Collections Management: #4 Before, During & After Payment Processing

"Mark, I think the payment link isn't working. Can you send it again?" Staring at a message, Mark got on his phone. This was the third time the same customer had asked him that week.

A few minutes later, another message came, "Hey, the invoice total seems different this month. Can you check?" Before he could respond, a new email appeared: "Our payment failed. Should we try again or wait?"

Mark leaned back in his chair and laughed, certainly not from humour but with exhaustion. Payments were supposed to be simple. Why so many questions, interruptions, and follow-ups? "Isn't payment just, send invoice ---> customer pays ---> done?" he murmured.

But as his business grew, he realised something important. Getting paid is not a simple action; it's a journey that starts even before the customer begins paying for the service. Yes, it starts long before the customer clicks "Pay Now" and it continues long after the money arrives.

It is crucial to analyse where your business needs control and where it needs to be automated. Having a system with that kind of flexibility will definitely help as you scale.

Zoho Billing brings that kind of comfort to business. It doesn't just help in collecting payments; it also allows companies to manage everything before, during, and after the transaction is created.

Before Payment Process 

Preparing Customers for a Smooth Onboarding 

The payment experience begins with the invoice itself. Zoho Billing generates invoices that promptly reflect usage charges, proration, add-ons, discounts, taxes, and more. The accuracy and clarity eliminate billing disputes and prevent the confusion that delays payments, such as "why is this amount different?"

Predictable Billing 

Whether the business uses milestone billing, recurring cycles, a prepaid model or usage-based pricing, Zoho Billing aligns every billing event seamlessly. Even mid-cycle plan changes are recalculated automatically, keeping charges consistent and predictable. 

No/Less Extra Effort for Collection 

Invoices come with embedded payment options, hosted payment pages, and a customer portal, providing customers with immediate access to make payments. They don't need to search for payment instructions.

Proactive Communication 

Zoho Billing handles all reminders leading up to the due date. From invoice notifications to upcoming due alerts and expiring card notices, customers stay informed and prepared, significantly reducing the risk of overdue payments. You can even configure reminders on trial subscription where it will prompt the customer before trial is about to expire.

Reports based on upcoming payments  (Top 3) 

1. AR Ageing Summary: Displays outstanding receivables categorised by the number of days. This helps identify which customers or invoices are approaching overdue status, allowing payment follow-up to begin even before the due date.
   
   
2. Upcoming Renewals: Helps businesses forecast upcoming subscription renewals, ensuring they know who will be charged soon. This works perfectly for pre-payment communication and customer readiness.
   
   
3. Card Expiry: Payment failures mostly happen due to issues with the card or an expired card. This report helps you with the list of customer cards with expiring payment methods. This is crucial in preventing future failed transactions and ensuring smoother upcoming payments.

During Payment Process 

Multiple Payment Methods 

Zoho Billing integrates with multiple payment methods/gateways, including Stripe, Razorpay, PayPal, PayTabs, and GoCardless. This gives customers the freedom to pay using cards, UPI, ACH, direct debit or whichever works best for them. The best part is that businesses can now configure a backup payment method in addition to the primary payment method in use. This helps increase the likelihood of receiving payment successfully and without requiring manual or retry attempts.

Effortless Auto-pay 

Once a customer approves a payment mandate, Zoho Billing automatically handles renewals. Payments are charged on schedule without customer intervention, ensuring predictable cash flow.

Intelligent Failure Handling 

If a payment fails, Zoho Billing instantly captures the failure reason, notifies the customer, and triggers the configured dunning process. Customer can update their payment method directly from the notification. Retries occur automatically based on predefined rules, converting failures into recoveries.

Instant Updates 

Successful payments update invoices, issue receipts, trigger provisioning workflows in real time, making everything in sync without any manual effort or follow-up needed.

Reports based on Processing Payment  (Top 3)

1. Payment Received: Displays all recent payments collected, facilitating monitoring of the inflow as payments are processed.
   
   
2. Payment Failures: Essential during the payment phase to identify failed attempts in real-time, enabling quicker resolution or automated dunning actions.
   
   
3. Under Risk:  Displays invoices currently in dunning and at risk of churn. This acts as a key report for understanding which customers are in the middle of the recovery process.

