With Zoho Creator App you can launch database apps on your own without the help of a developer. Zoho makes it easy to build your own custom apps with the drag- and-drop builder. Workflows that would generally take hours to code out and build can now be done in minutes.
Optimizing Workflow: Zoho & Google Apps CRM Integration
Zoho and Google Apps CRM – 6 Ways to Utilize Both Together
To Pair or Not to Pair?
Many people are moving to Google Apps for their personal and small businesses for online computing. If you are looking for an all-in-one system where you can sync with your mobile devices, Zoho CRM combined with Google Apps for Business is a great option. Zoho has been working to integrate its online CRM application with Google Apps for the last four years to become the leading online CRM collaboration tool. For instance, as a Zoho and Google user, you can now access Zoho CRM from your Gmail account. When you are logged into Zoho, you can access the integrated Google Apps and if you are in Google Apps, you can access Zoho online CRM functionality.
In this blog, we will cover 2 popular Zoho Google Apps for Gmail and Calendar along with 3 major benefits for Zoho customers using Google Apps. There are also additional Google Apps: Documents, Drive, Sites, and Vault which are described in further detail on our website covering Zoho Google Apps.
3 Powerful Google Apps that Help Zoho Users Save Time and Money:
1.) Gmail Integrated with Zoho
This is one of our Customer’s favorite Zoho Google Apps and one we use heavily in our business. Our Customers find they save money when moving over to Gmail for their daily email correspondence. If you prefer to use Outlook, you can use Gmail for your backend mail exchange. All your emails are safe with Google’s secure online backup. If you need to access emails when you are out of the office or away from your computer, you can now access Outlook anywhere you have a web browser. Feeling bogged down with emails? Easily find what you are looking for with Google’s powerful built-in search functionality. Zoho and Google Apps will work with all Microsoft file types so you can open any documents while on the road.
2.) Zoho Plugged into Google Calendar
Another favorite is the ability to coordinate your schedule with Google Calendar. You can view all events and create multiple calendars from the same interface. This integrates with Zoho CRM so all your events and reminders can be seen in Zoho. Coworkers have visibility on your availability so they can easily work around your schedule. Google Calendar allows you to set permissions so you can set the ability to view and modify your schedule.
3.) Google Drive integration for Zoho CRM
This special connection, developed by ZBrains, allows for CRM record file storage inside Google Drive. The Google Drive integration works by creating and associating new Google Drive folders with Zoho CRM records based on a folder structure or hierarchy that you set. When you create new CRM records – for example, for a client project – an equivalent folder and URL will be created in Google Drive, and that folder’s URL will be automatically linked to the appropriate CRM record.
3 additional ways customers benefit from Zoho Google Apps:
1.) Save money with consolidated technology
Save time and money by using Zoho and Google Apps, processing most data online in the cloud, without costly server maintenance. Integrating Zoho Google Apps also helps save time and money while traveling. Google Apps is an affordable solution to increase productivity for just $5 per user, per month, or $50 per user, per year. Sign up for a Google Apps FREE trial and see for yourself how easy it is to get started.
2.) Increase productivity with easy file storage
Google Apps’ cloud-based productivity suite lets you store files, documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in the cloud. Avoid emailing documents for revisions now that multiple users can access these documents and make edits in a central location.
3.) Secure your data with a cloud-based system
Google maintains your data securely in the cloud with world-class data centers. You don’t have to manage 2 separate passwords since with one point of access and one password to sign on. You simply log into Zoho with your GA login credentials.
Seamless Collaboration with Google Apps:
By integrating Google Apps with Zoho Online CRM, businesses can leverage the collaborative power of Google’s suite of productivity tools. This integration allows teams to seamlessly access and share CRM data, contacts, calendars, and documents stored in Google Drive. For example, sales representatives can easily schedule meetings using Google Calendar, access customer information from Zoho CRM within Gmail, and collaborate on documents in real time using Google Docs. This streamlined collaboration enhances team productivity and ensures everyone is on the same page when it comes to managing customer relationships.
Efficient Data Synchronization:
Integrating Google Apps with Zoho Online CRM enables automatic data synchronization between the two platforms. This means that any updates or changes made in one platform will reflect in the other, eliminating the need for manual data entry and reducing the risk of data discrepancies. For instance, when a sales representative updates a contact’s information in Zoho CRM, the changes will be instantly reflected in Google Contacts, ensuring accurate and up-to-date customer data across both platforms. This seamless data synchronization saves time and minimizes the chances of errors, allowing businesses to focus on nurturing customer relationships.
Enhanced Email Marketing Campaigns:
Effective email marketing is an essential aspect of CRM success. strategies. Integrating Google Apps with Zoho Online CRM provides businesses with a powerful combination of tools for executing targeted email campaigns. With this integration, users can create personalized email templates in Zoho CRM and send them directly from their Gmail accounts. The integration also enables tracking and analytics, allowing businesses to monitor email opens, click-through rates, and conversions. This valuable data can be used to refine marketing strategies and improve customer engagement.
Streamlined Document Management:
Google Apps’ robust document management capabilities, combined with Zoho Online CRM, offer a streamlined approach to document storage and access. By integrating the two platforms, businesses can store and organize customer-related documents in Google Drive and link them directly to corresponding records in Zoho CRM. This integration ensures easy access to important files such as contracts, proposals, and invoices within the CRM system, enabling sales and support teams to quickly retrieve and share relevant documents during customer interactions.
Advanced Reporting and Analytics:
Integrating Google Apps with Zoho Online CRM provides businesses with advanced reporting and analytics capabilities. By combining the data from Zoho CRM with Google Sheets and Google Data Studio, users can create insightful reports and visualizations that offer valuable insights into customer behavior, sales performance, and overall business metrics. These analytics help businesses make data-driven decisions, identify trends, and optimize their CRM strategies to drive growth.
Conclusion:
In summary, Zoho Online CRM is the best cost-effective CRM solution that works with Google Apps for Business available in the market today. Contact us if you are interested in learning more about Zoho Google Apps working for your business. As ERP and Zoho CRM consultants, our team at ZBrains provides Zoho and Google Apps customers with migration services, customizations, support escalation, webinars, knowledge-base access, system integrations, and change management for your business.
