FAQs: Account Management

FAQs: Account Management

What is an Account?

Accounts are companies or departments within a company with which you have business dealings. In Zoho CRM, single or multiple contacts can be associated to an account. In a typical B2B scenario (one business selling products/services to another business) accounts play a major role in keeping track of the important company information.

How to associate a group of accounts under a single parent account?

In Zoho CRM's Accounts module, you can create Child Accounts under a Parent Account using the Member Accounts option. Member Accounts are secondary accounts added to an existing parent account. This allows having separate accounts with different divisions within a parent company, thus providing the scope to view individual accounts as well as the consolidated accounts within the parent account.

To email all contacts related to an account, follow these steps:
  1. Create a List View based on a criteria that filters out the records that need to be mailed. You need to create this view for the Contacts.
  2. Use the Mass Email feature to send bulk emails to all contacts in that List View. Please note that you cannot send emails from the Accounts tab

Can I convert an Account to a Lead?

No, you cannot convert an account to a lead. In Zoho CRM, only leads can be converted to accounts, contacts, and potentials. Once a lead is converted, you cannot change it back to a lead.

How to provide users access to view only the accounts and contact data?

You can restrict or provide access to the various features and data in CRM, through Profiles. When creating the profile, you can specify the access that can be given to the users: View, Create, Edit or Delete. For more details on how to create profiles with restricted access, see Managing Profiles and Managing Users.

Can I convert a lead to a deal without creating an account?

No. Converting a Lead to a Deal by default always creates an Account and a Contact (as in a typical B2B scenario).

How do I import accounts with new data without creating duplicate records?

In Zoho CRM, users of the Enterprise Edition and above can use the Overwrite option while importing records. This option helps you overwrite records in CRM with similar records that you might import. You can also use the  'Duplicate Records' option, to avoid creating duplicate records and your existing records can be updated if necessary. See Also Import Records.

How can I add existing accounts to a campaign?

You can add existing accounts to a campaign through these steps:  
  1. Creating a Lookup field for Accounts. A Related List will also be created for Campaigns.
    For example:
          Label: Campaign Source  (This field will be available for Accounts)
          Lookup Type: Campaigns (You will be able to select campaign records from the lookup field)
          Related List Label: Accounts (A Related List will be created for Campaigns)
    For more information, see Creating Lookup Fields 
  2. In the Accounts tab, select the record that you want to add to the campaign.
  3. Edit the record and choose the Campaign Source from the lookup. Click Save.
    The account will be added to the campaign.
  4. In the Campaigns tab, select the campaign for which the account is added.
    The account details will be listed under the Accounts Related List.    

Can I duplicate the Accounts module and save it as a Vendor?

No. You can duplicate (Clone) the record inside the selected module but you cannot duplicate the records from one module to another (Accounts to Vendors).

Is it possible to associate a contact with multiple Accounts?

It is not possible to associate a single contact with multiple Accounts. You can only associate an Account with multiple contacts.

What is B2B?

Business-to-business (B2B) is a business transaction between two or more com

How do I set up a parent-child relationship between accounts?

In Zoho CRM, you can set up a parent-child relationship between various accounts, through these steps:

Associate existing accounts to the Parent Account:
  1. In the Account Details page, select the required account from the Parent Account look-up field.
  2. Click Save.
    The Parent Account will have the child accounts listed under the 
    Member Accounts Related List.
Associate new accounts to the Parent Account:
  1. In the Account Details page, the existing member account details, if any, are displayed.
    • Click the Account NamePhone, Website, Account Type, Industry, or Annual Revenue links to sort the display order of the records.
    • Click the relevant Edit or Delete link to modify or delete the member account respectively.
  2. Click New for Member Accounts.
  3. Enter the member account details.
  4. Click Save.


What is a Member Account?

Member Account refers to a Child Account or any of the secondary accounts that are associated with a Parent Account. So you can have separate accounts with different divisions within a parent company, and view individual accounts and the consolidated accounts within the parent account.

When you're under the Member Accounts Related List, you can only add new accounts or associate already existing accounts as member accounts, by specifying a value in the Parent Account lookup field.

How can we associate one contact to many accounts without duplication?

If you have many accounts associated with a common contact, for example one business owner may be part of three or four accounts. You will have to enter the owner's name four times to associate all the activities to the respective accounts. In such case to avoid duplication, you can create a custom lookup field in the Accounts module. 


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