Customization

Part 1

MODULE 5
Table of Contents

OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................................... 4

MODULES ...................................................................................................................................... 6

TABS ............................................................................................................................................ 10

HOME TAB .................................................................................................................................................. 10

CUSTOMIZE COLUMN HEADINGS IN COMPONENTS ............................................................................. 12

ALL MODULES ............................................................................................................................................ 13

FIELDS ......................................................................................................................................... 20

CUSTOM FIELDS ......................................................................................................................................... 20

CUSTOM FIELD SETTINGS ........................................................................................................................ 21

TYPES OF CUSTOM FIELDS ....................................................................................................................... 22

SPECIAL FIELDS ......................................................................................................................................... 27

SALES STAGES ........................................................................................................................... 35

STAGE PROBABILITY MAPPING ......................................................................................... 35

VALIDATION RULES ................................................................................................................ 41

THE BASICS OF VALIDATION RULES ................................................................................. 41

MODULE VIEWS ........................................................................................................................ 45

LIST VIEW ................................................................................................................................................... 45

KANBAN VIEW ........................................................................................................................................... 47

CANVAS VIEW ............................................................................................................................................ 50

RELATED LIST .......................................................................................................................... 58

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 2

 ADDING A RELATED LIST ......................................................................................................................... 58

CREATE CUSTOM FUNCTIONS .................................................................................................................. 59

CUSTOM LINKS ......................................................................................................................... 63

ACCESS PERMISSIONS TO CUSTOM LINKS ............................................................................................. 63

CUSTOM BUTTONS .................................................................................................................. 65

DEFINE BUTTON ACTION ......................................................................................................................... 65

SORT OR EDIT CUSTOM BUTTON ............................................................................................................ 66

TEMPLATES ............................................................................................................................... 70

EMAIL TEMPLATES .................................................................................................................................... 70

CREATE NEW TEMPLATE ......................................................................................................................... 71

VIEW TEMPLATE ANALYTICS .................................................................................................................. 71

INVENTORY TEMPLATES .......................................................................................................................... 73

MAIL MERGE TEMPLATES ........................................................................................................................ 74

CREATE TEMPLATES ................................................................................................................................. 75

3 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Overview
Zoho CRM provides you the platform to store customer data, presents
innumerable ways to connect with the people you work with, and gives you
processes to nurture your prospective customers.

You have probably observed that Zoho CRM mainly focuses on businesses and
needs related to sales; hence, the standard modules and fields
reflect the common types of business records involved in typical sales
scenarios. However, we understand that every business is unique and needs a way
to tailor the standard CRM features to best fit their needs. So, we offer a platform
where you can extensively customize your CRM account to meet your specific
requirements.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 4

Lesson A:

Modules

Lesson Objectives
In this lesson, you will:

• Learn about two types of modules.

• Understand Zoho CRM’s standard modules.
• Identify the need for custom modules and learn
how to create them.

5 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Modules
Modules are designed to let you categorize and track various business-related
information and data under one roof for easy accessibility and comprehension.
Zoho CRM provides you a couple of predefined standard modules that you can
use as-is without making any alterations. In addition to these, you can add
modules that suit your business needs using the custom module option. Let's take
a brief look at both kinds of modules.

Standard Modules
The standard modules reflect a typical sales industry in all aspects, providing
the sales, marketing, customer support, and inventory management
functions needed by any organization engaged in sales. These
modules represent a standard sales process that most organizations follow. Zoho
CRM lets you work with more than 10 standard modules such as Leads, Contacts,
Potentials, Activities, and more, to capture your organization's process.

Custom Modules
Businesses with more unique sales and marketing structures may want to tailor
modules to their own requirements, and this is where the custom modules come
into play. Zoho CRM gives you the freedom to create modules, fields, and layouts
based on the individual needs of your business or its industry. These custom
modules can seamlessly integrate with the core CRM modules and need not be
stand-alone modules.

To create a custom module

1. Click Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields.

2. Under the Modules tab, click Create New Module.

3. Enter a name for the module—both the singular and plural forms.

4. Click Save.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 6

7 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5
Activity A
Creating modules

Before You Begin

• Verify that you have the Modules Customization permission in your profile.

Scenario
Zylker operates within the finance sector and needs to customize Zoho CRM
features to their industry's requirements. They have to create custom modules
named Customers, Investors, and Products.

You need to
1. Go to Setup and click Customization.

2. In the Customization section, select Modules and Fields.

3. In the Customization page, under the List of Modules section, select Create
New Module.

4. In the Create New Module pop-up, in the Singular form of module name text
box, type Customer, Investor, Product or Marketing.

5. In the Plural form of module name text box, type the plural
name: Customers, Investors, and Products.

6. In the Profiles section, verify if the Administrator check box is checked, and
then check the Standard check box.

7. Click Create to create the new module.

8. In the Module created successfully message box, select OK to confirm the

message.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 8

Lesson B:

Tabs

Lesson Objectives
In this lesson, you will:

• Understand different views in the home tab

• Learn to create a customized home page.
• Check all the module tabs.

9 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Tabs
Tabs represent the different modules that Zoho CRM offers you. Customizing tab
views enable users to navigate the CRM interface more efficiently and in an
organized manner, thereby enhancing user productivity.

Home Tab
The Home tab is the start-up page that is displayed whenever you log in to your
Zoho CRM account. It contains components from different modules like Activities,
Deals, Dashboards, and so on, and one quick glance at the components of the
Home tab will tell you how your sales activities are faring. Besides this, the Home
tab also serves as a great place to organize your day's work, as well as your
teams'. This is facilitated by the three types of views: Classic View, User's View,
and Customized Home Page.

Classic View: The Classic View lists three standard components: Tasks List View,
Today's Events, and Pipeline by Stage. Because these are the critical components
that you'll look for in day-to-day business, having these details well-organized can
help you plan your day better. The Classic View is unique to each CRM user and
shows the user's Tasks, Events, and Pipeline. This view cannot be customized.

User's Home Page: Individual users can customize the home tab for their account
in User's Home Page. A user can add only the selected components that they want
to view in their home page. These components can be resized and moved
around for fit and placement on the page.

Customized Home Page: Zoho CRM allows you to personalize the home page to
display the components that users access most often. This helps users easily
navigate to the most frequently-viewed data by adding list views from modules.
You can also add components such as pie charts and bar graphs from
the Dashboard. You can share this customized view across roles in your
organization, and every user associated with that role will have the custom view as
their default page each time they log in to Zoho CRM. This customizable home
page view enables the users to add frequently viewed data in Zoho CRM.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 10

On the Home page, Zoho CRM shows the Customizable View by default. You can
use the toolbar buttons to switch to Classic View. In the Customizable View, you
can add the desired components by using the Add Components button.

To create a customized home page

1. Go to Setup > Customization > Customize Home Page.

Alternatively, you can also go to the Home tab, click the drop-down on the
top right corner and select Customize Home Page.

2. Click New Home Page.

3. Click Dashboard.

4. Choose a Dashboard from the drop-down list and select components that
you want to add to the home page.

5. Click Custom Views.

6. Choose a Module from the drop-down list and select components to add
custom view components.

7. Resize or move the components around to organize the page once all the
required components are added.

8. Click Save and Share.

9. In the Edit Properties window, do the following:

10. Specify a name for the customized home page.

11. Choose the roles of the users with which you want to share this page.

12. Add a description.

13. Click Save.

To add components in User’s Home page

1. In the Home tab, go to User's Home from the drop-down on the top right
corner.

2. Click the Add Component icon.

3. In the Add Component pop-up window, do the following:

11 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

 a. In the Get from field, specify Dashboards or Custom Views.
b. In the case of Dashboards, select the Dashboard from which you
wish to add the component, enter the Component Name, and
click Save.
c. In the case of Custom View, select the module and the required
custom view, enter the Component Name,.

4. Click Save.
The selected custom view is added as a component in your Home tab. You
can proceed to further pages using the navigation arrows. Only five records
are listed per page.

Customize Column Headings in

Components
In the Customizable view, the components that you add in the home tab can be list
views or data in the form of pipelines, pie charts, or bar graphs, etc. For the List
View components you can easily add, delete, and reorder the columns. Make your
desired changes for the list view, and they will be applied to the related
components in the Home tab also.

To customize column headings

1. Click the [Module] tab (e.g., Leads, Contacts, Accounts, etc.).

2. In the [Module] Home page, select the list view that you want to edit.

3. Click the Edit link.

4. In the Edit View page, select and move the fields to the Available
Columns list box.

5. After selecting the columns, change the order of the columns or remove
unnecessary columns from the Selected Columns list box.

