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Zoho One vs CRM Plus in 2024

Introduction

Zoho offers a couple of app bundles that are worth closer examination, Zoho One and CRM Plus. Determining which to choose is often a question of how to choose. When looking at these two options it can be difficult to know what elements to consider and how to make this important decision. This article is meant to help with that challenge.

Use Cases

It is often best when making decisions about new business systems to think about your use cases.

  • What departments and roles in your organization are going to use the system?
  • What do they need the system to do?

Maybe your users are your Sales and Marketing team and they need a system that helps them manage prospect and customer communication and track progress in a sales pipeline. Maybe your users are your Finance team and they need to be able to generate and send invoices electronically as well as produce monthly financial reporting. Maybe your users are in the field and need to know where they are in a given project and what the next steps are. Maybe your users are the whole org, front to back, and all of the above need to be considered in the solution.

When evaluating use cases for Zoho One vs. Zoho CRM Plus, consider the scale and scope of your business needs. 

Zoho CRM Plus is ideal for companies that prioritize customer-centric operations, with its strong focus on sales, marketing, and customer support. If you need an integrated solution specifically for managing customer relationships, CRM Plus might be the best fit. 

Zoho One, however, is more comprehensive, covering multiple business functions beyond CRM, such as finance, HR, and project management, making it suitable for organizations seeking full digital transformation across all departments.

CRM Plus

Zoho CRM plus logo.

Zoho CRM Plus is an integrated suite designed to streamline customer-facing operations. Its focus is more limited and narrow as compared to Zoho One. Key features include advanced CRM capabilities for managing sales pipelines, Zoho Desk for customer support, and Zoho Campaigns for marketing automation. It also offers real-time analytics through Zoho Analytics, seamless collaboration tools like Zoho Projects, and social media engagement via Zoho Social. The platform’s focus is on delivering an enhanced customer experience by enabling unified team collaboration across sales, marketing, and support, making it ideal for businesses aiming to boost customer engagement.

Zoho One

Zoho One logo.

Zoho One is an all-encompassing business operating system that offers over 45 integrated applications to manage various aspects of your business. Zoho One has an app for nearly any business use case making it ideal for that end to end solution that meets an entire org’s needs. 

Key features include: 

  • Zoho CRM, Zoho Desk, and Zoho Campaigns for sales and marketing
  • Zoho Finance Suite for accounting
  • Zoho People for HR
  • Zoho Projects and Zoho Sprints for project management 

It also includes apps for marketing, inventory management, and collaboration tools. Zoho One’s unified interface and deep app integrations allow seamless data flow between departments, providing comprehensive control over business operations while automating workflows and enhancing productivity across multiple business functions.

Pricing

When it comes to pricing if you review the below list, it begs the question why would anyone use CRM Plus?? For $69/User/Month you can get 14 apps or for $45/User/Month you can have 45 Zoho apps. The caveat is that with Zoho One, Zoho expects you to buy a license for every employee in your org. If, in your use case, only some of your employees need access to Zoho, it may make more sense to buy them CRM Plus licenses. If all of your employees are using Zoho then it’s a no-brainer, buy Zoho One for everyone. If you have a subset of employees who need more than the 14 apps on offer in CRM Plus, Zoho does offer what they call Flexible User Pricing which is simply Zoho One for fewer than all of your employees.

Here again use cases are important and should be considered carefully.

  • Do all of your employees need access to Zoho?
  • What apps and features will they need?
    • Do they need more than what is on offer in CRM Plus?

CRM Plus Pricing

  • Billed Monthly: $69/User/Month
  • Billed Annually: $57/User/Month

Zoho One Pricing

All Employee Pricing

  • Billed Monthly: $45/User/Month
  • Billed Annually: $37/User/Month

Flexible User Pricing

  • Billed Monthly: $105/User/Month
  • Billed Annually: $90/User/Month

New Features

Zoho is constantly developing and releasing new features and integrations in all of its applications. Since we last wrote about CRM Plus vs Zoho One, in 2019, Zoho has announced hundreds and hundreds of updates in CRM alone. The same is true of Zoho Desk, the Zoho Finance suite, Zoho Projects and all of the other apps featured in these two product bundles. Changes too numerous to do justice in this article but too many to ignore as well. This is well developed, enterprise grade, real world tested and proven software that is constantly improving. 

