Zoho CRM Common Operations

Zoho CRM Common Operations

Navigate Records

Navigate primarily means the process of moving back and forth within the records. Navigation in Zoho CRM allows easy movement between records; provides options to choose the number of records to be displayed in one page; and saves time in accessing records. See Also Navigate Records

The two navigational options available in Zoho CRM are:

  • Page-level navigation
  • Record-level navigation

Page-level navigation

Record-level navigation

Search Records

The search option helps locating specific information or specific records without having to go through the entire list of records, thus saving time in finding records. See Also Search Records

The different search options available in Zoho CRM are:

  • Search records by Alphabet
  • Search records by Information
  • Search records by Criteria using Advanced Filters

Search records by Alphabet

Search records by Information

Search records by Criteria using Advanced Filters

Create Records

In the Zoho CRM system, you can create records by:

  • Entering data manually in the record details form
  • Importing records from external sources
  • Capturing records from Web site through Web-to-record form

Note:

  • Some of the standard fields listed below may not be visible or editable depending on your organization's business process.
  • In case you want to add or modify fields, please contact your System Administrator for more details on the usage of other fields.

For a complete list of standard lead fields, click here.

Create Records Individually

You can create records manually whenever there is a limited number of records that can be created one by one. In such cases, it is easy to manually feed in the available details and create new records instantly.

You can create records individually by:

  • Filling details in the record creation form.
  • Duplicating the record with few changes in the existing details.

You can create leads individually by using the following:

  • Filling details in the lead creation form.
  • Cloning the lead with few changes in the existing record.

Note:

  • By default, the person who creates the lead owns it.
  • To change owner, click the Change link in the Lead Owner field from the Lead Details page and select another user.

To create leads individually

  1. In the [Module] tab, click New [Module] . Alternatively, click .
  2. In the Create Record page, enter the details. (Refer to the Standard Fields)
  3. Click Save.

To clone records

  1. In the [Module] tab, click a particular record that is to be cloned.
    Module refers to Leads, Accounts, Contacts, etc. tabs.
  2. In the [Module] Details page, click Clone.
  3. In the Clone [Record] page, modify the required details.
  4. Click Save.

Import Records

Importing records from external sources to the CRM system is one of the most important activities in marketing and sales, when you are using different systems to gather data. For example, you may be purchasing records from external sources, capturing product requests through Web sites, getting records from a different business unit within the organization where there is a chance of cross-selling products, or migrating data from your old system to Zoho CRM. In all these cases, importing records enhances your productivity.

Zoho CRM provides you two option:

  • Importing data to individual modules in Zoho CRM: Individual files can be imported, one at a time, to a specific module.
  • Migrating data from other accounts to Zoho CRM: The migration wizard can be used while migrating from another CRM and transferring huge amount of data to Zoho CRM. See Also Migrate Data

You can import records, if you are authorized to perform this operation. Otherwise, the Import records button in [Module] Home page will be hidden in your user interface.

Note:

  • The Import link is displayed only if you have the privilege to use the Import feature.
  • Please contact your administrator in case these links are disabled.
  • Before importing records, you must have the record details in a CSV/XLS file.
  • Before importing the records, close the CSV/XLS file and the Spreadsheet program.
  • Ensure that the CSV file does not contain any apostrophes (For example, ABC's).

See AlsoImport Data

Capture Records from Website (Using Web-to-record Form)

Web forms simplify the process of capturing visitors' or users' information from the website into your CRM system. They are designed to automate the importing of data from website into Zoho CRM and to enable non-technical users to design and publish their own web forms.

Benefits

Web forms can be used for:

  • Capture data (visitors' information)
  • Communicate with website visitors
  • Conduct surveys
  • Respond to user questions
  • Generate online sales
  • Receive online feedback

See Also Managing Web Forms

Change Record's Owner

In Zoho CRM, based on the requirement you can choose to change the owner of a record. You can also transfer the ownership of the open activities, open contacts or open deals only if they are associated to the record and owned by the record's owner.

Following are a few important points to note while changing the ownership of a record:

  • Accounts: While changing a record's ownership in the Accounts module, you can choose to either change to the selected owner or retain the old owner for the open activities, open deals or contacts associated with the record.
  • Contacts: While changing a record's ownership in the Contacts module, you can either choose to change the ownership of the open activities or open deals associated with the record or retain the ownership, as it is.
  • Other Modules (except the Activities module): If the record's ownership is changed you can choose to change the owner of the associated open activities also.
  • Changing record's owner in automation rules: If you have configured an automation rule that will triggered when a record is either edited or a field update, the trigger will be applied to the parent and the first level child only. For instance, an account has an open deal and this deal is associated to a contact, so the rule (if any) will be triggered only for the account and the open deal. It will not be applied to the deal's contact. Please note that here automation rules are Workflow rules, Approval Process, Blueprint and Scoring Rules. Also, automation execution is enabled only for the Standard edition users.
  • Changing owner when there is an association with the Contact: If an activity is created for a deal or account and is also associated to a contact, in such scenario the ownership of the activity can be changed when the ownership of the deal or account or that of a contact is changed.
  • Changing Owner from Deleted or Deactivated Users: When the ownership of the record owned by a deleted or deactivated user is changed, the associated open activities, open deals or contacts are automatically transferred to the new owner. There will be no option to retain the ownership of the associated records.
  • Changing Owner in Parent-Child Relationship: When the ownership of the parent record is changed the ownership of the associated first-level and second-level child record will also change. However, the Change Owner notification will not be shown for the second-level child record. For instance, Zylker Corp. (parent account) has an open deal (first-level child record) which also has a task (second-level child record). On changing the ownership of the deal, the task's owner will change as well.

Note:

  • You need to have the Change Owner profile permission to use this feature.
  • The items related to the records in a module that should be transferred to the corresponding user, depends on the permission that the user holds for Events, Tasks, Calls. For example, If the user does not have permission for Events, then they cannot be transferred whereas Open Tasks and Open Calls can be transferred.
    An alert will be displayed if the owner doesn't have the permission.
  • Open calls is referred to scheduled and overdue calls only.
  • You can transfer the ownership of the open activities, open contacts or open deals only if they are associated to the same record owner. 
  • If a user does not have the permission to view a module, their name will not be listed while changing the owner of a record.
  • If a user does not have permission to access related records you will receive an alert while changing the owner of a record.

To change the owner of records individually

  1. Select a Module.
    Module refers to Leads, Accounts, Contacts, etc. tabs.
  2. In the [Module] Home page, select the record.
  3. Click the Record Owner icon ().
  4. In the Change Owner notification, select a User from the drop-down list.
  5. Click the checkbox Open activities, Open tasks or Open Deals.
  6. Click Save.

To change the owner of records in bulk

  1. Click the [Module] tab.
    Module refers to Leads, Accounts, Contacts, etc. tabs.
  2. In the [Module] Home page, select the required check boxes.
  3. Under the tabs in the top panel > select Change Owner.
  4. In the Change Owner page, select the new user from the Change Owner pick list.
  5. Click the checkbox of the associated related records.
  6. Click Change Owner.

Note:

  • Record ownership will be changed to another user, irrespective of its existing owner.
  • Use this operation carefully, otherwise records belonging to different users will be changed to new user.
  • To overcome this problem, you may first search the records with a required owner name and then change the owner in bulk.
  • The Change Owner option will not be available for the records for which you have Read Only permission.

Print Records

You can view the record details in printable form and print them using the browser’s print function.

To print record details

  1. Click the [Module] tab.
    Module refers to Leads, Accounts, Contacts, etc. tabs.
  2. In the [Module] Home page, click the required record that you want to print.
  3. In the Record Detail page, click MoreActions > Print Preview.
  4. Choose a Template Category from the list.
    The chosen Email Template, Mail Merge Template or Inventory Template, as the case may be, appears for Print Preview.
  5. Click Print.

Note:

  • You can also print the details using the Web browser's print function.
  • Email Templates appears only if there are any email templates created for the module in question.
  • The Mail MergeTemplates option is restricted to Leads, Contacts, Accounts and Deals.
  • Inventory Templates are restricted to Inventory Modules.
  • These additional Print options (Email, Mail Merge and Inventory templates) are available for all paid Zoho CRM accounts. For Free and Trial accounts, only the default print option is available.

To print list of records

  1. Click the [Module] tab.
    Module refers to Leads, Accounts, Contacts, etc. tabs.
  2. In the [Module] Home page, click the PrintView icon.
  3. In the Print Preview page, the system displays the list of records.
  4. Click Print Page.

Delete Records

Occasionally you may need to remove some of the unnecessary records from Zoho CRM, for a better organization of data. You may consider removing records that are not useful for future reference.

Note:

  • The deleted records are temporarily stored in the Recycle Bin for 60 days from the date of deletion after which they are permanently deleted.
  • Users with Administrator profile will have access to all the records in the Recycle Bin.
  • Only the Administrator can delete the records from the Recycle Bin.

To delete records individually

  1. Click the [Module] tab.
    Module refers to Leads, Accounts, Contacts, etc. tabs.
  2. In the [Module] Home page, select the record.
  3. In the Record Detail page, click Delete.

To delete records in bulk

  1. Click the [Module] tab.
    Module refers to Leads, Accounts, Contacts, etc. tabs.
  2. In the [Module] Home page, select the check boxes corresponding to the records.
  3. Click Delete.

Restore Deleted Records

If you delete records by mistake, you can always restore the deleted records from the Recycle Bin.