After Payment Process 

Consistent Post Payment Communication 

Zoho Billing automates thank-you messages, renewal confirmations, usage summaries, and future billing reminders. These touchpoints maintain transparency and build customer trust.

Handling Adjustments 

Whether a customer needs a partial refund, a correction or a credit note, Zoho Billing applies all changes while maintaining accurate records across billing and accounting modules.

Visibility on Unpaid Invoices 

Zoho Billing highlights accounts that need attention, allowing businesses to intervene before revenue loss occurs. Invoices that remain unpaid enter an automated dunning flow and appear as overdue, clearly indicating the outstanding receivables.

Reposts based on processed payment  (Top 3)

1. Recognised Revenue: Shows the actual revenue recognised from payments over time. This is a crucial report that provides financial accuracy after payments are complete.
   
   
2. Refund History: Tracks refunds issued to customers. Essential for understanding post-payment adjustments and their impact on customer satisfaction.
   
   
3. Renewal Summary: Shows which subscriptions have been successfully renewed after payment. Critical for recurring revenue tracking and retention analysis.

Zoho Billing Ensuring Seamless Payment Journey 

Zoho Billing brings structure to the entire payment workflow by guiding customers even before a payment attempt is made. It delivers clear invoices, predictable billing cycles and timely reminders that reduce confusion and delays. During the payment process, Zoho Billing eliminates friction with various payment options and provides intelligent handling of failed payment attempts, ensuring the process remains smooth and dependable.

After payment, it maintains accuracy through automated receipts and proper insights on the payments collected. With Zoho billin,g payment collection becomes predictable, automated and friendly with all possibilities to scale in the future.

Up Next: Self-checkout: Next level convenience

 

 

 

• Topic Participants

• Hari Hara Sudhan. S

  

• Sticky Posts

• Zoho Billing will discontinue support for older browser versions soon

  Hello users, Starting from May 15, 2024, Zoho Billing will no longer support the following browser versions: Browsers Version Restrictions Firefox Browser Versions older than 100 Google Chrome Versions older than 100 Microsoft Edge Versions older than

• Introducing Developer Space in Zoho Subscriptions

  Hello devs! At Zoho Subscriptions, we're constantly looking for ways to empower the developer community. Our goal is to provide you with the tools you need to integrate Zoho Subscriptions with your other platforms, and we also want to make it easy to

• Recent Topics

• Stock Count

  The stock count is a nice new feature, but we cannot figure out how to: 1. Use it without assigning to a person, we have a team or one of multiple do stock counts as do most any company. 2. Add any extra fields to what the "counter" sees. The most important

• Can you import projects into Zoho Projects yet?

  I see some very old posts asking about importing project records into Zoho Projects. But I can't find anything up to date about the topic. Has this functionality been added? Importing tasks is helpful. But we do have a project where importing projects

• Send Whatsapp message from Whatsapp template with custom variables

  Hi, I'm trying to do some basic integration for sending WhatsApp messages from Zoho CRM using Zoho Desk whatsapp templates. When creating new whatsapp template in Zoho Desk we can choose ticket related fields as variables but it's not clear how to use

• How to remove some users in zoho accounts

  How to remove some users in Zoho accounts.

• Outgoing blocked: Unusual activity detected.

  I just made payment for my Zohomail Today and have been debited so i will like to be Unblocked because this is what it says (Outgoing blocked: Unusual activity detected) Thank you i await your swift responses

• Integrating with My Own Application and ZOHO CRM Simultaneously

  I have my own WhatsApp bot that uses my WhatsApp business account. I want to use the same phone number to integrate with ZOHO as well. What is the recommended way to do that? Should I integrate my application with ZOHO, forwarding messages whenever the

• How do i move multiple tickets to a different department?

  Hello, i have several tickets that have been assigned to the wrong department.  I am talking about hundreds of automatically generated ones that come from a separate system. How can i select them all at once to move them to another department in one go? I can select them in "unsassigned open tickets view" but i can't find a "move to another department" option. I also can't seem to assign multiple tickets to the same agent in that same view. Could somebody advice?

