Category : Zoho CRM

Welcome to Q3, and your Zoho Updates for July 2021! With the first half of the year at a close, we are sharing just a few notable updates this past month from Zoho including on-premise Zoho Creator options, Microsoft-BI Integration, and multi-org sign in for CRM.

Get all the details for What’s New, Zoho Updates July 2021. 

General Zoho Ecosystem Updates

In case you missed it last month: Important information from Zoho regarding price changes can be found here. If you have questions about this change or wish to schedule a consultation to discuss, please contact us using the form at the end of this article.

New Features & Improvements from Zoho

Zoho CRM

• Good news for multi-org Zoho CRM users! “Zoho CRM allows users to access multiple organizational (CRM) accounts using the same email address. This is especially useful for organizations who maintain different CRM accounts to manage their business, such as a franchisee or a subsidiary.”

• A CRM improvement now searches for similar records using unique fields, plus system-defined fields in the Leads module when converting Leads to Contacts and Accounts. Then, based on whether a value is available or not available for these fields the system will either ask to create a new record or merge with existing record.

• You can now copy Campaign Member status from from CRM account to another while copying customizations.

• Introducing Zia Reasoning in Assignment Rules! Zia now determines a pattern from your existing data to automatically assign the most appropriate owner for a record. Of course, admins can disable or enable the contributing fields to enhance Zia’s owner suggestion skills, too.

Zoho Creator

• Creator Reports embedded in the Pages component have been enhanced. They will not appear as a larger window in Pages, and helps standardize the appearance of the detail view when embedded. Additionally, the user interface is improved, and several minor bug fixes were rolled out with this set.

• Notable announcement from the Creator team says that “Zoho Creator On-Premise was launched recently to help businesses host their apps on their own servers.”  If you’re interested in this solution, please don’t hesitate to let us know, we’d be glad to help you determine with On-Premise is a fit for your organization.

• Microsoft Power BI desktop app connection is now available in Creator. It “brings together multiple software services, apps, and connectors to convert data from different sources into a collective, meaningful combination of information to obtain visually insightful data.” 

• Good news for app creators! After several months in the works, Creator’s V2 upgrade is now in place, and brings Improvements including improved security, better error handling, improved performance compared to V1, and more. 

• With this new enhancement, you can import data from a live app and update existing records while importing. This includes the addition of “Smart Suggestions” to provide intuitive recommendations while importing data.

Issues Notices from Zoho

 Zoho Creator

• Creator bug fixes addressed this month include those that address: downloading page as PDF, visibility permission in subform field, editor popup in notes field, and localization in rich text field.
• Creator Android app Version 6.4.8 subform fix addresses issues with dropdown field and OCR field in subform.

Have a question we didn’t answer here?  If you have questions or would like to connect with one of our consultants, schedule below. We’re also available by phone, just call our offices at (888) 207-4111.

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Welcome back to your Zoho Updates June 2021. Lots of action the past month across Zoho applications. In this digest you’ll find information on Zoho’s pricing updates, the application that’s changed its name, and some great new enhancements to CRM and Zoho finance applications.

Keep reading for the What’s New, Zoho Updates June 2021. 

General Zoho Ecosystem Updates

** Important information from Zoho regarding price changes can be found here. If you have questions about this change or wish to schedule a consultation to discuss, please contact us using the form at the end of this article.

About the Zoho changes to MarketingHub: “Effective May 21, 2021, we are renaming Zoho MarketingHub to Zoho Marketing Automation. This change will not affect any features or functionality of the product. You can continue to use the product as you usually do.” Learn more 

New Features from Zoho

Zoho CRM

• Zoho announced the release of SalesIQ 2.0! If you haven’t already seen it, the release features a new user interface, and features for: Codeless bot, Resources, Answer bot, B2B Relationship, Profanity library, and several others. Take a look here.

Zoho Books & Inventory

• Zoho finance including Books and Inventory teams shared a handful of updates this month, most notable is that now you can record payments while creating an invoice.
  • For example, if you received a payment before issuing their invoice, you don’t have to create a draft invoice and record a payment for it later. Simply mark the “I have received the payment” option while creating the invoice, it automatically creates a payment. Invoices are created as a “Paid” status, and the payment for it is created with the “Invoice Date.” This option is available if your user role allows “Customer Payments”, and if Sales Approval is disabled.
  • To enable: Go to Invoices > Create an invoice and select the customer > Scroll down and mark the “I have received the payment” option.

