Customer Management: #3 Giving Customers Control & Privilege
Rio, the founder of RenoTech Solutions, a fast-growing digital service company, found itself juggling a dozen different services for its clients. They handled one-time setup fees, recurring monthly invoices, and custom milestone-based billing for projects. As the client base expanded, so did the volume of routine requests:
"Can I see my past invoice?"
"When is my next subscription renewal?"
"Can I update my billing contact?"
None of these were complex cases. But tracking those calls, emails and texts and responding to them, altogether, added pressure.
The finance team spent hours each week responding to emails requesting invoice copies.
The support team handled password resets and billing profile updates. Project management was often pulled into billing conversations to confirm payment status.
At one point, a support representative said, "Most of this information already exists... our customers just can't see or access it themselves."
That was a turning point.
Instead of managing every request manually, RenoTech realised they needed to provide customers with controlled access to their billing information without compromising security or losing visibility. This is where Zoho Billing Customer Portal becomes a natural extension of their customer experience.
Customer Portal in Zoho Billing
The Customer Portal in Zoho Billing is a secure, self-service space where customers can manage their billing-related activities independently. Rather than reaching out for every small request, customers can log in to access all their account information anytime.
This shift doesn't just reduce workload for internal teams. It fundamentally changes how customers interact with a business, from dependency to empowerment.
Let's look at what customers can do through the portal and how it supports different billing models.
Managing One-Time Transactions
For businesses like RenoTech that charge a one-time fee for setup, onboarding, or standalone services, customers often need access to past invoices for accounting or internal approvals.
Through the Customer Portal, customers can:
View all their invoices in one place.
Download or print invoices whenever required.
Check payment status (paid, due or overdue)
See applied credits or adjustments.
Directly download account statements.
Instead of emailing the finance team for documents, customers get instant access. This not only saves time but also reduces friction during audits, reimbursements or internal reporting.
Subscription Management
Recurring billing brings predictability, but also more questions and amendments. Customers frequently want clarity on renewal dates, plan details and upcoming charges.
The Customer Portal allows customers to view and modify their subscriptions. Customers can:
View Active subscriptions and associated plans.
Convert the trial to live, extend the trial or cancel the trial
Switch plans, update quantity.
Purchase addons & redeem coupons.
Upgrade, Downgrade, Pause or Resume Subscription.
Cancel subscription either immediately or at the end of the term.
Reactivate subscription.
Change the Auto-charge preference.
View Historical subscription invoices.
When customers understand what they are being charged and why, it builds confidence; they don't have to guess or wait for reminders. They can check their subscription details at any time.
For businesses, this transparency significantly reduces renewal-related queries and confusion around recurring charges.
Supports Project-Based Billing
Many service businesses bill customers based on project milestones or phases. In such cases, customers often want to track how payments align with the work delivered.
Using the Customer Portal, customers can:
View invoices linked to the project.
Track payment made against specific invoices.
Review billable hours.
Understand outstanding balances clearly.
This ensures that billing conversations stay factual and transparent. Both parties are always looking at the same time, reducing disputes and follow-ups.
Payments, Credits & Account Balances
Another key privilege customers appreciate is visibility into how their payments are applied.
Through the Customer portal, customers can:
View payment history.
See available credits or advance payments.
Understand how credits are applied to invoices.
Track overall account balance.
Make bulk payments for multiple outstanding invoices at once.
This helps customers manage their finances more effectively and avoid misunderstandings about partial payments or unused credits.
Updating Billing & Contact Information
Customer information, such as email addresses, billing contacts, phone numbers, and addresses, changes over time.
Instead of sending update requests to the support team, the customer portal allows customers to:
Update their contact details.
Modify billing address.
Update saved credit card information.
This ensures the business consistently has accurate data, while customers feel in control of their own records.
Secure Access with Control
Access to billing data must be secure. Zoho Billing's Customer Portal includes built-in self-service control that balances convenience with protection.
Customers can:
Log in using secure credentials.
Reset passwords on their own if they forget them
Manage login access without contacting support.
To further strengthen security, Zoho Billing supports Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for the Customer Portal. With MFA enabled, customers verify their identity using an additional step, such as a one-time password, alongside their regular login process.
Zoho Billing also supports Single Sign-On (SSO) for Portal and federated login, allowing customers to access the portal using their existing identity provider. This makes login even easier for enterprise customers who prefer to use a centralised authentication system.