Conclusion

The decision CRM Plus vs Zoho One comes down to a few questions:

  • What are your use cases?
    • What will you be using the software for? Just sales and marketing? Other processes outside sales and marketing?
  • From your use cases you should be able to answer the following: What specific Zoho apps are required by your users?
  • Will all of your employees use the apps or some subset of employees?

If you can answer these questions, it should be a simple matter of reviewing the above pricing and determining the best option for your organization. That said, there can be complicating details such as third party software integrations or light users who only need access to reporting etc. We at ZBrains are available to help you to make the right decision given all the details. From deciding which bundle is best, to planning your implementation, to managing the change in your organization and optimizing the system after rollout, we’ve helped hundreds of companies over the past 12 years and we’d love to help yours. Please contact us anytime with questions about choosing the right Zoho bundle, how to integrate your other business systems, or anything else Zoho. Remember, Your Zoho experience begins with us!

Zbrains Logo 10.

Zoho Updates October 2021

Zoho Updates, New Features, and Issues | October 2021

Hello and welcome back to the Zoho Updates October 2021. In the past month, Zoho CRM has released a number of notable updates and improvements. In this digest you’ll find time saving new features, how CRM is making user experience better, and how Zoho Desk is making the ability to relate contacts to multiple accounts simpler!

Keep reading for details about What’s New, Zoho Updates Ocotober 2021. 

New Features & Improvements from Zoho

Zoho CRM

  • Updates to IOS Mobile App for Zoho CRM:

    • User-related lookup fields have been optimized, including the search and selection of users from owner lookup field.
    • “Plotting Leads, Contacts, and Accounts in nearby maps has been optimized for better user experience. Also, nearby pins will be grouped on zooming out a location on maps.”
  • Online instances of Zoho Campaigns offers increased specificity in regards to bounced status. “Soft Bounced” and “Hard Bounced” are now noted instead of just “bounced.”

  • Predictive Analytics utilizing Zia in CRM have been improved to achieve more accurate outcomes.

  • New color-coded picklist values improves data interpretation at a glance. Color-coded values are seen in records, modules, deals pipeline, charts, dashboards, and more.

  • Zoho CRM Sales Motivator admins can now compare the performance of a KPI or Target with other KPIs and Targets. Read more here.

  • Select your theme in Motivator; toggle between the light or dark theme to suit your viewing preference.

  • Zone Analysis is a new Dashboard component in Zoho CRM that helps you understand which data requires attention. This comparative analysis currently allows you to analyze two parameters.

  • If you have questions or need help setting up any of these, ZBrains Support is here for you!

Zoho Creator

  • This month Creator released two new enhancements to help you streamline work.
    • The first are a set of enhancements to export settings which allow you to name a file, select the format, select columns to include, and password protect exported files.
    • Secondly, Creator can now pull and pull data from external apps! Using Widgets you can now configure integration from your external apps, giving more power to the applications you use created on the Creator platform.

Zoho Desk

  • Desk now allows you to add a contact to multiple accounts: “Zoho Desk provides a way to relate a single contact to multiple accounts so your agents can easily track the relationships between the customers and companies they work with. Additionally, contacts can view all the tickets belonging to their account on the help center. When you enable this feature, each contact requires a primary account. The primary account represents a direct relationship. But you can associate additional accounts to the contact in a secondary relationship.”

ZOHO UPDATESApplication Updates from Zoho

Zoho CRM

  • CRM extension for LinkedIn Sales Navigator was sunsetted on September 30th. Affecting all users, the extension can no longer be used by current users or downloaded by anyone.

 

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.

