Set up Zoho Workplace for your organization

Zoho Workplace is a secure, integrated platform for business communication and collaboration. It offers a reliable email solution and a comprehensive office productivity suite that helps teams work and collaborate efficiently.

This guide walks you through everything you need to get started, from account creation to data migration. 

Pre-requisites

Make sure you have the following ready before you get started:

• Zoho Workplace plan: You can choose your desired plan from our pricing page.
• An active domain with DNS access: You can either use a domain you own or  purchase one here.
• A valid mobile number or email address: This helps us verify your identity. 

Zoho Workplace set up steps

Creating your Zoho Workplace account involves the following steps:

• Create Zoho Workplace account
• Add and verify domain
• Add users
• Create groups
• Add SPF, DKIM and MX records to DNS
• Migrate existing setup

Create your Zoho Workplace account

If you are new to Zoho, you should sign up with the service by creating an account. To sign up:

1. Navigate to the Zoho Workplace homepage and click Get Started.
2. Select a plan for your Zoho Workplace account and click Sign up.
3. Fill in the required details—name, email address and password.
4. Click Sign up to create your account.

Once you create your account, the next step is to add and verify the domain you will be using in Zoho Workplace.

Add and verify your domain in Zoho Workplace

Domain verification proves your ownership over the domain you've added to your Zoho Workplace account. This prevents your domain name from being used for malicious activities and is mandated in Zoho Workplace to verify your domain to use it.

There are two ways to add domains to your Zoho Workplace account:

• Using a domain you already own
• Buying a new domain from us

Follow the steps mentioned in either of the two ways to verify your domain before proceeding with the next step.

Add users in Zoho Workplace

Once you add the domain details, you can proceed to add users. A user is an individual with an account in Zoho Workplace, with access to the applications covered under the purchased license. You can create any number of users based on the licenses you've purchased.

You can add users using one of two methods:

• Create users manually.
• Import users from your existing setup:
  • Import using CSV file
  • Import from cloud services
  • Import from other Zoho services

Once you create users, you can create groups with them. 

Set up groups in Zoho Workplace

Groups are email addresses shared by a set of users for a common purpose. For example, the organization HR can create a common group for team leaders for internal announcements. When an email is sent to the group account, a copy of the email is delivered individually to each group member's inbox. 

To set up groups for your account, you can follow the setup groups guide.

If you are migrating from an existing setup, you can also migrate your data to Zoho Workplace:

• Import groups from Google Workspace.
• Import groups from Microsoft 365.
• Import using a CSV file

Configure MX, SPF and DKIM records

To ensure your domain can send and receive emails correctly, you need to add three DNS records: MX, SPF, and DKIM.

MX records: MX Records tell the internet which server should receive emails sent to your domain. Without these, your domain cannot receive email.

SPF and DKIM Records: SPF and DKIM are email authentication protocols that protect your domain from spoofing and ensure your emails aren't altered in transit.

Follow the steps below to configure each record:

• Steps to add a SPF record
• Steps to add a DKIM record
• Steps to add a MX record

Migrate your existing setup  to Zoho Workplace

If your team is moving from another platform, Zoho Workplace provides tools to import existing data—emails, contacts, calendars, conversations and files. You can refer to our migration guide to move your existing setup to Zoho Workplace.