Kaizen 230 - Smart Discount-Based Quote Approvals Using CRM Functions and Approval Process

Kaizen 230 - Smart Discount-Based Quote Approvals Using CRM Functions and Approval Process


Hello everyone!
Welcome back to the Kaizen series!
Discount approvals are a standard part of sales governance.
Most organizations need something like this:

Discount %
Required Action
< 10%
Auto-approve
10–19.99%
Sales Manager approval
≥ 20%
VP Sales approval

Zoho CRM already includes a powerful Approval Process feature capable of routing records, locking them, notifying approvers, and maintaining audit history.
So the natural question is "Isn’t the native Approval Process enough?". Often, yes. But when the discount logic depends on accurate percentage calculation across line items and header adjustments, we need a small architectural enhancement.

This Kaizen combines Functions(for decisions), Workflow Rules(for triggers), Approval Process(for governance), and Reporting Hierarchy(for routing) into a clean, scalable solution.

Understanding the native Approval Process

Before adding anything custom, it’s important to recognize what the Approval Process already does extremely well.
  1. Evaluates criteria based on field values
  2. Automatically submits records
  3. Locks records during review
  4. Routes to users, roles, or hierarchy levels
  5. Maintains approval history
  6. Sends notifications
It is a powerful governance engine.
However, it evaluates existing values and does not calculate new ones. That distinction matters in discount scenarios.

The missing piece: Reliable discount percentage

In Quotes:
  1. Discounts may be applied at line-item level
  2. Discounts may be applied at header level
  3. Grand Total reflects cumulative adjustments

There is no guaranteed native field that consistently represents
True Discount % = (Sub_Total - Grand_Total) / Sub_Total * 100

If approval rules rely directly on partial fields(like “Discount”), they may misrepresent the effective discount.

To ensure accuracy, we introduce a Function to calculate and store a reliable Discount Percentage.
We are not replacing the Approval Process, but preparing accurate data for it.

Here is the architectural flow with each component having a distinct responsibility. This makes the system sustainable.
Quote Saved --> Workflow triggers Function --> Function calculates Discount % --> Function sets Approval_Status --> Approval Process evaluates status --> Record submitted and locked

Let's go over this one step at a time.

Step 1: Create Custom Fields(Quotes Module)

Field
Type
Purpose
Discount_Percentage
Percent
Stores calculated discount
Approval_Status
Picklist
Controls approval trigger. Values:
  1. Auto Approved
  2. Pending Manager Approval
  3. Pending VP Approval
  4. Approved
  5. Rejected
Approval_LevelSingle LineDisplays routing level

Step 2: Write the CRM Function(Decision Layer)

This function calculates the effective discount and determines the approval level. This function becomes the decision engine.
void automation.Set_Quote_Approval_Level(String id)
{
quoteId = id.toLong();
quoteDetails = zoho.crm.getRecordById("Quotes",quoteId);
if(quoteDetails != null)
{
subTotal = ifnull(quoteDetails.get("Sub_Total"),0).toDecimal();
grandTotal = ifnull(quoteDetails.get("Grand_Total"),0).toDecimal();
discount = subTotal - grandTotal;
discountPercentage = 0.0;
if(subTotal > 0)
{
discountPercentage = discount / subTotal * 100;
}
approvalStatus = "";
approvalLevel = "";
if(discountPercentage < 10)
{
approvalStatus = "Auto Approved";
approvalLevel = "None - Auto Approved";
}
else if(discountPercentage < 20)
{
approvalStatus = "Pending Manager Approval";
approvalLevel = "Sales Manager";
}
else
{
approvalStatus = "Pending VP Approval";
approvalLevel = "VP Sales";
}
updateMap = Map();
updateMap.put("Discount_Percentage",discountPercentage.round(2));
updateMap.put("Approval_Status",approvalStatus);
updateMap.put("Approval_Level",approvalLevel);
updateResponse = zoho.crm.updateRecord("Quotes",quoteId,updateMap);
}
}

Step 3: Workflow(Trigger Layer)

Every time a quote is saved, we want the discount to be evaluated automatically.
Create the following Workflow Rule:
Module: Quotes
Trigger: On Create or Edit
Action: Execute Function
Map the Quote ID with the "id" argument in the function.


