FAQs: List Views in Zoho CRM

FAQs: List Views in Zoho CRM

1. What is a list view?

Your CRM system probably contains a huge number of records, and following up on all of them is a big challenge. That's why you need a way to sort these records according to your needs and priorities: a list view.

A list view organizes selected records from a module into a table based on a defined set of criteria. The list view helps user quickly find the records that they need to view, change to a different owner, make bulk updates to, run a macro on, or interact with in any other way.

For example, you may want to follow up on the leads created during the last week, check up on overdue tasks, or look at any big ongoing deals. The best solution in all these scenarios is to filter the records using list views. You can also use list views when performing actions like changing record owner, deleting records in bulk, and sending mass emails.



2. What is the difference between standard and custom list views?

Standard list views are pre-defined views that are automatically provided in your CRM account. They can be used by all the users in the organization. The standard list views include Recently Created Leads, All Leads, Converted Leads, Junk Leads, and My Leads, among others. You can modify the fields included and sort the order of the columns in the standard list views, but you cannot delete them.


Custom views are created by users who have the Manage Custom Views permission. These users can create, modify, and delete custom views and sort the order of the columns in each view. They can also share custom views with other users in their organization.  A user can find the list of views they created in the Created By Me section.

For example, a travel company wants to filter their records based on the package selected by the customer. They can create a custom view with criteria for the value selected in their custom "Tour Package" field and share the view with the users who will need to access that information. This custom view will allow those users to access the records easily, and save them time filtering thousands of records in the system to find the travelers for a specific tour package.


Read more about standard views and custom views here .

3. When should I create a custom list view?

Records in Zoho CRM are stored in modules, but each module may store a great number of records. In order to prioritize, sort, find, update, and delete records appropriately, you need to be able to filter or organize them in an orderly manner, which you can do with custom views. You can also select users in your organization to share your custom views with, streamlining record access.

You can define criteria to create your own list view, and the records will be filtered based on the criteria you set. You can modify, delete, and sort the order of the columns in custom list views. The list of views you have created can be found in the Created By Me section.

For example, an insurance company sells different types of insurance. For ease of access to records, they decide to create different list views for each type of insurance they sell. They start by creating a custom list view which includes all the records for life insurance.

They can create a custom view and add criteria for the "Insurance Type" field to contain the value "Life Insurance". Once they save the custom list view, it will show all the records which have life insurance as the insurance type.



4. How can I create a custom view? And how many criteria can be specified in a view?

Creating a custom view is easy, but you will need the Manage Custom Views permission.
Let's see how to create a custom view:  

  1. Select the module you want to create the custom view in. (E.g., Leads, Contacts, or Accounts.)

  2. Click the list view dropdown in the top-left corner.

  3. Click New Custom View. 

         

           

  1. On the New Custom View page:

    • Enter a name for the custom view.

    • Mark the view as a favorite, if required.
      The custom list views marked as favorites will be listed first in the List View dropdown.

    • Specify criteria to filter the records by. Tags can also be used in the record filtering criteria. 
      The above screenshot shows a custom view for a travel company which will show records for two tour packages: domestic and international.

    • Select the columns to be displayed in the module view.

    • Choose who can see this view in the Share this with section.  

  1. Click Save.

        

You can specify up to 25 criteria for your custom list view.

Read more about the criteria for custom list views here .

5. I have created a custom view, but other users are unable to view it. Why is this?

Other users will not be able to view your custom view if you have not shared it with them. Go to the custom view, click the edit icon next to the list view dropdown, and scroll down to the bottom of the custom view page. In the Share this with section, choose the users you want to share this custom view with.

Read more about permissions here.

6. What type of conditions can be set in custom views?

Custom views in Zoho CRM help you organize your data better by enabling you to filter data based on different conditions using the values in fields such as Country, Lead Source, Product Line, Deal Stage, and Activity Completion Status. Instead of seeing all your leads listed in the order they were created, or alphabetical order, you can sort them by lead source—cold call leads, Twitter leads, referral leads, etc—to make it easier to follow up with them. You could also create a custom views in the Deals module to organize deals by their stage (closed won, closed loss, in negotiation) so that you can zero in on the ones that need more of your attention. You can set conditions for custom views based on both standard and custom fields.

When you take a closer look at these conditions, you will find that you can filter records based on a range of criteria operators, like whether the value in a record is equal to a value, not equal to a value, contains (or does not contain) a specific character, whether a date field value is before or after a set date, and more. This range of parameters gives you great scope to drill down deeper and create very specific list views to meet all your business requirements.

Let's look at the example of a travel company. They arrange different types of trip packages, including both domestic and international trips, field trips, study tours, and adventure trips. Their standard list view contains records for all package types, but they want to make it easier to follow up on customers for domestic or international tours. They can narrow down their search results by creating a custom view which includes just these tour types.