6. Click Save.
The changes will be applied to the related components in the Home tab.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 12

All Modules
In the above section you learned about the Home tab in detail. Now we'll take a
look at the modules. The module tabs are the tabs that you view on the Tabs
bar of the Zoho CRM interface, and they display all the modules that you have
created in your CRM account. By clicking on a module you can view the
module's home page that displays the list of records.

You can customize the module tabs for each user by customizing the
interface, which is specific to each module depending on your company's needs.
By using functions like tab actions and tab groups you can organize the tabs
to more easily view and navigate the modules that are most frequently used.

Tab Actions
As an administrator, you can perform three key actions using the tab settings in
Zoho CRM to help the CRM users navigate easily across all the modules:

• Organize Tabs: Organizing tabs will let you view the frequently used
modules, hide those modules that are seldom used, and completely hide
the modules that are never used. From the Setup page, you can move tabs
up or down depending on how frequently users access them. Tabs that are
higher on the list will always be visible to users. Tabs that are lower on the
list will be partially hidden until users select the drop-down menu.
Except for the Home tab, you can unselect tabs that you do not want to be
accessible to certain users.
• Rename Tabs: Renaming tabs will assure that you use industry-specific
nomenclature that is well-comprehended across the teams. For example,
the Contacts tab can be renamed “Financial Advisors” in a finance
company. The changes made on these tabs are applied across all standard
pages, except the Page Layout, Reports, and Dashboards modules. Once
the tabs are renamed, the module names that correspond to the field
names will also change.
• Create Custom Tabs: Based on your organization's needs, you can define
custom modules. For example, you could create new modules named
"Investors" and "Loans." When creating a new module, you can specify to
which profile(s) the new module will be displayed.

13 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Tab Groups
With the Tab Group feature you can group and organize the tabs available in an
individual’s Zoho CRM account. You can group related tabs together and share the
group to the corresponding profiles. You can create a maximum of ten tab groups
with multiple tabs in each group. These tab groups are accessible to users based
on their profile permission.

Web Tab
The Web Tab feature allows you to add Intranet pages—such as company
announcements and web applications—that users can open within Zoho CRM.
Web tabs make it easier to provide company-wide information and tools to all
users in Zoho CRM. You can create a maximum of ten web tabs and the
administrators can give access to the users with other profiles.

A newly-created web tab does not have any cascading effect across other
modules, because the tabs that you create are independent in Zoho CRM.
However, when specifying web tab names, you need to ensure that you do not
repeat the names of the existing modules in Zoho CRM. While adding web pages
to the web tab, be aware that some third-party websites do not allow their content
to be displayed on other sites.

To organize tabs

1. Log into Zoho CRM with administrative privileges.

2. Go to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields.

3. In the List of Modules page, click Organize Modules.

4. Select the modules you want to be displayed on the tab. Clear the ones you
wish to hide.
You can also move around the module strips to rearrange the order in
which the module names are displayed.

5. Click Save.

To rename tabs

1. Log in to Zoho CRM with administrative privileges.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 14

 2. Go to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields.

3. Move the cursor to the module that you want to rename.

4. Click on the More icon, and then click Rename.

5. Enter the singular and plural forms of the module's name in the respective
text boxes.

6. Select the profile(s). Users in the selected profiles will have access to the
module.

7. Click Save.

To create tab groups

1. Go to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields > Tab Groups.

2. Click Create Tab Group.

3. In the Tab Group pop-up, do the following:

4. Enter a Name for the tab group

5. Select the tabs from the list.

6. Select the profiles from the list.

Users from the selected profiles will have access to the tab group.

7. Click Save.

15 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Activity B-1
Creating a module

Scenario
Zylker's finance team wants to include a new module named "Assets and
Liabilities." As the administrator, you will need to create this custom module for
them.

You need to
1. Select the Setup link in your CRM account.

2. On the Setup page, go to the Customization section and select Modules

and Fields.

3. On the List of Modules page, select Create New Module.

4. In the Create New Module dialog box, in the Singular form of module name
field, type "Asset and Liability."

5. In the Plural form of module name field, type "Assets and Liabilities."

6. In the Profiles section, check the Standard check box to make the custom
module available to both Administrator and Standard profile users.

7. Select Create.

Activity B-2
Grouping tabs

Scenario
The sales team has suggested that only the modules required by their team be
displayed in Zoho CRM. This includes Home, Leads, Accounts, Contacts, Deals,
Forecasts, Feeds, Products, and Activities. You decide to create a tab group
named “Sales Team” that contains only the listed modules.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 16

You need to
1. In the Customization section in CRM, select the Tab Groups link.

2. On the Tab Groups page, select Create Tab Group.

3. On the Tab Group page, in the Tab Group Details section, in the Group Name
text box, type "Sales Team."

4. In the Tabs section, from the Available Tabs list, select Feeds, Leads,
Accounts, Contacts, Deals, Forecasts, Activities, and Products. Select
the Add arrow button to move them to the Selected Tabs list under the
Home tab, which is selected by default.

5. Select Save.

6. In the List of Tab Groups section, observe that the Sales Force Automation
tab group is listed and the Tabs column lists the name of the modules that
are part of the Tab group.

7. Select the Zoho CRM Home page.

Activity B-3
Creating a web tab

Scenario
The portfolio managers want to create a web tab for USA Today's business news
page.

You need to
1. In the Customization section, select the Web Tabs link.

2. On the Web Tabs page, select Create Web Tab.

3. On the Create Web Tab section, in the Tab Name text box, type "Business
News" as the name of the web tab.

4. In the Link text box, type www.usatoday.com/money/business/.

17 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

 5. Select Save.
Observe that in the List of Web Tabs section, the new web name Business
News is listed with the link to the web site.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 18

Lesson C:

Fields
Lesson Objectives
In this lesson, you will:

• Learn about standard fields in CRM.

• Learn to create custom fields.
• Understand module to module association.
• Learn about formula and special fields.

19 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Fields
The Standard fields are the built-in fields in Zoho CRM that are included in each
module. The standard fields cover the basic fields required for different types of
organizations. These fields are visible by default, but you can hide them if
necessary. Some standard fields can be modified; others can't be modified
because they are mandatory fields that contain unique and critical information
about the modules.

Custom Fields
Custom fields are additional fields that administrators create to store company-
specific information related to a record in Zoho CRM. Users can access custom
fields that you include across all CRM modules. You can show or hide these fields
from the CRM modules based on your business needs. If users are already using
the organization's Zoho CRM, you need to gauge the impact of creating a new
custom field on the sales process. You further need to ensure that there is no
adverse impact on both the historical and current sales data within your
organization. Subsequently, you need to inform users of the new field, its intended
use, and how to implement it in the sales processes of the organization.

The two most important pieces of field-related information that you need to
specify for a custom field are:

• Label: The name of a custom field.

• Section Name: The name of the section where the custom field will be
displayed. If necessary, you can move the custom field to another section
by selecting it from the drop-down list.

One of the most important points that you must keep in mind while creating a
custom field is the field type you want based on the information the field will
contain for your organization. The field type determines the data you store and the
operations you perform on this data. Zoho CRM uses the field type to interpret
data when performing tasks such as sorting records or performing calculations.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 20

For example, you should choose field types such as integer, percent, decimal,
currency, or long integer to store numeric data. This will let you sort records in the
numerical order and perform mathematical computations on this data. If you
create a text field and store numbers in it, you can sort the data only in
analphabetical order. Similarly, you must avoid storing date and time data in
numeric or text fields because you can perform sorting or calculation tasks on
date data only if the information is entered in Date or Date-Time field types.

Custom Field Limits

There is a limit to the total number of fields that you can create in your account
and also a limit to the type of fields that you create. This varies based on your
Zoho CRM edition.

• Custom fields are not available in the Free edition of Zoho CRM.
• Lookup and Formula fields are not available in the Standard edition of
Zoho CRM.

Custom Field Settings

On adding or editing a custom field, you will be able to accomplish a number of
actions within it. For example, you can edit a field's basic properties, mark it as
required, make it a unique field, and so on. The following are the various custom
field settings that are available in Zoho CRM:

Add Custom Fields: In each module, you can add custom fields to capture
important data by specifying some field-related information.

Edit Custom Fields: Edit the field properties to change the field label, mark it as a
required field, or showing tool tips.

Set Field Permission: Set permissions like read-only, read/write, or don't show,
based on the user profile(s) that will access the fields.

Mark a Field as Required: If you want the information in this field to be

mandatory, you can simply mark it as required.