• They have also added a new template called “Retail-Premium” found in the Retail category in templates. This template accommodates almost all the information that can be included on other templates, and fits it in a compact design between 3 and 4 inches wide.

Application Updates from Zoho

Zoho CRM 

Zoho CRM updates and improvements this month include the following:

• You can now use a scheduled action to automatically create a record through a workflow rule. (This was previously an instance action only.)

• Zoho CRM now offers HIPPA compliance features.

• You’ll now find a common holiday list that is applied to all users in an organization. This is called “Business Holidays.”

Zoho Creator

• This month Zoho Creator team shared, “We have rolled out a set of default character length for form fields. This will help in effectively using the available space. For instance, you might have fields with large values that contain too many characters. These can be substituted with values of fewer characters. This in turn facilitates the form to include more fields. Users will be able to modify the default length for Single Line, Email, Dropdown, and Radio button fields.”

• Blueprints are now available in Creator. This allows you to replicate your business processes online and enjoy the benefits of streamlining process management. Why is that important? Zoho says it best, “The blueprint enables you to customize every detail of every process you design in your Creator application.”

Zoho Books

• Advanced Search in Zoho Books introduces filtering options, and now also includes Zia Search so you can search for “any information across different Zoho apps from within Zoho Books.” See all new updates from Books.

Issues Notices from Zoho

 Zoho Creator

Creator bug fixes recently implemented include: timezone in audit export and admin username in account setup.

Need more answers or have a question we didn’t answer here?  If you have questions or would like to connect with one of our consultants, schedule below. We’re also available by phone, just call our offices at (888) 207-4111.

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It’s been another busy month at ZBrains, and a number of Zoho updates May 2021 along with new features were shared with us from Zoho Corp. We’ve done our best to condense it all to the need-to-know basics.

Most notably this month, beginning May 1, 2021, all functions that use authtokens while making calls to other Zoho services will fail. (More details in the article below.) Hopefully, you’re already prepared, but remember that the ZBrains team is here to support you – just let us know how we can help.

Keep reading for the What’s New, Zoho Updates May 2021. 

New Features from Zoho

Zoho CRM

• Zoho CRM Blueprints had a number of improvements including: 

1. “Automatic transitions in blueprint: Use automatic transition to prevent delays and discontinuity of a process. The automatic transition will ensure that records move to the destination state after a specified Wait time has elapsed.”
2. “Blueprints now supports widgets: Perform custom actions, such as locating an address on a map, blocking a date on a calendar and more via Blueprint using Widgets. Widgets can be used in the During Transition settings.”
3. “Multi-user and multi-select lookup fields supported in blueprints: During Transition you can use multi-select lookup fields as well as multi-user fields. These fields can be mandated but cannot be validated.”

Zoho Books

This month, we’ve seen two notable improvements in Zoho Books that now allow you to do the following: 

1. Beyond invoices, now you can execute an advanced search for all transactions.
2. In the Banking modules, you are now able to add comments and view transaction history. 

Zoho Inventory

The Zoho Inventory team shared some great news for online sellers and drop shippers with the new third party billing feature for UPS users. It’s available for all editions and all subscription plans. The Zoho team says, “This feature is targeted at drop-shippers who work with other vendors to supply goods to end customers.”

Application Updates from Zoho

General Zoho Ecosystem Updates

We’ve shared about the OAuth authentication upgrade, and deprecation of authtokens across all Zoho systems the past few months. Beginning May 1, 2021, all functions that use authtokens while making calls to other Zoho services will fail.

If you’ve noticed system issues, and require support, please contact us. You can schedule any time that works for you here Connect with a Consultant

What is OAuth2.0? This industry-standard protocol specification that enables third-party applications (clients) to gain delegated access to protected resources in Zoho via an API. 

OAuth 2.0 is a benefit for these reasons and more:

• •  Increased security and easier user/credentials management,

• • Improvement to industry standard protocol for easier communications between Zoho apps,

• • Access tokens expire, limiting data exposure in the instance of a security breach.

