Zoho’s new “CRM for Everyone” represents a shift towards a more powerful, interconnected interface for all of their CRM users. This update completely rethinks how teams collaborate inside Zoho CRM. Nimbis has been using CRM for Everyone for almost a year now. We’ve shared our takeaways, including major features and why you should switch, on our blog here.
If you’re ready to get started, Zoho has a detailed transition guide to walk you through setup. We’ve put together this guide to provide a holistic overview of the steps needed to effectively transition from your current CRM setup, to CRM for Everyone.
Step 1: Make a Plan with Your Partner
Reach out to your partner if you need help understanding the new UI and what its implications may be for your team. We can help guide you in your transition, showing you how existing features can be reconfigured, or how new features can improve your existing workflows.
Step 2: Enable CRM for Everyone
Ask your Zoho admin to opt into the new experience. Any user with the Administrator profile in your organization can enable CRM for Everyone—this is not limited to super admins.
When an Admin logs into Zoho CRM, they’ll see a banner at the top prompting them to try the new experience.
Source: Zoho Corp. – Transition Guide: Moving to Zoho CRM For Everyone (next-gen UI)
Navigate to Setup > CRM for Everyone to get started.
Important: Enabling CRM for Everyone does not automatically apply the new UI to all users in the organization. Each user continues to see the classic interface unless they manually switch over.
However, once an Admin enables the new UI and leaves it enabled for 30 consecutive days, Zoho will automatically roll out the new interface to the entire organization. There’s no reverting after that window, so plan your rollout intentionally.
Step 3: Communicate the UI Changes
Once CRM for Everyone is enabled, your team will notice Zoho’s most visible change right away: the vertical navigation bar on the left side of the screen. This UI overhaul is designed for faster access to modules and a cleaner workspace, but it can be jarring at first—especially for longtime users.
To help ease the transition:
- Consider recording a short screenshare video (using a program such as Loom) or hosting an internal walkthrough explaining the new layout.
- Highlight the key benefit: the vertical navigation gives every Teamspace a more intuitive, app-like feel, reducing clicks and improving module discoverability.
But that’s just the start. Inside each module, Zoho has introduced several powerful new list views to help teams visualize data in the way that works best for them:
- Timeline View – Perfect for tracking activity history in chronological order
- Split View – Allows users to browse records in a list while viewing full record details side-by-side
- Chart View – Dynamic visual representations of your data directly visible in your lists
- Grid View – A spreadsheet-like interface, allowing you to manage multiple records without switching screens
Encourage each department to explore these views—each one can dramatically improve how teams interact with customer data.
Step 4: Create Teamspaces
Once CRM for Everyone is enabled, head to the Teamspaces section to begin organizing your departments. Think of each Teamspace as a dedicated workspace for a team—complete with its own modules, dashboards, permissions, and branding.
- Start by creating a Teamspace for each key function: Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, Legal, etc.
- Assign users to the appropriate Teamspace(s), ensuring their view is relevant and streamlined.
Already using Tab Groups in the old UI?
Good news—any existing Tab Groups will automatically be converted into Teamspaces during the transition. This preserves your structure and saves setup time, though you’ll still want to review and refine each Teamspace’s configuration to take advantage of the new capabilities.
Step 5: Customize Team Modules
Once your Teamspaces are set up, you can then let each team shape their workspace to match how they operate. This is where Team Modules come in—a major evolution in Zoho CRM’s flexibility.
With Team Modules, individual departments can:
- Create and customize their own modules (e.g., “Contracts,” “Campaign Requests,” “Bug Reports”) without affecting global settings.
- Add custom fields, layouts, and filters tailored to their processes.
- Set up automation rules specific to their needs—like task assignments, alerts, or field updates—without needing org-wide admin approval.
- Design personalized dashboards to track what matters most to them.
This empowers teams to move faster and maintain control, while keeping everything centralized inside CRM.
Permissions still apply. While teams have autonomy, Admins can define guardrails—like who can edit what—ensuring data quality and governance stay intact.
Pro tip: Encourage teams to use module templates or clone existing modules as a starting point. It reduces setup time and ensures consistency.