• Transferring CRM Attachments to Workdrive

  relatedrecords = zoho.crm.getRelatedRecords("Attachments","Conditions",conId); attachid = List(); for each ele in relatedrecords { attachementId = ele.get("id"); attachid.add(attachementId); } for each ele in attachid { counter = 1; downloadFile = invokeurl [ url: "https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v2/Conditions/" + conId + "/Attachments/" + ele type: GET connection : "work_drive" ]; resp2 = zoho.crm.attachFile("Deals",dealId,downloadFile); resp3 = zoho.workdrive.uploadFile(downloadFile, dealWD, "PlaceHolder"+counter+"",

• New Customization options in the module builder: Quick Create and Detail view

  Hello everyone, We have introduced two new components to the module builder: Quick create and Detail view. The Quick Create Component It is a mini form used to create a record and associate it to the parent record from a lookup field. For example, if you have a Deals lookup in the Contacts module, then you can associate existing deals or create a deal and associate it with the contact. You can customize this Quick Create form by adding standard as well as custom fields. There is no limit to the number

• unblock my zoho mail account. outlines@zoho.com

  please unblock my zoho mail account, outlines@zoho.com

• SMTP email sending problem

  Hello, I've sent emails before, but you haven't responded. Please respond. My work is being disrupted. I can't send emails via SMTP. Initially, there were no problems, but now I'm constantly receiving 550 bounce errors. I can't use the service I paid

• Mailk got blocked / Inquiry About Email Sending Limits and Upgrade Options

  Dear Zoho Support Team, My name is Kamr Elsayed I created this account to use for applying for vocational training in Germany. As part of this process, I send multiple emails to different companies. However, after sending only 8 emails today, I received

• Forwarder

  Hi, I tried to add a forwarder from which emails are sent to my main zoho account email . However, it asks me for a code that should be received at the forwarder email, which is still not activated to send to my zoho emial account. So how can I get the

• No chat option

  Chat option is not supported.

• Direct “Add to Google Calendar” Option in Zoho Meeting

  Hello Zoho Meeting Team, Hope you are doing well. We would like to request an enhancement related to the “Add to Calendar” functionality in Zoho Meeting. Currently, when we open Zoho Meeting and view our meetings under My Calendar, there is an Add to

• Default Tagging on API-generated Transactions

  If one assigns tags to an Item or Customer, those tags get auto-populated in each line item of an Invoice or Sales Order when one creates those documents. However, if one creates the Sales Order or Invoice via the API (either directly coding or using

• DKIM cannot be enabled for the domain as no verified default selector present

  Hi Support Team, For Domain DKIM record trying to enable status. but showing error "DKIM cannot be enabled for the domain as no verified default selector present" So, please resolve the issue. Thank you.

• unable to send message reason 554 5.1.8 Email outgoing blocked

  unable to send message reason 554 5.1.8 Email outgoing blocked

• I can't log in to my account on Thunderbird

  I've just had to rebuild my PC (calamitous mess from Microsoft with Win10/Win 11 'upgrade' - they confirmed I had to start with a new build). I have used Zoho mail for years via Mozilla Thunderbird, but now I've had to download the latest version of TBird,

• Should I Use DMARC?

  When I configure Zoho Mail's DMARC settings, it's mandatory to fill in the RUA and RUF (Aggregate notification email address*, Forensic notification email address*) addresses. When we enter an email address in these fields, we receive reports from the

• Introducing Profile Summary: Faster Candidate Insights with Zia

  We’re excited to launch Profile Summary, a powerful new feature in Zoho Recruit that transforms how you review candidate profiles. What used to take minutes of resume scanning can now be assessed in seconds—thanks to Zia. A Quick Example Say you’re hiring

• Books API Receiving an Error that Doesn't Make Sense when Creating Credit Note - trying to use 'ignore_auto_number_generation' argument

  Hello, I'm working on a newly created routine and I'm getting an error that doesn't make sense when trying to create a new Credit Note. Here is my POST request. Endpoint: https://www.zohoapis.com/books/v3/creditnotes?organization_id=########## Body:     {

• How to move emails to Shared Mailbox?

