Introducing the locking option for CRM records

We are thrilled to introduce our latest enhancement to CRM—record locking. 

Certain business scenarios demand that records in your organization's modules be safe from editing or deletion once they reach a certain stage in your sales process or satisfy specific conditions.

For example, if a deal has reached the final stage—"closed won" or "closed lost"—then perhaps it shouldn't be further edited or deleted.

Alternatively, let's say a record is in its proposal or review stage. During such a stage, the details of the record need to be verified, and even though a sales rep may be the record's owner, you can't allow them to update the record while the review is ongoing.

There might also be situations where the record doesn't match certain criteria, but the user dealing with the record might want to lock the record to avoid changes. For example, when a sales rep is in touch with a prospect, they may wish to temporarily lock the record while prospecting is in progress to prevent other reps from adding incorrect information to the record.

Zoho CRM's record-locking feature enables you to lock records manually or automatically when certain conditions are met.

NOTE (added on 02/03/23): The locking configuration must be set up separately for each module. You can navigate to the module in Modules and Fields under Customization on your setup page and find the Record Locking Configuration tab.

Record locking configurations

Now that we've established why locking records can be useful or necessary let's take a quick look at the different configuration options available:

• Users can lock records manually from the record details page if they have lock permissions.

• You can set up automatic locking by setting some default criteria. Create conditions, name them, and decide whether to apply the conditions and lock existing records or to restrict the conditions only to newly created records.

• There might be scenarios where, say, you want accounts team members to be able to edit quotes but not other profiles. You can simply lock the records for all profiles except those belonging to accounts team members or any other set of exceptions using the multi-select menu. Additionally, you can also choose to lock records for all profiles.

• Even when a record is locked, you can configure certain fields that don't affect your business process to remain editable. For example, you might want the Description or comment fields to remain editable. You can leave a maximum of 15 fields unlocked. 

What happens when a record is locked?

Once a record is locked, you will see the lock icon on the record image and in the UI of the record detail page itself. Only fields you've enabled will be available to edit.

The locking details, such as the reason (i.e., the locking condition), locking date, and the fields available for editing, will be shown on the details button on the record detail page.

In the record's timeline, you can also see timestamped details like when the record was locked and the following conditions.

A lock icon indicates locked records on the record list view.

Additionally, you can filter records in the list view based on the pre-defined filter option as well as the system-defined custom view.

Who can unlock records, and how is it done?

If a user locks a record manually, they can unlock it themselves. Admins can unlock records, too. On the other hand, automatically locked records will be unlocked only when they're no longer subject to the lock conditions or criteria.

However, deleting a rule or locking configuration will automatically unlock all records the rule or condition had previously locked.

Additional notes

• Set up to five rules per module. Each rule will display a name on the record detail page when a record is locked.

• System actions like automation and integration syncs will still be performed on locked records, even when a user who is excluded from locking triggers those processes.

• Locked records are still displayed in list views. However, bulk actions from list views are not allowed if the respective action is restricted under the record-locking configuration.

• Record locking configuration is available for enterprise and ultimate editions of Zoho CRM. If a user downgrades from the enterprise edition, locking configurations will be ineffective, and all records will be unlocked.

Locked status can not be regained upon upgrading back.

That's all for this exciting new enhancement.