What Is a Review Process?
A review process in Zoho CRM is a workflow that requires specific fields in a record to be reviewed and either approved or rejected when a new record is created.
Key points to remember:
Review processes only trigger when a record is created, not when it is later updated.
You can set criteria to decide which records should go into review.
Reviewers can approve, reject, and comment on flagged records.
Rejected records can be resubmitted after corrections.
Use Case Example: Catching Fake Phone Numbers
Let’s say your sales team often enters phone numbers as 000000 when they don’t have the real details. This causes issues for reporting, calling campaigns, and overall data accuracy.
By setting up a review process, you can ensure that any new Account record with a suspicious phone number is flagged for review before it’s accepted into your CRM.
Step 1: Access Review Processes
In the new CRM for Everyone UI, click the Setup gear in the bottom-left corner.
Under Process Management, select Review Processes.
Click + New Review Process to start.
Step 2: Define the Process
Process Name: Accounts Review
Module: Accounts
Layout: Choose the layout (or create multiple review processes if you have several layouts).
Step 3: Set Criteria
If you want all new records to go into review, leave the criteria blank.
If you only want to catch specific cases (e.g., phone number = 000000), add the condition here.
Step 4: Choose Fields to Review
Select up to 10 fields that should be reviewed.
In our case: Phone Number
Step 5: Assign Reviewers
Decide who should review flagged records.
Example: Assign all account reviews to John (Manager).
You can create sub-criteria (e.g., competitors reviewed by Jim, customers reviewed by Sally).
Step 6: Configure Notifications & Actions
Zoho allows you to set alerts at different stages of the review:
Email reviewer when a record is submitted for review.
Email when a record is approved or rejected.
SLA escalations if records stay in review too long.
For our use case, we’ll just notify John when a new record requires review.
Step 7: Define Rejection Reasons
Add clear reasons to help guide your team. Examples:
Invalid entry
Insufficient data
Data doesn’t match
Stop using placeholder phone numbers (000000)
Step 8: Test the Process
Now, let’s test it:
A sales rep creates a new Account with phone = 000000.
The record enters Review.
John, the reviewer, sees the flagged record, rejects it, and comments: “Stop using placeholder phone numbers—please enter a real one.”
The sales rep corrects the phone number and resubmits.
John reviews again and approves the record.
The account is now valid and available for deals.
Benefits of Review Processes
Ensures clean, accurate CRM data.
Prevents placeholder or junk values from entering your database.
Helps managers enforce data quality standards.
Keeps sales moving while maintaining accountability.
Conclusion
Zoho CRM’s Review Process is a simple but effective safeguard for maintaining data integrity. While it only applies at the record creation stage, it’s a great way to prevent bad data from ever entering your system.
If your sales team tends to rush through data entry, setting up a review process can save countless hours of cleanup later—and ensure your CRM remains a reliable source of truth.
