Using Plug-in for Microsoft Outlook

Using Plug-in for Microsoft Outlook

Using the Zoho CRM Plug-in for Microsoft Outlook, you can do the following:

  • Add records to Zoho Category
  • Remove records from Zoho Category
  • Automatically synchronize (one-way) Contacts, Tasks and Calendar Events from MS Outlook to Zoho CRM
  • Export Contacts, Tasks and Calendar (Events) from MS Outlook to Zoho CRM
  • Add Emails to Leads, Contacts or Potentials in Zoho CRM
  • Add emails as Cases in Zoho CRM

Categorize Records as Zoho

In Microsoft Outlook, the contacts, tasks and calendar event can be grouped into categories. Assigning records to categories helps you to sort and then view the records by category. With the Zoho CRM Plug-in, you get an additional category namely, Zoho. You can make use of this category while synchronizing records to Zoho CRM. See Also Configure Plug-in Settings

To mark records under Zoho Category

  1. Select the Contacts, Tasks, or Calendar events.
    Note that the records should be selected from the corresponding folder that you had specified under Folder Settings. See Also Configure Synchronize Settings
  2. Click Home > Categorize.
  3. Select the Zoho checkbox from the list of categories.
    The record will be marked under Zoho category.
    Similarly, you can remove the category by clearing the checkbox.

Synchronize Contacts, Tasks and Calendar

The one way synchronize option pushes Contacts, Tasks, Calendar events from MS Outlook to Zoho CRM. It helps to keep your data updated in both Zoho CRM and MS Outlook and you can avoid duplication of data. Data synchronization can be done either manually or automatically.

Contact Synchronization - Field Mapping

MS Outlook Zoho CRM Field Length in Zoho CRM
First Name First Name 40
Last Name Last Name 80
Email 1 Email Address  
Job Title Title 100
Company Name Account Name 200
Department Department 50
Business Telephone Number Phone 50
Home Telephone Number Home Phone 30
Other Telephone Number Other Phone 30
Business Fax Number Fax 30
Mobile Telephone Number Mobile 30
Assistant Name Assistant 50
Assistant Telephone Number Asst Phone 30
Manager Name Report To 50
Business Address Street Mailing Street 250
Business Address City Mailing City 30
Business Address State Mailing State 30
Business Address Postal Code Mailing zip 30
Business Address Country Mailing Country 30
Other Address Street Other Street 250
Other Address City Other city 30
21. Other Address State Other state 30
Other Address Postal Code Other zip 30
Other Address Country Other Country 30
Description Description 32000
Birthday Birthday -

Note:

  • Duplicate check for Contacts is primarily based on the Email ID of the contacts. In the absence of an email address, the duplicates are identified on the basis of the First Name and the Last Name.

Tasks Synchronization - Field Mapping

MS Outlook Zoho CRM Length in Zoho CRM
Subject Subject 255
Due date Due Date -
Start date - -
Priority Priority -
Status Status -
Description Description 32000

Note:

  • Duplicate check for Tasks is based on the Subject and End Date.

Calendar Synchronization - Field Mapping

MS Outlook Zoho CRM Length in Zoho CRM
Subject Subject 255
Start Time Start Date and Time -
End Time End Date and Time -
Location Venue 255
Description Description 32000
Attendees Participants -

Note:

  • Duplicate check for Events is based on the Subject, Start Date and Time and End Date and Time as well as the Email ID of the attendees/participants.

Synchronization of Event Participants

When you synchronize events from Microsoft Outlook to Zoho CRM, the event attendees from Outlook are synchronized as event participants in Zoho CRM automatically. The participants thus synchronized are associated to the event as contacts, leads or Zoho CRM users, as the case may be. If the participants are not any of these, then just the email address of the attendee is displayed in the Participants section.

Similarly, when you synchronize events from Zoho CRM to Microsoft Outlook, the event participants are included as event attendees in Outlook automatically upon synchronization.

In case there are duplicates in the email addresses synchronized from Microsoft Outlook to Zoho CRM, the issue is addressed based on the following order of priority:

  • Contacts
  • Leads
  • Zoho CRM user

If the Email ID of an attendee exists in Zoho CRM as a contact as well as a lead, then Zoho CRM associates the contact to the event as a participant and ignores the lead. This is because a Contact is given the highest priority.

If two contacts in Zoho CRM are found to have the same email address as that of an attendee, the contact that was created first in Zoho CRM is associated to the event as a participant.

Note:

  • Event invitation emails are not automatically sent to participants in Zoho CRM when an event is created upon synchronization from Microsoft Outlook. This is because the decision regarding invitation emails would already have been taken at the time of event creation in Microsoft Outlook. Therefore the user is not prompted to send an invitation email for events that are created as a result of synchronization in Zoho CRM. The same applies to events synchronized from Zoho CRM to Microsoft Outlook as well.
  • If required, invitation emails can be sent to event participants by manually editing an event and sending the mail, like it is done for any regular event in both Zoho CRM and Microsoft Outlook.

To enable automatic synchronization

  1. In Microsoft Outlook, click Zoho CRM > Settings.
  2. In Settings dialog box, click Contacts/Tasks/Calendars tab.
  3. Select the Automatically sync the changes made in Outlook contacts/tasks/appointments to Zoho CRM checkbox.
  4. Click Save.
    The changes made to the records before you enable the option to automatically synchronize, needs to be manually synchronized.