 

Connect with a Consultant

 

Webinar for Zoho Writer

Zoho Writer: How-to & Tips Webinar

Master the Art of Zoho Writer: Join Our How-to & Tips Webinar Today!

In less than 15 minutes, join the Zoho CRM webinar with ZBrains Founder, James Converse, to learn about Zoho Writer and its integration with Zoho CRM. The session covers key features and tips to boost productivity.

  • How to use Writer and Zoho Sign to collect signatures on your quotes and other business documents.
  • You’ll see how to relate your Zoho Writer templates to modules.
  • Document storage best practices and tips on where to find the docs you create.
  • We’ll also review Writer templates: how to create them, using themes to coordinate with your brand, incorporating images, mapping fields from CRM, and the uses of sub-forms in Writer documents.

Our Zoho Writer How-to & Tips Webinar is just around the corner, and we can’t wait to share all the juicy insider tips with you. Have questions? Don’t be shy, leave them in the comments below!

Register for this on-demand webinar now, or at any time! and learn how to maximize your CRM’s potential. Our experts will share tips and tricks to help you improve your sales, marketing, and customer service processes. Don’t miss this opportunity to take your business to the next level with Zoho CRM. Sign up now!

Register for the Webinar

Zoho Sandboxes Webinar

Zoho Sandboxes in 10 Minutes or Less

Easy Zoho Sandbox Setup: Steps in 10 Minutes or Less

In this quick webinar, ZBrains Founder, James Converse shares how sandboxes work, how to avoid common pitfalls, and briefly reviews how to set up Zoho sandboxes.

  • First, we’ll show you how to set up a sandbox test environment in Zoho CRM.
  • You’ll learn which functionalities from production exist in the sandbox environment, and which don’t at this time. 
  • We show you some methods for populating your sandbox with sample data, or your own data.
  • At the end, you’ll see how to ship all your sandbox customizations back to production after testing.

It’s important to know that not every Zoho application has sandboxes, so we’re discussing Zoho CRM and Zoho Creator here. 

Register now for this on-demand webinar and feel free to leave any questions in the comments or contact us if we can help you with your Zoho sandbox and test environment setup!

Register for the Webinar

Zoho August 2021

Zoho Updates, New Features, and Issues | September 2021

Welcome back again to your Zoho Updates September 2021. In the past month, we’ve seen a number of improvements across Zoho Books and Zoho CRM. In this digest you’ll find time saving new features, how CRM is making user experiences even more customizable, and how Zoho Desk is making the ability to relate contacts to multiple accounts simpler!

Discover Zoho’s Latest: What’s New – September 2021

New Features & Improvements from Zoho

Zoho CRM

  • New feature in CRM allows you to assign the record owner through a Workflow. You may now define conditions in Workflows, and the owner will be assigned when the condition is met. Zoho says, “Records can be assigned to users, roles, users who create or modify records, or to those mentioned in the Assignment rule criteria.” Additionally, “owner assignment will be triggered ONLY from the first workflow rule that it matches. For the subsequent workflows, all other actions except owner assignment will be executed.”

  • Adding Users to Zoho CRM just got easier with the ability to import up to 1000 users at a time. Admin profiles and those with Manage User permissions can now import users into their organizations account using .xls, .xlsx, or .csv file types. Learn more from Zoho’s help article on this topic.

  • Webform Analytics in CRM has new metrics and charts available. Metrics for time spent on fields, field correction rate, drop rate, and the order that fields are filled can be put to use in your analytics. You now also have access to device source for form submissions. Individual form analytics now display average time spend and the abandon rate in submissions. Having this information available helps in analyzing your form success rates and adjusting forms for better engagement.

  • Expanded capabilities including Subform Fields now exists when you map dependency. Previously only fields from the layout were available to be mapped.

  • Zoho introduced their new CRM designer called Canvas, calling it “the industry’s first CRM design studio. “This no-code, drag-and-drop design studio is built into Zoho CRM and allows users to create contextual, immersive experiences for their teams.” Learn more about it from Zoho.