To restore deleted records

  1. Go to Setup > Data Administration > Recycle Bin.
  2. In the Recycle Bin page, select check box(es) of the records that you want to restore.
  3. Click Restore.

Note:

  • Users with Administrator profile will be able to view all the records that are deleted.

Merge Duplicate Records

Over a period, there may be a chance of accumulating duplicate records. You can search the duplicates and merge them for a better organization of records. There are two features to merge duplicate records.

  • Find & Merge Duplicate Records - Specify criteria to find duplicate records.There are 6 fields in which you can specify the criteria in each module.
  • De-duplicate Records - Search all duplicate records in a module based on a selected field's value. You can choose any one from the 4 fields that are available based on the selected module. See AlsoMerge Duplicate Records
  Mass Transfer

Mass Transfer Records

This feature allows you to transfer records from one user to another user. As a result, all the open activities will also be transferred to the new owner. You need to have the Mass Transfer profile permission for the individual modules to use this feature.

To transfer mass records

  1. Click the [Module] tab.
    Module refers to Leads, Accounts, Contacts, etc. tabs.
  2. In the [Module] Home page, click [Module] Tools > Mass Transfer [Module].
  3. In the Mass Transfer [Module] page, do the following:
    • In the Select New Owner section, click to select the owner's name for the Transfer From and Transfer To fields.
    • Specify the criteria.
    • Click Search.
    • Under Matching [records], select the check box(es).
    • Click Transfer.
  Mass Delete

Mass Delete Records

This feature allows you to delete records in bulk. You need to have the Mass Delete profile permission for the individual modules to use this feature.

To delete mass records

  1. Click the [Module] tab.
    Module refers to Leads, Accounts, Contacts, etc. tabs.
  2. In the [Module] Home page, click [Module] Tools > Mass Delete [Module].
  3. In the Mass Delete [Module] page, do the following:
    • Specify the criteria.
    • Click Search.
    • Under Matching [records], select the check box(es).
    • Click Delete.

Note:

  • The records deleted in bulk will be temporarily available in Zoho CRM's Recycle Bin.
  • To restore the data, select the records, and then click Restore.
  Mass Update

Mass Update Records

This feature allows you to update record details in bulk. You need to have the Mass Update profile permission for the individual modules to use this feature.

Note:

  • You cannot update the Text Area and Lookup fields using the Mass Update feature.
  • During Mass Update of multi-select fields, you can choose either Overwrite or Append options.
    • Overwrite - This is the default option in CRM. Choosing overwrite will replace the previous value with the new one.
    • Append - The Append option will retain the previous value and add the new value. 

To update mass records

  1. Click the [Module] tab.
    Module refers to Leads, Accounts, Contacts, etc. tabs.
  2. In the [Module] Home page, click [Module] Tools > Mass Update [Module].
  3. In the Mass Update [Module] page, do the following:
    • Specify the criteria.
    • Click Search. The page displays the list of matching records.
    • Under Matching [records], select the check box(es), and then click Mass Update.
    • In the Select Field to Update page, select the field to be updated.
    • Enter the corresponding data in the box.
  4. Click Save.

To update mass records from the list view

  1. Click the [Module] tab.
    Module refers to Leads, Accounts, Contacts, etc. tabs.
  2. In the [Module] Home page, select the check box(es) corresponding to the records that you want to update.
  3. Under More Actions, click Mass Update.
  4. In the Select field to update popup, choose the field that you want to update for the records.
  5. Specify the value for the field.
  6. Click Save.

Use Last Activity Time in Criteria

Apart from editing a record, there are various other activities associated with records. For example, adding a note, closing a task, sending emails etc. The last updated time of such activities is captured in each record as Last Update: Time (only in the Leads, Accounts, Contacts and Deals modules). The information in this field can be used in the criteria for List View and Reports, to filter out records that did not have any activity for a specific period of time or those records that had recent activities.

Note:

  • This option is supported only for the Leads, Accounts, Contacts and Deals modules.
  • The Last Activity Time under list view criteria and the Last Update time in the Record Details page are the same.

The activities and updates that will be recorded as Last Activity time:

  • Editing fields in a record
  • Adding & updating activities, i.e. Tasks, Events, Calls
  • Sending emails to leads and contacts
  • Adding & editing notes
  • Adding deals & contacts under an account
  • Changing the owner of the record
  • Adding and deleting a record
    (This does not include deleting a record associated to the parent record.)
  • Closing a task
    (This does not apply for events as they are automatically moved under Closed Activities after the End DateTime.)
  • Deleting and restoring the records (individually or in bulk).

The activities and updates that will NOT be recorded as Last Activity time:

  • Mass operations like Mass Update, Mass Transfer, etc.
    (Except for Mass Delete option.)
  • Editing contacts or deals under an account will not be listed under the Account
  • Deleting related lists under a record.
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