Billing Management: #10 Solving Common Mistakes in Billing

Over the past few weeks, we have explored different facets of billing, from the simplicity of traditional one-time billing to the evolving landscape of subscriptions, retainers, and usage-based models. We've unpacked how billing isn't just about sending an invoice; it's about how a business communicates value, maintains trust, and keeps its financial rhythm steady.

As businesses grow, so does the complexity of billing. What once worked with a single invoice or payment can quickly become tangled when projects overlap, clients prepay, usage fluctuates, or charges go unbilled. While every business strives for precision in billing, even a small mistake can quietly cost time, money, and reputation.

In this final part of our Billing Management Series, let's step away from theory and get into the reality of businesses that struggle with billing errors, confusion, and missed revenue opportunities.

Missing Items 

Jessica runs a marketing agency. After wrapping up a major campaign, she sat down late into the night, manually typing the invoices. Halfway through, she realized she had missed adding a few minor tasks.

The client called the next morning. "Jessica, why is our invoice missing some items we agreed on?" they asked. Jessica could only apologize and rush to correct the total, feeling frustrated and embarrassed.

Zoho Billing keeps invoice creation error-free and straightforward. An invoice can be created and saved as a draft before it reaches the customer. This allows users like Jessica to double-check whether all the entries or items were added as agreed by the client. Once checked, the invoice can be sent, and through automatic reminders, follow-up can be done on the payment, leaving Jessica to focus on her campaigns instead of keeping it.

Invisible Hours 

Rakesh's firm was in the middle of a multiple-phase project. On Friday, he checked the milestone report and noticed something alarming.

"Wait, we logged 60 hours, right? Where are the extra 15?" he asked the team. They shrugged, looking sheepish. Some work had been done, but was never logged into the manual timesheets. Rakesh realized that the company might lose revenue without even knowing it.

Zoho Billing enables time logging from different devices and avenues to make it more accessible and reliable. It allows time logging in real time through the console, desktop version, mobile app (iOS and Android), and smartwatches. Once the time is logged, it automatically calculates the worked billable hours correctly and gives users confidence that the team's efforts were fully accounted for.

Subscription Chaos 

A fast-growing SaaS company had dozens of clients who upgraded and downgraded their plans each month. One afternoon, the finance team noticed a client's mid-cycle upgrade wasn't reflected correctly.

"Why does this invoice show the old plan?" demanded the client. "We upgraded last week!" yells the customer with frustration. Meanwhile, a failed payment had gone unnoticed, compounding the problem.

Zoho Billing automates subscriptions, handling plan changes, proration, and failed payment retries. Proration ensures that the customer is charged the precise additional amount required whenever they choose to upgrade their plan. Conversely, smart dunning assists the company by making three attempts before flagging it as unsuccessful. This also enables customers and users to receive notifications to ensure the renewal payments are successful.

Retainer Mystery 

At a law firm, partners argued over the amount of a client's retainer during a meeting. "Did we use $2500 or $3000 of this client's retainer?" one of the partners asked exasperatingly. Staff had been manually tracking prepayments, and this uncertainty delayed the issuance of the next invoice. Meanwhile, clients were called to verify balances, creating awkward back-and-forth conversations.

Zoho Billing promptly tracks advance payments under each customer record and applies them automatically to invoices. A comprehensive balance report provides precise information about the remaining retainer, ensuring alignment between partners and clients and minimizing internal misunderstandings.

Advance Invoice Dilemma 

A consulting firm must bill a client for a monthly strategy session. The finance team manually created the invoice, but accidentally issued a duplicate one. "Wait, did we just charge them twice?" someone asked with surprise. The client called, puzzled and frustrated, causing a tense back-and-forth over email before the error was resolved.

Zoho Billing automates advanced invoicing, tracking which invoices have been paid or applied. This ensures no duplicate invoices are sent to the client and keeps the renewal cycle intact. The clients receive clear, accurate bills for upcoming services.

Usage Puzzle 

A cloud storage company billed customers based on monthly data usage. Staff spent hours consolidating reports, calculating tiered charges, and applying discounts. Despite all this, the customer claimed, "We've double-counted somewhere."  He added, "Your invoice doesn't match my usage. Can you explain?" Hours were wasted checking logs and recalculating charges.