Get in touch with us to learn how our team of certified Zoho experts will help you maximize your Zoho CRM solution. Our Zoho CRM training or comprehensive Zoho implementation packages will help get your team equipped and ready to take advantage of all the critical features of Zoho CRM that are essential to help you and your team better manage existing customers and new business opportunities.
How to Use Zoho Expense to Manage Your Business Expenses
Zoho Expense is an expense reporting software from Zoho’s suite of powerful cloud-based business apps. It enables businesses to quickly capture, track, and report on the expenses of their employees for tax, accounting, and budgeting purposes.
It integrates with Zoho Books, allowing businesses to manage their travel and business expenses more efficiently. When used in conjunction with Zoho Books, business owners can set up their account and start using Zoho Expense right away.
Zoho Expense also offers a streamlined experience that saves time and effort. One noteworthy feature is its OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology, which scans receipts and automatically creates expenses. While the accuracy of OCR-generated data may vary (and requires human review), it significantly reduces the time spent on manual data entry and speeds up the expense reporting process.
How to Get Started with Zoho Expense
It’s easy to get started with Zoho Expense—all you need to do is sign up. Once you’ve done that, your 14-day free trial will begin automatically.
Like most expense management software, Zoho Expense can integrate directly with your bank and identify expenses. Setting up custom criteria for automated expense classifications and categorizations saves you from having to enter each expense manually.
Here’s a brief overview of Zoho Expense’s main interface:
- A left-hand side Navigation panel provides an organized overview of all Zoho Expense modules.
- To easily create new transactions, use the Quick Create button near each respective module.
- Use the Search bar feature to locate a particular expense, report, or additional information.
- Manage your Organization Profile, subscriptions, and more by clicking the Settings icon.
- Contact Zoho Expense regarding any issues via the Support option.
Once you familiarize yourself with its main interface, you can begin creating expense reports and managing your company spending.
Step 1: Creating Expense Reports
Create and Manage Expense Reports
Follow these steps to create and manage your expense reports:
- Create a new expense report by clicking the “+” icon next to “Reports.” Fill in the required information on the New Report screen, such as:
- Report title
- Length of time
- Business purpose (optional)
- Submit to (select an approver, if applicable)
- Incorporate previously created expenses into the report, as needed.
- To add a new expense directly to the report, simply create it on the same page.
- Click “Save and Submit” to save your progress and immediately send the report to your designated approver.
Zoho Expense also offers customers an automated expense report generator they can use for free with the software.
Approve Expense Reports
Follow these steps to approve, reject, or reimburse expense reports effectively:
- Click on “My Approvals” located on the left-hand side of the screen.
- Choose an expense report that requires approval or rejection.
- Decide whether to approve or reject the report based on its content and accuracy.
- If necessary, send the report to another stakeholder instead of approving or rejecting it yourself.
- Leave a comment for clarification or additional information, or send an email to the reporter.
- Reimburse expenses after approval from all stakeholders involved.
Configure Expense Preferences
Establish essential preferences and company policies for expenses by following these steps:
- Click on “Settings” located on the left-hand side (LHS) of the screen.
- Choose “Expenses” from the Preferences section to access expense-related settings.
- Define the currencies to be used for recording expenses.
- Add custom fields to the expense creation page, allowing for more detailed and organized records.
- Set up Notifications for expenses to stay informed about important updates and changes.
Step 2: Managing Business Expenses
Zoho Expense offers numerous features, such as Mileage Tracking and Expense Reporting Automation, to help you efficiently monitor your business expenses for different activities and events. Depending on your business and its expense types, you can use these features to get better insights into your spending and manage it more effectively.
To analyze expenses and gain better visibility into your spending, follow these steps:
- Select “Analytics” from the left-hand side of the screen to access expense analytics.
- Choose a specific report from the left pane that fits your needs.
- Customize the report according to your requirements for a more detailed analysis.
- Print or export the report as a PDF for easy sharing and review if needed.
Zoho Expense integrates natively with other Zoho products, including Zoho Books, Zoho CRM, and Zoho People. It also integrates with Quickbooks for a more comprehensive view of your finances.
Integrate with other systems using the Zoho Expense API or Zapier to automate and streamline expense processes.
How to Best Manage Business Expenses
Managing business expenses is straightforward, and automating the process makes it less error-prone. Still, there are a few issues you can run into if you don’t follow these best practices:
- Ensure that all company policies and preferences are set up correctly to maintain consistency across expense reports.
- Regularly review and update expense categories to reflect your business’s evolving needs.
- Utilize the Analytics feature to monitor spending patterns and identify areas for cost reduction.
- Set up expense rules to automate categorization and streamline the approval process.
- Integrate Zoho Expense with other business applications for seamless data sharing and improved efficiency.
Tips to Improve Expense Management Efforts
Failing to establish clear expense policies can lead to compliance issues. And neglecting to consistently update and maintain expense categories results in inaccurate data and analysis.
To improve your expense tracking efforts with Zoho Expense, use the following tips:
- Encourage employees to submit expenses on time and attach receipts for accurate documentation.
- Set up automated notifications to remind employees and approvers of pending tasks and deadlines.
- Regularly review expense reports to identify trends, anomalies, or potential fraud.
- Train employees on how to use Zoho Expense effectively, and work with a reputable third-party consultant for insights and help.
Zoho Expense Mobile App
Zoho Expense is available on both Android and iOS devices, allowing users to manage expenses on the go. The mobile app enables employees to quickly capture receipts, create and submit expense reports, and even track mileage, ensuring that expense management is convenient and efficient, no matter where they are.
Conclusion
Zoho Expense is a powerful and easy-to-use expense management platform for businesses of all sizes. Automated expense tracking and robust analytics help organizations control costs and get better insights into their spending.
For more on Zoho Expense setup, API integration, and company-wide deployment, contact our team for help.
How EBizCharge enables businesses to accept payments in Zoho CRM, Books, Inventory, and Invoice
In the ever-changing digital payments landscape, businesses must constantly use innovative and efficient software solutions to keep up with competitors and yield long-term success.
