News Highlights
- Zoho CRM: Zia ICR can now build a single record from multiple images, in any module with an ICR rule.
- Zoho CRM: Mail merge templates can finally be built and tested in Sandbox.
- Zoho Books: Subtotals for line items arrive, so estimates can be grouped into phases.
- Zoho Service Plus: Field Service Management joins the bundle.
Zoho News
Zoho CRM: Multi-Image Record Creation with Zia ICR
Got lead info scattered across a filled-out PDF, a business card, and a trade show badge? Zia’s ICR can now read all of them at once and build a single record, and it works in any module where you’ve set up an ICR rule, not just Leads.
Zoho CRM: Mail Merge Templates Directly in Sandbox
A long-missing piece for anyone building multi-step processes, mail merge templates (inventory templates included) can now be built and tested in Sandbox, though deployment isn’t supported yet, so you’ll still recreate them in production yourself.
Zoho Books: Product Updates October 2026
Easy to skim past, but subtotals for line items finally landed, so you can split an estimate into phases with a total for each, alongside new netting for customers who are also vendors and custom fields on bins, zones, and move orders in Inventory.
Zoho Service Plus: Field Service Management Module
FSM joins Desk, SalesIQ, Assist, and the rest of the Service Plus bundle, a natural fit for tickets that need someone on site, though since FSM bills per appointment, what “included” means on your invoice is still a mystery.
Zoho Bigin: User Management & Display Preference Enhancements
When inviting users, admins can now set date and number formats up front, a nice win for global teams, and make last name optional, which feels tailor-made for the day Cher signs up for Bigin.
Zoho Bigin: Zoho Calendar Integration
Bigin already played nice with Google and Outlook calendars, and now a new topping (their word, they’re whimsical over there) brings Zoho Calendar sync into the mix for teams living in Zoho Mail.
Zoho Community Spaces: Zoho MCP Integration
Think Zoho Connect built for people outside your org, now with MCP so your AI tools can draft posts, plan meetups, and spot which spaces have gone quiet, with “draft” being the key word after that Canadian airline chatbot fiasco.
Zoho PageSense: Free PageHealth Website Analysis Tool
No account, no credit card, just drop in a URL and get feedback focused on lead conversion (CTAs, credibility signals) rather than the load speed stuff Google Lighthouse covers.
Zoho Sprints: Q3 2026 Feature Roundup
Q3’s wrap-up pulls together intake forms that feed end-user requests into the backlog, meeting tools, and related list UI updates, plus a few extras like test reruns we didn’t get to on the show.
Zoho Creator: New Proxy Outgoing IPs for IN, SA, & UAE Data Centers
Action needed if your Deluge invokeURL calls hit IP-whitelisted services from the IN, SA, or UAE data centers: add the new proxy outgoing IPs alongside the existing ones before October 30, and note that IN has already partially rolled out.
Zoho Books: New Add-ons Added to the Free Plan
UK micro-entities on the free plan can now file CT600 returns and FRS 105 Final Accounts straight to HMRC and Companies House through a £5 a year add-on, with iXBRL tagging handled for you.
New App! Introducing Zoho Campus
Schools and colleges in India get a new digital home with institutional email, class chats, shared files, an announcements feed, and Writer, Sheet, and Show with Zia nudges baked in.
Zoho POS for Restaurants
Unveiled at Zoholics India, the new restaurant POS connects tables, a waiter app, self-ordering kiosks, and kitchen tickets with Swiggy and Zomato orders, and its free plan covers up to ₹12 lakh in annual invoices.
Zoho Mail: Enhanced Shared Mailboxes Updates
The most requested one is finally here: emails sent from a group address now land in the shared mailbox’s own Sent folder, alongside live delivery status, run-through filters, cross-mailbox search, and a cleaner layout, all rolling out in phases.
Zoho Mail: Single Folder Archival
Archived emails are moving into one dedicated Archive folder instead of hiding inside their original folders, which fixes IMAP sync headaches, and existing users can make the one-time switch whenever they’re ready.
Zoho Office Integrator: Extract Data from Images to Spreadsheet
Developers embedding the spreadsheet editor get a new Data from Picture option that uses OCR to turn images of tables into editable cells, English text and numbers only for now.
Zoho Payroll: Q3 FY2026 Product Updates
Q3 brings Axis Bank salary payments and EV charging reimbursements in India, split direct deposits across multiple bank accounts in the US, and separate journal accounts for employee and employer benefit contributions.
Zoho ERP: Product Updates September 2026
September’s headliner is netting for linked customers and vendors, backed by a big batch of quality inspection upgrades and manufacturing order improvements like actual component consumption and auto-generated batch numbers.
Zoho Community: September 2026 Part 3 Product Updates
A meaty digest this time, with PRM for partner management in CRM, Siri and Apple Intelligence in Bigin, Snapchat in Zoho Social, and a heads-up on WhatsApp pricing changes hitting Desk, Campaigns, and Marketing Automation.
Code Share of the Week
Standalone Function: Find or Create a Zoho WorkDrive Folder by Name
Andrew, aka Club Z himself, shares a standalone Deluge function for anyone who auto-creates a WorkDrive folder whenever a new account or deal lands in CRM. Pass it a parent folder ID and a folder name, and it pages through every subfolder of that parent looking for an exact name match, returning the existing folder’s ID if it finds one or creating a fresh folder if it doesn’t. Why not just use the search API? WorkDrive takes 15 to 30 seconds to index new items, so a fast-firing script can search, come up empty, and happily create a duplicate. Listing folders under a parent is immediate, which makes this the safer route. Drop it into any flow where every record needs exactly one folder.
This Week’s Blog
Zoho for Healthcare & Wellness
Our new industry page walks through how we implement Zoho for medical device companies, multi-location clinics, dental and specialty practices, and healthcare software firms, with flowcharts showing how the apps fit together and why Creator so often powers the patient portal.
Tips and Tricks
Use AI Prompts in Zoho CRM
Tyler takes a deeper dive into Smart Prompts, using Claude to write a discovery call prep prompt, refining it through testing, and catching Zia counting days on its fingers along the way.
Question of the Week
Schedule Work Orders Based on Certain Criteria
Camilo asked whether Smart Prompts could propose a technician for a work order based on skills, schedule, and service area. The answer is yes and no: the UI can only merge fields from the current record, the user, and the org, so technician schedules are out of reach there, but calling the Smart Prompt from Deluge lets you feed in all your technician data, ask for a JSON response, and stamp the suggestion on the record with a button.
This Week’s Quizzes
- Monday Quiz: What is the defining capability of ‘Zia Agents’ introduced in the Summer ’26 release?
- Wednesday Quiz: How does the AI-powered Criteria Router improve customer handovers in the Summer ’26 release?
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