To maintain brand consistency, businesses can enable a portal on a custom domain. This ensures customers interact with a portal that looks and feels like a natural extension of your business, reinforcing trust.
Customer Portal also supports Web Tabs, allowing businesses to embed external links or internal resources directly into the portal interface to share help documents, Knowledge base articles, etc.
With so much to offer, the Customer Portal serves as a secure, intuitive customer workspace.
Not every business wants customers to do everything, and that's understandable.
Zoho Billing lets businesses configure Customer Portal Preference, deciding:
What customers can view or manage.
Whether the customer can add a comment or build a conversation from the portal.
Whether payment can be made through the portal.
How notifications and portal invitations are sent.
Whether to share documents through the portal.
If the customer can review your service from the portal.
Whether the customer can reach out through an integrated chat support powered by Zoho Salesiq.
This flexibility ensures businesses stay in control while still offering meaningful self-service capability.
What the Customer Portal does for Business
Providing customers with access to a portal isn't just about convenience; it's about trust. When customers can view their invoices, track their subscriptions, manage payments, and update their details with minimal friction, they feel informed and respected. They're less dependent on the support team and more confident in their relationship with the business.
For businesses, this means:
Fewer repetitive support requests.
Faster resolution of billing-related disputes.
Cleaner, more accurate customer data.
Stronger customer satisfaction and retention.
Customers gain clarity, control and confidence while businesses benefit from reduced operational overheads and improved trust. In the long run, a well-designed customer portal doesn't just simplify billing, it reinforces a professional, transparent and customer-first experience.
Topic Participants
Hari Hara Sudhan. S
Sticky Posts
Community Learning Series | Digest #5 — September 2020
Dear customers, We're happy to bring you the September edition of our #CommunityDigest! Keep track of your subscription KPIs right from your smartphone: Last month, we enhanced our Android mobile app to help our customers get daily updates on their business health. We got to know from a lot of customers that this has made their job much more easier because they no longer have to keep a reminder to manually check on the previous day's revenue or activations. If you have not downloaded it yet, here'sCommunity Learning Series | Digest #4 - August 2020
Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. I'm happy to bring you the fourth edition of our #CommunityDigest with some brand-new updates from us. 1. Daily Business Updates (for Android users) The Zoho Subscriptions Android app has got a cool new update: You can now get a push notification to your smartphone that lets you know how many activations and cancellations have taken place, and what's the net revenue for the previous day. The best part is, you can tell the app when exactly youCommunity Learning Series | Digest #3 - July 2020
Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. We're glad to bring you the July edition of our #CommunityDigest. New community members can view our previous newsletters here. This time, we have two major updates and three interesting topics for you: 1. Zoho Subscriptions Developer Community Since the inception of Zoho Subscriptions, our team believed that the recurring billing platform we provide should be able to offer an extensive API library that empowers businesses to automate mostIntroducing: Community Learning Series | Digest #1 - May 2020
Dear customers, We hope you are staying safe and healthy. Helping businesses manage their customer subscriptions more efficiently has always been, and always will be, our goal at Zoho Subscriptions. We strongly believe this is possible if we grow together as a community and share what we know with each other. To nurture this shared learning experience, here is our brand-new Community Learning Series! Welcome to the first edition of our digest! Each edition of our community digest includes guides
Recent Topics
Kaizen #223 - File Manager in CRM Widget Using ZRC Methods
Hello, CRM Wizards! Here is what we are improving this week with Kaizen. we will explore the new ZRC (Zoho Request Client) introduced in Widget SDK v1.5, and learn how to use it to build a Related List Widget that integrates with Zoho WorkDrive. It helpsSet connection link name from variable in invokeurl
Hi, guys. How to set in parameter "connection" a variable, instead of a string. connectionLinkName = manager.get('connectionLinkName').toString(); response = invokeurl [ url :"https://www.googleapis.com/calendar/v3/freeBusy" type :POST parameters:requestParams.toString()Possible to connect Zoho CRM's Sandbox with Zoho Creator's Sandbox?