Zoho CRM 

• We first noted back in October that the CRM Plug-in for Microsoft Outlook would be sunset on March 31, 2021; however, Zoho has pushed this date to May 31, 2021. Now you have a little more time before this change is fully in effect. If you require assistance or consulting, please use the link at the end of this article to schedule a time with one of our Certified Zoho Consultants.

Two alternate solutions provided for CRM Plug-in for Microsoft Office are:

• Office 365 integration with Zoho CRM / IMAP integration for Emails
• Zoho CRM for email Outlook Add-in

Issues Notices from Zoho

 Zoho Creator

Zoho Creator has published messages about a few improvements and fixes this month, including to the iOS app.

1. 1. “The record owner property that was previously available in the user’s field properties section is now moved to form properties. You can find it in Form Properties under Role Hierarchy section. Added user will be the default setting for record owner. The dropdown list will display the list of user fields for you to select from.” – source 
   2. The iOS v 2.5.2 of customer portal quick filter in maps is repaired, in addition there have been some overall performance improvements and minor fixes for version 5.26.13 of Creator iOS app.

Finding what you need in these updates?  Or are you looking for something additional? Drop a line in the comments to let us know what info helps you most! 

If you have questions or would like to connect with one of our consultants, schedule below. We’re also available by phone, just call our offices at (888) 207-4111.

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The past month marked 25 years of Zoho! Did you realize they’ve been around this long? Founder, Sridhar Vembu posted a great retrospective sharing “25 Years of Zoho,” the story of how Zoho grew these past many years. Don’t miss the video at the end featuring some of Zoho’s longest employees, and maybe some familiar faces. Congratulations, Zoho Corp, on 25 years! 

On to what’s new – in the past month, Zoho Creator team has shared a number of updates, bug fixes, and improvements including Zoho Creator On Premise solution. We also saw a Zoho CRM release for V2.

Keep reading for the What’s New, Zoho Updates April 2021. 

New Features from Zoho

Zoho Creator

• Zoho Creator On-premise has been released. It shares many similarities with the cloud version, allowing you to manage data, create reports, track events, collaborate, and more. It also boasts security in terms of data privacy compliance.
• You can learn about the differences between on-premise vs cloud instances of Zoho  Creator in this article. 
• In response to the release of Microsoft Power BI Desktop version 2, Zoho Creator will be upgrading the connector to this version.

Application Updates from Zoho

Zoho CRM 

• Seven new APIs have been released in Zoho CRM version 2.1. This includes: pipeline, assignment rules, send mail, download fields’ attachments in a module, records’ count in a module, wizards, and templates for email and inventory.
• Additionally, there are updates to existing APIs for records, blueprints, tags and more. 
• Get all of the details for Zoho CRM V2.1 updates here. 

Zoho Creator Updates

• You can now publish to multiple clients and remain unaffected by gaps in versions.
• Changes to Creator’s Account Setup module include:
  
  • A new section for integrations to be used in managing Zoho Directory and Connections. 
  • A Marketplace section is now included where custom apps and extensions are featured.
  • General settings is the new location for Workspace management.
• Creator applications listed under Backup and Restore module now use the app name instead of the app link. 

Issues Notices from Zoho

Zoho Creator

• The Creator Android version 6.4.0 fixed a few bugs and improved applications stability. 
• Version 6.4.1 of Creator Android also had multiple bug fixes to enhance the overall application performance.
• Many additional bug fix details are available on the Creator release notes. 

Are these updates helpful for you?  Want to see something more or different? Let us know in the comments!

If you have any questions or would like to schedule assistance around any of these updates please contact our consultants or call our offices at (888) 207-4111.

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Have you noticed the continued improvements and user interface changes in Zoho CRM lately? There have been more in the past month to make small tasks simpler and more straightforward, and there have been continued improvements to security in the app.  Zoho Creator also had a few bug fixes and Zoho Updates March 2021 that we note below. 

Is there other information would you like to see about Zoho each month? Let us know in the comments.

Here are your What’s New, Zoho Updates March 2021. 

