Building extensions #1: Creating and testing extensions for Zoho Finance Suite applications

Building extensions #1: Creating and testing extensions for Zoho Finance Suite applications

Hello developers!

We're excited to announce a new series called "Building extensions" to assist developers in creating efficient extensions for Zoho Finance Suite products. We'll support and guide you through the process of creating an extension and using the features offered in the developer portal.

What are extensions?

Extensions are installable plugins or add-ons that help enhance the existing functionality of your Zoho product or seamlessly integrate and interact with third-party applications for data transmission.

How can you build extensions?

Zoho offers a developer platform called Zoho Developer that allows you to build different types of applications. Sigma is a platform offered within Zoho Developer that is specifically designed for creating extensions for various Zoho products. Throughout this series, we'll look at how to create and develop extensions for the Zoho Finance Suite applications using Sigma.

Get to know all about extensions and building them further in detail.

Sigma extension support

The Zoho Finance Suite consists of seven applications: Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory, Zoho Expense, Zoho Invoice, Zoho Billing, Zoho Checkout, and Zoho Payroll. Currently, the Sigma platform supports creating and building extensions for these five Zoho Finance applications:
  • Zoho Books
  • Zoho Inventory
  • Zoho Expense
  • Zoho Invoice
  • Zoho Billing
Creating an extension
  • Log in or sign up at developer.zoho.com.
  • Go to Sigma and access your workspace.
  • Once you enter your workspace, you'll be taken to the Extensions section in Sigma.
  • Click the New Extension button to start building an extension.                                                                                     
  • Enter a name and description for the extension and choose the service you want to build the extension for. As mentioned earlier, Sigma offers support for Zoho Books, Zoho Invoice, Zoho Inventory, Zoho Billing, and Zoho Expense.                                                                                          
  • For our demo, let's choose the service as Zoho Books. Accept the terms and conditions, and then click Create.                                                                                          
  • The extension is successfully created. You can click the Extension Details icon to see an overview of the extension.                                                                                          
The extension details page shows the general details of the extension, such as creation date, creation time, and version, and allows you to associate developers with the extension.
  • Click the Edit Extension icon to start developing the extension.                                                                                  
  • The Zoho Books Developer Portal opens with the options and native features available to customize, curate, and develop your extension.                                                                
Zoho Books Developer Portal sections

The developer portal has four different sections to help customize and build your extension.

Learn: This section lists the native Zoho Books capabilities that can be used to create and develop extensions. Clicking the Set up Now button next to each feature will take you to the feature's development setup page.
                                                                                           

Build: This is the development setup section, which includes customization, automation, and components like connections, widgets, schedules, webhooks, and signals. You can customize your extension preferences, establish connections to integrate with other applications, and design custom interfaces to enhance user experience.
                                                                                          

Configure: This section assists with handling your extension's required configurations, whether they are generic settings or customizations required from the user. You can add global fields, which can be incorporated as either variables that store static data or through custom widgets that retrieve user inputs. You can also define functionalities that happen during installation and uninstallation.
                                                                                          

Publish: Once the extension has been built and configured, you can use this section to publish it for either private or public use. In both cases, the Zoho Books team will review the extension; for public extensions listed on Zoho Marketplace, the Zoho Marketplace approval team will also review them. You can share your privately published extension with other users using the Shared List option.
                                                                                          

We will explore more about each of these sections and their features in upcoming posts.

Testing an extension

The Zoho Books Developer Portal offers a dedicated testing environment for each extension, allowing you to test and validate it before publishing.

As a developer, you can use the Test Your Extension option in the top right corner of the portal to access your extension's sandbox environment.
                                                                  

This will redirect you to the sandbox testing environment for the extension you're developing, which is similar to Zoho Books and contains relevant modules to test with.
                                                                  

You can populate necessary data and test your extension functionality. Once everything is validated, you can go ahead and publish your extension for private or public use.

For support or questions related to Zoho Finance Suite extension development, you can email developer@zohofinance.com.

We hope you found this guide useful. Keep following this space for more information!

Next>>

    • Recent Topics

    • Tip of the Week - Spot Risky Sales with Conditional Formatting

      In Zoho Analytics, small tweaks can lead to big insights. One such feature is Conditional formatting based on other columns, your key to instantly spotting where sales success is overshadowed by product returns. Our tip this week shows you how to apply

    • How do I duplicate / copy a campaign

      I am evaluation Zoho Campaigns and sent an email to one of my personal email accounts from Zoho Campaigns.  It went into my junk file in Hotmail. I want to duplicate that same (1-page) campaign and send it to another of my personal accounts to try to

    • For a Bill, can "Pay via Check" - Can we also "Pay via Check" when documenting refund for payment?