21 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Mark a Field as Unqiue: A unique field will hold explicit information about the
client or record. For example, email
addresses, social security numbers, passport numbers, product codes, and the like
are examples of unique fields because they are particular to one person.

Remove/Delete Custom Fields: If you no longer want to use a particular custom

field, you can remove it from the module. However, if you want to delete it
permanently from the records, you must remove the field from the unused fields
section.

To add custom fields

1. Go to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields.

2. Click the desired module (e.g., Leads, Accounts, Contracts, etc.) to open
the layout editor.

3. From the New Fields tray on the left, drag and drop the required field type
into the desired module section on the right.

4. Name the field and define the field properties as required for the field.

5. Click Save Layout.

6. Click on the More icon in the field to perform further actions like edit,
remove, set permission, mark unique, or mark required.

Types of Custom Fields

Every industry has its own set of requirements, and your users may need to go
beyond the standard CRM fields when they enter important information into your
organization's CRM account. Therefore, Zoho CRM provides you with a varied
range of custom fields to choose from. The following are the different types of
custom fields that you can select based on the type of value to be entered:

Pick List Values: A few industry-standard pick list values are readily available in
each module by default. However, you can either add new pick list values
or rename the existing values according to your organization's business
processes. You can also view a record's progress over a period or different stages
by enabling history tracking for a particular pick list value.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 22

Replace Pick List Value:- This option is applicable if you want the updated or
replaced value of a pick list field reflected in every record to which they apply. By
choosing the replace function, you can avoid having to update the records
manually.

Multi-Select Pick List Value: You can add this pick list field if you want the users
to be able to select more than one value for a field. For instance, your organization
may be offering different services and some of your customers may be interested
in multiple services. In this case you can use the multi-select pick list value instead
of a single pick list value. You can periodically modify the available values to
reflect any changes in your organization's processes or offerings.

Lookup Field: A lookup field is required if you want to cross-link two different
modules or establish a relationship between two modules so that a record's data
is displayed in both modules.

Example: Let's say you want to create a link between the modules “Investors” and
“Industry” to see which industry type most of your investors are coming from. You
can easily achieve this by adding an "Industry" lookup field in the "Investors"
module. The related list of the "Industry" module will also list out all the investors
associated with the particular industry. We will discuss lookup and multi-lookup
fields in detail in the Relationship Fields section of this guide.

Auto number Field: The auto number type of custom field classifies the records by
unique numbers. Once the auto number field is added to the CRM module, a
number is added sequentially to each new record. This can be also used to
update fields in existing records like invoice number, quote number,
and sales order.

Currency Field: The currency field allows you to define the decimal place and level
of precision based on your selected currency locale. There are four rounding
options available for a currency field in Zoho CRM: Normal, Round Off, Round Up,
and Round Down.

23 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

User Field: It is simpler when each record has one owner, but there are cases
when multiple users are required to manage a record. In such instances, you can
add a user field to the module and include the appropriate users as co-owners of
the record. The co-owners will be able to perform actions in the record based on
their profile permissions in the CRM account. Workflow rules can be used to
include co-owners in email notifications, or email templates or addresses can be
associated with the record.

To add a user field

1. Go to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields.

2. Select the module from the Modules list view.

The Layout Editor appears.

3. Drag and drop User field from the New Fields tray.

4. Enter a Field Name (for example, Portfolio Manager, Investment Advisor,

Financial Advisor).

5. Click Save.

Record Image Field: Some industries would like the customers to get a preview of
their product before getting down to business. The record image
field allows you to add an image of your product in the CRM module.

File Upload Field:- Users can upload a file or document related to the record.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 24

Formula Field: Formula fields are fields that perform calculations based on the
values of other standard or custom fields. For example, a formula field can help a
sales executive determine for how long a particular customer has been doing
business with the organization. The advantage in this case is that after the
formula field is set up, each time the records are accessed in the future, the value
will reflect the duration for which the customer has been associated with the
organization as of that date, rather than on the date on which the formula field is
created. Thus the formula field is automatically re-calculated to reflect the
changes in the values of the fields used in the formula.

A formula field comprises three elements: function, argument, and operator.

• Function expresses the dependence between two quantities, one of which

is input and the other of which is output. The input values that you specify
are processed through the function, in turn generating new values. To
construct a function, you need to type the function name, followed by a set
of parentheses containing the information that is needed to perform the
function. Examples: Abs(); Ceil(); Timepart()
• Argument is a piece of information within a function, which instructs the
behavior of specified values. The argument helps define the values for the
function. This information is present within parentheses and is separated
by commas (argument 1, argument 2, etc.). The types of argument(s) in a
function can be texts, numbers, field references, or even another
function. The argument types are compatible with all function
types. Examples: Abs(-27.05); Max(12,6,10)
• Operator is a special symbol, such as "+" or "%," that acts upon the
specified argument field type (literals, numbers, fields references) in the
formula and returns a new value. Examples: Abs(+27.50); (32*25)

A formula field can be further distinguished by two components: data types

and functions. Below is a brief description of each type:

Data Types in Formula Fields

Data types are the defined set of values and the allowable operations on those
values. They represent either the function, argument, return value, or the complete
formula itself. The different data types available in Zoho CRM Formula Fields are:

25 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

 • Numeric: The numeric data type contains numbers (digits) in various
representations and performs calculations. The data type can be
integral types with only whole numbers (positive, negative, and zero)
and non-integral types with both integer and decimal parts. Examples:
+5, -9, 10, 0 (integral types) and -25.02, 27.25 (non-integral types).
• String: A string data type is an ordered sequence of symbols. These
symbols can be chosen from a predetermined set of mathematical
objects or alphabets (unicode characters). Examples: "demo," "crm."
• Date-Time: The date-time data type is used to store or display values
that include both date and time or date only. Example: May 15, 2004
11:25am.
• Boolean: The boolean data type, also known as the logical data type, is
used to represent the logical values of true and false. Examples: true,
false.

Functions in Formula Fields

A function performs a specific operation on values that you specify and generates
a new value. To compose a function, you need to type the function name, followed
by a set of parentheses ( ). There are four different types of functions in formula
fields:

• Numeric Functions: A numeric function in formula fields is used to

work with numeric data types and accepts numeric results. Numeric
functions are generally used to display the results of typical
mathematical calculations. The numeric values (arguments) can be
integers or decimals, positive or negative. For example, the formula can
use number values like 10, -12, +52, etc.
• String Functions: A string is a specialized set of characters, which can
contain spaces and numbers, or a contiguous sequence of symbols or
values enclosed within quotes to be differentiated from a number or a
variable name. A string function is used to manipulate or edit the
contents of a string.
• Date-Time Functions: Date-time functions are used when working with
time and date types such as identifying the day of the week for a given
date. You can use these functions when you need the values to contain

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 26

 both date and time information in a specified format. For instance, the
formula can return a value as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM.
• Boolean Functions: A boolean function determines the value output
based on the logical calculation of the inputs. In other words, a boolean
function evaluates the truth or falsity of each element of its domain. It
confirms the entities having one of two values: 1 or 0, true or false, etc,.
along with the operations and, or, and not.

Special Fields
Special fields are fields that are available and applicable to specific modules. The
types of special fields in Zoho CRM are:

• Terms and Conditions Fields: The Terms and Conditions field enables
you to define the standard text that expresses your company's terms
on invoices. This field is available only for the Invoice, Quote, and Order
modules. The Terms and Conditions field applies only for new records
that you create after defining the Terms and Conditions values, and not
for any existing records in Zoho CRM.
• Tax Rates Fields: The Tax Rates field helps you define the appropriate
tax rates that are specific to the products you sell to your customers.
This field is available only in the Products module. When a user is
creating a new invoice, Zoho CRM will calculate the tax based on the
products listed. When defining the values, you need to ensure that you
input the appropriate "tax type" and the corresponding "tax rate".
• Contact Roles: Contact roles define the roles of the contacts or
persons with whom you want to do business. This helps ensure that
you are having the right discussions with the right people in an
organization. In Zoho CRM, standard roles such as Decision Maker,
Product Management, Purchasing, and other roles are available by
default. You can easily customize the contact roles if desired.

To customize contact role values

1. Go to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields.

2. Select the Deals module from the Modules list view.

27 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

 3. Click the Module Settings icon and select Contact Roles.

4. In the Edit Contact Roles page, do the following:

a. Click the Add or Delete icons to add a new role or delete an existing
role, as required.
b. Modify the existing roles from the Contact Role text box.
c. Click and drag the rows to sort their order as required.