Step 4: Approval Process(Governance Layer)

Rule 1 - Manager Approval when Discount% is 10 to 19.99
Approval_Status = "Pending Manager Approval" --> Route to Sales Manager(via hierarchy)

Rule 2 - VP Sales Approval when Discount% >= 20
Approval_Status = "Pending VP Approval" --> Route to VP Sales(via hierarchy)
When this process is triggered, CRM:
  1. Submits the record for approval
  2. Locks it
  3. Sends notification
  4. Tracks approval history

The outcome


Why is this layered approach strong?

This design works well because each component in the system has a clearly defined responsibility. The CRM Function acts as the decision layer. It performs the discount calculation, determines the appropriate approval level, and updates the control fields. This ensures that the logic behind the approval requirement is accurate and intentional.

The workflow serves as the trigger layer. Its only job is to execute the function whenever a quote is created or edited. It does not contain business logic; it simply initiates the evaluation process at the right time.

The approval process becomes the governance layer. Once the function sets the appropriate status, the approval engine evaluates the criteria, submits the record, locks it, routes it to the correct approver, and maintains the approval history. This is where enforcement happens.

Finally, the reporting hierarchy determines who the approver is. Instead of hard-coding specific users, the system dynamically identifies the appropriate manager or second-level supervisor based on the role structure. This keeps the design scalable and adaptable to organizational changes.

By separating calculation, triggering, enforcement, and routing into distinct layers, the solution remains clean, maintainable, and easy to extend. The Approval Process continues to do what it does best—govern and enforce—while the Function ensures that the decision it evaluates is accurate and business-driven.

Summary

Zoho CRM’s native Approval Process is powerful and reliable.
When business logic depends on calculated values, like true discount percentage, introducing a function strengthens the design by ensuring accurate, consistent decision-making.
Used together, Functions and Approval Process create:
  1. Intelligent routing
  2. Accurate governance
  3. Clean audit trails
  4. Scalable architecture
That combination is what makes this solution robust.

We hope you liked this post. We'll see you next week with another interesting one!
Write to us at support@zohocrm.com or let us know your feedback in the comments section of this post.

Cheers!



==========================================================================




    • Sticky Posts

    • Kaizen #198: Using Client Script for Custom Validation in Blueprint

      Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – 1 More to the Big Two-Oh-Oh! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.

    • Kaizen #226: Using ZRC in Client Script

      Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. In today's post, lets see what is ZRC (Zoho Request Client) and how we can use ZRC methods in Client Script to get inputs from a Salesperson and update the Lead status with a single button click. In this

    • Kaizen #222 - Client Script Support for Notes Related List

      Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. The final Kaizen post of the year 2025 is here! With the new Client Script support for the Notes Related List, you can validate, enrich, and manage notes across modules. In this post, we’ll explore how

    • 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.

    • Kaizen #216 - Actions APIs : Email Notifications

      Welcome to another week of Kaizen! For the last three weeks, we have been discussing Zylker's workflows. We successfully updated a dormant workflow, built a new one from the ground up and more. But our work is not finished—these automated processes are

    • Recent Topics

    • Already have Zoho account. Not letting me log in

      I already have a Zoho account that is associated with my Google email and my phone number. Even though I'm already logged in to Zoho, when I click on the mail icon to access my email, it takes me to the pricing page. When I click on the free option, it

    • ZOHO Mail App Not working

      There seems to be an issue with Zoho Mail App today. It is not connecting to server, internet is working fine, tried uninstalling app and reinstalling, loading circle keeps spinning round. Is there an update on the way?

