Zoho Projects shipped a mix of new features and improvements between July and September. The headline items are a Finance Suite integration, a grid view for time logs, tighter controls over who can log time and when, skill sets for resource planning, and more scripting and layout control over your portal. This article walks through each change in the order Zoho grouped them, and links to our own full guide for each one.

Project financials

Finance Suite integration

You can now connect a project to Zoho Books, Zoho Invoice, and Zoho Billing together, as one bundle, through the Zoho Finance Suite integration. Project and user data syncs automatically between the apps. Every transaction tied to the project, including invoices, expenses, bills, purchase orders, and sales orders, can be tracked without leaving Zoho Projects. Read our Finance Suite integration guide.

Time tracking

Time log grid view

The new grid shows hours by task, issue, and person in a single view, so there is no need to switch between views to see who logged what. Users can also add time entries straight from the grid. Read our time log grid view guide.

Weekly time logs suggested by Zia

Zia looks at your tasks and working hours and proposes time log entries for the week. Users can review and adjust the suggestions before they save them. See Zoho's documentation.

Time log restrictions

Administrators can now control when and where people are allowed to log time. Restrictions can be based on:

• Task progress
• Project status
• IP address
• User profile

Read our time log restrictions guide.

Resource planning

Skill sets

Define skills, assign them to users, and record each user's level as Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced. That gives you something concrete to plan resources against. Read our skill sets guide.

Custom workload reports

You can now build a workload report to your own specification, choosing the criteria, the time period, and how the results are grouped. Read our workload report guide.

More control over your portal

CodeX Scripts

CodeX Scripts let you write your own validation rules. They now extend to two more areas:

• Time logs. Decide when a log can be added, edited, blocked, or moved to the next stage. Read our guide.
• Custom modules. Decide when a record can be added, edited, or deleted. Read our guide.

Layout rules for Phases and custom modules

Fields can be shown or hidden depending on what the user selects, so a form only asks for what is relevant. Read our guides to phase layout rules and layout rules for custom modules.

Auto Number field

Add this field to a custom module and every new record receives a unique ID in the format you define, with no manual numbering. See Zoho's documentation.

Smaller enhancements for everyday use

• Revamped Chrome extension. Create tasks, raise issues, log time, and check updates from the browser, and switch between portals. See Zoho's announcement.
• Feeds inside each project. Open a project and see only its own updates, instead of scrolling through the whole portal's activity. Read our guide.
• Meetings from custom modules. Start or schedule a Zoho Meeting directly from a custom module record. Read our guide.
• New accessibility options. Turn on cell borders, set text editor preferences, show a marker on required fields, and control pop-up messages. Error messages can also be customised. Read our guide.