Kaizen #9 - Handling Product Line Items in the Inventory Modules #API

Kaizen #9 - Handling Product Line Items in the Inventory Modules #API

Hello everyone!

Welcome back to another post in the Kaizen series!
This week, we will discuss handling product line items associated with the inventory modules—Quotes, Invoices, Purchase Orders, and Sales Orders.

What is a product line item?

On the Quote, Invoice, Purchase Order, Sales Order create or edit page, you add individual products in the Product Details section. This section also contains other details like the List Price, Quantity, Amount, Discount, and Tax. Every product and the corresponding details are called product line items.

In this post, we will discuss 
  1. Adding product line items while inserting a quote (through the Insert Records API)
  2. Updating a quote by adding another product line item (through the Update Specific Records API)

The JSON input is similar while adding/updating an invoice, purchase order, and sales order.

1. Adding Product Line Items to a Quote

While adding a product to a quote you can,
      a. Select a price book to associate with the product
      b. Specify a different list price for the product

1. a. Selecting a price book to associate with the product
To associate a price book with the product, you must pass the ID of that price book in the input.

What happens when you pass the Price Book's ID?
  • The discount on the product is automatically applied based on the range you specified in the price book.
  • The cumulative tax (specified for the product) is automatically calculated based on the amount (after the discount).
  • The List Price of the product specified in the associated price book is automatically taken for calculating the amount.

The sample input for Product_Details is as follows.

"Product_Details": [
    {
      "product": {
        "id": "3652397000000491147"
      },
      "quantity": 100,
      "product_description": "product_description",
      "book": "3652397000000616007"
    }
  ]

The following table gives information about each key in the Product_Details JSON Array.
Key
Data Type
Description
product
JSON Object
The ID of the product in the quote.
quantity
Number
The number of units of the product the quote is generated for. Accepts only positive integer values. The amount is calculated based on this number and the price for each unit.
book
String
The ID of the Price Book you have associated with the product.
product_description
String
Description of the product.

Here is a screenshot from the UI.


1.b. Specifying a different list price for the product
When the product does not have an associated price book or you want to give a different list price, you must specify the list price and the discount in the Product_Details array. 
Otherwise, the system enters the value for the discount as 0 and takes the list price you specified while creating that product.
The sample input for the Product_Details JSON array is as follows.
"Product_Details": [
    {
      "product": {
        "id": "3652397000000491147"
      },
      "quantity": 150,
      "product_description": "product_description",
      "Discount": 1000,
      "list_price": 1100,
      "line_tax": [
        {
          "percentage": 1,
          "name": "VAT"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]

The following table gives information about each key in the Product_Details JSON Array.

Key
Data Type
Description
Product
JSON Object
ID of the product the quote generated for.
quantity
Number
The number of units of the product the quote is generated for. Accepts only positive integer values.
Discount
Currency
The discount, in decimals, you want to apply for the product. Accepts up to 16 digits before the decimal, and up to 9 digits after the decimal. This limit may vary based on the value configured in 'Maximum digits allowed' in the properties pop-up of the field, in the UI.
product_description
String
Description of the product.
list_price
Currency
The list price of the product.
line_tax
JSON Array
Contains the percentage and the name of the tax associated with the product.
percentage
Percent
The percentage of tax applied on the product. Accepts only numeric values, up to 5 digits.
name
String
The name of the tax applied on the product.

As mentioned earlier, the Product Details section encompasses the taxes applied for each product and the aggregate tax applied to the Sub Total of the quote or any other inventory module.

You can specify the different taxes you want to apply for your products in the CRM UI.
You can add them under Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields > Products as shown in the below image.


You can use these configured values as inputs in the API.

Adding taxes to the product while creating/updating an inventory module
When you add a product to an inventory module, to apply the taxes to that product, you must specify the tax details in the line_tax JSON array inside Product_Details.

You must specify the percentage and the name of the tax associated with the product as JSON objects.
You cannot specify the amount as the system calculates it automatically based on the quantity.