Fortunately, EBizCharge and Zoho provide two powerful systems with robust A/R options for businesses to streamline their payment processing and stay at the forefront of their industry.
What is EBizCharge?
EBizCharge is an all-in-one payment platform equipped with a payment gateway, software integrations, and merchant services, so businesses can securely accept various forms of payments like credit cards, debit cards, and ACH payments.
With EBizCharge, businesses can take advantage of these features, including:
- Seamless payment processing
- Real-time transaction reporting
- Recurring billing options
- Level 3 payment processing
- Secure tokenization and encryption for enhanced data security
- 24/7, in-house customer support
In addition to the Zoho suite, EBizCharge integrates with over 100 other accounting, ERP, CRM, and eCommerce software systems, including QuickBooks, Salesforce, Sage, and Magento.
EBizCharge’s Integrations with Zoho
EBizCharge’s integrations with various Zoho apps greatly simplify how businesses handle payment processing and customer relationship management.
EBizCharge’s integration into Zoho CRM allows sales teams to easily accept customer payments on sales calls, directly inside the Zoho CRM software.
EBizCharge provides three separate integrations with the Zoho Finance platform: Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory, and even Zoho Invoice. These integrations allow for finance and fulfillment staff to collect and process payments at any point in your process.
With these integrations, merchants can quickly process transactions, allow customers to pay by email, automate payment collections, and more.
EBizCharge’s Zoho integrations allow businesses the flexibility to enhance their operations to promote more cash flow and long-term success.
Aside from the features mentioned in this section, EBizCharge and Zoho provide innovative software that significantly benefits merchants.
What problems do these integrations solve? 3 benefits of integrating EBizCharge with Zoho
The integration between your business software and payment processing system eliminates double-entry, but it also brings departments closer together by speeding operations, and even improves customer service:
- Improved customer experience. EBizCharge allows Zoho users to provide their customers with a secure and user-friendly online payment portal. Customers can easily pay invoices, view their transaction history, and manage billing preferences, leading to a positive and convenient payment experience.
- Enhanced payment reconciliation. EBizCharge and Zoho automate the payment reconciliation process by automatically matching payments with corresponding invoices, reducing human error and discrepancies.
- Increased efficiency. EBizCharge for Zoho eliminates manual data entry and repetitive tasks, saving time and effort for business teams. This increased efficiency allows them to focus on core business activities.
Streamline your business with EBizCharge and Zoho
Integrating EBizCharge with Zoho provides a robust payment solution for merchants to stay ahead of the competition and meet the evolving demands of their customers.
If you want to alleviate the stress felt from tedious financial tasks, increase overall efficiency, and even make your customers happier, integrating EBizCharge with Zoho will help save you time, energy, and valuable resources.
Zoho Email Marketing: Ensuring High Deliverability in Campaigns
High deliverability is critical in email marketing because it directly impacts your campaign’s success. When your emails land in your customers’ inboxes (instead of their spam folders), they’re more likely to open and click through.
Zoho offers one of the most popular and high-performing email marketing software solutions—Zoho Campaigns. The software includes an intuitive drag-and-drop campaign builder, customizable email templates, list segmentation, and powerful automation capabilities.
Zoho Campaigns also integrates seamlessly with other Zoho products and numerous third-party apps, allowing you to streamline your marketing efforts and enhance your overall business efficiency.
How to improve email deliverability in Zoho Campaigns?
Email deliverability describes the frequency with which an email message reaches its intended recipient. If a mailbox service provider rejects or blocks your email, it’s considered undeliverable.
Several factors impact email deliverability:
- Reputation of the sending domain and IP address
- Email content
- List hygiene practices
- Email authentication protocols
Gmail, Outlook, and other email providers largely determine email deliverability by analyzing sender reputation. Maintaining a positive reputation and good standing with each provider is important to ensure your emails are delivered.
Here are some best practices you can use to improve email deliverability in Zoho Campaigns:
- Use authentication protocols. As previously mentioned, implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC improves email deliverability. Authentication protocols don’t just improve deliverability, they also protect your domain from being taken over to use for spam, phishing, and spoofing. In other words, using authentication protocols is one of the highest-impact implementations you can make.
- Optimize your email content. Design your email content with a balanced text-to-image ratio and avoid using spam trigger words. Zoho Campaigns’ drag-and-drop editor and template builder make it easy to create visually appealing, spam-free emails. This will also improve your conversion rate, making it critical to more than just deliverability.
- Clean your mailing list regularly. Remove inactive and unengaged subscribers as well as invalid addresses. This is the easiest way to improve email deliverability—you can do it right now.
- Customize your email’s “From” name and address. Zoho Campaigns allows you to set up custom sender details, ensuring your emails look professional and credible. You can also make this update in Zoho Campaigns right now (in seconds).
- Monitor bounce rates. High bounce rates can negatively impact your reputation and delivery.
- Personalize emails with segmentation. Grouping subscribers into specific audiences helps you send emails that are relevant to each recipient.
- Monitor email activity and engagement metrics. Track open and click-through rates to ensure subscribers are engaging with your emails.
- Monitor feedback loops and complaint rates. Make sure you’re monitoring complaints from mailbox providers, as well as unsubscribe requests from users.
How to build a clean email list
A clean list helps maintain high deliverability rates, increases engagement, and reduces the likelihood of your emails being marked as spam.
Let’s look at how to build a clean email list to avoid issues with deliverability.
1. Engaging Subject Lines
Create captivating subject lines that pique your recipients’ interest and encourage them to open your emails. In general, the best subject lines are between three and five words, with no more than 50 characters.
2. Interesting Content
Develop relevant, valuable, and engaging content that resonates with your subscribers. Ensure consistent branding across your social media, website, and email campaigns for a harmonious customer experience.
3. Targeted Campaigns
Segment your email list based on demographics, interests, and past behavior to send targeted campaigns. Personalized and relevant emails keep your subscribers engaged and reduce list churn.
4. Compliance
CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and CASL require you to adhere to specific email regulations (e.g., honoring opt-out requests). Ensure you have the necessary permission from your recipients before adding them to your list.