We are making some big changes on our CRM so we are testing it out in CRM's Sandbox. We also have a Zoho Creator app that we need to test. Is it possible to connect Zoho CRM's Sandbox to Zoho Creator's Sandbox so that I can perform those tests?I Need Help Verifying Ownership of My Zoho Help Desk on Google Search Console
I added my Zoho desk portal to Google Search Console, but since i do not have access to the html code of my theme, i could not verify ownership of my portal on Google search console. I want you to help me place the html code given to me from Google searchTimeline Tracker
Hi Team, I am currently using Zoho Creator – Blueprint Workflows, and I would like to know if there is a way to track a timeline of the approval process within a Blueprint. Specifically, I am looking for details such as: Who submitted the record Who clickedPrimary / Other Billing Contacts
If you add an additional contact to a Zoho Billing Customer record, and then mark this new contact as the primary contact, will both the new primary and old primary still receive notifications? Can you stop notifications from going to the additional contactsMissing Import Options
Hello, do I miss something or is there no space import option inside of this application? In ClickUp, you can import from every common application. We don't want to go through every page and export them one by one. That wastes time. We want to centralizeCRM x WorkDrive: File storage for new CRM signups is now powered by WorkDrive
Availability Editions: All DCs: All Release plan: Released for new signups in all DCs. It will be enabled for existing users in a phased manner in the upcoming months. Help documentation: Documents in Zoho CRM Manage folders in Documents tab Manage filesIs it possible to enforce a single default task for all users in a Zoho Projects ?
In Zoho Projects, the Tasks module provides multiple views, including List, Gantt, and Kanban. Additionally, users can create and switch to their own custom views. During project review meetings, this flexibility creates confusion because different users[Free Webinar] Zoho Creator webinars - Learning Table and Creator Tech Connect Series in 2026
Hello everyone, Wishing you all a wonderful new year! May 2026 and the years ahead bring more opportunities, growth, and learning your way 🙂 We’re excited to kick off the 2026 edition of the Learning Table Series and Creator Tech Connect Series ! LearningReply and react to comments
Hi everyone! We're excited to bring to you a couple of new features that'll make your sprint process simpler. A cloud application brings with it an array of social media features that can be efficiently used in your organizational setup. As an agile scrumRestrict Users access to login into CRM?
I’m wanting my employees to be able to utilize the Zoho CRM Lookup field within Zoho Forms. For them to use lookup field in Zoho Forms it is my understanding that they need to be licensed for Forms and the CRM. However, I don’t want them to be able toModule Customisation - Lookup function not available
Good evening, Within my business, I can have multiple customers, who have multiple mobile assets. When I set these assets up, I enter information such as vehicle registration, Vehicle identification number (VIN), Unit number, YOM, in addition to others.zoho click, and nord VPN
Unfortunately, we've been having problems with Zoho Click, where essentially the line cuts off after about a minute's worth of conversation every time we are on VPN. Is there a way we can change this within the settings so it does not cut the line offZoho Calender
a) does the clanender in zoho project allow you to see the name of the event in the celnder view, it currently says either "Task (1) or "Milestoen (1)" b) Alternatively does the calender in Zoho project integrate with zoho calender?Matching ZOHO Payments in Banking
Our company has recently integrated ZOHO Payments into our system. This seemed really convenient at first because our customers could pay their account balance by clicking on a link imbedded in the emailed invoice. Unfortunately, we can't figure out howTeam Gamification
Would love to motivate, engage and encourage our team with our social media posts. Would like to include Gamification features of Social Media in Zoho Social or Marketing Automation. And also bring in Social Advocacy tools/tracking/management to these,Power up your Kiosk Studio with Real-Time Data Capture, Client Scripts & More!
Hello Everyone, We’re thrilled to announce a powerful set of enhancements to Kiosk Studio in Zoho CRM. These new updates give you more flexibility, faster record handling, and real-time data capture, making your Kiosk flows smarter and more efficientNew Enhancements to Zoho CRM and Zoho Creator Integration
Hello Everyone, We’ve rolled out enhancements to the Zoho Creator and Zoho CRM integration to align with recent updates made to the Zoho Creator platform. With enhancements to both the UI and functionality, This update also tightens access control byWork Type - Limitation
Hello, I'm setting up work types and have noticed, a limitation on the parts area to 10 lines. Can this be increased to 20 or greater? In addition to this, when I attempt to add the work type to a work order, the correct labour hours doesn't flow through.Emails sent through Bigin are not posting in IMAP Sent folder
I have set up my email to work from within Bigin using IMAP. I am using IMAP so I can sync my email across multiple devices - phone / laptop / desktop / iPad / etc. I want all my emails to populate my email client (outlook & iphone email) whether orTurning the page for Zoho SalesIQ: 2025 to 2026
As we wrap up 2025, we would like to take a moment to reflect on what we set out to achieve this year, what we’ve delivered, and where we’re headed next. What we focused on in 2025 This year was all about strengthening the core of engagement and AI, makingStage-probability mapping feature in custom module
Hi, I'm building a custom module for manage projects. I would like to implement the stage-probability feature that Potentials has. Is this possible?Temporary Outage in Zoho Cliq Affecting US Users – July 23, 2025
We experienced a service disruption in Zoho Cliq that impacted core functionality for users in the US region. The issue occurred between Jul 23, 2025, 06:54:00 PM IST and 07:13:13 PM IST, lasting approximately 19 minutes. To restore service stability,Why Sharing Rules do Not support relative date comparison???