Example:

"Product_Details": [
    {
      "product": {
        "id": "3652397000001363004"
      },
      "quantity": 100,
      "Discount": 20.1,
      "product_description": "product_description",
      "line_tax": [
        {
          "percentage": 10,
          "name": "Sales Tax"
        },
        {
          "percentage": 1,
          "name": "Vat"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]

Adding aggregate tax to the quote or other inventory modules
This is the tax that you want to apply to the Sub Total of the line items while generating the invoice, quote, sales order, or purchase order. The taxes you specify in the $line_tax key are added to the ones already applied to the product through the line_tax key.
The $line_tax key is present outside the Product_Details JSON array.

The structure for this JSON array is as follows.

"Product_Details": [
    {
      "product": {
        "id": "3652397000001363004"
      },
      "quantity": 100,
      "product_description": "product_description",
      "line_tax": [
        {
          "percentage": 10,
          "name": "Sales Tax"
        },
        {
          "percentage": 1,
          "name": "Vat"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "$line_tax": [
    {
      "percentage": 1.5,
      "name": "Common Tax",
      "id": "3652397000001376005"
    }
  ]

Key
Data type
Description
$line_tax
JSON Array
Contains the name, ID, and the percentage of the tax you want to apply to the quote.
percentage
Percent
The percentage of tax applied on the quote. Accepts only numeric values, up to 5 digits.
name
String
The name of the tax.
id
String
The unique ID of the tax.

Note
Make a GET request to "{{api-domain}}/crm/v2/org/taxes" to obtain the IDs of all the taxes for your organization.

The below image shows the data corresponding to the line_tax and $line_tax keys in the UI for a quote.


Points to note
  • For Product_Details
    When you have associated a price book with an inventory module, and you include the key and value for Discount inside Product_Details, this discount value overrides the discount calculated from the price book.
  • For line_tax
    You must specify the percentage of tax in every JSON object inside the line_tax array.

2. Updating a Quote by adding Product Line Items
You can associate multiple products to a quote.
While updating a quote, you can add/update/remove a line item.
Let us consider an example where you have five line items in a quote, and you want to remove two line items, and add a new one.
In this case, you must
  • Pass the IDs of the line items you want to retain as individual JSON objects.
  • Add the new line item with the required details as a new JSON object.
  • Do not include any details about the line item you want to remove. When you do not specify the ID of any line item, the system deletes it automatically.
A sample JSON structure for the above scenario is as follows.         

"Product_Details": [
    {
      "id": "3652397000001377174"
    },
    {
      "id": "3652397000001378168"
    },
    {
      "id": "3652397000001379172"
    },
    {
      "product": {
        "id": "3652397000001351002"
      },
      "quantity": 100,
      "book": "3652397000000616007"
    }
  ] 

To obtain the ID of the existing line item, make a GET request to fetch the Quote you want to update. The response contains the ID of the existing line item in the Product_Details array.

Note
  • You can add a maximum of 200 line items to an inventory module.

We hope you found this post useful. Please reach out to us if you have any questions, or let us know in the comment section.

Cheers!










    • Sticky Posts

    • Kaizen #197: Frequently Asked Questions on GraphQL APIs

      🎊 Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – We want to hear from you! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.

    • Kaizen #198: Using Client Script for Custom Validation in Blueprint

      Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – 1 More to the Big Two-Oh-Oh! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.

    • Celebrating 200 posts of Kaizen! Share your ideas for the milestone post

      Hello Developers, We launched the Kaizen series in 2019 to share helpful content to support your Zoho CRM development journey. Staying true to its spirit—Kaizen Series: Continuous Improvement for Developer Experience—we've shared everything from FAQs

    • Kaizen #193: Creating different fields in Zoho CRM through API

      🎊 Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – We want to hear from you! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.

    • Client Script | Update - Introducing Commands in Client Script!

      Have you ever wished you could trigger Client Script from contexts other than just the supported pages and events? Have you ever wanted to leverage the advantage of Client Script at your finger tip? Discover the power of Client Script - Commands! Commands

    • Recent Topics

    • Support Bots and Automations in External Channels

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, How are you? We actively use Zoho Cliq for collaboration, including with our external developers. For this purpose, external channels are a key tool since they work seamlessly within the same interface as all of our other channels

    • Answer Bot and Personalized Questions

      Hi there, I have the same problem using the SalesIQ Answer Bot and the Zoho Desk Answer Bot (which really need different names, to be honest, in order to avoid confusion...) Customers that visit our website ask questions in the form of "What do you do?"