Zoho Billing integrates with your tracking system through APIs, promptly capturing usage data without any manual intervention. The usage is computed automatically according to the pricing configured, and it is visible on the invoices and in the customer portal.

Variable Usage Confusion 

An energy management company billed a commercial client based on electricity consumption. In a particular month, the client's usage spiked unexpectedly.

"I can't believe this is our invoice!  It's way higher than last month," the client exclaimed. Staff struggled to recalculate charges, delaying the invoice, and the frustrated client waited.

Zoho Billing automatically calculates variable usage charges according to the consumption rule. When usage data is added to the system, manually or by importing it, the corresponding charges will be applied and billed accurately with no room for errors while computing.

Compliance Headache 

Rio manages a mid-sized business with clients across multiple states and countries. Every month, he struggles with varying tax rules, be it GST or VAT calculation, and keeping his invoices compliant. "Did we apply the right tax for that international client?" he wonders, realizing a small mistake could result in penalties. The finance team spends hours cross-checking the invoices, often working late to ensure everything is accurate.

Zoho Billing offers edition-specific features that cater to different regions and compliance requirements. The editions starting from the USA, India, Australia, Canada, UAE, UK, and so on keep businesses covered in terms of taxable invoicing and compliance with local tax authorities. It automatically calculates applicable tax rates, applies local and international rules, and generates audit-ready invoices based on the country you choose. Zoho Billing ensures that every transaction is fully compliant, allowing Rio to move on without several hours of manual checks.

Precision in Billing Management 

Billing challenges encompass more than just numbers on a page; they also involve real people, their frustrations, and the risk of lost revenue. From missing line items to complex usage calculations, Zoho Billing automates various processes, ensures accuracy, and provides visibility across different levels.  Every invoice, advance request, or usage report is a professional touchpoint that strengthens clients' trust and allows businesses to focus on growth instead of chasing numbers. 

As we end this series on billing management, we are excited to make one extra post that will definitely excite everyone here. 

Hint: Zoho Billing now covers the Advanced Usage Billing Model. Keep guessing! 

• 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's

• Community 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 you

• Community 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 most

• Introducing: 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

• email address somehow still not verified (?!)

  L.S. After creating a new email template in CRM I was about to send a group email to my clients, then Zoho CRM announced that they would change the sender address to some kind of Zoho-e-ddress because my email address "has not been verified". Not only

• Marketing Tip #17: Add credibility to your online store with Review Widgets

  One of the fastest ways to build trust in an online store is to show real customer feedback right where people are deciding to buy. Third-party widgets let you embed things like Google Reviews, Instagram feeds, or even a WhatsApp chat button. These add

• adding several team members to an Opportunity

  How can we add several team members to one opportunity for collaboration? I have researched and only found something called Deal Team which I cannot find in my CRM to configure.

• Bulk update Profile Permissions

  Dears, What should we do if we add new forms or reports and need to update more than 20 permissions? Updating them one by one feels pretty harsh, doesn’t it?

• Filter in fields from Jira extension

  We have installed the Jira extension so we can maken Jira issues from Zoho desk. In Zoho desk I can also see the Jira issue status for example but I can not filter on this field. I would like to setup an filter showing me the closed Jira issues. How can

• Zoho Creator customer portal limitation | Zoho One

  I'm asking you all for any feedback as to the logic or reasoning behind drastically limiting portal users when Zoho already meters based on number of records. I'm a single-seat, Zoho One Enterprise license holder. If my portal users are going to add records, wouldn't that increase revenue for Zoho as that is how Creator is monetized? Why limit my customer portal to only THREE external users when more users would equate to more records being entered into the database?!? (See help ticket reply below.)

• Add Reporting feature to display variance/change columns when comparing periods

  When running reports to compare periods (for example, Profit and Loss comparing current year to previous), I would like to be able to display variance columns in both (a) amount or (b) percentage.

• Link Contacts to Billed Accounts

  Hello, I want to do a survey on all my customers of 2025. For that I want to select all contacts linked to accounts who where billed in 2025. How to I create this link to I can then use Zoho Survey with this database of contacts?

