Questions and ANSWERS from AspenTech's first webinar in new Skill Builder series

On August 6, 2020, AspenTech CRM hosted the first in a series of 60-minute Zoho Skill Builder webinars.  These webinars are available to all Zoho users, whether you're an AspenTech active client or you're just interested in learning about the CRM.  We have foundational webinars for the new user and advanced webinars for those users looking to find trends in their sales and marketing data.  View our catalog here.

Our first webinar hosted by Zoho Consultant and Trainer, Tracy Sorrentino, was titled, "Customizing Modules, Layouts & Fields".  This webinar went into detail on designing the Zoho CRM to fit the needs of your business. It also addressed how companies can leverage the format of their CRM for future success.

During the webinar, we had several great questions come in through the webinar chat page. These were such great questions that we wanted to take the opportunity to share those Q&A's from the first webinar session below. 

Q:  Can any Zoho user customize a module, layout or field?

A:  Any user having the Module Customization level permissions can customize modules, layouts and fields.  The Admin level permissions come standard in the Administrative profile in Zoho CRM.  From the Setup menu you may change a user’s profile in the Users and Control section to Administrator to update permissions.

Customizing your CRM.  If it doesn't fit, it won't work! - Blog: CRM Solutions & Industry News | AspenTech CRM - Edit_User_-_full_screen_shot

Q:  Does each user have to change their own modules or if an administrator makes changes will it funnel down to all users? 

A:  Only a user having the Administrator profile can customize modules, fields and layouts (see above).  Once the customization has been saved, the change will be immediately visible and accessible to all users.

Q:  Our organization does not use Leads.  Can I delete this module?

A:  You cannot delete the module, but you can remove it from the menu bar by hiding it.  From the Setup menu, Customization section and under Modules and Fields, you may use the Organize Modules button to hide your Leads module.

Customizing your CRM.  If it doesn't fit, it won't work! - Blog: CRM Solutions & Industry News | AspenTech CRM - Organize_Modules_screen_shot

Q:  We have a field on our current layout for our marketing team only.  How do I stop users that aren’t on the marketing team from entering data in this field?

A:  A field can have separate permissions based on a user’s profile.  When editing a field in a layout, use the ellipsis (…) to Set Permissions as follows:

Customizing your CRM.  If it doesn't fit, it won't work! - Blog: CRM Solutions & Industry News | AspenTech CRM - Field_Permissions_screen_shot

Q:  My Company records include two types of customer, new customers and existing customers.  For an existing customer I need to capture their previous invoice information. How do I do that?

A:  Using a Layout Rule you can create a rule based on the Account Type field.  If the Account Type value is existing customer the previous invoice information section can be made accessible.  If the Account Type value is anything other than existing customer the section is not accessible.  

Customizing your CRM.  If it doesn't fit, it won't work! - Blog: CRM Solutions & Industry News | AspenTech CRM - Layout_Rule_screen_shot

Q:  When using Validation Rules, can you have 2 types of rules for a state field? Such as States in the USA are 2 letters long, but states in Mexico and Canada are full names etc. Is there a way to have the rule changed based on the country?

A:  No, you cannot have two separate Validation Rules applied to the same field. You can have different criteria for different countries.  In the scenario presented, you would use one validation rule.  If the Mailing Country field is United States, only allow a two-character value in the Mailing State field.  If the Mailing Country field is anything other than United States, the Mailing State field can be completed with any number of characters (this is the functionality that is built into the CRM).  

You can see from the Validation Rule below that you can add separate criteria for different countries.  If the Mailing Country field is United States, there is a two-character only rule limit for the Mailing State field.  If the Mailing Country field is Australia, there is a 3 - 4 character rule limit for the Mailing State field.  One rule, one field, two criteria.

Customizing your CRM.  If it doesn't fit, it won't work! - Blog: CRM Solutions & Industry News | AspenTech CRM - Validation_Rule_screen_shot

Have more questions about Customizing Modules, Layouts & Fields? Submit your question here!  

Join us for our next Zoho Skill Builder webinars: 

Reports, Dashboards & Analytics", on Thursday, September 24th at 11:00 a.m. EST.  Register here.

Digital Signatures Using Zoho Sign", on Thursday, October, 8th at 11:00 a.m. EST. Register here.

To contact one of our Zoho experts, call 734/455-7188 or email us at support@aspen-tech.com