You can also filter records by excluding what you do not want to see. For example, an insurance company which sells different types of insurance such as life insurance, health insurance, family insurance, and accident insurance want to create a view to show all records which do not have life insurance and accident insurance, so they can target these records for upselling. They can create a custom list view and select the Insurance Type field in the conditions and then set the condition to "isn't" to filter the records.

The conditions you can set depend on the fields in the module you've chosen to create the view for, including both standard system-defined fields such as date and time fields, numeric fields, string fields and custom user-created fields. You can set specific conditions (contains, is, isn't, in between, etc.) for the value of each field to filter the records which are shown in the custom view.

You can also combine multiple conditions for the same field and use both positive operators (is, contains, after) and negative operators (isn't, doesn't contain, isn't after) to filter the exact records you want to be shown in the custom view.


7. How can I select all the records in a view at once?

To select all records in a custom view :
  1. Go to the module the custom view is in. (E.g., Leads, Contacts, or Accounts.)

  2. Choose the required custom list view from the dropdown in the top-left corner.

  3. Click the Select All check box on the first page.

  4. Click Select All records in this view.

          
All the records in that list will be selected.

8. Why can't I see the Select All the records in this view option?

You will not see this option if the total number of records in your list is less than or equal to the number of records per page.

For example, if the total number of records in a list view is nine and the number of records per page is 10, you will not see the Select All the records in this view option. If all the records appear on the same page, you can use the Select all checkbox.

Let's look at an example:  




In these screenshots, the total number of records is three, which is less than the number of records per page. So, when you check the Select all box, you won't see the option to select all the records in the view, because all the records in the view appear on the same page, so you don't need a separate option.

9. What is the criteria pattern and how can I modify it?

The criteria pattern is a set of logical operators such as and/or which will determine which records appear in the custom view.

For example, a travel company, Go India Travels, plans various types of tour packages for their clients. Their standard list view displays all the tour types. They now want to drill down into their records so users can focus on the records they need to work with. One of their reps wants a view so they can see the records they have created for both international or domestic trips requested by customers based in the USA.

So they create a list view named "International/domestic for US customers with the following conditions:
  • Package type is Domestic OR International
  • Created by the logged in user
  • Country is USA
  The criteria pattern logic will be:
  • Tour package contains Domestic tour package OR International tour package
  • AND Created by is logged in user
  • AND Country is USA
We have two AND operators and one OR operator.

In most cases, you will only need to specify the criteria and the criteria pattern will be set automatically. However, if you create list views with more complex criteria patterns, you may need to edit the automatic pattern.
 
To edit or modify the criteria pattern:
  1. Select the module the list view is in. (E.g., Leads, Contacts, or Accounts).
  2. Select a list view from the dropdown in the top-left corner.
  3. Click Edit.
  4. Click Change Pattern on the Edit View page.
  5. Modify the operators in the Pattern Editor box and click Save.
  6. Save the modified custom view.
In our example above, the automatic criteria pattern would have been:



For the criteria pattern to meet the specified requirement, criteria rows number 3 and 4 would need to be in same bracket:


The following characters are used in the Criteria Pattern Editor:

  • Round brackets: ( )

  • and/or operators

  • Criteria row numbers

 

Read more about criteria patterns here .

10. Can I create a new custom view based on an existing view with just a few modifications?

Yes, you can do this by cloning an existing view and making the required modifications.
To clone custom list views
  1. Select the module that the list view you want to clone belongs to. (E.g., Leads, Contacts, or Accounts.)
  2. Select the list view that you want to clone from the dropdown in the top-left corner.
  3. Click Edit .
  4. Click Clone.

  5. In the Clone View page:

    • Enter the View Name.

    • Select the columns to be displayed in View Mode.

    • Choose who can see the new view.

    • Select the Specify Criteria checkbox and modify the criteria.

  1. Click Save.

11. How can I add, remove, or merge columns in a custom list view?

 You can modify columns either from the module home page or on the Edit View page.

 From the module home page:

  1. Select the module the list view belongs to. (E.g., Leads, Contacts, or Accounts).

  1. Select a list view from the dropdown in the top-left corner. 

  1. Click the Setup icon on the right-hand side of the view.

  1. Click Manage Columns. 

  2. Check or uncheck the fields you want to add or remove as columns on the Manage Columns screen. You can also change the order the columns appear in by selecting a field and moving it up or down in the list.

You can also modify columns from the Edit View page of the custom view. Select a field from the Available menu to move it to the Selected menu and then save your changes.

 














You can edit and change the order or size of columns, but you can not merge them.

If you need to merge the data from two fields into a single field, you can use formula fields. E.g.: You want to merge the Day and Date fields into one When Purchased column:.

