Integrating with Zoho CRM

You can use this integration to import the leads, accounts, contacts, and deals from Zoho CRM into Zoho People as Clients. Once they have been imported, projects can be associated to these CRM clients in Zoho People. You can then associate the jobs with those projects and assign employees to them, allowing you to track time spent on the CRM clients in Zoho People.

Enabling integration with Zoho CRM

To integrate with Zoho CRM,

  1. From your home screen, navigate to Settings > Integrations > Zoho 
  2. Click Configure in Zoho CRM
  3. Select the CRM organization of the user who is logged in. Zoho People users can import data only from this CRM organization, so only data that this user can access can be imported. 
  4. Click Enable.

Note: Only the Zoho People administrator can enable integration.

Importing CRM Data into Zoho People

Once the integration is enabled, there are two ways of importing data from Zoho CRM.

Method 1:

  1. Navigate to Timesheet > Projects/Jobs > Clients.
  2. Click the ellipsis icon and then click Import from Zoho CRM.

  1. Select the module and the data to be imported. 

  1. Click Submit.

Note: This import method will only be applicable to users with administrator privileges, and users who have been given import permission for client form via user access control.

Method 2: 

While adding or editing projects, you can use the Choose from CRM option in the Client field to directly associate the project with the CRM client. Once the project is saved, the associated CRM client will be imported to Zoho People as a client. 

Note: This method of importing CRM data will be available to everyone in the organization who has permission to add or edit projects.

​Limitations:

  • Only name and currency information will be imported. First name and last name will become a single field (client name). 
  • Any changes made to CRM client in Zoho People will not be reflected in Zoho People and vice versa. 

Adding CRM data from Zoho People

Leads, contacts, accounts, and deals can also be added to Zoho CRM from Zoho People. While creating or editing a project, you can click Choose from CRM and the existing CRM data of the corresponding modules will be displayed. You can also click Add to add data to CRM.

Note:

Only the user who has enabled the integration can add data to the integrated CRM organization. 

Viewing CRM integration details 

To see whether the integration is enabled and which CRM account it is integrated with :

  1. Navigate to Settings > Integrations > Zoho 
  2. Click View Details under Zoho CRM to view the following details:
  • CRM Company Name - company to which the integration is enabled.
  • The name of the employee whose CRM data can be imported into People.

​

Note: Only the Zoho People administrator can view these integration details.

If the employee who enabled the integration is removed from Zoho People, then the screen will show this:

If the integrated CRM account is deleted, or the user who enabled the integration is removed from the integrated CRM account, the screen will show this:

In both cases, the integration will not work. The integration has to be disabled and re-enabled for it to work seamlessly.

Disabling integration with Zoho CRM

To disable the integration with Zoho CRM,

  1. Go to Settings > Integrations > Zoho.
  2. Click View Details.
  3. Click Disable.

​​

Adding a custom link in Zoho CRM to use Zoho People

Adding custom link not only allows you to associate clients for a job directly but also allows you to view the summary of the client's logged hours.

  1. Log in to your Zoho CRM account

 

  1. Click Setup > Customization > Modules

  1. Select the Accounts module from the modules list as shown in the image above

  1. Click Links and Buttons > Create Your First Link
  2. Provide Label name and Description
  3. Enter the URL given below

    https://people.zoho.com/clientsummary.do?service=ZohoCRM&AccountName=${Accounts.Account Name}

​

  1. Click Save

Note: Only Zoho CRM Enterprise Plan users will be able to add custom links. Check out the Zoho CRM Pricing page for more details.

Viewing client summary page from Zoho CRM Leads/Accounts/Contacts/Deals module

  1. Log in to your Zoho CRM account
  2. Click Account > Account Name that you have associated with Zoho People job

The link that you added in Zoho CRM Client Summary will be listed under Links at the left side of the page as shown in the image above.

  1. Click on the link to view the client summary page