    • Handling Greetings/Small Talk at the Beginning of a Zobot Conversation

      Hello everyone, I’m currently configuring a **Zobot** in Zoho SalesIQ and everything is working as expected, except for one specific scenario at the very beginning of the conversation. My target audience has the habit of starting with a **greeting or

    • Regex in Zoho Mail custom filters is not supported - but it works!

      I recently asked Zoho for help using regex in Zoho Mail custom filters and was told it was NOT supported. This was surprising (and frustrating) as regex in Zoho Mail certainly works, although it does have some quirks* To encourage others, here are 3 regex

    • Importing a new list into campaigns

      I'm in the middle of switching my email platform to campaigns. I have a list that I want to import, and it overlaps with my existing Zoho CRM list. The fields in my Zoho CTM are more robust. Will this new list that I upload into my campaigns overwrite

    • when I email a invoice how can i see it was sent and also were i can go to see all emails sent

      when I email a invoice how can i see it was sent and also were i can go to see all emails sent?

    • Export Invoices to XML file

      Namaste! ZOHO suite of Apps is awesome and we as Partner, would like to use and implement the app´s from the Financial suite like ZOHO Invoice, but, in Portugal, we can only use certified Invoice Software and for this reason, we need to develop/customize on top of ZOHO Invoice to create an XML file with specific information and after this, go to the government and certified the software. As soon as we have for example, ZOHO CRM integrated with ZOHO Invoice up and running, our business opportunities

    • Showing description in timesheet and timelogs.

      I am wondering if it’s possible in version 5 of Zoho People to have the description show by default or with a manipulation on the user’s part. Let me show you what I mean. As you can see this is the view for the users. Now if they want to see the full

    • How can I see content of system generated mails from zBooks?

      System generated mails for offers or invices appear in the mail tab of the designated customer. How can I view the content? It also doesn't appear in zMail sent folder.

    • CRM Blueprint Notification by Cliq

      Dear Zoho team, In Workflow, there is nofication by cliq, but in blueprint, there is no option as cliq notification. I think it is very convenient to get notified by Cliq , as there are multi modules in apps, but we will always check Cliqs

    • Zoho People Attendance Regularization – Wrong Total Hours Displayed

      While using Zoho People, I observed that the attendance regularization is showing wrong total hours when applied to past dates. For example, if a check-in is added at 10:00 AM and check-out at 6:00 PM for a previous date, the system sometimes calculates

    • Sync Contacts in iOS

      What does the "Sync Contacts" feature in the iOS Zoho Mail app do?

    • Live webinar: Craft the ideal sales pitch deck with Show

      Every great sale starts with a great story. And your pitch deck? That’s where the story takes shape. But too often, these presentations end up looking generic, overloaded with text, or lacking structure. The good news is, it's easier to fix than you think!

    • Project Statuses

      Hi All, We have projects that sometimes may not make it through to completion. As such, they were being marked as "Cancelled". I noticed that these projects still show as "Active" though which seems counter intuitive. In fact, the only way I can get them

    • 👋 Welcome to the Zoho MCP Community

      Hello all, glad to have you here! This is your space for everything AI agents, MCP tools, and intelligent business apps. This community is for you — developers, partners, creators, and businesses exploring how agents can transform work. Whether you’re

    • 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

    • DNS Manager

      Where Can I find my DNS manager so I can link this to click funnels or AWEBER

    • 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

    • 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

    • How do I sync multiple Google calendars?

      I'm brand new to Zoho and I figured out how to sync my business Google calendar but I would also like to sync my personal Google calendar. How can I do this so that, at the very least, when I have personal engagements like doctor's appointments, I can

    • Need to extract date from datetime field

      I have a datetime field and need only the date part from it. I am unable to find a built-in function that would be <DateTime>.Date(). I don't think I want to go the string conversion route of converting the datetime to string and then parsing out values and create a date out of it. Any one out there has a better solution to this? Thanks in adavnce. Regards Moiz Tankiwala Smart Training & IT Solutions

    • How to Hide Article Links in SalesIQ Answer Bot Responses

      I have published an article in SalesIQ, and the Answer Bot is fetching the data and responding correctly. However, it is also displaying the article link, which I don’t want. How can I remove the link so that only the message is shown?