New Features from Zoho

Zoho CRM

• Enjoy a few new feature perks in the Zoho CRM Module views. These UI improvements allow you to expand or collapse the smart filter in both Kanban and list views. You can also select whether to wrap or clip text within fields. Lastly, the “create and import record” buttons are grouped together in a dropdown-style button.
• CRM improvements for remote work management were released in February. If you’re not already using Zoho Cliq and Zoho Meeting, or have a subscription to them, the bundle is available and will allow your teams to: “Share a record, report, dashboard, send workflow notification and activity reminders. Conduct online meetings with your team or clients from CRM meetings. Use audio or video conferencing and screen sharing features to give live demonstrations and quickly resolve support issues. Read more about Zoho Meetings.” Take a look at it here or contact us anytime to get your subscription started!
• When adding multiple currencies, system-defined fields for Currency and Exchange Rate can be removed if needed. You can learn more about managing multiple currencies in Zoho CRM here.

Application Updates from Zoho

Zoho CRM

• Continued security improvements to Zoho CRM include introduction of the feature to configure which IP’s are allowed to access CRM. This means you can ensure your data in Zoho CRM is not accessed only from secure networks. This Security Policy can be applied to individual users, specific roles, or to a group. Find it in Zoho CRM Setup> Zoho Directory > Security Policies > Allowed IP’s.
• CRM allows you to now edit a portal tab for your customers. Select from modules and layouts that you want your portal user to access, then define their level of access and permissions. Now your clients can enter information into their CRM records! Learn more about that set up or contact us anytime for support.

Zoho Creator Updates

• Introducing Mobile SDK “We are introducing the Zoho Creator Software Development Kit for your Android and iOS apps. This will equip you to build custom Android and iOS apps with multiple features and functionalities. You will also be able to design your app’s UI with autonomy, wherein you can incorporate your organization’s internal style guide. Please refer to our Android and iOS help guides for more details.” 
• Once again, Zoho Creator V1 integration deprecation is pushed out. You’ll have a bit more time through the month of March to complete these updates. This is a great time to schedule your migration support, if you still need it. Please don’t hesitate to contact us for support.

Issues Notices from Zoho

 Zoho Creator

• Zoho Creator app updates this month for both Android and iOS. Be sure to update if you’re using these. iOS Update 5.26.7 of Creator fixed a bug related to adding records from the previous version of Zoho Creator. There are some nice updates in Version 6.3.7 of the Creator Android app, including the ability to switch between workspaces, and file upload now allows up to 50 MB making work on the mobile app even easier.
• Effective February 16, 2021 WorldPay support as a connection in Zoho Creator has been deprecated.
• Additionally, fixes are now in place for subform field columns in detail view of report. Version 3.4.6 of Customer Portal app fixes bugs related to feedback logs in Zoho Creator.

Are these updates helpful for you?  Want to see something more or different? Let us know in the comments!

If you have any questions or would like to schedule assistance around any of these updates please contact our consultants or call our offices at (888) 207-4111.

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This month’s updates section includes some very important changes in Zoho CRM and Zoho Finance applications like Zoho Books, Zoho Expense, Zoho Inventory, Zoho Invoice, and Zoho Subscriptions. We recommend taking a look to see if your system could be impacted, and as always – we’re here to support and answer any questions you may have. 

What other updates or information would you like to see each month? Let us know in the comments.

Here are your What’s New, Zoho Updates February 2021. 

New Features from Zoho

Zoho CRM

• CRM Products is seeing some nice enhancements and now you can customize the Product Line Item in Inventory module. What does this mean for you? First off, the release of this feature will be in phases, so you may already see it available. When it is available to you, you can now add or remove fields, modify field properties, change existing formula expressions, and inset aggregate and formula fields. Lastly, the number of fields that can be added has increased to 10 for subforms and aggregate fields.
  If you have any questions about this change, or are interested in taking full advantage of Products in your Zoho CRM, our Zoho Certified Consultants are ready to help.

