Creating Custom Reports: ACT! vs. Zoho CRM

Reporting is where a CRM either earns its keep or exposes its age. On paper, both ACT! and Zoho CRM offer “custom reporting,” but the experience of creating those reports—and the value you get from them—could not be more different. If you’ve ever tried to build a custom ACT! report and then built one in Zoho CRM, you already know: one feels like archaeology, the other feels like modern analytics.

When Act! moved from Act 6.0 to the SQL-based Act 2005 they brought along all of the Act reports that were literally created in 1995. For the next 5 years Act users suffered through the “out of the box” reports that added countless spacing and page breaks randomly through each report. Luckily, “The Act Report Guru,” Roy Laudenslager, was alive and well and working for Tech Benders. He was literally the only person around who had the knowledge of both VBS Scripting and the Act Report Writer to fix the broken Act reports. Sage Software hired Tech Benders to fix their broken reports in 2010 and Act Users could once again rely on the basic Act Reports.

By 2012 Sage had added a brand new Opportunities module, but no corresponding reports to go with it. Once again, Tech Benders came to the rescue. Karen designed a dozen new reports and Roy created the necessary code. And, because the existing Reports item was broken Act’s menus, Karen designed the Reports feature that is still in existence today. As hard to believe as it is, those were the last reports that have been added to Act.

The ACT! Custom Report Experience – A Lesson in Patience

Creating a custom report in ACT! is possible—but certainly not easy.

The Act Report Writer Process:

You typically start with a predefined report layout.
Customization often requires digging through legacy code and knowledge of VBS.
The biggest caveat of all: the Act Report Writer limits you to 2 modules so if you want a report that includes your Companies with their associated Contacts and Notes you are out of luck.
More meaningful changes require the purchase of Crystal Reports or other tools that most users were never trained on.
Fields must be carefully mapped, and relationships between tables are anything but intuitive.

Common Frustrations

Steep learning curve: Crystal Reports is powerful but notoriously unforgiving.
Limited flexibility: Reporting across multiple custom tables is cumbersome at best.
Static output: Reports are snapshots in time, not interactive or dynamic. In other words, you can’t “drill down” in an Act report.
Performance issues: Larger databases often mean long wait times—or failed report runs.
Desktop dependency: Reports live on a local machine or server, making sharing and collaboration awkward. They can’t be created on the web version of Act.

In short, ACT! reporting was designed for a time when printed reports were king and real-time dashboards weren’t even a concept.

The Zoho CRM Custom Report Experience – Welcome to this Century!

Zoho CRM takes a completely different approach—one that assumes reporting is not a “special skill,” but a daily business activity.

The Process

Start with a report type (Tabular, Summary, or Matrix).
Select modules visually (Contacts, Deals, Activities, custom modules, etc.).
Add fields using drag-and-drop.
Apply filters, groupings, and calculations in real time.
Preview results instantly as you build.

No third-party tools. No arcane syntax. No praying that the report runs successfully after you click “Finish.”

Key Advantages

True cross-module reporting: Easily report across standard and custom modules.
Real-time data: Reports update instantly as data changes.
Calculated fields: Add formulas without leaving the interface.
Interactive dashboards: Turn reports into charts, KPIs, and live dashboards.
Scheduled delivery: Automatically email reports to users or teams.
Role-based visibility: Ensure people only see what they’re supposed to see.

Zoho reporting feels like it was built for business users first—and power users second.

And yes, you can “drill-down” to access the underlying data.

The Real Difference: Mindset

The biggest difference isn’t technical—it’s philosophical.

ACT! treats reporting as an advanced task reserved for administrators or consultants.
Zoho treats reporting as a daily business tool that sales managers, owners, and operations teams can use without fear.

With ACT!, users often avoid reporting because it’s too hard.
With Zoho, users build reports because it’s easy—and that changes how the business uses data.

Final Thoughts

If your business relies on custom reports to make decisions (and it should), the gap between ACT! and Zoho CRM is impossible to ignore.

ACT! reporting can still get the job done—eventually, and usually with help.
Zoho reporting helps you ask better questions, faster, and actually understand the answers.

And in a world where real-time insight matters, that difference is everything.

Interested in moving from Act to Zoho? We can help!