5. Click Save after updating the contact roles.

To add contact roles to contacts

1. In the Deals home page, select the required deal.

2. In the Deals Details page under the Contact Roles section, a list of contacts
associated with the deal is displayed. Click the Add Contact Roles link.

3. In the Contact Roles Mapping page, select the checkbox(es) of the contacts
that you want to add.

4. Select the select all checkbox, to associate all the contacts.

5. For each contact, select the role from the Contact Role drop-down list.

6. Click Save after associating roles with all the contacts.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 28

Relationship Fields: Relationship fields in Zoho CRM let you build a connection
between two different modules. There are two types of relationship fields that you
can choose from depending on your needs.

Lookup fields: Lookup fields can help you establish a relationship between two
different modules, so that you can view relevant fields from a second module
while still in the first module.

To add a look-up field

1. Go to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields.

2. Select the desired module (e.g., Leads, Accounts, Contracts, etc.) from the
Modules list view.
The Layout Editor appears.

3. Drag and drop the Lookup field type from the New Fields tray into the
required [Module] Section on the right.

4. In the Lookup Properties popup, do the following:

a. Enter a name for the lookup field in the Field Label text box.
Example: in the Investors module, create a lookup field
called Industries. This field will now be available when you create
an investor.)
b. Select a module from the Lookup Type drop-down. Data from the
module you select here will be listed in the field.
c. Example:, if you select Industries, the lookup field will list all the
industries.
d. Enter the Related List Title.
e. Example: Enter "Other Investors." A related list will be created for
the records in the Industries module.
f. Click Done.

5. Click Save Layout.

The Industries lookup field will be found while creating investors.

The Other Investors related list will be found in all records details pages of
the Industries module.

Multi-Select Lookup Fields: A lookup field will help you establish a relationship
between two modules through a single value. Now, if you run a business that sells

29 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

a variety of different products, there may be situations where your client is
interested in two or three products. In this case, to establish a relationship with
more than one value, you need to use a multi-select lookup field that will allow you
to link multiple values between two modules.

Example: Zylker Real Estates manages buying/renting apartments. They have two
modules in their CRM - Listings and Prospects.

• Jack Smith, one of the prospects, is interested in looking at 3 listings (C-

807, B-196 & H-786).
• Apart from Jack, 3 other prospects - Jane, Jill and Derek - are all interested
in looking at C-807.

This means, when the record Jack Smith is created, 3 values need to be chosen
for the listings he is interested in. Also, the listing C-807 should have 4 prospects
associated with it. So there is a need to choose many values from a lookup field. A
regular lookup field lets you choose only one value. In this case, Zylker Real
Estates could create a multi-select lookup field. Let us see how.

To create a multi-select lookup field

1. Go to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields.

2. Select the Prospects module.

3. From the list of fields available, drag and drop the Multi-select lookup field.
Note that you can create a maximum of two Multi-select lookup fields per
module.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 30

 4. In the Multi-Select Lookup Properties window, enter the details.

5. Select the Allow creating relationship-specific modules checkbox if

a Linking Module is required and enter its name.

6. Click Done.

7. Save the layout.

Linking Module: When you associate two modules using the multi-select lookup
field, the resulting records are a combination of both the modules and thus can't
be listed in both modules. To accommodate these records, Zoho CRM allows you
to create a Linking Module. A linking module serves as a junction between two
modules that are associated with a multi-select lookup field. Each association
between two modules is created as a record in the linking module.

31 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

To create a linking module

1. Select the Allow creating relationship-specific modules checkbox

while creating the multi-select lookup field.

2. Enter a name for the linking module.

8. You can perform the following actions from within a linking module:

• The related list of the associated modules will display the details of
the Linking Module, but only if you have created a related list.
• Customize the related list columns to display the details you wish to
see.
• Rename the related list as you see fit.
• Edit a linking module's record directly from this related list by clicking
on the Edit icon against each record.
• Add new records to the related list or edit the existing record
association directly from this related list. Simply click the Add or Edit
links above the related list to do the same.
• The records in the linking module will have no other related lists
except Notes.
• Create reports and dashboards based on the records in the linking
module.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 32

Activity C-1
Creating multi-select lookup fields.

Scenario
An educational institute wants to establish a relationship between their students
and courses. Create a multi-select lookup field for them in CRM.

You need to:

1. In Modules and Fields, select the Students module

2. In the Layout Editor page, drag and drop the Multi-select lookup field.

3. In the Multi-Select Lookup Properties window, enter the details given

below:

• Field label: Courses interested in

• Select Related Module: Courses
• Field Label in Related Module: Associated students

4. Select the Allow creating relationship-specific modules checkbox to allow

module linking and enter the name of the module.

5. Click Done.

6. Save the layout.

33 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Lesson D:

Stage Probability
Mapping
Lesson Objectives
In this lesson, you will:

• Learn about different sales stages in CRM.

• Understand and assign stage probablity mapping.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 34

Sales Stages
Sales stages are defined steps that enable you to follow-up on the progress of the
sales process. Each stage in the sales process is connected to the key
activities, deliverable, or milestones to be accomplished before progressing to the
next stage. You can provide detailed descriptions about each stage for the users'
benefit, and you can add sales stages to the existing default stages in the CRM
process. Some of the sales stages that are applicable across organizations are
Launch Campaigns, Lead Generation, Lead Qualification, Work Opportunities,
Convert Sales, and Customer Support.

Stage Probability
Mapping
Stage-probability mapping helps you to identify the performance of a sales deal or
prospect in the sales pipeline. This stage probability is mainly determined by
values derived from two factors: the forecast type and forecast category. The
values of these two factors define the stage of a deal sale. In the Deals module,
you can modify the values to meet your organization's needs by adding new
stages and assigning new probability values. Stage probability mapping helps you
perform several operations in the sales process, including:

• Creating different types of sales stages according to your organization-

wide sales process.
• Associating probability values with sales stages.
• Associating forecast types with sales stages.
• Associating forecast categories with sales stages.

To enhance the sales process analysis, you should assign different probabilities
ranging from 0 to 100 to the sales stage values. When applicable, use the
probability value 100 for closed deals.

35 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

To map stage and probability values

1. Go to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields.

2. Click the Deals module from the Modules list view.

3. Click the Module Settings icon and select Stage-Probability Mapping.

4. In the Stage-Probability Mapping page, do the following:

5. Add the sales Stage(s) and the corresponding Probability of closing the
sales deal by clicking on the Add icon.

6. Delete sales Stage(s) and assign the existing Probability to another Sales
Stage value by clicking on the Delete icon.

a. To modify the existing Sales Stages, double-click inside the

desired Stage Name and enter the new name.
b. Click and drag the rows to rearrange the order of the stage.

7. Click Save.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 36

Activity D
Modifying Stage Probability field

Scenario
In a recent sales meeting, the sales team proposed some changes to the
company’s stage probability values and contact roles. These changes, which are
approved for implementation, include:

• Renaming Proposal/Price Quote as Drafting Proposal, but retaining a

probability value of 75.
• Renaming Negotiation/Review as Negotiating, but retaining a probability
value of 90.
• Adding three new proposal-related stages: Proposal Sent with a probability
value of 77, Proposal Discussed with a probability value of 78,
and Proposal Modification with a probability value of 80.
• Modifying the existing contact role Purchasing to Economic Buyer.
• Adding three more new contact roles: Technical Buyer, Business User,
and Influencer.

D-1. Modify the names of the two stage probability stages.

You need to

1. On the Getting Started with Zoho CRM page, in the top-right corner of the
window, select the Setup link.

2. On the Setup page, in the Customization section, select the Modules and
Fields link.

3. On the Leads: List of Fields section, from the Modules List drop-down,
select the Deals module.

4. On the Deals: List of Fields page, select Stage-Probability Mapping.

5. On the Edit Pick List page, in the Stage Field Information section, in Stage
Name column, select the name of the sixth stage, Proposal/Price Quote,

37 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

 and press the Delete key. Type Drafting Proposal as the new name of the
stage.

6. In the Stage Name column, select the name of the seventh

stage, Negotiation/Review, and press the Delete key. Type Negotiating as
the new name of the stage.

D-2. Add the three new proposal-related stages, set their probability, and sort
order values.

You need to

1. In the Stage Field Information section, select Add Stage.

a. In the New Stage Name text box, type Proposal Sent as the stage
name.
b. In the Probability column, type 77 as the probability value.
c. In the Sort Order column, type 7 as the sort order value.
d. Verify that Forecast Type is set as Open and Forecast Category is
set as Pipeline.