  • Email status updates make filters more straightforward so finding who responded to your messages possible. The Latest Email Status filter now includes “Responded” as an option. Use this and “Opened and Not responded” to segment your contacts for better communication messaging, for example positioning follow ups.

  • If you have questions or need help setting up any of these, ZBrains Support is here for you!

Zoho Desk

  • Have you ever needed to associate a contact with multiple accounts? Now you can select to enable this Accounts feature in Zoho Desk, and select to relate a single contact to multiple accounts. You can learn more here.

Zoho Books

  • Custom Reports in Books gives you the capability now to save your customizations. Find them instantly and use them again and again. There’s increased flexibility around user control, for example, who can view, export, or schedule custom reports.

  • New from Zoho Books, “Once you reconcile an account, you can now print the reconciliation details as well. You can print the the transaction details, transaction type, deposits and withdrawals.

  • Increased capabilities to select the customer advance accounts for tracking and recording excess payment, and configure the default account for tracking excess payments.

ZOHO UPDATESApplication Updates from Zoho

Zoho Desk

  • The Community module in Zoho Desk has three updates this past month including:
      • Assigning category visibility to “agents only.” This makes topics in these categories internal and visible to agents only.
      • New key category metrics are now available including: # of forums, @ of topics and comments received, % of topics created under each topic type, and more.
      • Increased functionality around controlling the ability to choose who can post and reply to topics in a category.

Zoho BugsIssues Notices from Zoho

 Zoho Creator

  • Creator rolled out a set of minor fixes product-wide including: bugs related to adding and deleting fields in forms, issue with record detail view in blueprint, a minor issue in file preview, and several additional minor issues.

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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Zoho Updates from ZBrains

Zoho Updates, New Features, and Issues | August 2021

This month, we saw just a handful of new features and improvements in our Zoho Updates August 2021. These are primarily for Zoho CRM and Books, and there were a few bug fixes in Creator. We think you might be interested in the update regarding Zoho CRM attachments, and its integration with tools like Google Drive and OneDrive.  Additionally, if you’re a Books user, hopefully you’ve seen the addition of in-app messaging from Cliq.

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

New Features & Improvements from Zoho

Zoho CRM

Zoho Books

  • Zoho Cliq chat bar is now available in Books. Enjoy even more seamless communication with your colleagues in the app you’re using, without having to switch tabs.
  • You can now set tax preferences for your vendors and customers in Books. “A major update in the customers and vendors module is the ability to assign tax rates. You can assign these tax rates while creating or editing existing customers or vendors. So, the next time you create a transaction for them, the tax rate will be automatically applied to your line items.
  • Books improvement lets you create and associate budgets to individual branches or regions of your organization. To associate budgets to your branches: Go to Accountant > Budgets > New Budget > Select a branch. If you have questions or need help setting up this function, ZBrains Support is here for you!

 

Zoho BugsIssues Notices from Zoho

 Zoho Creator

  • The Creator team shared many bug fixes this past month ranging from “minor bug fixes related to pivot chart and table sync issues,” to transition and highlight issues in Blueprint.
  • Another change in place for the maximum length of decimal fields. The field type used for decimal, percent and currency will now max at 16, versus 19 digits in Zoho Creator. Technical limitations are the reason for this updated, and once the change is in place, values longer than 16 digits will be rounded off.
  • Previously, Count as a Percentage or Fraction in Creator pages would not display as anticipated when a record was empty. A recent bug fix resolves this issue.
  • Finally there were minor bug fixes performed, related to subform workflows and pivot reports.

 

General Zoho Ecosystem Updates

In case you missed it during prior months: 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.

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.