Application Updates from Zoho

Zoho CRM

• UPDATE 2/12/21: Zoho Corp has decided to “postpone the inclusion of the integration tasks in API credits to May 31, 2021.”  And  API Limit notifications will be sent to admins when the APIs’ daily limit reaches 80, 90, and 100%. 
• Changes to integration tasks beginning February 15th, 2021 include that these tasks will begin to consume API credits on that date. First announced three months ago, you can view more information here. 
• If you have reached the API credit limit for your organization, Zoho CRM will send an email with the subject “Attention: Your API credit limit reached 100%.” Zoho subject matter experts anticipate that the existing “API limit” will be sufficient for most users. However, if your system has many integrations, especially those using third party applications, you may wish to take a deeper look and see if any optimization is available to improve and avoid additional API call charges. Contact us any time.

Zoho Finance Applications

• Updates to improve security across Zoho Finance products will impact Zoho Books, Zoho Expense, Zoho Inventory, Zoho Invoice, and Zoho Subscriptions. Authtokens are being deprecated March 1, 2021 in favor or OAuth 2.0 for the benefits of:
  
  •  Increased security and easier user/credentials management,
  • Improvement to industry standard protocol for easier communications between Zoho apps,
  • Access tokens expire, limiting data exposure in the instance of a security breach.

If you’re using any of the applications mentioned here, you are potentially impacted. Schedule a support consultation with our team today – just use the contact us button at the end of this article.

Zoho Creator

• We’ve been talking about changes in Zoho Creator and updates to it for quite some time now. Effective February 3, 2021 the V2 APIs are in place and V1 integration tasks are deprecated. If you’re finding yourself experiencing issues with any custom applications using Zoho Creator, and missed our previous messages, please don’t hesitate to contact us for support.

Issues Notices from Zoho

 Zoho Creator

• Using Creator iOS app? Be sure you update to 5.25.5, this month rolled out several fixes to minor issues that you might have noticed.

Finding the updates helpful?  Let us know in the comments if there’s anything else we can do to help provide you with the latest from Zoho and make your day easier.

If you have any questions or would like to schedule assistance around any of these updates please contact our consultants or call our offices at (888) 207-4111.

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Welcome to our first “What’s New” in this new year, Zoho Updates January 2021! We’ve gathered some notable updates, improvements, and fixes from CRM, Creator, and Desk for you from the past month. It’s exciting to see what’s taking shape for Zoho CRM in 2021 – have you already noticed some changes in your environment? What do you think so far? Let us know in the comments.

Here are your What’s New, Zoho Updates January 2021. 

New Features from Zoho

Zoho CRM

• You may have noticed updates this past month to some areas of the Zoho CRM user interface. This includes a visual enhancement on the Setup page, where you’ll now see the page heading and search bar sectioned nicely along the left. Zoho CRM has seen a few visual updates recently, and as we understand, this is just the start for the “UX revamp” they have planned in 2021. What do you think of the improvements so far?
• The “URL to notify” regarding third-party applications has been increased to 300 characters over its previous 200 character limit when entering a Webhook URL.
• CRM improvement when integrating Desk, now Products module can be synced, too. In the past only the modules for Accounts and Contacts could be synched.
• Duplication is now reduced when integrating CRM and Desk. Both primary and secondary email records are checked when performing this action.

Zoho Creator

• From Zoho Creator, “As announced earlier, we have officially started the Creator 5 upgrade process. We have planned to take this forward in phases and upgrade all Zoho accounts to Creator 5 by February 1st, 2021. As a step in that direction, we have come up with an upgrade wizard that pops up when you sign into your account.” Do you have questions or need help with your upgrade? Contact ZBrains today.

Application Updates from Zoho

Zoho Desk

• Learn more about Gamescope for Agents in Zoho Desk! This feature helps to increase engagement and incentivizes the behaviors that benefit users and clients. Keep reading for details on the points, badges, and trophies and how they work in Zoho Desk’s Gamescope.

Additional Critical Notes on Zoho Creator Updates

• Zoho announced the end-of-life for Creator v1 on February 3, 2021, and will require a migration to Zoho Creator v2. The application will remain compatible until then; however, we strongly recommend scheduling your analysis and migration in advance in order to avoid any interruptions in service.  We suggest getting started as quickly as possible because the timeline for your migration is variable depending on the complexity of your solution. Contact us any time to schedule your migration analysis.

Issues Notices from Zoho

 Zoho Creator

• • In Creator, this bug fix now loads data in batches as the user scrolls through reports, enhancing the performance of data-heavy lookups in C4.

