebook Account which is in Zoho One . Is that possible ? If Yes then how?

• Zoho Sites "pages" management page

  I have 80 plus pages on zoho sites. When I go to the "pages" link to view and edit pages, They are not in any kind of order, so I spend lots of time searching for pages when I need to edit or create new. How can I change the view order of all my pages

• Introducing the all-new email parser!

  Greetings, We are pleased to introduce to you, a brand-new, upgraded version of the Zoho CRM Email Parser, which is packed with fresh features and has been completely redesigned to meet latest customers needs and their business requirements. On that note,

• Zoho Projects - Refine Access to Collaboration Menu

  Hi Projects Team, I noticed that Calendar, Chat and Meeting menu options in the Collaboration section are visible to client users, even when they don't have access to the features. This could be confusing and frustrating, because if it's there you expect

• Zoho Projects - Add Feed to Project Tabs

  Hi Projects Team, I'm working on a lightweight communications requirement for one of my customers in relation to communicating with their client users via Zoho Projects. I noticed that the Feed is only available in the Collaboration section, but you can

• Kaizen #217 - Actions APIs : Tasks

  Welcome to another week of Kaizen! In last week's post we discussed Email Notifications APIs which act as the link between your Workflow automations and you. We have discussed how Zylker Cloud Services uses Email Notifications API in their custom dashboard.

• Login verification emails never received.

  I can't login to my account. You send a verification email, but it never arrives. This is a common problem, frequently caused by some relay point out there classifying the sender as a spammer. Is there anything I can do to bypass this? Maybe get a text

• Extracting Images from a Zoho Creator Report into a Pages

  If you’ve uploaded images in a form and can see them in your report, you might also want to display those same images inside a Page (custom HTML page). This is useful for dashboards, profile pages, or any place where images should be visible dynamically

• Zoho is blocking emails I subscribe to from one sender

  About 4 months ago I stopped receiving newsletters that I subscribe to from @thedispatch.com. They tell me that zoho's server is blocking them. I've added them to my contacts list, but they're not even reaching my inbox. I don't know how to troubleshoot

• Unable to send message;Reason:550 5.4.6 Unusual sending activity detected. Please try after sometime.

  Please help my account got blocked automatically, can you help me how to avoid it? Thanks so much

• Introducing Formula Fields for performing dynamic calculations

  Greetings, With the Formula Field, you can generate numerical calculations using provided functions and available fields, enabling you to derive dynamic data. You can utilize mathematical formulas to populate results based on the provided inputs. This

• Inactive Items - Make Less Prominent by Default

  Currently, when one marks an Item as "Inactive", it really doesn't do much of anything to hide it or get it out of the way. Search and reporting within Finance should, by default, hide inactive Items from standard reports, searches, etc. If one specifically

• Items should display under specific warehouse

  I have configured the multi warehouse but it show all the items under all warehouse which is not correct according to our business logic, so i want that items should only display under that specific warehouse not under all the warehouses not even with zero quantity. Some items should be common but not all so is there any option for that purpose so i can specific the items to its warehouse. Regards

• How to calculate GST based on "Ship To Address"

  We into the interior designing work, providing "Works Contract Services" to our clients across India. We are registered under GST in Maharashtra state. For works contract services as per the GST rule, we need to decide place of supply based on "Ship to

• I NEED TO NUMBER TO TEXT NO HERE

  =NUMBERTEXT NEEED

• Auto-fill New Row with Previous Row Values

  rowsize = input.Order_Items.count(); for each row1 in input.Order_Items { rowsize = rowsize - 1; if(rowsize == 1) { row.Door_Model = row1.Door_Model; row.Door_Color = row1.Door_Color; row.Materials = row1.Materials;

• When I click on PDF/PRINT it makes the invoice half size

  When I click PDF / Print for my invoice in Zoho Books, the generated PDF appears at half size — everything is scaled down, including the logo, text, and layout. The content does not fill the page as it should. Could someone advise what causes Zoho Books

• Python - code studio

  Hi, I see the code studio is "coming soon". We have some files that will require some more complex transformation, is this feature far off? It appears to have been released in Zoho Analytics already

• API question - adding a thread to an existing ticket

  Hi Is there an API function for the customer to add to an existing ticket thread? example, customer puts in new support ticket. support replies and ask for more details. customer replies with more details -what api function is used for this (will add record append to same ticket number?) Thanks

• Why is Zoho Meeting quality so poor?

  I've just moved from Office 365 to Zoho Workplace and have been generally really positive about the new platform -- nicely integrated, nice GUI, good and easy-to-understand control and customisation, and at a reasonable price. However, what is going on

• Items Below Reorder Point Report?

  Is there a way to run a report of Items that are below the Reorder Point? I don't see this as a specific report, nor can I figure out how to customize any of the other stock reports to give me this information. Please tell me I'm missing something s

• Qwen to be the default open source Generative AI model in Zoho Desk

  Hello everyone, At Zoho Desk, we will make the latest Qwen (30B parameters) the default LLM for our Generative AI features, including Answer Bot, Reply Assistant, and others. As a subsequent step, we will discontinue support for Llama (8B parameters).

• Calendar week view: Today + 6

  Is there anyway to have the calendar change dynamically based on the date? Due to the amount of events, we only display a week at a time, but towards the end of the week, we can no longer see ahead to next week (without changing it manually every time).

• Next Page