Zoho Glossary

Essential Terms and Definitions for Navigating Zoho CRM and Beyond

A

  • Account: A company or department your organisation is doing business with or plans to do business with in the future. Multiple customers can be associated with an account.
  • Activities: Tasks, calls, or meetings that a sales representative performs as part of their routine.
  • Administrator: A CRM user with access to all modules and records, responsible for configuring features, initiating integrations, and adding users to the organisation’s CRM account.
  • API (Application Programming Interface): A set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications, allowing integration between Zoho CRM and other applications.
  • Assignment Rule: A rule that automatically assigns records to users based on criteria such as region or lead source.

B

  • Blueprint: An online replica of a business process that provides step-by-step guidelines for users to follow from start to end.
  • Business Hours: Defines the working hours of a company or organisation, which could be either 24/7 or specific hours.
  • Business Card View: A card-like view displayed inside the record detail page that holds important information about a contact, providing a quick preview of the contact’s details.

C

  • Campaigns: Tools that help plan and monitor email marketing campaigns within your business.
  • Canvas View: A view that lets you customise the interface of the list view and record details page using design elements like background images, colours, fonts, sections, and icons as field labels.
  • Cases: Feedback received from customers on various issues they have with your products or services, which can be feature requests or bug reports.
  • Contacts: Individuals with whom you communicate for a business opportunity; in a B2B scenario, they can be your business partners or the point of contact for your partners.
  • Custom Fields: Fields you can create to fit your business and the type of information you want records to have, such as ‘Property Type’ for a real estate company.
  • Customization: The process of modifying or altering various elements in your CRM account to match your business requirements.

D

  • Dashboards: Visual representations of an organisation’s key metrics, including charts, KPIs, comparators, target metres, cohorts, quadrants, and anomaly detectors.
  • Data Sharing Rules: Rules that allow for sharing data with others in the organisation.
  • Deals: Records that generate revenue for your organisation, helping you keep track of all your business opportunities.
  • Developer Space: Offers various features such as Functions, Connections, Widgets, and APIs to customise and integrate with your own or third-party applications.

E

  • Edition: The different versions of Zoho CRM available to customers, including Free, Standard, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate Editions.
  • Email Templates: Templates that allow you to send one message to multiple recipients.
  • Email Notification: An automatic workflow that sends emails to customers upon satisfying set conditions, such as sending an email when a customer makes a purchase.
  • Enterprise Edition: A version of Zoho CRM suitable for organisations that need advanced features to run their business processes.
  • Exchange Rates: Tools used to convert an amount in one currency to the home currency used by your organisation.

F

  • Feeds: A messaging platform that allows you to share views, have discussions with your team in real-time, and speed up the decision-making process.
  • Fiscal Year: A 12-month period that a typical organisation uses to determine their operating budget.
  • Field: A single piece of data such as name, date of birth, email, or telephone number.
  • Field Update: An automated action that updates the value in a field when triggered by a workflow rule.
  • Field Properties: The characteristics and behaviour of the data added to a particular field.
  • Field-level Security: The right of an Administrator to restrict access to fields in a module by setting specific permissions for specific people.
  • Forecast: The process of predicting or estimating future sales and setting short-term and long-term targets using past sales data.
  • Formula Fields: Fields defined by the user that can dynamically calculate data based on the values returned by other standard or custom fields.

G

  • Gamescope: The gamification element in Zoho CRM, making sales more engaging through contests and awards.
  • GDPR Compliance: The General Data Protection Regulation in Zoho CRM is designed to meet the privacy rights set by the EU.

H

  • Home Tab: The default tab that provides a snapshot of your CRM data, including dashboards, tasks, events, and other components.

I

  • Import: The process of bringing data from external sources into Zoho CRM.
  • Integrations: Connecting Zoho CRM with other applications to synchronise data and automate workflows.

J

  • Junction Record: A record that links two related records in a many-to-many relationship.

K

  • Key Performance Indicator (KPI): A measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives.

L

  • Lead: An individual or organisation that has shown interest in your product or service but has not yet been qualified.
  • List View: A view that displays records in a list format based on specific criteria.

M

  • Macros: A set of automated actions that can be executed on multiple records simultaneously in Zoho CRM to save time and improve productivity.

N

  • Notes: Textual or audio annotations added to records to provide additional context or information.
  • Notifications: Alerts generated by Zoho CRM to inform users about specific events or actions, such as task assignments or upcoming meetings.

O

  • Opportunities: Potential sales deals or revenue-generating events tracked within Zoho CRM.
  • Owner: The user responsible for a particular record, typically the person who created it or to whom it has been assigned.

P

  • Page Layouts: Customisable arrangements of fields and sections within a module, allowing users to tailor the interface to their business processes.
  • Permissions: Settings that define the access level and actions a user can perform within Zoho CRM, based on their role and profile.
  • Portals: Interfaces that allow external stakeholders, such as customers or vendors, to access specific modules and data within Zoho CRM.
  • Profiles: Collections of permissions that determine what features and data users can access within Zoho CRM.

Q

  • Quotes: Formal documents sent to prospects or customers detailing the products or services offered, along with pricing and terms.

R

  • Records: Individual entries within a module, such as a single lead, contact, or deal.
  • Roles: Hierarchical positions within an organisation that determine data access and visibility in Zoho CRM.

S

  • Sandbox: A testing environment within Zoho CRM that allows users to experiment with configurations and customisations without affecting live data.
  • Scoring Rules: Criteria set within Zoho CRM to assign points to leads, contacts, or deals based on specific attributes or behaviours, aiding in prioritisation.
  • Solutions: Repository of information within Zoho CRM that provides answers to common customer queries or issues.
  • Subforms: Secondary forms or tables within a primary form, enabling the establishment of one-to-many relationships with data in Zoho CRM.

T

  • Tags: Labels assigned to records to facilitate categorisation, searching, and filtering within Zoho CRM.
  • Territory Management: A feature that allows organisations to segment customers and prospects based on criteria such as geography or product line, facilitating targeted sales strategies.
  • Triggers: Events or conditions that, when met, initiate specific actions or workflows within Zoho CRM.

U

  • Users: Individuals who have access to a Zoho CRM account, each assigned specific roles and profiles that define their permissions and access levels.

V

  • Validation Rules: Criteria set within Zoho CRM to ensure data entered into fields meets specific standards or formats, maintaining data integrity.
  • Vendors: Companies or individuals from whom your organisation procures products or services, tracked within Zoho CRM.
  • Views: Customisable displays of records within a module, allowing users to filter and sort data based on specific criteria.

W

  • Webforms: Online forms integrated with Zoho CRM that capture information from website visitors directly into the CRM system.
  • Widgets: Embeddable UI components within Zoho CRM that integrate with external applications, extending the platform’s functionality.
  • Workflows: Automated processes within Zoho CRM that perform specific actions, such as sending emails or updating fields, when defined conditions are met.

X

  • XML (eXtensible Markup Language): A markup language used for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable, often utilised in data integration with Zoho CRM.

Y

  • YTD (Year-To-Date): A financial term representing the period starting from the beginning of the current year to the present date, often used in Zoho CRM reports to analyse performance metrics.

Z

  • Zia: Zoho’s AI-powered sales assistant that provides predictions, suggestions, and insights to enhance sales processes within Zoho CRM.