    • facing error 550 5.4.6 while sending emails

      Please help me fix this issue

    • Allow Itemization for Recurring Expenses

      For whatever reason, one cannot itemize a Recurring Expense. This capability should be added. The use cases to support this are largely the same as what they were to allow for itemization in Expenses. Anything that would need to be itemized for a regular

    • Zoho reply to not working. just reply to my self

      Hello. i using on my wordpress website a contact form from Wsform. i can set the reply to email there. normally it works. but since i am using your wordpress plugin zoho mail it doesn`t work. its not using the reply to (email from customer). I just can

    • Can't receive any email from other platform

      Hello,everyone, i'm just join zoho and create two email accounts for my own business. I was using it to get a verified email from stripe, but can't receive it. and I use my private gmail account to send test email twice, first time show below reply, but

    • Your Incoming has been blocked and the emails will not be fetched in your Zoho account and POP Accounts

      Can some on help me regarding our account . thank you so much

    • Zoho Creator integration with Sage 50

      Hi, Wondering if anyone has had any experience connecting Zoho to Sage 50 and could share any information on this matter. Thank you.

    • Conditional Email Forwarding

      How can I set conditional email forwarding of the users? For example: Mail should be forwarded to a address only if it comes from a particular sender. So, I want such email forwarding, which forwards mails based on particular conditions, like the incoming

    • Incoming emails not appearing in Inbox

      Hello, I have an issue with incoming emails sent from my website (domain: h2ostop.si). Emails are visible in the Sent folder, which means they are successfully sent through Zoho SMTP, but they never appear in my Inbox. Nothing arrives in Inbox, Spam,

    • Email Opt Out Question

      Has the problem where if a customer is emailed opt out prevents you sending standard emails? For me this feature is simply to stop any email marketing and should not block people from receiving emails via Zoho mobile, which makes no sense.

    • 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

    • Latest update caused issue in using marathi typingzoho

      With latest update now marathi typing does Not work in zohonotebook. I preferred zoho over other because it was supporting marathi font without any distortion.. But after new update,keyborad simply does not work

    • 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

    • Global lists for Multi select

      It would be great if I could select a global list to use for a multi select dropdown filed.

    • 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

    • 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

    • Working with dates and Function Field

      Hello friends! I'm trying to add days to a date, however the field function will always shows 00:00:00 after the resultant date. How can I display only the date, whithout the time? toDate(input.request_date.addDay(input.Prazo_acordado),"MM,d,yyyy") The code above will result something like "11-Feb-2020 00:00:00", but I want to display only "11-Feb-2020"

    • What's New in Zoho Analytics - November 2025

      We're thrilled to announce a significant update focused on expanding your data connectivity, enhancing visualization capabilities, and delivering a more powerful, intuitive, and performant analytics experience. Here’s a look at what’s new. Explore What's

    • 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

    • temporary system errorlouis

      J'essaye d'envoyer des mails avec mes 2 adresses mail qe nous avons sur le compte arthur@lepunch.fr et louis@lepunch.fr mais j'ai toujours le message temporaire system error, je reçois les mails mais impossible d'en envoyer a qui que ce soit

    • How to Cancel/Delete Queued Mail Merge?

      Hi. I just tried to do a mail merge before realizing there's a limit on number of sends. I accidentally sent one of my lists twice, and all of those emails are currently queued. Is there any way to cancel or delete a queued mail merge? Would love to be

    • SOLVED: Stopping Multiple Invitations when sync with Google Calendar

      I wanted to share this solution as I wasn't able to find it when searching through the Zoho community and via web search. The issue: When requestor books a meeting through Zoho Bookings, the requestor receives a confirmation email from both Bookings and

    • Need to add a new admin for my domain

      Hello Zoho Support, I am the owner of the domain localeistanbul.com. The current super admin account (admin@localeistanbul.com) is not accessible. I do not want to reset or delete the existing account because I need to keep all existing emails. Please

    • Possible Fraud Site.