 Day: Friday 

Date: 3 December, 2021

The output will be: Friday, 3 December 2021


12. How do I delete a custom view I don't need anymore?

To delete a custom view:

  1. Select the module the view you want to delete belongs to. (E.g., Leads, Contacts, or Accounts.)

  1. Select a list view from the dropdown in the top-left corner.

  1. Click Edit.

  1. Click Delete on the left-hand side of the Edit View page. You will be prompted to confirm that you want to delete the view. 

  1. Click Yes, delete. Your custom view will be deleted.

 

13. How do I mark a custom view as a Favorite?

  To mark a custom view as a Favorite:

  1. Select the module the custom view belongs to. (E.g., Leads, Contacts, or Accounts).

  1. Select a list view from the dropdown list in the top-left corner.

  1. Check the star mark next to the list view and it will be marked as a favorite.


You can also mark new custom view as a favorite from the Edit View page while you are creating it.

 

14. How can I prioritize records using column sorting in list views?

  1. Select your list view. The option to filter the records using System-Defined Filters, Filter by Fields, or filter based on Website Activity. 
The Website Activity section allows you to filter records by factors like the browser or search engine they use to find you, or whether or not they were engaged in a live chat. Note that this section will only be displayed if SalesIQ is enabled.

  1. Choose the filter you want to use in order to prioritize records. 

For example, you want to prioritize the records which have not been touched by a user or the system in the last few days. Go to the relevant module and select a list view from the dropdown menu. Apply the Untouched Records filter from the System-Defined Filters . Select the configuration options you want to use. For this example, you want to prioritize records from the last 4 weeks. Select 4 weeks and apply the filter. The records will be prioritized accordingly.

 

15. How can I change the Records Per Page option in a list view?

To change the number of Records Per Page:

  1. Select the module the view belongs to.  (E.g., Leads, Contacts, or Accounts.)
  2. Select a list view from the dropdown in the top-left corner.
  3. Select the number of records you want to see on a page from the n Records Per Page dropdown on the right-hand side.
  4. The page will auto refresh to show the new number of records on each page.  

           

 

16. How can I sort records in a list view in alphabetical order?

 To sort your records in ascending or descending alphabetical order in a list view

  1. Select the module the list view belongs to.

  2. Select the list view from the dropdown.

  3. Click the column heading you want to sort by and then select either Ascending or Descending to sort the records.



17. What does the Zoho Sheet View option do?

The Zoho Sheet View option lists records of a module in Zoho Sheet. Using this sheet view, you can view all the records and update them. You can make necessary changes to the records and save the sheet. On saving, the records are updated in your CRM account. You can even add new records in the sheet and these records will be updated in CRM.

Notes:
  1. The record ID column is very important, so you should not change or remove it for data consistency.
  2. Ensure that all the mandatory columns have values.
  3. Records will be updated/added only after you save the sheet.
  4. Value in a cell will get saved only when you move the focus out of that cell.
  5. You can have a maximum of only 999 rows.
  6. You cannot delete records using Zoho Sheet.
  7. Zoho Sheet view is not supported for Activities, Forecasts and other inventory modules.
  8. New Columns added will not be reflected in Zoho CRM. Since column headers are fields' names in the module, they will have to be added to the module layout.

18. Can I select a group of records from the List View and follow them?

You cannot follow records from the List View.

To follow a group of records, you can create an auto-follow rule. Or you can have your administrator assign you a group of records to follow by using the Auto-follow rule.

In the Auto-follow Rules section, click Create and specify criteria to filter records.



You are now an auto-follower of these records.

Related Lists are the records associated to the parent record. For example, an Account has Contacts, Potentials, Notes, Open Activities and more associated to it. Customizing the related list view allows you to re-order or modify the columns in the list view.

To customize Related Lists, follow these steps:
  1. Log into Zoho CRM with Administrator privileges.
  2. Select the desired module.
  3. Select a record from the list view.
  4. In the Record Details page, click the More icon and then click Organize [Module] Details.
  5. In the Organize [Module] Details page, choose the option from the Unselected List.
  6. Move the selected options to the Selected List.
  7. Change the order of the Related List as per your requirement.
  8. Click Save.

20. How to change the default custom view in a module's home page?

The modules in Zoho CRM have a default custom view. For example, when you click on the Leads tab, you may see the records listed under My Leads list view. You can change this view and set the default view as All Open Leads.

To change the list view, follow these steps:
  1. Click the [Module] Tab that you want, like Leads, Accounts or Contacts.
  2. In the [Module] home page, move your mouse pointer to the list view's drop down.
  3. Click the Create View link.
  4. In the Custom View Settings page, choose the list view from the New View drop-down list.
  5. Enter the custom View Name.
  6. Mark as Favorite, if required. The custom list views marked as favorite will be listed first in the list view drop-down.
  7. Click Save.

We hope that this list of frequently asked questions about list views is informative. If you still have questions that haven't been addressed, please let us know here. We will be happy to discuss them with our subject matter experts and add them in the future. And please don't forget to share your rating below!




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