2. In the Stage Field Information section, select Add Stage.

a. In the New Stage Name text box, type Proposal Discussed as the
stage name.
b. In the Probability column, type 78 as the probability value.
c. In the Sort Order column, type 8 as the sort order value.

3. In the Stage Field Information section, select Add Stage.

a. In the New Stage Name text box, type Proposal Modification as the
stage name.
b. In the Probability column, type 80 as the probability value.
c. In the Sort Order column, type 9 as the sort order value.

D-3. Modify the sort order values.

1. For the Negotiating stage, in the Sort Order column, change the value from
7 to 10.

2. For the Closed Won stage, in the Sort Order column, change the value from
8 to 11.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 38

 3. For the Closed Lost stage, in the Sort Order column, change the value from
9 to 12.

4. For the Closed Lost to Competition stage, in the Sort Order column, change
the value from 10 to 13.

5. Select Save to save the changes.

39 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Lesson E:

Validation Rules
Lesson Objectives
In this lesson, you will:

• Understand validation rules.

• Learn how to validate fields in Zoho CRM.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 40

Validation Rules
As your business expands, your sales increase in leaps and bounds and so does
the number of customers you deal with. You can imagine it multiplying a hundred
times over if your business manages to attract global acclaim. As you expand, it
can become a challenge to ensure the validity of the data in your CRM. Your
employees rely on the data that they see, and poorly-maintained data can cost
your company in more ways than one: slowing down your activities, costing you
accuracy in reporting, and the plain annoyance of manually verifying the details of
each record when you have more important activities to deal with.

Here come validation rules to the rescue. They help you restrict invalid data, or the
wrong kinds of data, from entering your CRM system.

The Basics of Validation

Rules
There are some important aspects of validation rules that you must keep in mind:

• Validation rules allow you to define how you don't want your data to be.
That is, you will define the undesirable values for a field in a validation rule.
If a field value entered for a record matches the criteria defined in the rule,
CRM will display an alert and will not allow the record to be saved.
• The error message is customizable.

Example: You don't want deal discounts ever to be greater than 15%. If you were to
set this validation rule in CRM, the instructions for your validation rule would be
the following:

• "If Discount is greater than 15% throw an alert message."

• Error to be displayed: "Sorry! We don't allow a discount greater than 15%."

You can further drill down the rule by defining different custom error messages
based on specific criteria. For instance, you can specify that the discount for India
should not be greater than 15%, but the discount for the UK can be up to 20%. Here

41 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

you will have branch conditions for the discount fields and specify appropriate
error messages. You will learn more about these multiple conditions in the
following sections.

To create a validation rule

1. Go to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields.

2. Select the module for which you want to create the validation rules.

3. In the [Module] page, click the Validation Rules tab.

4. Click + Create Validation Rule.

5. In the Create Validation Rule pop-up window, perform the following actions:
a. Choose the layout that the field you wish to validate belongs to.
b. Choose the field and define the primary condition to initiate the
rule.
For instance, if you want to validate the discount field to keep out
discounts more than 15%, your primary condition will be "Discount >
15%"

6. Click Next.

7. In the Validation Rule Editor, enter the alert message that should be
displayed for records that meet the condition.
Example: Sorry! We don't allow a discount greater than 15%.
Note that this error message will be displayed for all the records that meet
the criteria. With this rule in place, whenever a user attempts to create a
deal with more than a 15% discount, this error message will be displayed.

8. Move the cursor over the More icon and click Edit.
Example: Zylker's policies define allowable discounts based on sales
regions. For India, the maximum discount that can be offered is 15%, but in
the UK it can go up to 20%, and so on. You can define these additional
conditions in the validation rule and customize the error messages as
required.

9. In the field Which records would you like to apply the rule to?
select Choose based on specific conditions.

10. Define each condition and specify the appropriate error message.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 42

 11. Click Add another option to change the value of the primary field and
configure different alert messages as required.

12. Click Save.

43 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Lesson F:

Module Views
Lesson Objectives
In this lesson, you will:

• Discover the benefits of different types of views.

• Create and choose the right type of view.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 44

Module Views
A module view defines the way a list of records for a specific entry is displayed. A
view defines the following:

• The columns that are displayed in the module

• The way list of records are sorted by default
• Default filters that should be applied to display only the relevant records

Apart from the above benefits of a default view, there can be requirements in your
business that compel you to change the display, like better comprehension of
data, ease of data retrieval, or product image display. To address such necessities,
Zoho CRM provides you three different types of module views: List View, Kanban
View, and Canvas View.

List View
A list view groups the records based on a defined set of criteria. It is helpfull for
displaying customer-specific data according to a business's unique needs. For
example, you may be interested in following up on the leads created during the
last week, or reviewing overdue tasks, or you may want to filter out big deals. The
best way to handle scenarios like these is to filter the records using the list views.
You can also use the list views for changing record owners, deleting records in
bulk, and sending mass emails.

List views are categorized under Created By Me and Shared With Me. You can
also mark list views that you often use as Favorites and those will be listed first in
the List View drop-down. Just click the star next to a list view and it will be
available under Favorites. There are two types of list views:

• Standard List Views: In the <Module> Home page, you can select the
required list view from the View drop-down list. Only the standard view
modes allow you to rearrange the order of the columns or add more
columns. Some of the standard list views are All Records, My Records,
Recently Created Records, Recently Modified Records, Recently Viewed
Records, etc. You cannot delete these list views.

45 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

 • Custom List Views: You can create list views and define the criteria by
which the records are filtered. You can modify and delete the custom list
views and also sort the order of the columns in the list.

Setting up Permissions for the List View

In the Accessibility Details section, define the user's permissions to view the
custom lists. The following options are available:

• All users are allowed to view this custom view.

• Show this custom view only to me.
• Allow the following users to view this custom view.

Select All Records in a Custom List View

You can select all the records that belong to a particular custom view in one shot.

Consider this scenario: you wish to change the record owner of all leads in the
custom view called Tradeshow leads. Say you have over 20,000 leads in this
custom view—it's a hassle to keep navigating to the "Next" page and selecting all
leads on every page.

Instead, you can simply click the Select All [Records] in this View link. All 20,000
leads will be selected in one shot and you can change the owner for all these
records easily. All the records in that list view will be selected.

Once all the records in that custom list view are selected, you can perform the
following bulk operations on those leads.

• Mass Update
• Change Owner
• Delete

After you have applied a mass update/change owner/delete action, the progress
bar at the bottom right corner of your screen will let you know about the status of
the update.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 46

To create custom views

1. Click the [Module] Tab (e.g. Leads, Contacts, Accounts, etc.).

2. In the [Module] Home page, move your cursor to the list view's drop-down.

3. Click the Create View link.

4. In the New View page, do the following:

a. Enter the custom View Name.
b. Mark as Favorite, if required.
The custom list views marked as favorite will be listed first in the
list view drop-down.
c. Specify Criteria to filter the records.
Tags can also be used as part of Criteria to filter records.
d. Select the columns to be displayed in the module view.
e. Under the Share this with section, choose who can see this view.

5. Click Save.

Kanban View
Kanban view is a card-based view that displays the data in an organized manner
for better comprehension.

For example, you can segregate the leads based on their status or categorize the
sales depending on different stages. This sort of information gives you better
insights about potential bottlenecks and lets you fix them effectively. Thus,
kanban view presents your CRM data in a more productive manner. You can create
kanban views across all the CRM modules. There are two types of kanban views:
Pre-defined and Customizable.

A) Pre-defined – The pre-defined kanban views are available for Activities, Social,
Visits, Deals, and SalesInbox. Below is the CRM view for the Activities module,
based on Customers, Open Deals, Leads/Contacts, and Others.

47 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

B) Customizable - You can create a customized Kanban view for any module. All

you need to do is provide a few details:

• Kanban View Name: You can enter any name for the kanban view created,
for example "Lead Details."
• Categorize By: Select the category in which you want to segregate the
data, for example "Lead Status."
• Aggregate By: Select a currency or number field for which you want the
aggregated value, for example "Expected revenue/Number of user
licenses." A summed-up value for each category will be displayed.

• Select Fields: Select the fields that you want to view within each record.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 48

Working with kanban view
Creating a kanban view will give you precise information about all the records at
one click. You can create a kanban view for all the modules except Activities,
Visits, and Finances.

In addition to viewing the record details in an organized manner you can perform
several other operations from the kanban view. Let's take a look at each of them:

Drag and Drop: You can drag and drop a record from one column to another based
on your requirements. For instance, a lead listed under Attempted to Contact has
declined the present offer and you want to keep them in the pipeline for future
reference. So, instead of editing the record and changing the status, you can
simply drag and drop the record to the desired column to automatically change
the status. The aggregated value of the respective columns will also be updated.

