Zoho CRM: Control Client Data Access with Criteria-Based Portal Settings

Zoho CRM: Control Client Data Access with Criteria-Based Portal Settings

Dear Customers,

Greetings!
Zoho share some enhancements in Zoho CRM's Portals – a self-service feature that lets your clients access and manage their records and related information independently. This improves transparency and empowers them to manage their data directly, giving them control over their interactions with your business.

Currently, the portal setup grants clients access to only their primary and related records through a lookup field.

While this offers control over personal data, it also brings some challenges.

Key Challenges  

Challenge #1: Limited Control Over Information  

Customer-facing processes—like quote approvals and deal progression—are distinct from internal processes, which include discussions, approvals, and other behind-the-scenes actions. In the current portal, clients can see every stage, exposing details that are meant to be internal. This lack of separation could lead to misunderstandings and even concerns about data privacy.

 

Imagine this scenario: Patricia, a customer, has access to her account details, quotes, and deal records. While managing her own data builds confidence, seeing every internal status update—like a discount rejection that hasn’t been finalized—could create unnecessary worry.


Challenge #2: Limited Flexibility  

Currently, clients can only view their specific records. But what if they need to see records related to a broader category, like items available in their region? For instance, if your business operates across Canada, customers may want to view products specific to their location. The existing setup doesn't support such flexibility, making it hard to provide a tailored experience. 

To address these challenges, Zoho introduced criteria-based data sharing to give admins more control over data visibility, while enabling users to view contextually relevant information.

Introducing Criteria-Based Data Exposure  

With criteria-based data exposure, admins can set specific rules to determine what data is visible to users. You can now configure two criteria to extend control:

  1. Match with Values: This method lets admins define conditions by specifying a field, operator, and value.

    • Example: Deals marked as “New Business” will be shown to the portal user.

  1. Match with Fields: This approach connects primary and related modules through fields with matching values.

    • Example: The implementation agent’s service area matches the customer’s billing city.

Solutions to the Challenges 

 

Solution to Challenge #1 (Enhanced Control)  

Using the Match with Value criteria, you can ensure Patricia sees her quotes only after they reach the approved stage. This maintains privacy for internal actions and provides her with clear information about her transactions.

      Setup Example:
      Suppose Patricia needs access to her quotes:

      1. Create a mutual lookup field, such as "Contact Name," between Contacts and Quotes.

      2. Set the following conditions:

        • Quote Stage is "Approved"

        • Quote Stage is not "Negotiating"

      With these conditions, Patricia will only see her quote once it’s in the approved stage, preserving your internal correspondence.

Solution to Challenge #2 (Enhanced Flexibility)  

Using the Match with Field option, you can customize views based on specific criteria. For example, if you have products available only in Canada, users from that location can see only relevant items.

Setup Example:

  1. Configure the Products module as public so all portal users can access it.

  2. Add a condition:

Admins can also use combinations of criteria and lookup fields for additional customization.

  • Available area is mailing country

Additional Scenarios  

Let’s look at more examples to better understand how to use these criteria.


Example 1: Match with Value
If you sell electronics to large enterprises, you might set up portals like this:

  • Primary Module: Contacts

  • Related Modules: Products, Invoices, Cases, Appointments

  • Public Module: Channel Partners

By setting the criteria to “Enterprise” for certain products, your clients will be able to view only items that apply to enterprise customers.


Example 2: Match with Field

​
At Saint Laurent Hospital in Iowa, patients can access profiles, prescriptions, lab results, and doctor appointments through a dedicated portal.

The setup is as follows:

  • Primary Module: Patient’s Profile

  • Related Modules: Prescriptions, Lab Results, Appointments, Doctors

  • Public Modules: Medicines

The Complaint field links the patient’s profile to doctors with relevant specializations, allowing patients to see specialists matched to their conditions.
This way, both the agents directly hired by the contact and those agents that are from a desired location are displayed for portal users' reference.

Interface Updates  


With these enhancements, the configuration page now has an updated UI. The “Filter by column” option has been renamed to Linked as and includes more options to add conditions for better control over data sharing.

Final Thoughts  

This new criteria-based data exposure empowers you to offer a seamless, secure, and customized experience to your portal users.For more details visit pfc-group.com.




    • Related Articles

    • Zoho CRM: The Canvas Record Form for Enhanced Customization

      Zoho announced Zoho Crm innovation with Canvas functionality now extends to record forms, enabling you to personalize record entries with the power of Canvas! Enhancing CRM Interactions with CanvasIn the heart of any CRM lies the ability to manage ...

    • Zoho CRM: Introducing Rollup summary

      Hello All, We hope you're well! We're here with an exciting update that goes right into CRM's core capabilities. It's called the Rollup summary. Let's go! Your CRM is a vast database with well-connected data sources, where you can access both the ...

    • Zoho CRM: New Assignment Rules

      Zoho CRM is introducing a new feature to make assignment rules even more flexible and powerful. Administrators can now automate the assignment of records based on specific criteria. These criteria can be related to the fields in the record or the ...

    • Rebrand your CRM with the all-new custom domain mapping setup

      This is a game changer as this potentially allows every organization to rebrand their CRM system and align it with the domain name of their business. Note: This feature is currently in the Early Access mode. To request access to this feature please ...

    • Zoho Analytics 6.0 Beta: A New Era in Data Analytics

      Zoho has introduced Zoho Analytics 6.0 Beta, a significant upgrade tailored to the diverse needs of business users, data analysts, data engineers, and data scientists. This version incorporates extensive user and market feedback, offering innovative ...