Civic IQ — Zoho Integration Guide

Connect Civic IQ to Zoho CRM to sync government signals, agency intelligence, and contacts directly into your CRM. Configuration is a one-time setup — once done, any user can push data without repeating it.

1. Connect Zoho

Link your organization's Zoho CRM account to Civic IQ. You'll need super admin access to civiciq.com to complete it.

1. In Civic IQ, click Settings in the bottom-left corner of the sidebar.
2. In the left sidebar under Integrations, click CRM.
3. Locate Zoho in the CRM Integrations list and click Connect.
4. A Zoho OAuth window will open in your browser. Log in with your Zoho credentials and click Accept to grant access.
5. Zoho will now show as Connected — the Connect button changes to Disconnect and the row highlights in the CRM Integrations list.

Tip: After connecting, the CRM Email Configuration section in Settings will activate for Zoho. This controls BCC email logging to Zoho activity records and is separate from the export mapping configured in the next steps.

2. Open CRM Export Settings

Once Zoho is connected, open the CRM Export Manager to configure how Civic IQ data maps to Zoho objects and fields.

1. In Settings → Integrations → CRM, locate the Zoho row.
2. Click Settings (next to Disconnect) on the Zoho row.
3. The CRM Export Manager will open — a three-step wizard covering Agency Mapping, Signal Mapping, and Contact Mapping.

Tip: The mapping configuration is saved after the first run. Future exports use it automatically — you won't need to go through the wizard again unless you want to change the field mapping.

3. Configure Agency & Signal Mapping

Map Civic IQ agency data to Zoho Accounts and signal intelligence to Zoho Notes. Zoho also supports Campaign and List exports for email marketing workflows.

Agency Mapping — Set Destination Object to Account. Check External ID on the Website field so Zoho can deduplicate account records on future syncs. A Tag default field (value: Civic IQ) can be added to filter all Civic IQ-sourced accounts in Zoho.

Signal Mapping — Set Destination Object to Note. All signal fields map to Note Content by default, consolidating signal context into a single note on the matching Account record.

Tip: Zoho also supports Campaign as a destination object for email marketing workflows. When mapping to Campaigns, set a static Campaign Name as a default field so all exported contacts land in the correct campaign. Note: the campaign must exist in Zoho before the export runs.

Warning: If you see "There was an error fetching your lists from Zoho", go to Settings → Integrations → CRM and disconnect and reconnect Zoho, then retry.

4. Configure Contact Mapping

Map Civic IQ contact fields to Zoho Contacts. By default, contact job title does not sync — add it manually here. A Tag field can be added to both Account and Contact records to make Civic IQ-sourced data easily filterable.

Set Destination Object to Contact. Use Email as the External ID to prevent duplicate Contact records on future syncs. Zoho automatically links a Contact to an Account when the email domain matches.

To add Contact Title manually (not included by default)

1. Click + Add New Civic IQ Field.
2. In the Civic IQ dropdown, search for and select Contact Title.
3. Map it to Title on the Zoho side.
4. Click Review, select your contacts, and click Export. Saved for all future syncs.

To add a Civic IQ Tag to Contact records (recommended for filtering)

1. Click + New Default Field.
2. In the Destination dropdown, search for and select Tag.
3. In the value field, type Civic IQ as the static tag value.
4. This tag will be applied to every contact exported from Civic IQ, making them filterable and assignable to Zoho Campaigns in bulk.

Tip: Once contacts are tagged Civic IQ, you can filter on that tag in Zoho Contacts and bulk-add them to any campaign — without needing a static campaign name at export time.

5. Sync a Signal to Zoho

Once Zoho is connected, any user can push a signal directly into Zoho as a Note on the matching Account record.

1. Go to the Signals page and identify a relevant signal.
2. On the signal card, click the Zoho icon in the bottom-right corner, then select Sync to Zoho.
3. You'll be prompted to create a new Zoho list or select an existing one. For first-time setup, create a new list named Civic IQ Accounts.
4. Civic IQ will surface all contacts associated with the agency. Select the contacts you want to include.
5. Click Export. The signal will appear as a Note in Zoho on the matching Account record.

Success: After export, go to Zoho and search for the agency name you synced — the Account record will appear with the signal attached under Notes. Any tagged contacts can be bulk-added to a Zoho Campaign from the Contacts view.

6. Push an Individual Contact

To push a single contact to Zoho without syncing an entire signal, use the per-contact icon inside any signal card.

1. Click into any signal card and go to the Contacts tab at the top of the panel.
2. Scroll right on any contact row to find the small Zoho icon in the Action column.
3. Click it — a tooltip reading "Sync contact to Zoho" will confirm the action.
4. The contact is pushed to Zoho as a Contact record and linked to the matching Account.

Tip: Use this to push a specific stakeholder — Department Director, City Manager, Procurement Officer — to Zoho before a call, without syncing the full signal.

7. CSV Export as Fallback

If direct CRM export is unavailable for a specific object or list, use Civic IQ's CSV export to import contacts and agency data into Zoho manually.

1. In Civic IQ, open any List or Signal and click Export CSV.
2. Select the columns you want to export (contacts, agency data, signal context). Civic IQ will generate a zip file with two CSVs: one for contacts, one for agency/signal data.
3. In Zoho, go to Contacts → Import and upload the contacts CSV. Remove any columns Zoho doesn't recognise before import.
4. Once imported, filter contacts by Created Time (today) to identify the new batch and bulk-add them to the relevant Zoho Campaign or List.

Tip: The CSV fallback is especially useful for Zoho Campaigns workflows where you want to push contacts into a specific campaign list without configuring a static campaign name in the export manager.

8. Export History

Every export is logged under Settings → CRM → Export History, showing the export name, CRM, status, and timestamp.

All Available Source Fields

Complete reference for every field available in the Civic IQ source dropdown across all three mapping steps.

Civic IQ — Zoho Integration Guide — Questions? [email protected]