Include an unsubscribe link, a physical mailing address, and a clear explanation for why the recipient is receiving the email. Compliance helps maintain your sender reputation and avoid penalties.
5. Domain and Email Address Authentication
To prevent spoofing and phishing, you need to use the following email authentication protocols:
- Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
- DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
- Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC).
It’s also important to monitor feedback loops and complaint rates, which are reflected in your sender reputation.
6. Work with a Solid Email Service Provider (ESP)
Choose an ESP with a track record of high deliverability and strong anti-spam policies. A good ESP will offer list management tools, analytics, and support to help you maintain a clean email list and optimize your campaigns.
7. Monitor Email Metrics
Regularly use Zoho’s reporting features to review your email metrics, such as open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and spam complaints. Monitoring these metrics allows you to identify and address issues that may negatively impact your list quality and deliverability.
8. Avoid Common Mistakes
Here are some of the mistakes to avoid when building or growing your list:
- Buying or renting email lists from third-party vendors.
- Adding people who haven’t opted in.
- Using list-building plugins on websites without opt-in forms.
- Failing to adequately verify permission for email collection and use.
Avoiding these errors is fairly easy—all you have to do is follow best practices (i.e., don’t buy an email list) and automate subscriber permissions.
Tools For High Deliverability
Zoho Campaigns offers a range of tools and features designed to help you achieve high deliverability in your email marketing campaigns.
- List Management and Segmentation: Use list segmentation to group subscribers based on demographics, interests, or past behavior, and send targeted campaigns to improve engagement and deliverability.
- Email Authentication: Zoho Campaigns supports SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication protocols to help protect your sender reputation and ensure your emails reach the intended recipients.
- Drag-and-Drop Editor and Pre-Built Templates: Zoho Campaigns’ drag-and-drop editor helps you build engaging, on-brand emails quickly, while its library of pre-built HTML email templates makes it easy to create attractive and effective messages.
- Analytics: Zoho Analytics allows you to track key metrics, such as open rates, click-through rates, bounce rate, and spam complaints. You can use this data to optimize your campaigns for better delivery.
- A/B Testing: Optimize your subject lines, preheaders, and email content by conducting A/B tests using Zoho Campaigns. Analyze the results to determine which elements perform best and improve your overall campaign performance.
- Personalization and Dynamic Content: Personalize your email campaigns with Zoho Campaigns’ merge tags, dynamic content, and dynamic blocks.
- Autoresponders and Workflows: Set up automation workflows to send timely and relevant emails to your subscribers based on their actions, such as a welcome email series or re-engagement campaigns.
How to Handle Email Deliverability Issues
Throughout your email marketing efforts, you’ll probably see one or more of the following deliverability issues. Here’s how to solve them.
- Low deliverability: This could indicate poor list hygiene and spam traps. To fix this issue, regularly remove inactive subscribers or those who have marked your emails as spam.
- High bounce rates: This could be caused by invalid addresses or when a recipient’s mailbox is full or temporarily unavailable. To improve your bounce rate, make sure to verify email addresses before adding them to your list.
- Spam complaints: This issue can result from sending irrelevant emails or violating CAN-SPAM laws. There will always be a few subscribers who decide your email are spam. Still, you can reduce spam complaints by optimizing your content and following email marketing best practices.
Conclusion
Zoho Campaigns is a powerful marketing automation tool email marketers can use to ensure their emails are successfully delivered. By following the steps outlined in this article – creating captivating subject lines, developing interesting content, authenticating your domain and email addresses, monitoring metrics, and avoiding common mistakes, you can increase deliverability rates and improve engagement with your subscribers.
Not sure where to start with Zoho email marketing? Chat with us and let our experts help you get the most out of your software.
Zoho CRM Integration: Benefits and Process
With more than 80 percent of the SMB market share, QuickBooks is by far the world’s most popular accounting software. Businesses use QuickBooks to track income and expenses, pay bills, send invoices, and produce files and reports for their accountants. Integrating Quickbooks with Zoho CRM takes account management capabilities even further, automating repetitive data entry processes and enabling more agile interactions with customers.
Simplify Sales and Order Process: QuickBooks Integration with Zoho CRM
Integrating QuickBooks with Zoho CRM saves businesses a lot of time by eliminating the need for duplicated, manual data entry. Integration helps to lessen errors in the sales and order process and eliminate data conflicts by synchronizing contacts, quotes, products, vendors, sales orders, invoices, and other data fields.zoho crm
Following integration, the salesperson can enter the order in CRM and the software manipulates the record type as the order is processed, filled, and invoiced. Once the order has been filled and invoiced, the software syncs the information back to the original system.
The process of integrating QuickBooks differs depending on whether you use QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop. Here’s an overview of the integration process for each.
QuickBooks Online <> Zoho CRM Integration
For QuickBooks Online, there are two integration alternatives – using Zoho’s integration platform, Zoho Flow, or using a service provider to allow custom syncs.
Zoho Flow is Zoho’s DIY tool for connecting cloud applications and automating complex business workflows without needing to write any code. The platform works with over 400 business applications (including QuickBooks Online) and offers over 500 ready-to-use integrations. Its drag-and-drop integration builder can also accommodate a degree of custom integration. If you need deeper integration or run into problems using Zoho Flow, reach out to us at ZBrains.
Companies that need custom synchronizations or don’t feel comfortable undertaking such an important task on their own should work with an experienced service provider like ZBrains. We’ve done hundreds of QuickBooks Online <> Zoho CRM integrations.
Modules That Can Be Synced
Essential modules that can be synced in a QuickBooks <> Zoho CRM integration include:
- QuickBooks Customers with Zoho CRM Accounts
- QuickBooks Customers with Zoho CRM Contacts
- QuickBooks Items with Zoho CRM Products
- QuickBooks Vendors with Zoho CRM Vendors
Transactional modules that can be synced include:
- QuickBooks Invoices with Zoho CRM Invoices
- QuickBooks Sales Orders with Zoho CRM Sales Orders
- QuickBooks Estimates with Zoho CRM Quotes
- QuickBooks Purchase Orders with Zoho CRM Purchase Orders
Other modules that can be synced include but are not limited to:
- QuickBooks Jobs <> Zoho Deals
- QuickBooks Payments <> Zoho Payments
Major Steps in the Integration Process
All integrations include at least seven major steps, starting with the discovery phase and continuing through ongoing support post-integration.