Mass Operations: You can send mass emails, create tasks, create macros, and so
on. From the More Actions icon, you can change owner, mass update a field, mass
convert the leads, or delete leads.

Select a Layout: A user can select a layout in which they want to view the module.

Sort Records: A user can sort the records based on the fields they want to view
like company, first name, last name, lead owner, and so on.

To create a kanban view

1. Click the [Module] Tab (e.g. Leads, Contacts, Accounts, etc.).

2. In the Module page, click the Kanban View icon.

3. In the Kanban View Settings pop-up, fill in the following details:

• Kanban View Name

• Categorized By
• Aggregate By
• Select Fields

4. Click Save.

49 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Canvas View
Canvas View lets you sculpt an exclusively personalized view of the records. You
can customize, add record images for better identification, use custom buttons to
represent the fields, use a particular font style or size, change the alignment of
field types, group similar field types, and much more.

Additonally, you can choose from a gallery of design templates, or create and
customize your template with specially-crafted design tools. The design layout
editor lets you define additional customizations to the records display.

Design Layout Editor

The design editor consists of many tools that you can use to give your module a
personalized and unique look. A few of the design elements are:

• Style: You can choose from a wide range of styles to mark your data as
vital information, secondary information, highlight grey, paragraph text,
subtle information, date & time, low priority, and more.
• Font Size: Select font size from the range of 11px to 21px.
• Group: Group two or more fields. Grouping is perfect when a customer has
to enter lengthy text or text that has many characters. The field text box
automatically expands to accommodate the entries without compromising
the text alignment.
• Shuffle data: Use this option to shuffle the CRM records within the
template.
• Label: Toggle off the label icon if you do not want the field label to be
displayed.
• Color: Choose a text or background color for the field entries. You can
select a color from the default list or create your own color palette.

Design & Build Canvas View

You can build a canvas view by choosing a predefined design template or creating
your own template from the scratch. You can create a canvas view for both
standard and custom modules except the Activities module. For designing and
building a canvas view, follow the steps below:

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 50

Step 1. Create canvas view

1. Select a desired module.

2. Click the Canvas View icon .

You will be redirected to the Canvas View page.

3. Click Create Your First Canvas View to continue.

Next, you will have to choose a design template or build your own
template.

Step 2. Choose a design template or build your own canvas view

Once you choose to create a canvas view for a particular module you can do either
of the following for creating a design template:

Choose a template: Zoho CRM lets you choose from an array of pre-defined
templates. The templates involve a variety of categories like People, Help Desk,
Real Estate, Automobile, Organization, and so on.

Build your own view: This option lets you build your own canvas view. You will be
using additional customization options available in the layout editor for creating a
personalized view of a module.

To choose a template:

1. In the Choose Template page, select a category from the available options.
You can choose from People, Organization, Deals, Product, Help Desk, Real
Estate, and Automobile.

2. Choose and click on a template.

3. In the Field Mapping page, select a field and choose any field from the
drop-down list to which you want to map.

4. Click Next to continue.

Next, you will be redirected to the Canvas View Builder page to design your
layout. Refer to the layout editor table below for designing details.

5. Click Save.

6. Enter a name for the canvas view created.

51 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

To build your own view:

1. In the Choose Template page, click Blank Template.

2. In the Canvas View Builder page, design your layout.

3. Drag and drop the fields into the blank template (e.g., Account Owner,
Account Name, etc.).

4. Edit the template design.

Refer to the layout editor table below for designing details.

The below layout editor table describes the designing tools available in the canvas
builder:

Design
Description Types
Item

• Normal Text
• Record Name 1
• Record Name (Blue)
• Record Name
(Green)

Define a style in which the field • Vital Information

name will appear. You can (Orange with bold
Style
choose from the 12 available font)
styles. • Secondary
Information
• Highlight Grey
• Highlight Blue
• Paragraph Text
• Subtle Information

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 52

 • Date & Time
• Low Priority

Choose the font size in which • Range of 11px to

Font Size the field text will appear from 21px.
the drop-down list.

• Thin
• Light
• Regular
Font Type Select the field text style. • Semi-bold
• Bold
• Extra bold

Select if you want the field text • I

Italics
to appear in italics.

Strike Select if you want to strike out • ab

through the field.

Select if you want the field text • AA

Capital
appear to appear in all caps.

Choose a text or background

color for the field entries. You
Color can select a color from the
default list or create your own
color palate.

Select either left, right or

Text
center alignment for the field
Alignment
entries.

53 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

 Increase the spacing between
Spacing the fields up, down, left and
right.

Toggle off the label icon if you

Label do not want the field label to be
displayed.

Select the custom buttons to

Icon represent a field label from the
drop-down list.

Copy Copy any of the defined field

Style label or value style.

Paste Paste the style to the selected

Style field label or value.

Group two or more fields.

Grouping is perfect when a
customer has to enter lengthy
text or text that has many
Group characters. The field text box
automatically expands to
accommodate the entries
without compromising the text
alignment.

Ungroup the fields if you no

Ungroup longer want them in a single
text box.

Select a field and delete if

Delete
required.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 54

Undo and Using the two arrows, you go
redo back and forth to change the
arrows design.

Use this option to shuffle the

Shuffle
CRM records within the
data
template.

Step 3. Preview the template

Once the template is designed, you can preview it. If required, you can make any
necessary changes before saving.

Step 4. Share the canvas view

You can choose to share the canvas view that you have created. You can share
the view either with all the CRM users or choose a selected list of users. The CRM
users will be filtered based on roles, groups, users, or roles and subordinates.

1. Click Save once the canvas view has been created.

2. Enter a name for the view.

3. In the Share this with field, choose one of the following:

• Only me
• Everyone
• Selected users: For Select Source type, choose and add users from
either Groups, Roles, Roles and subordinates, or Users.

4. Click Save.

Manage, Edit and Create Additional Canvas Views

If required, you can edit a canvas view that has been already created and create
more than one canvas views for a module.

55 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

To edit and create canvas view:

1. In the Module page, go to the Canvas View and click Manage from the drop-
down list.

2. In the Manage Canvas View page, choose either Edit, Clone, Share,
or Delete.

3. Click Create Canvas view from the drop-down to create another view in the
module.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 56

Lesson G:

Related Lists
Lesson Objectives
In this lesson, you will:

• Learn about related lists

• Learn to add related lists from different sources

57 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Related List
The Details pages of specific modules contain details of records from other
modules. The record details from other modules that appear as part of another
module's Details page are referred to as related lists. The related lists feature
provides an association between records in the current module with related
records that are available in other modules of Zoho CRM. For example, on the
Accounts Details page, the details of the Contacts and Potentials modules are
listed.

In all Zoho CRM editions, you can customize the related lists by selecting
Setup→Customization→Related List. On the Related List Columns page that
displays, you can customize the related list by selecting the list of columns that
need to appear on the Details page of a module. Further, you can reposition the
fields based on your requirements.

The enterprise edition of Zoho CRM provides another feature called custom-
related lists, which can be accessed from the Record Details view of specific
modules by selecting Settings→Add Related List. The custom-related lists allow
you to access data that is collected from sources such as pre-defined third-party
custom functions. The custom-related lists can be added to the Leads, Contacts,
Accounts, Campaigns, Potentials, and Vendors modules. However, you can
customize the fields or columns in the related lists in all modules.

Adding a Related List

You can pull data from various sources to create related lists with two options:

• Zoho Creator's Custom Apps: Add records from Zoho Creator Apps
as related lists.
• Third-Party APIs - Add Third-Party APIs as related lists. You can either
choose from pre-defined functions from the gallery or create your own
functions.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 58

Use Custom Applications as Related List
You can extend your CRM platform with Zoho Creator custom applications . The
forms and views can be used as custom tabs inside Zoho CRM. If you have Zoho
Creator Integration activated in your Zoho CRM organizational account, you can
view the records of a Custom App's view using a custom related list in your CRM
modules.

Third-Party APIs as Related Lists

Using APIs, you can add third-party services as related lists into Zoho CRM
modules. You can either use the pre-defined third-party custom functions from the
Gallery or create a custom function for the third-party service you wish to add in
the related list.

You will need to call the API provided by the third-party vendor, and parse the
response. The response has to be formatted to suit Zoho CRM.

