CRM

A Zoho CRM Change That Could Break Your Integrations

By Automate Accounts and Consulting

Zoho Premium Partner

Updated October 27, 2026 3 min read

The short answer

Zoho CRM is changing how its APIs handle the Last Name field in Leads and Contacts, with the update expected by the end of October 2026. Last Name will no longer be system-mandatory, so admins can make First Name the required field instead. Worth checking every integration and extension that creates or reads Leads and Contacts.

Zoho CRM is changing how its APIs treat the Last Name field. In Leads and Contacts, Last Name will no longer be system-mandatory, with the change expected to roll out by the end of October 2026.

It applies across API versions V2 to V8, and Zoho has flagged parts of it as breaking changes, including how the APIs report which fields are required.

What changed

Today, the system requires Last Name on every Lead and Contact. After the update, Last Name stays mandatory by default, but at the layout level. Admins can make it optional and make First Name mandatory instead. One of the two must always be mandatory, so every record still has a Full Name.

For integrations, three things shift:

The metadata APIs will report Last Name as no longer system-mandatory, so the "required" setting in each layout becomes the one to check.
Records created with a specific layout must include every mandatory field in that layout, unless the request is set to skip that check (skip_mandatory).
When Last Name is left blank, the Get Records API returns an empty value in V2 to V8, and will return null from a future version (V9, or V10 if V9 ships first).

Why it matters

Zoho's own advice is direct: if an integration assumes Last Name always contains a value, review and update its logic to handle empty values.

Worth checking now: list every integration and extension that creates or reads Leads or Contacts, and make sure each one still works when Last Name is empty.

Frequently asked questions

Will anything change in my CRM on day one?

Not by default. Zoho says Last Name becomes layout-mandatory by default, so it stays required until an admin changes it. Once the update is live, admins can make First Name mandatory and Last Name optional, and integrations that expect a Last Name then need to handle empty values.

What should my developer or integration provider check?

Zoho lists three things: integrations that specify a layout when creating records, handling empty Last Name values in Get Records responses, and any logic that relies on the system-mandatory setting or the Fields and Layouts Metadata APIs.

I use a Zoho CRM extension. Am I affected?

Possibly. Zoho says extensions that use these APIs may be affected once the change rolls out, and recommends checking with your extension provider.

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