Discovery
Before any work begins, there should be one or more planning sessions to develop the information needed to create integration specifications. These specifications will be followed in field mapping, deploying the integration, and establishing the appropriate settings.
Systems backup
Next, test environments and data backups of both QuickBooks and Zoho CRM should be created before the integration deploys.
Deployment and Testing
The deployment process, which includes integration planning, data cleanup, and field mapping, is typically completed in less than one day. That includes time spent meeting with the deployment engineers, creating test records, and verifying data.
This process typically incorporates screen-sharing sessions and involves the use of a tool such as ZBrains AgilitySync.
Sync and migrate data between systems
Data from Zoho CRM to QuickBooks or QuickBooks to Zoho CRM can be migrated from as far back as 2012. This is a labor-intensive process that normally adds 2-4 weeks to the integration timeline.
Ongoing support
However your integration is undertaken, you will need ongoing support for tasks such as mapping and settings changes, bug fixes, and answers to any questions you may have along the way.
Efficient QuickBooks Desktop Integration: Expert Guidance
Since QuickBooks Desktop is locally hosted, integrations are more complicated and there is no ready-made integration option.
You will need to use a service provider who can help you decide whether integrating directly to Zoho CRM or migrating first to Zoho Books is the best option for you. ZBrains has extensive experience working with companies on their QuickBooks Desktop integrations, with or without a Zoho Books migration.
Conclusion
Any business can reap the benefits of a QuickBooks <> Zoho CRM integration, from saving time and eliminating data conflicts, to strengthening the sales cycle and enhancing the overall customer experience. ZBrains provides total deployment assistance for QuickBooks <> Zoho CRM integrations, including standard and custom field mappings, data migration, conditional syncing, and more.
Zoho Inventory Pricing: Create Bundles for Maximum Sales
Grouping products together creates a number of benefits, such as making it easier to organize your items and increasing your selling power by enabling you to create retail product bundles with attractive pricing.
If you’re new to Zoho Inventory, let’s take a closer look at some of the sales and marketing advantages of bundling products, as well as how to do so in Zoho.
The Advantages of Zoho Inventory Pricing Bundling for Sales
When you bundle products, you can increase your revenue and stay ahead of your competitors by packaging two or more products together at an attractive price. Further, inventory bundling makes it possible to:
- Increase your sales margin by cross-selling products. Bundling helps introduce customers to products that are compatible with each other, potentially increasing your customers’ spend at checkout.
- Keep your dead stock moving. Stock that’s not selling can weigh heavily on your business. With bundling, you can move slow-selling products more quickly by grouping them with other, more desirable items.
- Encourage your customer to buy more. If you incentivize higher spending with free shipping, for example, inventory bundling can help your customers reach your minimum order threshold.
- Promote new products effortlessly. When you bundle a new or obscure product with an already popular item, it’s more likely to gain a presence in your shop.
- Accelerate the fulfillment process. The bigger the customer’s shopping cart, the easier it is to fulfill and ship the order than if they ordered the same items across several individual purchases. With Inventory Bundles, you can package, ship, and track one single commodity, speeding up the order fulfillment process.
How to Create Zoho Inventory Bundles
Within Zoho Inventory Pricing, Inventory Bundles are created within Composite Items or Sales Transactions. To take advantage of Bundles, you’ll need to have the Composite Items feature enabled within Zoho. Do this by navigating to Settings > Preferences > Items, and then click the ‘Enable Composite Items’ checkbox. Now, Composite Items will be accessible within the Items module.
Now, you’ll have two options for bundling in Zoho:
Bundling Items from Composite Items
- Open Zoho CRM
- Go to the Composite Items module under Items from the left sidebar
- Open the Composite Item for which you want to create a unique bundle
- Click the Create Bundle button
From here, you’ll need to specify the Bundling#, Bundling Date, Quantity to Bundle, and the warehouse within which you’d like to create the Bundle for this Composite Item.
Finally, if you’ve enabled serial or batch number tracking for your Composite Item, you can use the screen pictured below to enter the serial or batch numbers for the bundle quantity.
During this process, any items or services that are associated with the Composite Item will be auto-populated (you can also add, change, or remove items, as needed). Once your bundle is saved, the necessary adjustments will be made to your Zoho Inventory.
If needed, you can also view past Bundle activity by visiting the Bundling History section and clicking the number associated with an individual Bundle.
Creating Bundles from Sales Transactions
If you find yourself in a situation where the quantity in demand for one or more of your Composite Items is greater than the quantity you have available, you’ll want to use the Bundle option within sales orders or invoices to generate the quantity required.
Here’s how to do it:
- Go to the Sales Orders or Invoices module under Sales from the left sidebar of Zoho Inventory
- Create a new sales order or invoice and add a Composite Item
- Specify the number of Composite Items ordered by your customer (note that the quantity ordered will need to exceed the available quality shown to trigger the Bundle option to appear)
4. Click the Bundle option, and the required quantity of Composite Items that need to be bundled will be calculated automatically
Creating Zoho Inventory Pricing Bundles in Zoho CRM gives you the flexibility needed to customize Composite Items for individual customers—for example, to add extra products or services to sweeten the deal for a single buyer.
However, we also recognize that managing Zoho Inventory Pricing can be tricky. If you have questions about working with Composite Items or Bundles in Zoho, get in touch with the expert team at ZBrains for assistance.
Zoho Analytics: Customize Marketing for Omnichannel Personalization
Zoho Analytics is a powerful tool for businesses looking to achieve omnichannel personalization in their marketing strategies. As a cloud-based business intelligence and analytics solution, companies can easily create insightful reports, dashboards, and visualizations.
With features such as pre-built connectors, dynamic dashboards, and more, Zoho Analytics aids marketers in making better decisions on how to allocate resources for optimizing campaigns across multiple channels. Here, we’ll take a look at how to put it to good use by building an omnichannel marketing dashboard based on best practices we’ve observed working with ZBrains’ clients.
How does Zoho Analytics enable Omnichannel Personalization?