Zoho CRM offers some pre-defined functions that are ready to use. Browse
through the gallery and select a function that suits your requirements. The
selected function will be added to your list of custom functions. You can then use
this function as a related list anytime. The following are the third-party contextual
integrations that are provided by CRM:

• Zoho Recruit
• Contactology
• Saasu
• FreshBooks
• Zoho People

Create Custom Functions

In addition to the pre-defined functions from the gallery, you can also write your
own custom functions using Deluge script.

59 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Deluge Script
Deluge, short for Data Enriched Language for the Universal Grid Environment, is an
online scripting language integrated with Zoho Creator. It enables users to add
logic to the application, incrementally, making it more powerful and robust. The
entire database layer is abstracted, and while scripting in Deluge you will only
speak in terms of forms and fields.

Custom Function
A function is a set of statements grouped together under a name and can be
invoked from anywhere within a program. Deluge scripting supports functions,
which allow us to structure the script in a more modular way, accessing all the
potential that structured programming can offer. Related functions can also be
grouped under a common category based on their purpose, called names pace,
which helps in easy maintenance. Functions can be invoked from form/field action
scripts or on selected records in a view.

To use a custom app to create a related list:

1. Click a Module (tab) and select a record.

2. In the Record Details page, click Add Related List.

3. In the Add Related List pop-up box, click Custom Apps.

All the Zoho Creator custom apps that are shared to your account will be
listed.

4. From the list of custom apps, click Add Now for the corresponding app
that you want to use.

5. In the Add Related List page, do the following:

a. Specify a name for the Related List.
b. Choose a Form from the drop-down list.
c. Based on the form that you choose, the associated views will be
available.
d. Choose a View from the drop-down list.
e. The selected view will be used as the related list for the module.
f. Specify a criterion for Fetch records for the related list only if [Zoho
CRM field value] matches with [Custom Form field value].

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 60

 g. Select the check box of the fields that you want to view in the
related list.

6. Click Save.

61 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Lesson H:

Custom Links & Buttons

Lesson Objectives
In this lesson, you will:

• Learn about custom links and buttons

• Provide permission to the custom links
• Learn different ways to add a custom buttons

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 62

Custom Links
The Custom Links feature enables users to access third-party links that are added
in their account. Once the custom links are set, they can be viewed in the account
owner’s page. The number of custom links that you can create is based on your
Zoho CRM edition.

Employees may need to gather information related to sales activity by accessing

external web sites. You can add links to these external web sites so that users can
easily access them. The Fields & Links Permissions page provides you with
options for giving or revoking access permissions for the custom links. You can
also hide the existing links based on your organization's requirements. Here are
some examples where custom links in Zoho CRM can be used:

• Accessing your contacts' Twitter profiles: All the contacts in your account
can have a field where you specify their Twitter ID. By creating a link for
Twitter, you can directly go to the contact's Twitter profile in a single click.
Example: The link can be: https://twitter.com/#!/${Contacts.Twitter ID}
• View maps: Zoho CRM provides the Locate Map option to view the address
of the contacts in Google Maps. If you want to view the address location
using some other application, then you can define a link.

Access Permissions to Custom Links

There can be a requirement to access external sites or applications to see
required sales information. In such cases, when custom links are created, you
need to authorize the usage of such external sites by providing access
permissions to links.

To add custom links

1. Go to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields.

2. From the list of modules, select the required module.

3. In the Links and Buttons tab, click Create New Link.

4. In the Create New Link page, do the following:

63 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

 a. Enter a name for the link in the Label text box.
The label should not exceed 50 characters.
b. Enter a description for the link.
The description should not exceed 250 characters.
c. Enter the value to construct the URL.
The URL length should not exceed 3000 characters.
d. Select the Field from the drop-down list.
On selection, the field variable will be inserted as part of the URL.
e. In the Set Permissions section, choose the user profiles that are
allowed to access the links. Users who have "Customize Zoho
CRM" permissions in their profile can set access permissions for
the links at the time of creating the links. Based on these
permissions, other users can use the links.

5. Click Save.
The link will be available in the Record Details page.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 64

Custom buttons
The standard buttons in Zoho CRM are used to execute various predefined
actions. For example, Convert is a standard button used to convert a Lead to a
Contact, Account, or Potential. Similarly, Clone is another standard button that is
used to clone any record within your CRM account. Likewise, you can create new
buttons and define a set of actions based on the requirement. Custom buttons can
also be used to connect your CRM with third party applications, connect different
Zoho CRM modules, or connect other Zoho applications.

Define Button Action

Every custom button should be associated with an action when a user clicks the
button. You can define your button action any of the following ways:

From gallery: There are a few ready-to-deploy button actions in the gallery, which
you can associate with a custom button for different business scenarios whenever
required. For example, you can use the Recurring Potential button to repeat a
potential for a certain period of time. You can create a custom button that will
clone a particular potential record information for the next one year.

From existing actions: Existing actions are predefined button actions created by
users in an organization. This option will be available only when you have already
created custom functions for custom buttons in your CRM account. These actions
can be reused with different custom buttons whenever required.

Define your own button action: You can define your own button action in the
following ways:

65 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

 • By writing a custom function: With the help of the Deluge Script Editor, you
can write your custom function and define the button action. When writing
a custom function, you can initiate response tracking that will create an
alert or pop-up notification whenever you click on the custom button. If any
open URL tasks are configured in custom function, the last opened URL
task will be opened either in a new tab or a new window or a pop-up
window.
• By invoking a URL: Using Invoke a URL, you can open a URL in a click of a
button. This will open a desired action either on a new window, or the
existing window or on a new tab.
• By opening a web tab: This action allows to open a web tab in a new tab
along with the associated merge fields in just a click of a button. You can
either create a new web tab or choose from the list of web tabs that have
been already created and associate the tab with your custom button.

Sort or Edit Custom Button

You can edit and sort the custom buttons as and when required. If you have
created many custom buttons in your account, you can sort the order in which the
buttons are visible in the module/record.

To create a custom button

1. Log in to Zoho CRM with administrative privileges.

2. Go to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields.

3. From the list of modules, select the required module.

4. In the Links & Buttons tab, click Create New Button.

5. In the Create Your Button page, do the following:

a. Enter the name of the button.
The button name should not exceed 30 characters.
b. Click the Add Description link and specify the details of your
custom button.
The description should not exceed 250 characters.
c. Choose the location of your custom button from the drop-down list.
Custom buttons can be placed in 6 different places in your CRM

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 66

 account: Create/Clone page, Edit page, View page, List View page, a
button for each record in the list view, and the Related Lists Page.
Note that you can create up to 50 buttons for each module.
d. Choose an action to be executed when a user clicks the custom
button. You can either choose a predefined action from the gallery
or an existing action that was already created by users in your
organization. You can also define your own action by writing a
custom function, open a new web tab, or invoke a URL based on
your needs.

6. It is mandatory to choose the button action. Click Save.

Once the custom button is associated with an action, CRM administrators
can manage permissions by assigning only specific profiles to view and
access the custom button.

67 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Activity H
Creating a link

Scenario
The sales team would like to gather more information about prospective leads by
accessing the leads' websites. However, to save time, they want the websites to
be accessible from within the module details page. To check out this functionality,
you decide to add links to two lead websites, namely www.twitter.com and
https://plus.google.com. In addition, you decide to hide the second link as you
need to get authorization before you allow access to this link within your
organization.

You need to
1. Create custom links to https://www.twitter.com and
https://plus.google.com websites in the Leads module.

2. Choose a module and click the Links and Buttons link.

3. In the Create Link page, in the Label text box, type "Twitter" as the name of
the link.

4. In the Description text area, type "Contains link to Twitter" as the required
description.

5. In the Construct Your Link section, in the URL text area, type
"https://www.twitter.com" as the website’s URL.

6. Select Save to save the new link.

7. Repeat steps 1c through 1g to create a link named Google Plus to link the
Google Plus website using https://plus.google.com as the URL. Provide a
suitable description for the new link.

8. Assign permissions to the custom links.

9. In the Create New Link page, go to Set Permission. Select the users who
should have access to the links.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 68

Lesson I:

Templates

Lesson Objectives
In this lesson, you will:

• Learn about tyopes of templates

• Learn to customize templates

69 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Templates
In any business organization, frequent communication takes place with external
organizations and customers as part of the daily routine. Some of these business
communications will be repetitive in nature; the effectiveness of such
communications can be maintained by creating and adopting a standard format.

By having standard formats for business communications, there will be clear

understanding and consistency in the text that is being exchanged. It will ensure
that only relevant information is communicated and make it easier to track or
collate the mails in the future. Zoho CRM allows you to create templates, which
help you to achieve the required standardization of business communication. In
this module we will discuss three types of templates: email templates, inventory
templates, and mail merge.

