# Set up Contact Synchronization from Zoho CRM

Once your Zoho CRM (Customer Relationship Management) connection is in place, Cloud Voice can pull contacts from Zoho into a phonebook of your choosing. The sync runs in one direction only, so Zoho CRM remains the source of truth and the resulting phonebook mirrors it.

## Before you begin

Finish connecting Cloud Voice to Zoho CRM first. This procedure assumes the integration is already active.

## Turn on contact sync

1. Sign in to the Cloud Voice management portal and open **Integrations > CRM**.
2. On the CRM integration page, switch on **Synchronize Contacts Automatically**.
3. Open the **Synchronize Contacts From** drop-down and choose which contact types you want brought over from Zoho CRM.

   ![Automatic contact synchronization toggle with a menu for selecting Zoho CRM contact types](/images/pbx/synchronize-contact-automatically.png)

4. Open the **Synchronize to Phonebook** drop-down and pick an existing empty phonebook, or create a new one to hold the imported Zoho CRM contacts.

   :::note
   Contacts can only be synced into an empty phonebook.
   :::

   ![Drop-down for choosing or creating the phonebook that will receive synced contacts](/images/pbx/synchronize-to-phonebook.png)

5. Use the **Always Query CRM** option to decide whether Cloud Voice looks up contacts in Zoho CRM in real time.

   
   ![Cloud Voice, the Always Query CRM setting on the integration page](/images/pbx/always-query-crm.png)

   - **Enabled**: Cloud Voice queries Zoho CRM live for contact details, and the associated extension users can search CRM contacts as they dial from the Cloud Voice App.
   - **Disabled**: Cloud Voice only reaches out to Zoho CRM when no match is found in your company contacts.

   :::caution
   Live querying adds to your Zoho CRM API (Application Programming Interface) usage, so keep an eye on your quota to avoid hitting Zoho's limits. Real-time search is also unavailable while the masked number feature is turned on.
   :::

6. Click **Save**.

## What happens next

Go to **Contacts > Phonebooks** and you will see the linked phonebook marked with a CRM label:

![The CRM tag shown next to a synced phonebook](/images/pbx/crm-tag.png)

![Phonebook list showing the Zoho CRM-linked phonebook and its contacts](/images/pbx/crm-phonebook.png)

From then on, whenever an extension user takes an inbound call from one of the selected Zoho CRM contact types, or dials out to such a contact, Cloud Voice looks the contact up and copies the matched record into the linked phonebook automatically.

:::note
- Because this is a one-way sync into Cloud Voice, the linked phonebook and every contact in it are read-only.
- When a synced contact is edited in Zoho CRM, the update reaches Cloud Voice within 30 minutes.
:::

The phonebook does not bulk-import your entire Zoho CRM address book in one pass. A record only lands in the phonebook after Cloud Voice sees a matching call, so the list fills in gradually as calls come and go.

:::tip
If existing Zoho CRM contacts are not showing up as expected, confirm that a call to or from that contact has actually taken place and that the Zoho CRM integration is still connected. Failure to synchronize existing Zoho CRM contacts is a known troubleshooting topic, so reach out to support if the records still do not appear.
:::