To manually synchronize contacts, tasks and calendar events

  1. Log in to Zoho CRM from within Microsoft Outlook.
  2. From the Zoho CRM Plug-in, click Sync Contact/Task/Calendar.
    The synchronization will automatically start. Based on the Synchronize Settings, the records will be updated.

Note:

  • You can click the View Details link to get the detailed list of changes.
  • The Contacts/Tasks/Calendar Synchronization details are displayed in three categories - To Add, To Update and To Delete.
  • During the synchronization of contacts, tasks or events, records that were not synchronized during a previous sync are automatically uncheked and marked as Ignored during previous sync under the Information column.

    This way you can easily see which records were not synced previously. Also if you decide to include them in the current synchronization, all you have to do is select the records and synchronize them.
  • A user's ability to edit records synced with Outlook depends on their profile permission and data sharing rules.
    • In the case of restricted profile permission, a user will receive a Permission Denied warning when he/she attempts to modify the record.
    • In case a user attempts to modify a record shared to him/her on the basis of data sharing rules, the record changes will be reflected in Zoho CRM based on the Access Type set in the data sharing rule. This will be the case even if the user has the required profile permission to access the record. For example, if the Access Type of a record is set to Read Only, the user cannot make record changes effective even if he/she has profile the required permissions to edit the record.

Add Emails as Cases to Zoho CRM

You can add customer-specific email messages from Microsoft Outlook to Zoho CRM as a Case. Before adding the email messages make sure the corresponding contact to the email exists in Zoho CRM.

To add email messages as Cases in Zoho CRM

  1. Select Inbox from the sidebar or the Folder that contains the emails that needs to be added to Zoho CRM.
  2. Select the customer-specific Email from the Inbox or custom email folder.
  3. From the Zoho CRM Plug-in, click Add Case.
  4. In the Add Case dialog box, select a Status from the drop-down list.
  5. Select the Attachments checkbox, if you want the attachments also to be added along with the email.
    • Search records based on a given criteria and then add the email as case to the selected records.

  6. Click Add.
    The email will be added as a case in Zoho CRM.

Note:

  • You can search and add the email as a case, only to the selected contacts, if required.
  • While adding it to Contacts, if you select the status and just click Add, then a new record will be created and the following values will be taken in Zoho CRM:
    In MS Outlook In Zoho CRM
    Email Address Email Address
    Contact Name Contact Name
    Subject of the Email Subject of the Case
    Email Content Case Description

Adding Email to Zoho CRM

You can associate the email messages that you receive in Microsoft Outlook to the Leads, Contacts or Potential records in Zoho CRM. Before adding the email messages make sure the corresponding contact to the email exists in Zoho CRM. If not, based on the MailSettings, emails will be associated to the records in CRM. There are four ways in which you can add emails to CRM:

Add Email option

  • On clicking this option the selected email (received or sent) will be added to the lead/contact based on the Mail Settings that is specified.

Search and Add Emailoption

  • You can search records by criteria and add the email (received or sent) to the matching records.
  • This option can be used to associate emails to potentials.
  • Emails are not associated based on the Mail Settings. You have the option here to select the module.

Automatically add outgoing emails

  • On sending an email from MS Outlook, it will be automatically added to the matching contact in Zoho CRM.
    • The email sent will be added in Zoho CRM, only if it is available in the sent folder specified in the Mail Settings. See Also Configure Mail Settings
    • The contact to whom the email is sent should be listed in the Folder and Category specified in the Contact Settings. See Also Set up Category and Folder Settings
  • For IMAP account users, email may not automatically get associated to the records in Zoho CRM, if the "Save sent items in the Sent Item folder on this computer" is not selected in the MS Outlook settings. To enable:
    1. Open MS Outlook's account settings.
    2. Click More Settings > Sent Items.
    3. Select "Save sent items in the Sent Item folder on this computer".
    4. Click OK.

Send and Addoption in the Compose window

  • You can draft an email to your customer and add it to Zoho CRM whenever you send it.
  • This option can be used to associate emails to potentials.

To add emails to Zoho CRM (Add Email Option)

  1. Select the Folder that contains the emails that needs to be added to Zoho CRM.
  2. Select the customer-specific Email from the folder.
  3. From the Zoho CRM Plug-in, click Add Email.
    Based on the Mail settings the selected email will be added to the lead/contact in Zoho CRM.

To add emails to Zoho CRM (Search and Add Email Option)

  1. Select the Folder that contains the emails that needs to be added to Zoho CRM.
  2. Select the customer-specific Email from the folder.
  3. From the Zoho CRM Plug-in, click Search and Add Email.
  4. In the Add Email dialog box, select a Module (Leads, Contacts, or Potentials) from the drop-down list.
    When you select Potentials, another field will be available namely, Criteria (to search records).
    You need to select either Email Address or Potential Name to search the records. On selecting Email Address, the Contacts with the matching email address will be searched in Zoho CRM and the Potential records associated to the matching contacts will be listed.
  5. Select the Attachments checkbox, if you want the attachments also to be added along with the email. You can also do the following:
    • Search records based on a given criteria. The matching records will be listed.
  6. Click Add.
    The email will be added to the selected leads/contacts/potentials.

Note:

  • While adding it to Leads or Contacts, if you select the module and just click Add, then a new record will be created and the following values will be taken in Zoho CRM:
    • Email address in MS Outlook will be the email address in Zoho CRM
    • Contact name in the mail will be the Contact or Lead name in Zoho CRM.

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