      We really like when we have a Bill in Zoho Books that we can record payment by selecting "Pay via Check" and that will cut the check for us from Zoho Books. However, when we have to write checks as a result of invoice overpayment, we can not select "Pay

    • Creator Change History: Ways to improve

      Hi Everyone, Recently been working in developing this change history(an idea from Zoho Forms) - unlike forms that you can this with a click but using Creator, we can use "old" keyword. The concept I come up with is to put the result in a table however,

    • Currency selector (based on variable) usage in comparsion

      Hi, I've developed a currency selector based on the following topic, and it's working well in pivot tables and charts: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/how-can-i-allow-my-users-to-choose-a-currency-for-the-dashboard I also have a comparison

    • Suitability of Zoho One (Single User License) for Multi-State GST Compliance & Cost Analysis

      Hello Zoho Team, I am an e-commerce business owner selling on platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, and Meesho, and I'm currently using their fulfillment warehouses. I have two GSTIN registrations and am planning to register for an additional 2-3 to expand

    • add employees and customiz

      I want a Zoho software to track employees record. I logged in a demo so now I tried adding employee, first thing when I click on add employee it takes me to a page where it says add user maximum 10 users, my first doubt why users I don't want employees

    • Inactive User Auto Response

      We use Zoho One, and we have a couple employees that are no longer with us, but people are still attempting to email them. I'd like an autoresponder to let them no the person is no longer here, and how they can reach us going forward. I saw a similar

    • Zoho People Attendance Module - Split Shifts

      Hello, Our business employs a number of college students who often split their workdays between work hours and class schedules, resulting in split shifts. For example: Employee 1 works 9am to 11:30am and then leaves for class, returning to work at 3pm

    • Zoho One subscription

      we have got Zoho CRM for 3 users and we paid for the app , and we have still 9 months to go , but if we join Zoho one , does it mean the payment for that subscription would be a waste? Please help. Thanks.

    • How Zoho CRM Can Enhance Your Faucets Accessories Business Operations?

      In today's competitive market, having a reliable CRM system is crucial for managing customer relationships and streamlining business operations. For businesses in the faucets accessories niche, Zoho CRM offers powerful tools to help manage everything

    • Dashboard

      I’m currently working on a project using the Zoho IoT Cloud with an ESP32 and MQTT. I’ve successfully connected the ESP32 to Wi-Fi and MQTT, and the data from the ESP32 is displayed in the telemetry section of the cloud. However, when I try to create

    • Can i connect 2 instagram accounts to 1 brand?

      Can i connect 2 instagram accounts to 1 brand? Or Do i need to create 2 brands for that? also under what subscription package will this apply?

    • Zoho Forms - Improved Sub-Forms

      Hi Forms team, I'm helping a client move from JotForms to Zoho Forms and I've found another opportunity for improvement. In the below screenshot, JotForm left and Zoho Forms right. The Zoho Forms Sub-Form is quite a poor visually. There is no way to make

    • What's New in Zoho Billing | Q3 2025

      Hello everyone, We are excited to share the latest set of updates and enhancements made to Zoho Billing in Q3 2025. From the latest GST updates to multi-level discounting, Zia-powered report summaries, and customizable web forms, these updates are designed

    • How to Delete Personal Account Linked with My Mobile Number in past or by someone else

      How to Delete Account Created with My Mobile Number in past or by someone else This is creating issues in making or sync with my credentials mobile and email address..

    • WhatsApp Business Calling API

      Dear Zoho SalesIQ Team, I would like to request a feature that allows users to call WhatsApp numbers directly via Zoho SalesIQ. This integration would enable sending and receiving calls to and from WhatsApp numbers over the internet, without the need

    • Does Zoho Learn integrate with Zoho Connect,People,Workdrive,Project,Desk?

      Can we propose Zoho LEarn as a centralised Knowledge Portal tool that can get synched with the other Zoho products and serve as a central Knowledge repository?

    • Marketer's Space - Going beyond basics: Smarter ecommerce marketing with Zoho Campaigns

      Hello Marketers, Welcome back to this week's Marketer's Space. In the last post, we discussed the basics of email marketing and how to get started with email marketing in ecommerce. In this part, we'll dive much deeper into some other advanced features

    • Connecting two modules - phone number

      Hi, I’d like some guidance on setting up an automation in Zoho CRM that links records between the Leads module and a custom module called Customer_Records whenever the phone numbers match. Here’s what I’m trying to achieve: When a new Lead is created

    • Zoho Marketing Automation 2.0 - Landing Page function not working

      Dear Zoho Team, I am working on implementing Zoho Marketing Automation 2.0, and am now looking into the section "Lead Generation". If I open the "Landing Pages" section, I immediately get an Error code: Error: internal error occurred. Can you help me