Zoho Analytics offers an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop builder that allows marketers to create custom dashboards with powerful visualizations, enabling omnichannel personalization. The platform includes several features that make it an ideal tool for creating an omnichannel marketing dashboard, including:
- Pre-built connectors to quickly and easily connect data from multiple sources
- Dynamic dashboards and drill-down reports, enabling marketers to slice and dice their data in real-time
- Role-based access control, allowing organizations to manage who can access and edit dashboards
- Automated data refresh, making it easy to maintain up-to-date reports
- Advanced analytics with powerful AI capabilities for predicting future trends
However, Zoho can’t do it all on its own. For example, data from external sources must be connected to the platform before it can be used in dashboards. For this reason, it’s essential to understand the data sources available and how to connect them to Zoho.
Connecting Data Sources for Omnichannel Personalization with Zoho Analytics
Zoho Analytics provides a wide range of pre-built connectors that allow marketers to quickly and easily connect data from multiple sources.
To start, log in to your Zoho account and click the ‘Data Sources tab. Here, you’ll find a list of all the supported data sources and instructions on how to connect them.
Once the data sources are connected, you can begin creating your dashboard. Zoho Analytics provides several drag-and-drop options allowing marketers to create custom dashboards quickly. You can also use templates and widgets to customize the dashboard further.
Pulling Data From Multiple Sources With Zoho
Once your sources are connected, the next step is to combine data from multiple sources within your dashboard.
To do this, select the data sources from which you want to pull data and then drag and drop them into the dashboard. You can customize the visuals using widgets, charts, and other elements.
Metrics to Track Using Omnichannel Personalization Reporting
Depending on your omnichannel strategy, there are several different metrics you may want to track in your dashboard.
SEO and Website Metrics
Key metrics to track:
- Organic Traffic
- Bounce Rate
- Conversion Rate
- Conversion Volume
- Time on Site
You may also want to use Zoho Analytics to track the SEO performance of your content and campaigns (i.e., keywords, topic authority, backlinks, etc.), as this will help you understand how well your content is performing in terms of search engine rankings.
Social Media Metrics
Key metrics to track:
- Total Dollars Spent (by campaign)
- Number of Leads
- Percent Junk (i.e., spam)
- Cost per Click (CPC) (by campaign)
- Cost per Lead (by campaign)
- Revenue Generated (by campaign)
- Return on ad spend (RoAS)
To get a complete picture of social media performance, you should monitor qualitative metrics like sentiment and user engagement. These metrics can be a little harder to measure but can provide valuable insights into the success of your campaigns.
SEM Metrics
Since many SEM activities are paid, they share some overlap with the metrics tracked for paid social media campaigns. The essential KPIs include:
- Cost per Click (CPC)
- Total Dollars Spent
- Revenue Generated
- Return on Ad Spend (RoAS)
Zoho Analytics can also help you monitor the cost and quality of the clicks you get for omnichannel personalization. This includes metrics like ad relevancy, click-through rate (CTR), impression rate, and keyword relevance. You can also compare your ad metrics against your SEO and web conversion metrics to determine whether or not your ads are worth the money.
Traditional Media
Finally, traditional media includes channels like television, radio, print, and out-of-home (OOH) advertising. Businesses can track metrics like budget spent, impressions, reach, and audience engagement in their dashboard.
Mostly traditional media outlets are mainly used for PR campaigns. These KPIs measure brand awareness and reach, ad recall, cost-effectiveness, and overall ROI.
Tips for a Successful Implementation and Choosing What to Track
Here are a few tips to ensure you get started on the right track with your new omnichannel dashboard:
- Start by mapping out your objectives. Could you identify the KPIs you want to track and ensure they align with your business and marketing goals?
- Choose data sources wisely. You can select only the seeds that will give you the most valuable insights into your marketing efforts.
- Use the proper connectors and integrations. Depending on the platform you are using for your dashboard, you may need to configure special connectors or integrations to pull data.
- Identify key performance indicators for each channel. Each channel should have its own set of KPIs, so could you make sure to track the right metrics?
- Create a dashboard that is user-friendly and informative. Could you ensure the dashboard is easy to navigate, understand, and use?
- Automate where possible. Automation can save you time and ensure the accuracy of your data.
- Avoid tracking too many KPIs. Too many metrics mean more work, so focus on the most critical KPIs for your business.
Some of the most commonly used Analytics connectors include Facebook Ads, Facebook Custom Audiences, Google Ads, Google Analytics, and LinkedIn Ads. Specific integrations you might want to consider having:
- VoIP: Integrating with VoIP services can help you track phone calls and conversations, mainly if your organization uses a service like RingCentral or Aircall.
- Integrations with ESPs: Integrating with email marketing service providers (ESPs) like MailChimp, Constant Contact, and SendinBlue will allow you to track the performance of your email campaigns (if you aren’t managing your email marketing within Zoho).
- Callrail: This call-tracking software helps you analyze the performance of your calls and conversations.
- Clearbit: Integrating Zoho with Clearbit can help you get enriched data about your customers, such as job titles and social profiles.
- ZoomInfo: This contact database aggregates publicly available data on businesses and people. Integrating with ZoomInfo can help you get insights into your target market.
Lastly, omnichannel personalization using Zoho Analytics is a way to boost customer satisfaction and drive sales.
We understand that setting up an omnichannel marketing dashboard in Zoho Analytics can be daunting. That’s why ZBrains is here to help. Our experienced professionals can guide you through the entire process, from data integration and customization to dashboard creation and optimization.
With ZBrains expertise, you can better understand your customer’s behavior and preferences and use that knowledge to deliver personalized experiences that drive engagement and loyalty. Please get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can help you achieve your marketing goals with Zoho Analytics.
Zoho CRM Plus: The Ultimate Unified Experience Solution
Zoho CRM Plus is a unified customer experience platform that helps you deliver an exceptional experience to every customer across all stages of their lifecycle and convert them into brand advocates.
The CRM Plus platform includes 9 powerful services in a single interface. Few other platforms, if any, provide such much high-value functionality across so many software apps at such a competitive price.