 

Connect with a Consultant

 

Zoho Administrator Outsourcing

Outsourcing Your Zoho Administrator: Pros, Cons, and Considerations

How to Find the Right Zoho Partner for Outsourcing Administrative Work

Should you be outsourcing your Zoho administrator duties? The pros and cons of outsourcing have been discussed for years, some of the benefits being you don’t have to hire, onboard, or train; you get the advantages of a larger pool of knowledge; and you can potentially save in terms of labor costs paying only for the time you’re truly using. We would also add that in the case of highly specialized tasks, your organization benefits by being able to keep its focus on the things it does best – without having to ensure that internal resources have proper training, sufficient time, and the desire to take on new and different responsibilities. 

The cons of outsourcing can include losing some control, or that needs may get lost in translation. Although, more often than not, the benefits of outsourcing the tasks involved with Zoho administration far outweigh them. Let’s talk about it a little more so you can see if it’s the right move for your business.

What is outsourcing in Zoho administration?

[caption id="attachment_5260" align="alignright" width="400"]Zoho Administrator Help ZBrains has helped clients like you build a strategy for digital transformation and growth with Zoho since 2012.[/caption]

In this case, outsourcing is the practice in which designated company tasks or functions are given to service providers outside of your company. This support is provided to your company by an external resource instead of an internal one. Some tasks handled by a Zoho administrator can include:

  1. Assisting with best practices and implementations for user credentials and permissions.
  2. Ensuring that application updates are timely, and testing them to ensure that all integrations work as required prior to roll out.
  3. Responding to incidents as reported, and helping you with remediation.
  4. Helping to identify and notify you of opportunities to improve, enhance, or get more out of your system.
  5. And of course, many other tasks as they arise. Just ask!

We know as well as anyone that Zoho is definitely simple to pick up and use. But  customizing it to your needs, and correctly integrating and maintaining systems can be confusing for the uninitiated!

The Benefits of Combining Zoho and Administrative Outsourcing

We scratched the surface of this just a bit in the intro, but diving a little deeper, you have a lot of opportunities to benefit from outsourcing Zoho system admin work. Here are the three areas we think are most notable.

1. You Get a Better Return on Your Zoho Investment

For starters, we know that no business tools, especially systems for your CRM, Accounting, or other specialized applications were easy to implement. We see it very often – businesses have a lot of excitement up front about their new systems, but lose momentum due to lack of expertise. They begin missing out on the many additional features of Zoho that could help them optimize their businesses!

If you’re like most of our clients, the investment in time, resource training, and ongoing maintenance of your systems is not insignificant. However, are the resources in your organization who handle system administration the most qualified? And are you losing any time or efficiency each week simply by having the wrong person in the seat? 

Outsourcing your Zoho administrator duties can help enhance the return on your Zoho investment, and can even help lower your labor costs. Consider the economies of scale you could impact once you have assigned those tasks to the resource who’s best equipped to make your Zoho system thrive.

2. Expert Insight Can Lead to Innovation

It goes without saying that you are the expert in your business. From the products or services you provide, to the processes you use to deliver those to happy clients, you have spent the time learning and understanding what sets you apart. These are the factors making you successful!

Now consider what benefit could be derived from being able to tap into another knowledge base, particularly, a knowledge base with expertise in the Zoho systems you rely on day-to-day. Without having to add to your org’s headcount, you can bring in top-level talent and expertise to help you streamline automations, increase process efficiencies with workflows, templates, and even deeper software integrations. Letting an expert help you admin your Zoho systems means you benefit from another set of adept eyes.

3. You Have One Less Thing to Manage

[caption id="attachment_5258" align="alignright" width="400"]Zoho Admin Help With help from a designated Zoho admin you can focus on your core competencies, and avoid the distractions and unanticipated “emergencies” of system maintenance.[/caption]

Hiring a trusted partner to keep an eye on the often out of sight, yet routine, necessities that allow your systems to operate seamlessly, means a ton of management time is freed up! Now you can focus on your core competencies, and avoid the distractions and unanticipated “emergencies” of system maintenance that an outsourced Zoho administrator can ensure is always on track. 

For example, how many times have you missed software notices about integration updates that set your business behind by a few hours, or even a day or more just because a simple function needs attention?  You’ll always be on top of it – mitigating those risks of lost time and productivity – when these tasks are a priority for your administrative partner in Zoho. 