    • Unable to use Sign "You have entereed some invalid characters"

      Unable to use Sign "You have entered some invalid characters" I do not see any invalid characters. The text in "Leave a Note" is plain text which I entered directly into the field. See attached screenshot

    • Elevate your CX delivery using CommandCenter 2.0: Simplified builder; seamless orchestration

      Most businesses want to create memorable customer experiences—but they often find it hard to keep them smooth, especially as they grow. To achieve a state of flow across their processes, teams often stitch together a series of automations using Workflow

    • Messages not displayed from personal LinkedIn profile

      Hello. I connected both our company profile and my personal profile to Zoho social. I do see all messages from our company page but none from my private page. not even the profile is being added on top to to switch between company or private profile,

    • "Performed changes in the query is not allowed due to following reason" when adding columns or reordering data

      I'm trying to make changes to a query but every time i try to save it i get this error message. I'm not touching the data it's flagging. All I've tried to do is reorder a couple of fields and add a new one. Why won't it let me do this? It's a core query

    • Onboard new users easily with native screen recording in Zoho Projects Plus

      Communication involving both visual and audio elements tends to capture more interest among the audience. Whenever we onboard new employees to the organization, the task of engaging them in the induction sessions, and keeping the spark going in their

    • Request to Add Support for PDF Templates and More Flexibility in Email Editor

      Hi Zoho Campaigns Team, I hope you're doing well. I wanted to share some feedback and request a few improvements in the Email Template feature of Zoho Campaigns. Right now, we can create email templates using the HTML editor, which is helpful. But we’re

    • Can you stop Custom View Cadences from un-enrolling leads?

      I'm testing Cadences for lead nurture. I have set un-enroll properties to trigger on email bounce/unsubscribe, and do NOT have a view criteria un-enroll trigger. However, help documents say that emails are automatically un-enrolled from a Cadence when

    • Zoho Desk Android and iOS app update: Agent detail overview

      Hello everyone! We’ve introduced agent detail overview on the Zoho Desk Android and iOS app update. With this feature, you can get a complete view of agent’s tickets, response times, logged hours (for both tickets and activities), customer happiness ratings

    • Blog Widget: Show recent blog posts on my homepage

      Hey there I am using the Zoho Sites Blog feature. On my homepage, on the bottom I'd like to have a featured content section where I show some of my blog posts (selected, most recent, filtered by category and so on...). It would be nice to have a blog

    • YouTube Live #2: Agreement Intelligence with Zoho Sign's eSign AI assistant

      Hi there, We're back again with our YouTube live series and this time, we'll take you through our holistic agreement intelligence powered signature workflows. Struggling to draft an agreement? Need help double-checking clauses and going through complicated

    • How to iterate through excel data using zoho rpa

      I wanted to iterate or loop through excel data ( datatable). How can i do that

    • Zoho Commerce

      Hi, I have zoho one and use Zoho Books. I am very interested in Zoho Commerce , especially with how all is integrated but have a question. I do not want my store to show prices for customers that are not log in. Is there a way to hide the prices if not

    • Mass (Pull back) (Close WOs) (Close APs)

      Hi develop team. Just idea because Zoho FSM is great but its too manual. we have a lot of task to do every day and the system needs to have more features to automatic our tasks. I need to close several WOs, APs and Pull Back per day. Please we need mass

    • Customising Zohidesk portal default widgets

      Hello, I'm wondering how could I customise the default widgets such as "popular topics", "popular articles" using CSS or to make the tiles at the bottom match the ones that I made in the picture attached. I have made some custom widgets and edited them

    • If there’s a batch at the end, the ‘mark as inactive’ function doesn’t work.

      when my batch has a date to batch end and I "mark as inactive" he batch does not obey the status and reactivates the batch.

    • Seamless multilingual messaging and tone control in Zia IM Composer

      Hello everyone! Managing customer conversations across multiple languages can be time-consuming. Using Zia in the Instant Messaging (IM) Composer helps you overcome this by providing tools to translate content, adjust your tone, and refine your messages

    • Advanced Deluge help needed with custom function and COQL limits

      I have a scheduled function that takes a snapshot of specific metrics and saves them to a custom module. However I'm struggling with the limits of COQL. I attach my full code, but an example of the issues I'm having is that it's erroring with a 'Limit

    • Tip of the Week - Conditional Formatting Chart

      Conditional formatting allows you to highlight your data series based on a pattern or a trend in your data. This makes it easy for you to identify when your data reaches certain values or when it deviates from the trend.  Zoho Analytics allows you to

    • Zoho Learn - AI Translate

      Hi Learn team, I had a situation today where I was providing training to a client team and I had written articles into their Zoho Learn to support their learning. I realised that one of the team members was a non-native English speaker and they were struggling

    • Next Page