- Zoho CRM: Sales automation and complete pipeline management
- Zoho SalesIQ: Live chat and visitor tracking
- Zoho Desk: Help desk
- Zoho Projects: Project management
- Zoho Campaigns: Email marketing
- Zoho Analytics: Unified insights across teams
- Zoho SalesInbox: Exclusive sales emails
- Zoho Social: Social media marketing
- Zoho Survey: Customer surveys
Empowering Business Growth: The Versatile Zoho Suite
Zoho CRM Plus is pre-integrated, providing access to shared customer data and a unified experience from a single console. Its simple onboarding mechanism has users up and running in the cloud from day one.
Zoho CRM
Highly rated on just about every customer review site, Zoho CRM offers powerful enterprise-level functionality that is highly configurable and easily customized to support faster onboarding, multiple pipelines, and reporting. As an added bonus, it is loaded with functionality that enables reps to prioritize tasks and stay organized, resulting in better throughput for businesses with larger pipelines.
Zoho SalesInBox
Zoho SalesInBox enables reps to prioritize communications by segmenting emails between active deals, regular contacts, and internal communications. It integrates with all leading email clients (Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, and more) and synchronizes with email campaigns.
Zoho SalesIQ
Zoho SalesIQ is an all-in-one live chat and analytics platform. Its digital engagement tools let marketing, sales, and support teams communicate with site visitors at every stage of the customer lifecycle. Users can also easily build chatbots and personalized message routing.
Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is a full-featured help desk application that simplifies customer service operations, improves agent productivity, and delivers quality, lasting customer experiences.
Zoho Projects
Projects is Zoho’s cloud-based project management software, used for comprehensive project planning, efficient work tracking, and effective collaboration between teams. The functionality of Zoho Projects compares favorably with Asana, Trello, Smartsheet, Jira Cloud, Monday, and similar systems.
Zoho Campaigns
Zoho Campaigns provides the toolkit teams need to create email designs that elicit responses, customize messages, deliver emails to inboxes, connect with new customers, and trigger automated workflows.
Zoho Social
With Zoho Social, your teams can schedule unlimited posts, monitor what matters, and create custom analytical reports.
Zoho Survey
Zoho Survey turns survey creation into both a science and an art. With over 25 question types, features like skip logic and piping, customizable themes, and more, the perfect survey is just keystrokes away. The SSL-protected surveys can be shared instantly via email and social media.
Zoho Analytics
Zoho Analytics delivers powerful functionality paired with point-and-click simplicity. Users are able to generate insightful reports without needing to write SQL queries, although this capability remains available. It also features Zia, an AI-based voice assistant that provides sales teams with insights that make them more productive.
Customizing Zoho CRM Plus for Optimized Business Processes
- Flexible Customization Options: Zoho CRM Plus provides businesses with extensive customization options to tailor the CRM software according to their specific requirements. Users may customize fields, layouts, modules, and workflows to their particular business processes. This flexibility allows businesses to create a CRM solution that reflects their workflows and captures the information they deem essential.
- Customizable Sales Processes: Zoho CRM Plus enables businesses to define and customize their sales processes based on their unique sales methodologies. Sales stages, deal closure criteria, and sales forecasting can be customized to match the organization’s specific requirements. This customization ensures that the CRM system aligns with the company’s sales strategies and enhances sales team efficiency.
- Personalized Dashboards and Reports: With Zoho CRM Plus, users can create personalized dashboards and reports to gain insights into their sales, marketing, and customer service activities. The CRM suite offers a drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to design customized visualizations that display key performance indicators and metrics relevant to their business. This customization empowers users to monitor and track the data that matters most to them, facilitating data-driven decision-making.
- Workflow Automation: Zoho CRM Plus offers robust workflow automation capabilities that allow businesses to automate repetitive tasks and streamline their processes. Users can define custom workflows to automate lead assignment, task creation, email notifications, and more. By automating routine activities, businesses can save time, reduce manual errors, and ensure consistent and efficient operations.
- Integration and Extensions: Zoho CRM Plus supports integration with various third-party applications and extensions, enabling businesses to further customize and extend the functionality of their CRM system. Through integrations, businesses can connect Zoho CRM Plus with other tools they use, such as marketing automation platforms, accounting software, or e-commerce platforms. This integration capability allows for a seamless flow of data and streamlines cross-platform operations.
- API and Developer Tools: Zoho CRM Plus provides APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and developer tools that allow businesses to develop custom integrations, extensions, or applications on top of the CRM suite. This customization capability enables businesses with specific requirements or unique workflows to extend the functionality of Zoho CRM Plus according to their needs.
- Mobile Customization: Zoho CRM Plus offers mobile apps that can be customized to reflect the branding and specific requirements of a business. Users can tailor the mobile app’s interface, layout, and functionalities to match their business processes and ensure a consistent user experience across devices. This customization empowers mobile users to access and manage customer data while on the go.
By leveraging the customization capabilities of Zoho CRM Plus, businesses can create a CRM solution that aligns with their unique workflows, captures relevant data, and enhances overall productivity and efficiency. The flexibility to adapt and customize the CRM system allows organizations to optimize their sales, marketing, and customer service processes, leading to improved customer satisfaction and business growth.
What is the Difference Between Zoho ONE and Zoho CRM Plus?
The difference between Zoho CRM Plus and Zoho ONE is that CRM Plus unifies customer-facing teams to improve customer experience, while ONE enables businesses to operate lead to cash on one singular platform, consolidating vendors and software silos while streamlining your business operations.
- Zoho CRM Plus includes the 9 essential enterprise-level applications to unify your sales, support, and marketing teams, providing a 360-degree view across all touchpoints for a consistent experience at every stage of the customer journey.
- Zoho ONE, with more than 45 web applications, is an enterprise-level, all-in-one suite for running your entire organization. From sales, support, and marketing through finance, HR, recruitment, and more, Zoho ONE provides everything companies need to grow their business.
Should I Purchase Zoho CRM Plus or Zoho ONE?
The CRM Plus bundle is the obvious choice for companies that want to save money by only licensing customer-facing teams. Zoho CRM Plus is usually the best fit for companies that only want the functionality offered by its 9 applications. Although priced higher per user license, only customer-facing teams must be licensed.