I am creating a Sharing Rule and simply want to share where "Last Day of Coverage" (Date field) is Greater than TODAY (Starting Tomorrow). However, sharing rules don't have the option to compare a date field to a relative date (like today), only to StaticZoho Cliq not working on airplanes
Hi, My team and I have been having this constant issue of cliq not working when connected to an airplane's wifi. Is there a reason for this? We have tried on different Airlines and it doesn't work on any of them. We need assistance here since we are constantlyProblem with Workdrive folders
I'm having a problem a problem accessing files in a Zoho work drive folder when using the Zoho writer app. The problem folder appears grayed out in the Zoho work drive window in both the online and writer application. However I can open the folder inMulti-currency and Products
One of the main reasons I have gone down the Zoho route is because I need multi-currency support. However, I find that products can only be priced in the home currency, We sell to the US and UK. However, we maintain different price lists for each.Create an Eye-Catching Announcement Widget for Your Help Center
Hello Everyone! In this week’s edition, let’s explore how to keep your customers updated with exciting news in the Help Center. See how ZylkerMobile wowed their customers by bringing updates right to their portal. ZylkerMobile, the renowned brand forSend Whatsapp with API including custom placeholders
Is is possible to initiate a session on whatsapp IM channel with a template that includes params (placeholders) that are passed on the API call? This is very usefull to send a Utility message for a transactional notification including an order numberCustomer Management: #6 Common Mistakes in Customer Handling
Managing customers doesn't usually fall apart overnight. More often, slight gaps in the process slowly become bigger problems. Incidents like missed follow-ups, billing confusion, and unhappy customers will lead to revenue loss. Many businesses don'tZoho Desk iOS app update: UI enhancement of picklist and multi picklist fields
Hello everyone! We have enhanced the UI of the picklist and multiselect picklist fields on the Zoho Desk iOS app to provide a more refined, efficient, and user-friendly experience. We have now supported an option to Search within the picklist and multiselectZoho Desk iOS app update: Revamped scribbles with Apple pencil kit
Hello everyone! We’re excited to introduce a revamped Scribble experience, rebuilt from the ground up using Apple PencilKit for smooth strokes, proper scaling, and seamless image uploads. Please update the app to the latest version directly from the AppZoho Desk Android app update: Norwegian language support
Hello everyone! In the most recent Android version of the Zoho Desk app update, we have brought in support to access the app in Norwegian language. We have introduced the Norwegian language on the IM module of the Zoho Desk app as well. Please updateField Description is very small
Hello, The field Description in the activity is very small. Why don't try open a new window, or a bigger popup, or increase the width of the "popup". Example:Function #53: Transaction Level Profitability for Invoices
Hello everyone, and welcome back to our series! We have previously provided custom functions for calculating the profitability of a quote and a sales order. There may be instances where the invoice may differ from its corresponding quote or sales order.Payment Vouchers
Is there any Payment Vouchers in Zoho? How can we create payment for non-trade vendors, i.e. professional fees, rent, and payment to commissioner income tax?API in E-Invoice/GST portal
Hi, Do I have to change the api in gst/e-invoice portal as I use zoho e books for my e-invoicing. If yes, please confirm the process.When I click on PDF/PRINT it makes the invoice half size
When I click PDF / Print for my invoice in Zoho Books, the generated PDF appears at half size — everything is scaled down, including the logo, text, and layout. The content does not fill the page as it should. Could someone advise what causes Zoho BooksSearch by contain letter in a column
Hello, everyone I need a filter function that searches by letter in a cell, and it should be a macro. To clarify further, if I have a column with several names and I chose a search cell and what I want is search by a single letter, for example, "a" thenNext Page