Speaking of agreements, you can also increase the speed and quality of work for outsourced activities. This flexibility is another, sometimes overlooked aspect of a service agreement for administrative oversight. This relates back to having a partner with experience that may be lacking in-house. The right partner will ensure that planning is up to date. They will help you focus your strategy. And  can ensure you get the services or help you need, as you need it. 

How to Find the Right Zoho Partner for Outsourcing Administrative Work

Establish Your Goals & Needs

The very first step in finding the right Zoho admin partner is to detail the needs you have to be outsourced. This includes documenting Zoho processes, product ownership, and maintenance services you require, and how frequently you believe these items require attention. Evaluate with your internal teams and establish agreements before beginning discussions or negotiations with any potential providers. 

Evaluate Potential Zoho Partner Credentials

When you do begin discussions with Zoho Consultants or partners, be sure to find answers to the following:

[caption id="attachment_5259" align="alignright" width="400"]Zoho Admin Needs Start your search for a Zoho Admin by detailing all of the needs you have to be outsourced.[/caption]
  • Do they cover the applications you use, 
  • Do they have working knowledge of any integrations currently in place,
  • What sort of plans do they offer (hourly or monthly service options),
  • Where are they located, and where are the people performing the work located,
  • And what experience do they have helping others like you in your industry?

These questions will naturally open conversations to more detail. This will allow you to gauge whether or not a partner will be able to assist with the needs and goals you outlined.

Selecting the Right Zoho Admin Plan

Consider again the goals and needs you established up front. This will help you select the right Zoho administrator plan. Depending on the size of your business, and the internal depth of expertise in Zoho, you may require  weekly, monthly,  or quarterly assistance. You absolutely have the option to bake that sort of maintenance into your Zoho system administrator requirements agreement or scope of work with the right partner. And if you’re looking for something a little more flexible, some organizations may allow for an hourly flex plan, and/or monthly retainer. 

Finding a Zoho Admin Partner at ZBrains

[caption id="attachment_5261" align="alignright" width="400"]ZBrains Zoho Administrators Achieve more with help administrating your Zoho system from a Zoho Certified partner like ZBrains.[/caption]

If you’re here, you may be considering ZBrains as a partner for your Zoho system administrator needs. You’ll find answers to most questions here on our site. However, we believe it’s important to connect in person with every client from the start. This ensures we get the most information from you, and have a greater understanding of your needs and goals. So feel free to contact us any time. 

  • ZBrains can help you with Zoho administration – whether your team is 5 or 500 users. If you’re just getting started with Zoho, or you recognize it’s time to take its capabilities to the next level. We have helped clients like you build a strategy for digital transformation and growth with Zoho.
  • We have proprietary integrations for Quickbooks and even built a field services and manufacturing ERP called FieldTech. 
  • Our teams offer both hourly flex support and a monthly retainer for support services, so you can get the coverage you need.
  • All of our talent is US-based, and we’re a Zoho Certified Partner who have been working in this space since 2012.
  • ZBrains works with many types of businesses, but we focus primarily on industries such as manufacturing/distribution, construction and field services, and those working in technology or SaaS organizations

Ready to discuss Zoho Admin Support with ZBrains? Get in touch today!

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july 2021 updates from zbrains

Zoho Updates, New Features, and Issues | July 2021

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 thatZoho 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.

 

Zoho BugsIssues 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.

 

Connect with a Consultant

 

Zoho Updates June 2021

Zoho Updates, New Features, and Issues | June 2021

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.

 

ZOHO UPDATESApplication 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.)
  • 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.

 

Zoho BugsIssues 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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Zoho Monthly Updates from ZBrains

Zoho Updates, New Features, and Issues | May 2021

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

  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.”

 

ZOHO UPDATESApplication 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 

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

 

Zoho BugsIssues Notices from Zoho

 Zoho Creator

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

    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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