Zoho Desk lets agents review account information through a combination of built-in list views and manual data-sync options that surface the most current details from connected systems like Zoho CRM.
Why this matters
When your support team needs a quick snapshot of an account's key details — industry, revenue, contact ownership, or linked tickets — knowing where to look and how to refresh that data saves time and prevents agents from working with stale records. This is especially relevant when Zoho Desk is integrated with Zoho CRM, where account data may be updated frequently by your sales team. Getting this right ensures your agents always have accurate context before engaging with a customer.
Step-by-step
Step 1. Navigate to the Customer tab in Zoho Desk and select Accounts from the sub-menu. This brings up the account list, where you can choose from several display formats depending on how you prefer to review the data. [5]
Step 2. Select a view type that suits your workflow. The List View shows each account as a compact row with basic information visible at a glance. The Grid View presents accounts as individual cards, each showing key fields like account name, phone, owner, and industry. The Table View arranges accounts in a spreadsheet-style layout, with each row representing one account and each column showing a specific property such as account name, industry, phone number, owner, and account type. [5]
Step 3. To customise which columns appear in the Table View, click the Select Columns icon next to the column header (beside *Account Name*). In the window that opens, check the fields you want to display, uncheck those you don't need, and drag and drop columns to reorder them. Click Save to apply. Note that the Account Name column is mandatory and cannot be removed, and multi-line or text area fields cannot be added to this view. [5]
Step 4. To control how many account records appear per page, click the More Actions icon to adjust the display count. By default, Zoho Desk shows 10 records per page. [5]
Step 5. If your portal is integrated with Zoho CRM and you need the most up-to-date account statistics — such as Annual Revenue, Industry, Phone, Email, Fax, Website, or address fields — open the specific account record you want to refresh. [2]
Step 6. Inside the account record, click the More Actions icon ( … ) and select Update from Zoho CRM, then click Continue. This triggers an immediate pull of the latest data from Zoho CRM without affecting your existing scheduled sync settings. [2]
Step 7. To identify which accounts are already linked to Zoho CRM, return to Customers > Accounts and look in the left panel under *All Views*. Select the Contacts Mapped with CRM predefined view (or its account equivalent) to filter records by their CRM sync status. [2]
Step 8. If your organisation uses the Zoho FSM integration, you can also view field service activity associated with an account. Open an account record, click the Zoho FSM tab, and review linked Requests, Estimates, Work Orders, Service Appointments, and Assets that have been created or associated from FSM. [1]
Common pitfalls
- Unlinking contacts before accounts: If you attempt to unlink an account from Zoho FSM while it still has associated contacts, you will encounter an error. You must first navigate to the Contacts tab within that account and unlink each contact individually before the account can be unlinked. [1]
- Pushing contacts without a linked account: When pushing a Zoho Desk Contact to Zoho FSM, if the parent Zoho Desk Account has not yet been pushed or linked to a Zoho FSM Company, the operation will fail. Resolve this by first linking or pushing the account to FSM before attempting the contact. [6]
- Table View column limitations: Multi-line text fields and text area fields cannot be added as columns in the Table View, so certain descriptive account fields will not be visible in that layout. [5]
- Manual CRM sync is not a replacement: Using Update from Zoho CRM fetches data immediately but does not change your configured sync schedule. Both processes run independently. [2]
What to check
- Confirm that the account fields you need (e.g., Annual Revenue, Industry, Phone) are mapped between Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk and are appearing correctly after a manual sync. [2]
- Verify that your Table View column selections have been saved and are visible to all agents who share access to that view, since customisations apply organisation-wide. [5]
- If FSM-related statistics are missing from an account record, check that the account has been successfully linked or pushed to Zoho FSM and that the associated FSM records appear under the Zoho FSM tab. [1]
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*Beam Help is an independent expert support resource for Zoho products and is not official Zoho support. For platform-level issues, always verify with Zoho's own support channels.*