    • New in Cadences: WhatsApp follow-ups, upgraded limits, and options for add-ons

      Hello everyone, We're rolling out two key updates to help you engage better and scale smarter with Cadences in Zoho CRM. Reach customers on WhatsApp, directly from Cadences Previously, Cadences have enabled you to automate follow-ups through emails, calls,

    • additional accounts

      If I brought 5 emails to my account. Can I later buy additional emails.

    • Issue in Zoho People Regularization – Incorrect Hour Calculation

      I have noticed that when applying attendance regularization in Zoho People for previous dates, the total working hours are not calculated correctly. For example, even if the check-in is 10:00 AM and check-out is 6:00 PM, the system shows an incorrect

    • Why I am unable to configure Zoho Voice with my Zoho CRM account?

      I have installed Zoho Voice in my Zoho CRM, but as per the message there is some config needed in Zoho Voice interface. But when I click on the link given in the above message, I get an access denied page.

    • Issue with Hour Calculation in Zoho People Attendance Module

      I have noticed an issue in the attendance regularization feature of Zoho People. When trying to regularize past dates, the total working hours are not calculated correctly. For example, if I enter a check-in and check-out time for a previous day, the

    • Cliq Meeting Calls No Audio and Screen Share

      When in a Cliq channel meeting, the audio does not work at all on pc. When i use my phone as audio source, screen share on pc does not work. I have updated audio drivers but the strangest thing is that during a 1 on 1 call, it works well. Therefore the

    • Bug in Total Hour Calculation in Regularization for past dates

      There is a bug in Zoho People Regularization For example today is the date is 10 if I choose a previous Date like 9 and add the Check in and Check out time The total hours aren't calculated properly, in the example the check in time is 10:40 AM check

    • Work anniversary and birthdays on connect

      Hello, I like the idea of having employee's work anniversary and birthdays on the dashbaord. Do you have to have the employee complete this information themselves in connect settings, or does it pull from their directory settings? (ie. we use Zoho one

    • Alias Email Id already exists

      Hi I'm trying to create an alias : contact @ yoavarielevy.co.il but i get the message  Alias Email Id already exists I had an account with the same name but I deleted it. Can you help? Thanx Yoav

    • BANK FEED - MAYBANK , provider from YODLEE IS NOT WORKING

      As per topic, the provider YODLEE is not working for the BANK FEED. It have been reported since 2023 Q3, and second report on 2023 Q4. now almost end of 2024 Q1, and coming to 2024 Q2. Malaysia Bank Maybank is NOT working. can anyone check on this issue?

    • Feature Request: Ability to Set a Custom List View as Default for All Users

      Dear Zoho CRM Support Team, We would like to request a new feature in Zoho CRM regarding List Views. Currently, each user has to manually select or favorite a custom list view in order to make it their default. However, as administrators, we would like

    • Adding Multiple Products (Package) to a Quote

      I've searched the forums and found several people asking this question, but never found an answer. Is ti possible to add multiple products to a quote at once, like a package deal? This seems like a very basic function of a CRM that does quotes but I can't

    • Zoho Commerce in multiple languages

      When will you be able to offer Zoho Commerce in more languages? We sell in multiple markets and want to be able to offer a local version of our webshop. What does the roadmap look like?

    • webinar registration confirmation are landing in SPMA folders

      I am trialing zoho webinar and do not have access to custom domains. When I test user registrations, they are working but the resulting confirmation email is landing in a spam folder. How can I avoid this?

    • Making digital signatures accessible to all: Introducing accessibility controls in Zoho Sign

      Hi there! At Zoho Sign, we are committed to building an inclusive digital experience for all our users. As part of our ongoing efforts to align with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), we’re updating the application with support that will go

    • Is there a way to set Document Owner/Sender via the API

      When sending requests for zoho sign, it would seem zoho uses the id of the person that created the zoho api cred to determine the owner_id, is there a way to set a default for this?

    • Delegates should be able to delete expenses

      I understand the data integrity of this request. It would be nice if there was a toggle switch in the Policy setting that would allow a delegate to delete expenses from their managers account. Some managers here never touch their expense reports, and

    • Add Save button to Expense form

      A save button would be very helpful on the expense form. Currently there is a Save and Close button. When we want to itemize an expense, this option would be very helpful. For example, if we have a hotel expense that also has room service, which is a

    • Next Page