Email Templates
Email templates are master documents that allow you to specify the standard
format for emails. You can apply suitable formatting, include relevant images, and
add HTML code to finalize the content of the email message. In email templates,
you can include fields from the selected modules. When you create an email
message based on email templates, the field values will be displayed instead of
the field names.

In Zoho CRM, you can also clone, modify, and delete email templates depending
on your business needs. These email templates are module-specific. For example,
if you want to send an email to your contacts, Zoho will only show you the
templates created for contact records.

While creating email templates, keep these points in mind:

• A template can contain a maximum of 32,000 characters.

• A video cannot be embedded in a template, but a link to a video can be
included.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 70

 • When creating an email template for leads, make sure that you don’t
include contact-related fields. Otherwise, you’ll experience errors while
creating the email template.

Create New Template

You can create email templates either from scratch or from predesigned
templates. All you have to do is drag and drop components onto the template to
create it. An All Components panel will be available when creating a template,
from which you can drag and drop the components you want. With predefined
components the level of customization needed is very little. If you choose a
predesigned template, all you need to do is select a template from the gallery, add
the HTML codes, and save it.

View Template Analytics

The template analysis can give you an insight into the performance of each
template. Whenever changes are made to the template, it is considered as a new
version of the template. This lets you analyze how each version of the template
has performed and gives you an idea of how well the implemented changes have
been accepted.

By clicking on the analytics tab or the open rate under the stats column you can
view the template analytics. A graph with the template statistics will be shown.

1. You can toggle between:

• Open Rate: The opened rate is the percentage that tells you many times
the email containing the template has been opened by the customers.
• Click Rate: The clicked rate is the percentage that tells you how many
clicks were registered by the customers for that particular email
containing the template.
• Version: The Version tab lists when a template was modified and by
whom. Click on it to view a summary of the template with details such
as different versions, open rate, click rate, when it was modified, and by
whom.

71 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

 2. You can choose to view the graph based on the Percentage, Count, or
Version from the drop-down list.

3. You can choose whether you want a specific version or all versions to
appear on the graph.

4. You can define the range of dates for which the data should appear on the
graph.

Sort and Search Email Templates

Sorting makes it easier for you to access the templates that you need, by bringing
them to the top of the list. For example, you can sort the templates in such a way
that the most used templates appear at the top of the list. In Zoho CRM, in
addition to sorting templates, you can also search for templates.

• You have two options for sorting templates based on time:

To sort based on the last use time, click on the Last Used column. With the
help of the Last Used column you can get to know which templates are
used the most.
To sort based on the modified time, click on the Modified Time column.
• You can also search and filter templates based on your needs.
• You can search for a template by its name with the help of the provided
search bar.
• Choose the module from the drop-down list to display the templates
related to that particular module.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 72

Clone Email Templates
At times, there might be slight changes that have to be made to the content of an
existing template, before sending it to a customer. Rather than having to go
through the trouble of creating a whole new template, you can clone the old
template, make the necessary changes, and send it.

Associated Templates
There can be instances when some of the templates are associated with other
CRM functions like Workflow, Case Escalation, Macro, etc. In these instances, you
can view the functions with which the template is associated by clicking on the
button that appears at the end of the template details. You can group
together similar templates and move them to an appropriate folder. When
necessary you can share the template folders with the required set of users or
groups.

Use Email Templates

There are several cases where you can send emails by using the email templates.
The following are ten instances in which you can make use of the email template:

• Send Mail
• Mass Email
• Schedule Mass Email
• Auto Responders
• Macros
• Workflow Automation
• Approval Process
• Case Escalation
• Webforms
• Auto Response Rules

Inventory Templates
You can use the Inventory Templates page to customize templates related to the
primary inventory modules—namely Quotes, Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, and

73 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Invoices—and create a print layout based on your business requirements. The Edit
function allows you to change the print layout fields, place the company logo
appropriately, enhance the look and feel of the layout, and align the list of products
and services. You can create new Inventory templates by linking primary inventory
modules with secondary modules. As with email templates, you can either build a
template from scratch or select one from the template gallery.

Guidelines for Creating an Inventory Template

When creating an inventory template, you need to ensure that you follow certain
rules that are applicable in Zoho CRM. Follow these guidelines to create your
inventory template:

• The Product Name field is a mandatory field in any inventory template. It

enables the listing of a product in the inventory document from the
available products in Zoho CRM.
• The specific template tags for line items should be present within <tbody
id="lineItem"> and </tbody> tags.
• You can merge fields from other modules such as Users, Organizations,
Accounts, Vendors, Contacts, and Deals.
• The default templates can be used in the Print Preview, Export to PDF, and
Send Mail functions of the Quotes, Orders, and Invoices modules.

Other Functions in Inventory Template

As with email templates, you can perform other actions like creating template
folders, sorting the folders, and cloning templates, as well as sorting and
searching inventory templates.

Mail Merge Templates

The mail merge feature helps streamline repetitive tasks that are involved in the
creation of customized documents, such as forms, letters, and envelopes. With
the mail merge feature, you can create mail merge templates and import
templates containing merged fields. These merged fields collect data from Zoho
CRM records and display them in the generated document.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 74

For example, if you have to send out personalized letters to all contacts
simultaneously, you need not type the details that correspond to each contact
manually. Instead, you can create a template with the merged fields from the
Contacts module and then merge the data to generate the personalized letters.

Benefits of Templates
The mail merge templates help you merge fields from Zoho CRM modules to
generate personalized documents, such as forms, letters, and envelopes. While
using the mail merge template, you can either create templates using Zoho Writer
or import Microsoft® Word templates.

The Import Template option allows you to import Microsoft® Word documents
that are no larger than 2 MB. Word documents can either be in .doc or .docx
formats. You should type a brief description of the imported document in
the Description text box. You can also select the folder in which you want to store
the template. Finally, you can select the module in Zoho CRM that is needed for
the mail merger.

Create Templates
You can create mail merge templates using Zoho Writer or MS Word. Let us look
at each in detail:

Zoho Writer
Zoho Writer is an online word processor that allows you to create and share
documents in a rich-text format (RTF). Zoho Writer lets you create mail merge
documents online using Zoho CRM data from the Leads, Accounts, Contacts, and
Deals modules. Some of the benefits of Zoho Writer include:

• Templates are created online and hence there is no need to download and
install additional software.
• Zoho Writer can be accessed by using the single-sign on feature, which
allows you to access all Zoho products with a single Zoho account login
credential.
• Mail merge helps create identical documents such as invitations, forms,
letters, and envelopes with data from the Leads, Accounts, Contacts and

75 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

 Deals modules. These documents can be printed and mailed—or emailed—
to customers whose details were merged into the documents.

§ Saves time while creating multiple documents.

§ Allows easy access to mail merge templates. The templates
can be edited online anytime.

Import MS Word
Mail merge templates can also be created in Microsoft Word and you can import
those templates to Zoho CRM. To use this functionality, you need to purchase the
Zoho CRM plug-in for Microsoft Office. Please note that the data-merging feature
is only supported in Internet Explorer 6 and above.

To create a template in Zoho Writer

1. Go to Setup > Customization > Templates > Mail Merge Templates.

2. In the Mail Merge Templates page, click + Create Template in Zoho Writer.

3. In the Create Template in Zoho Writer window, specify the following details:

a. Enter the Template Name.

b. Enter the Description for the template.
c. Select the Folder from the drop-down list. The template will be
stored in the folder that you select.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 76

 d. Select the Module for which you want to create the template.
The merge fields in the template will be based on the module that
you select. You can create mail merge templates for both system-
generated modules as well as custom modules.

4. Click Create.
A document will be opened in Zoho Writer.

5. In Writer, click Tools > Mail Merge >Insert Fields and select the field(s) that
you want to insert.

77 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5

Activity I-1
Scenario
Create a new email template folder named “Email Templates” for storing the email
templates.

You need to
1. On the Email Templates page, select Create New Template.

2. Once the email template is ready, click Save.

3. Select New Folder, enter the name of the new folder, and choose with
whom the folder should be shared.

Activity I-2
Scenario
Create a new email template named “Lead Template” for welcoming new leads to
the organization using mail merge.

You need to
1. In the Mail Merge select New Template.

2. Click Create a Template in Zoho Writer, and choose an email template

folder and the Leads module from the drop-down lists.

3. A document will open in Writer. Type the text you want to use to welcome
new leads.

4. In Writer, click the insert and tools fields (and mail merge within tools) as
necessary.

Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5 78

 © 2018 Zoho Corp. All rights reserved
79 Zoho CRM for Administrators – Module 5