  Hello, I created a Shred Mailbox instead of using a distribution group. But I cannot move previous emails to certain shared mailbox. Is it possible move some emails from inbox to shared mailbox?

• Collaboration with free plan user.

  Hello. Do both users need to be on Pro plan to collaborate? Or can a Pro user share a note with a free plan user with the ability to edit?

• Zoho Inventory Now Supports VeriFactu for Businesses in Spain

  Starting from January 1, 2026, Spain requires real-time invoice reporting for all B2B transactions. From July 2026, this requirement will extend to B2C transactions as well. All reporting must be carried out through the VeriFactu to AEAT (Agencia Estatal

• Connection to other user

  Zoho Cliq handles sharing of Custom OAuth Connections that require individual user logins.

• Missing information data Zoho inventory

  there some missing data in Zoho inventory connection. pick list stock counts bin location we have requested it via mail and the support team doesn’t gove feedback. has anyone achieve to get these info or to ask other ya les

• In arattai received message can't be deleted

  The issue has been noticed in following: arattai app (Android) arattai app (Window) arattai web While the message posted by me may be deleted, the ones received from others can't be. The item <Delete> change to <Report> when the message is a received

• Analytics Portal

  I have the "standard plan" and want to explore the portal option; I activated the 15-day trial but do not see the pricing for the add-on. How can I get the price under "Upgrade add-ons." Thanks Rudy

• Can I filter a Lookup field to only show related records from another Lookup in Zoho CRM?

  In our Leads module, we have two Lookup fields: Recruitment Agency – the agency that the lead came from Recruiter – the individual contact from that agency who sent us the lead Both fields link correctly to their respective records in CRM. However, our

• Zoho Books API invoice email bouncing with 'relaying-issues' error

  I have waited over 30 days for zoho books uk to assist with the following and i have had no replies or tickets erronously closed. The service has been terrible - very unlike zoho! So i am raising this here hoping that a community member can assist: Hello,

• How do I filter contacts by account parameters?

  Need to filter a contact view according to account parameter, eg account type. Without this filter users are overwhelmed with irrelevant contacts. Workaround is to create a custom 'Contact Type' field but this unbearable duplicity as the information already

• Zoho Writer to Zoho Sign Template Misalignment – Request for Community

  We are currently facing a critical issue impacting our live business operations due to a misalignment problem between Zoho Writer templates and Zoho Sign output. Issue Summary: We have an automated workflow in Zoho CRM using Deluge scripts that generates

• Account blocked

  Yesterday I got my Zeptomail account blocked due to too many hard bounces. My account is used exclusively for sending transactional emails (eg. your order has been shipped, a form has been filled, etc) and the sudden blocking impacted hundreds of websites

• IF Formula

  Hi, I'm having trouble setting up a custom formula in a field. Can you help me with it? The formula should do the following: If the created date is less or equal to 30 days the field should display a string New in pieline or Exisitng pipeline if above

• View comprehensive logs of all actions in Custom Module History

  Hello everyone, We are happy to announce our new feature, Detail View in Custom Module History, which enhances visibility, control and accountability over your records. Users can now access a detailed timeline of every action that has been performed on

• Track ZohoForm Conversion using Postmessage event

  Hi, I’ve been using a third-party lead tracking tool to capture leads from my website along with their source. Earlier, with the HubSpot form, the third-party script was able to detect the postMessage event that iframe forms typically send back to the

• Email task creator when task is updated/marked complete

  I am looking for a way to notify the creator of a task in zoho todo when - Task is updated Task is closed Comments entered 1 and 2 are critical, and I cannot find a zoho flow to do this. There is no way that as a manager I will know when someone has completed

• Email Recall Feature In Zoho Mail Which Should Also Work For Outside Organisation Members

  Add a feature to recall or undo sending an email within a configurable short time window (e.g., 30 seconds to 2 minutes) after hitting send, similar to Gmail’s undo send. Currently the sent email can not be recall If the recipient is not from within your

• How to implement calculating average value of averaged values?

  Hi, I'm trying to implement a formula in my layout for a module that calculates the average of 2 averaged values, but I can't do so using the formula custom field. To calculate the 2 averaged values, I could use the formula custom field, but in the custom

• Next Page