Zoho ONE, on the other hand, is priced lower per license than Zoho CRM Plus, but all employees must be licensed.
Important note: While it is more expensive per user, Zoho does have a separate pricing model for those that want access to all the Zoho ONE apps but do not want to license every user in their organization.
The Zoho ONE bundle is ideal for companies that need all employees to use the software. It’s also cost-effective for those who will ultimately pay less to license all employees (at the lower rate) than only those who are users (at the higher rate).
Regardless of the Zoho CRM chosen, either bundle provides substantial savings compared to licensing the included apps separately.
Conclusion
Still not sure what to purchase? Don’t worry. Talk to the experts at ZBrains who have worked with businesses similar to yours to help them migrate from their legacy systems. We can help you identify the apps that you should use to achieve your goals and prepare a cost-benefit analysis to gauge the best fit.
How to Make a BOM with Zoho Inventory: A Comprehensive Guide
At a basic level, a bill of materials (BOM) is a list of the components, parts, materials, and assemblies needed to build an individual product. Sometimes referred to as a product structure, the BOM describes each item’s quantity and identity (name/number), as well as any relevant specifications such as size or weight.
Manufacturing companies use bills of materials (BOM) to track the components needed to create an end product, plan production schedules efficiently, maintain quality control, manage inventory, and track product and component stock for ordering purposes.
Enhancing Manufacturing Efficiency with Zoho’s Composite Items & BOMs
One of the reasons the Zoho platform is so popular among manufacturing businesses is its ability to easily generate and track these BOMs through the all-in-one Zoho Inventory suite.
That said, the language Zoho uses is a bit different than what you may be used to. Instead of a “bill of materials,” Zoho uses Composite Items, which are a combination of several items that work together to create a single product. For instance, an electronic device may contain batteries, wires, chipsets, and plastic components. To build the final device, all these individual parts need to be assembled.
In Zoho Inventory, you would define a Composite Item for the electronic device and then list all the components that make up the device—batteries, wires, chipsets, plastic components—as sub-items. This creates a “bill of materials” that shows what is needed to create one unit of the finished product.
The Benefits of Zoho Inventory Composite Items
Utilizing Composite Items in Zoho Inventory makes production more efficient, lessens the chances of missing items during packaging, and bolsters an organization’s understanding of its inventory. This is particularly advantageous for child items that are used in multiple parent items.
Bundling each piece in Zoho Inventory can also make it easier for you to keep track of and comprehend your stock. For example, Composite Items can be used by producers and distributors for easy assembly—just like a Bill of Materials. If you were building a printer, Zoho’s Composite Items could be used to define all the required elements, including not just the electronics, cables, and ink, but the printer itself as well.
Unsure if Zoho Inventory is right for your business? Contact ZBrains to get a personalized evaluation of your needs.
How to Enable Composite Items in Zoho Inventory
Enabling Composite Items in Zoho Inventory is simple. All you need to do is:
- Navigate to Settings, then Preferences
- Click the Items tab, and a menu will appear
- Check the Enable Composite Items box
- Hit Save to apply the changes, then exit
How to Create Inventory Bundles for Composite Items
In Zoho Inventory, bundling items into Composite Items takes just a few steps:
To create a bundle of a Composite Item, go to the Inventory module and open the appropriate Composite Item.
From there, click the “Create Bundle” button and enter the Bundling #, Date, and Quantity you would like to Bundle, as well as any Serial or Batch Numbers for tracked items.
Once you’ve added all your details, click “Save.” The items and services associated with the Composite Item will automatically appear (you can modify these, if needed).
Click on the bundle number in the Bundling History section to view all bundling details.
Advanced Inventory Tracking With Zoho Inventory
Managing so many parts creates a higher risk of mismanagement, but Zoho Inventory’s advanced tracking features keep your Composite Items organized and on track.
Batch Tracking
Batch tracking is a highly-efficient way to monitor and group stock items that have common characteristics (e.g., serial number, expiry date, color, and product association).
Manufacturers can use batch tracking to track production batches across different locations, warehouses, and stores (or keep it all under one roof), saving time by managing all of their items from a single interface.
Moreover, this system provides thorough data analysis, allowing for accurate predictions and estimations related to your inventory levels. With Zoho Inventory, you can easily track items that come in batches with the corresponding manufactured and expiry dates, if relevant. When it’s time for a sale, you can safely select products within their usable period from those same batches.
To generate a new item with batch tracking activated, navigate to the item creation page. Fill out all applicable details and then check the box next to “Track Batches” under Advanced Inventory Tracking.
If you have an established opening stock, include any essential batch details in the fields below. If your business takes advantage of multi-warehouse inventory tracking, use the ellipsis icon at the end of each row to add batches for that warehouse, where appropriate.
From there, all you have to do is enter the batch details—including its serial number, manufacture date, expiry date, and any other relevant information. Once you’ve entered all the details, click “Save” to add your item with batch tracking enabled.
Serial Number Tracking
Track items with serial number tracking in Zoho Inventory for precise monitoring from factory to consumer.
Serial number tracking is especially useful for service-based businesses that need to keep track of replacement parts and components used to perform repairs or maintenance tasks. To enable serial number tracking in Zoho Inventory, go to the new item page and select “Track Serial Numbers” under Advanced Inventory Tracking.
Then, enter the necessary details. Again, if you have opening stock, you can enter the serial numbers in the specified field below. If multi-warehouse enabled, click ellipsis icon beside warehouse row, then ‘Add Serial Numbers’.
Enter the serial numbers and any other relevant information that you need to track from there. Once you’ve added all the details, click “Save” to finish creating your item with serial number tracking enabled.
Final Thoughts: Zoho Composite Items and BOM (Bill of Materials)
Zoho Inventory streamlines production across multiple locations with Composite Items, Batch Tracking, and Serial Number Tracking.
Zoho Inventory simplifies BOM creation and empowers inventory management and forecasting with powerful features.
Every organization has its own unique tracking needs, creating and tracking Composite Items is just the tip of the iceberg. For more information on generating BOM reports, tracking item components, and managing inventory on a deeper level with Zoho Inventory, reach out to our expert team today.
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