Finding the updates helpful?  Let us know in the comments if there’s anything else we can do to help provide you with the latest from Zoho and make your day easier.

If you have any questions or would like to schedule assistance around any of these updates please contact our consultants or call our offices at (888) 207-4111.

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In the past month, we saw a number of updates and improvements in the Zoho CRM application. They’re outlined briefly in this post, along with additional insights about Zoho Creator and Zoho Meet. Keep reading for details.

Finding the updates helpful?  Let us know in the comments if there’s anything else we can do to help provide you with the latest from Zoho and make your day easier.

Here are your What’s New updates for December 2020. 

New Features from Zoho

Zoho CRM

• In CRM instances with Cliq integration, you will find the capability to call or chat with the record owner directly from CRM when you hover over the record owner name. Enjoy this improved communication workflow!
• External fields is a new feature in Zoho CRM allowing you to connect CRM with outside data sources. With this feature you can designate a custom, single line field for third-party application information is stored. With this “upsert API call” the external ID can be used to search, create, update, or delete records. Learn more
• Improvements to the CRM Auto Number field now allows you (as an admin) to select the date formatting option from settings that you like best.

Zoho Creator

• Security upgrades for Creator accounts associated to Zoho data centers in EU, India, China, and Australia. API and Security Permissions are designed to enhance application security by limiting user access to resources such as API access, PII data, and ePHI data.

• Zoho Creator’s audit trail feature has been improved for all accounts using Creator 5. Quick summary includes the following:

  • IP address and source information can be captured including: OS, device, and browser.

  • Logs can be exported as .CSA, and you can apply filters while exporting.

  • Improved security.

  • Unchanged data retention for logs is 365 days.

• Zoho Creator US V5.25.6 iOS now includes upgraded security including allowing reports printing options only for users with this permission.

• Increased security in Creator applies field permissions to record and print templates when exporting or printing, and ensures that the results contain only the fields permitted for the end user.

• From Zoho, “You can now control the availability of the change email address option for your portal users. We’ve introduced the Allow customers to change their email addresses option in the customer portal settings.” Read more about this improvement and more on Creator here.

Zoho Meeting

• Exciting performance improvements and bug fixes to Zoho Meeting are now live. Users now enjoy multi-video feed support for webinars, bandwidth optimization, and improved reliability for recordings. Meetings have also been reworked to resolve several known bugs.

Application Updates from Zoho

 Zoho CRM

• Updates in CRM include limits of 1000 merges per month per organization for Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate edition users. This applies to merges performed while using the mail merge templates’ mail merge and print preview actions. If you need assistance with this new limit or have questions about how it could impact your organization, don’t hesitate to contact us.

• There have been updates to the Workflow rules in CRM. From Zoho, here are the new limits for this feature:

  • Workflow rules per org: 2500

  • 2500 (maximum 2000 active rules)

  • Execution limit/org: 50

  • Workflow rules per module:

  • Free – 10 (maximum 5 active)

  • Standard – 30 (maximum 15 active)

  • Professional – 80 (maximum 40 active)

  • Enterprise- 125 (maximum 75 active)

  • Ultimate – 150 (maximum 100 active)

• Turning on notifications in your Feeds Preference now allows you to receive notifications for actions via automations such as when records are created, updated, or deleted. (Just select ’Send Notifications.’)

• If you are using Workflow rules in CRM Standard edition, now you can take advantage of these actions: Field Update Trigger, Delete Trigger, Field update action, and Email recipient in alert.

Additional Critical Notes on Zoho Creator Updates

• Zoho announced the end-of-life for Creator v1 on February 3, 2021, and will require a migration to Zoho Creator v2. The application will remain compatible until then; however, we strongly recommend scheduling your analysis and migration in advance in order to avoid any interruptions in service.  We suggest getting started as quickly as possible because the timeline for your migration is variable depending on the complexity of your solution. Contact us any time to schedule your migration analysis.

Issues Notices from Zoho

 Zoho Creator

• In Creator, a bug affecting the field labels in PDFs attached to email notifications not translating as expected has been repaired

• Bug fix for custom location in map report for Zoho Creator has been implemented.

If you have any questions or would like to schedule assistance around any of these updates please contact our consultants or call our offices at (888) 207-4111.

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