Zoho Integration

The Zoho integration keeps your partner programme and your Zoho CRM in step. Journeybee leads, deals, partners and partner contacts sync to Zoho Contacts, Accounts and Deals, and changes made in Zoho flow back in real time. Everything is driven by your own field mapping, so you decide which Zoho fields are involved.

Where to find it: Go to Settings, then Integrations. Zoho sits under the CRM section.

Who can use this: Connecting and configuring the integration is admin-only. Once it is connected, anyone on your team sees the Zoho links and linked deals on leads, deals, partners and contacts.

Before you start

Know your Zoho datacentre. Zoho runs region-specific services and you must pick the right one when connecting: United States (zoho.com), Europe (zoho.eu), Australia (zoho.com.au), India (zoho.in), China (zoho.com.cn), Japan (zoho.jp) or Canada (zohocloud.ca). Picking the wrong one means Journeybee cannot reach your data.
Authorise with a Zoho user who can read and write Contacts, Accounts and Deals, and who can create custom fields and workflow rules, because setup does all three automatically.
Set up your partner stages, deal stages and custom fields first, because the configuration screen maps against whatever exists at the time. See Stages and Custom Fields.

Connecting Zoho

Go to Settings, then Integrations, and click the Zoho card.
Choose your Zoho Datacenter from the list, then click Connect.
Authorise Journeybee in Zoho.
Journeybee then prepares your Zoho account automatically. It creates the custom fields it uses to link records:
- Contacts: Journeybee Lead Id and Journeybee Partner Contact Id.
- Accounts: Journeybee Lead Id and Journeybee Partner Id.
- Deals: Journeybee Lead Id and Journeybee Deal Id.
It also creates workflow rules on Contacts, Accounts and Deals that notify Journeybee when those records change. Existing fields are reused rather than duplicated, so reconnecting is safe. Do not delete the Journeybee fields or rules, because they are what keeps records matched and updates flowing.
Open Configure and set up your mapping. Nothing syncs until you do.

The configuration screen

The Zoho configuration page has four areas in its sidebar: Integration (the connection itself, plus Remove Integration), Configure (all sync settings and mappings), Import, and Manage (back to all integrations).

Each section shows a status of Not configured, Configured or Changes pending, and mapping sections show how many of their mappings are complete. Use the search box and the Only unmapped filter to work through a long list, then save. Changes apply to future sync activity, not retrospectively.

Partner sync settings

Identifying field and value: the Zoho Account field that marks a record as a partner, for example Account Type = Partner.
Create a new Zoho Account as a partner if we don't find one: Yes or No.
Unique partner field and unique partner contact field: pair a Journeybee field with a Zoho field so existing records are matched instead of duplicated.

Lead and deal sync settings

One-way creation sync to Zoho: new Journeybee leads and deals create records in Zoho, but later Journeybee edits do not change them. Zoho changes still sync back. Notes are not affected.
Choose how the integration should interact with existing objects: link to existing records, link only to records with no attached partner, or never link.
Contact, Account and Deal unique fields: pair a Journeybee field with a Zoho field for each module to prevent duplicates.
Sync on Lead Status: restrict sync to leads with the statuses you tick (New, Converted, Rejected). Deals follow their lead's status. Leave it empty to sync every status. Converted is the status shown as Accepted on the Leads page.

Field and stage mapping

Field mapping is what actually turns sync on. A Zoho module is only written to if you have mapped at least one field for it.

Partner Fields: Journeybee partners to Zoho Account fields.
Partner Contact Fields: partner contacts to Zoho Contact fields, being First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone Number and Position/Job Title.
Contact Fields and Account Fields: Journeybee lead details to the prospect's Zoho contact and account.
Deal Fields: deal name, deal value (Amount), commission value, expiration date (Closing Date) and deal custom fields.
Partner Stages: choose a Zoho Account field, then map each Journeybee partner stage to one of its values.
Deal Pipeline Stages: choose the Zoho pipeline and map each Journeybee deal stage to a stage in it.

Partner associations

These settings show the partner on the synced Zoho records. Each can be set to no association, a text field holding the partner's name, or an Account association that links the partner's Zoho account record:

Zoho Deal Partner Association: on the deal.
Zoho Account Partner Association: on the prospect's account.

What syncs and when

Journeybee to Zoho happens within seconds of a change. Rapid edits are batched into a single write.
Zoho to Journeybee arrives in real time. The workflow rules created at setup notify Journeybee when a contact or account is edited, and when a deal is created or edited.
Notes sync one way, from Journeybee to Zoho. A note is created as a Zoho Note on the linked contact or account, titled with the name of the person who wrote it.
Journeybee syncs to Zoho's Contacts, Accounts and Deals modules. It does not use Zoho's separate Leads module, so a Journeybee lead becomes a contact and an account.
Journeybee paces its calls to stay inside Zoho's API limits and retries automatically when Zoho asks it to slow down.

Importing existing Zoho data

In Partner Import Settings, pick the Zoho Account field and value that identifies your partners, then choose the Partner Type for this import. Only one partner type can be imported at a time.
Open the Import tab and load records. Journeybee lists the matching Zoho accounts, and you tick the ones you want to bring in.
Start the import. Journeybee works through your selection and reports progress as it goes.

Working with Zoho from Journeybee

Open in Zoho: leads, deals, partners and contacts show a Zoho link that takes you straight to the matching record.
Zoho owner: a lead or deal shows the owner of its Zoho record, and you can search your Zoho users and set the owner without leaving Journeybee.
Linked deals: a lead lists the Zoho deals on its linked contact or account and marks the ones already connected, so you can link an existing deal instead of creating a duplicate.

Troubleshooting

Nothing is syncing at all. Check the section you expect to sync actually has field mappings saved. A module with no mapped fields is never written to.
Connecting fails or returns no data. The most common cause is the wrong datacentre. Remove the integration, reconnect, and pick the region your Zoho account actually lives in.
A banner says Zoho needs reconnecting. The connection has expired or been revoked and sync is paused. Admins also get an email. Open the Zoho card under Settings, then Integrations, and connect again. Sync resumes straight away.
Zoho changes are not reaching Journeybee. Zoho notifies Journeybee through the workflow rules created at setup. If those rules have been edited, deactivated or deleted in Zoho, reconnect to recreate them. Check too that the record still has its Journeybee Id field populated, because clearing it unlinks the record.
Duplicate contacts or accounts are being created. Set the unique Contact, Account and Deal fields, and choose a linking option other than never linking to existing records.
Writes fail on a field. Zoho rejects the write if a field is read-only, mandatory and empty, or a layout rule blocks it. Map a different field, or adjust the layout in Zoho.

Good to know

Everything is opt-in. A setting you leave blank simply means that behaviour is off: no fields are written and no records are linked by default.
The Journeybee fields and workflow rules created at setup are how records stay matched and how Zoho updates reach Journeybee. Keep them in place.
Removing the integration stops all syncing but leaves your Journeybee records, and your Zoho records, exactly as they are.
For the other tools you can connect, see Integrations.