      Hello. I received a text with the sender's name as zoho, claiming that my account was at risk and that I should sign in at https://verify.zohomails.ru/signin to verify my account. I signed in on the web address above, and a few days later someone hacked

    • Zoho mail to Teaminbox

      Hello, We're searching for new mail program. Now I'm testing a bit with zoho mail and team inbox. My findings in the research: Pop mail throught zoho mail is almost instant. Any pop or imap via external provider takes a couple minutes to 15 minutes before

    • Crear tarea CRM con recordatorio desde Zoho Flow

      Hola, estoy intentando crear desde Zoho Flow una tarea en CRM. Lo he logrado hacer pero sin recordatorio, ya que no se como se debe escribir el string adecuado. He probado varias alternativas, pero ninguna me funcionó hasta ahora. - FREQ=NONE;ACTION=EMAIL;TRIGGER=DATE-TIME:${FechaVto}

    • Inquiry Regarding Automated Assignment of Zoho TeamInbox Messages using Zoho Flow and Deluge

      Hello, Our company is currently using Zoho TeamInbox, and we are interested in automating the assignment of responsible parties using tools such as ZOHO Flow and Deluge. Is it possible to achieve this? Allow me to provide more details. Currently, when

    • Multiple clients in one project

      Hi team, What is the possibility to have more than one client to be linked for one project in the Zoho Books? Our business model is to have a project, and this project have expenses/bills, as well, we issue invoices for this same project to several customers.

    • Upgrade Zoho Desk Agent-Side Answer Bot to GenAI

      Hello Zoho Desk Team, We hope you're doing well. Following the recent announcements and rollout of the GenAI-based Answer Bot in Zoho SalesIQ (Nova '25), we’d like to formally request a similar upgrade for the Answer Bot used by agents inside Zoho Desk.

    • Marketers' Space: The importance of warming up your sender domain

      Hello Marketers, Welcome back to yet another post! Today, we'll talk about why warming up your sender domain matters. Imagine you've recently started a business and want to share the news with your customers. You've designed a great email campaign using

    • An Exclusive Session for Zoho Desk Users: AI in Zoho Desk

      A Zoho Community Learning Initiative Hello everyone! This is an announcement for Zoho Desk users and anyone exploring Zoho Desk. With every nook and corner buzzing, "AI's here, AI's there," it's the right time for us to take a closer look at how the AI

    • Search Just Got Smarter in Notebook

      Hello there! Introducing Our New & Improved Search Experience! We heard your feedback! Many of you shared that our previous search had some challenges like • Inconsistent results across different clients • Limited accuracy in finding the right content

    • Zoho Desk app update - AI Integration for IM Chats

      Hello everyone! We have now introduced AI integration for IM Chats within the Zoho Desk mobile app. To access the feature, please enable the 'Generative AI' settings on the desktop site(desk.zoho.com). Please refer to the help link attached below: Zoho

    • Open A.I assistant Connect with Zoho Desk instant Message Conversations

      I would like to know how do I connect my instant messenger in Zoho desk with my Open A.I Gpt Assistant. this is very easy to setup using the Salesiq Zobot but when it comes to Zoho Desk i cannot figure how to make the connection. Ideal workflow Customers

    • 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

    • Cannot upgrade subscription plan due to payment error message

      Hi Zoho team, This is to request support on an issue I am facing during an upgrade I am trying to make to our company's yearly Zoho subscription. I am trying to add 3 more license to my plan and during the payment phase I get the below error as in the

    • Enhancing Zia's service with better contextual responses and article generation

      Hello everyone, We are enhancing Zia's Generative AI service to make your support experience smarter. Here's how: Increased accuracy with Qwen One of the key challenges in AI is delivering responses that are both contextually accurate and empathetic while

    • Zoho Desk app update: AI powered features

      Hello everyone! We’ve introduced various AI-powered services on the Zoho Desk app. Let's take a look at what's new. Generate Content: Generate Content uses AI to formulate responses based on the your query and provides a ready-to-use reply which can be

    • Bulk update Archived Ticket

      Dear All We would like to update the "Category" values to the new filed. We found the archived Ticket seems to be don't support the bulk action. Do we have any way to update it. Finally, we would to generate a report for our ticket system. Regards I

    • Next Page