• Pre-Zoho Sales Info - Best Way to Add to Desk / CRM

  My company has been using Zoho One since 2021, with sales data going back through 2020. However, we have been in business much longer, and we have historical sales information that we want to have at our fingertips when talking with customers (usually

• CRM function REST API response format

  Is there a way to control the JSON response returned by the CRM function REST API? If I call a function using either OAuth or an API key it returns a 200 OK response with a string in the format shown below. I am using a particular feature of an external

• Using MPN across multiple SKUs and inventory tracking

  I have several different SKU's that share a common MPN and would like to track inventory by MPN. SKU1 has MPN1 assigned SKU2 has MPN1 assigned Here is an example If I start with 5 of MPN 1 in stock I want each SKU1 and SKU2 to show as 5 in stock, If I

• Unable to Access Application:

  Whenever I try to access my application from the desktop, say I am editing it and want to test something in the desktop environment I get: An error has occurred. An internal error has occurred. Please check the URL , or try refreshing the page I can edit

• Evernote (ENEX) import limitations

  I have been with Evernote since 2010, but the latest price increase is ridiculous. I am currently testing Zoho Notebook as a replacement. I am impressed so far - if it were not for critical need to import legacy Evernote notes, I would 100% migrate to

• Cannot see Application from Lookup field

  Hi all, I am trying to access data for an application on our account via a lookup field; however, the application doesn't appear in the dropdown at all. Can anyone shed any light on this, please? I have asked Zoho support; however, they're just as confused,

• Zoho CRM Meetings Module Issues

  We have a use-case that is very common in today's world, but won't work in Zoho CRM. We have an SDR (Sales Development Rep) who makes many calls per day to Leads and Contacts, and schedules meetings for our primary Sales Reps. He does this by logging

• Zoho Books integration sync from Zoho CRM does not work

  Hi Zoho Community & Zoho Support We just tried to get a sync some products into Zoho Books from CRM using the native sync and we're getting an error: "It looks like some mandatory fields you're trying to map are empty. Please provide valid field names

• Disable Auto Send Email Notification in Invoice Creation

  Here is what I am facing Make payment via Razor Pay (All Good) Capture payload data on my webapp Send this data, along with other data to Zoho books to create the invoice However in this step - An email goes to the client + The Invoice remains as draft

• P & L Sub-categorized accounts

  How can I show sub-categorized Income and Expense accounts on the P & L report?

• Report showing Bill Details with Project and Sales Invoice Number

  Hi There, I am hoping that someone can help, I am looking for report that can show the bill and expense details along with project its as assigned to and the invoice number that the sales has been raised in. The goal is I can filter a customer/project

• Advanced Payment for Inventory Items with serial numbers

  Hello, We sell equipment that we track the unique serial numbers on using Sales Orders. We can charge the customers an advanced payment, then the balance on delivery. We cannot figure out a way to do this in Books/Inventory: - Cannot part invoice a SO

• Is it possible to restrict ZCRM user to see only custom views created by administrator

  I have segmented data in my CRM and I want to allow different users to be able to see only parts of it based on some criteria. I've tried to create and share a custom view, but then there is always an option for user to see all open lead for example.

• Issues Logging into ZOHO

  Hello, one of my coworkers is having issues logging into ZOHO, she has requested a code when entering and the email is correct but she has not received the code. can you help us with this?

• Google Fonts Integration in Pagesense Popup Editor

  Hello Zoho Pagesense Team, We hope you're doing well. We’d like to submit a feature request to enhance Zoho Pagesense’s popup editor with Google Fonts support. Current Limitation: Currently, Pagesense offers a limited set of default fonts. Google Fonts

• Add Popup Rejection Metrics to Reports

  Hello Zoho PageSense Team, We would like to request improved reporting for popup interactions. Current Limitation: PageSense currently provides conversion data, but there is no clear visibility into: Popup rejections Popup closes (✕ button clicks) Dismissals

• Ability to Reset / Reinitialize Popup Cookies

  Hello Zoho PageSense Team, We would like to request the ability to manually reset popup cookies. Current Limitation: At the moment, it is not possible to initiate a new popup cookie from the our side. Visitors who rejected or closed a popup will not see

• Control Popup Cookie Expiration Duration

  Hello Zoho PageSense Team, We would like to request an enhancement related to popup cookie management. Current Limitation: Currently, PageSense popup cookies remain active for 365 days, and this duration cannot be modified by us. If a visitor closes or

• Clone / Export Popup Design Across PageSense Projects

  Hello Zoho PageSense Team, We hope you’re doing well. We would like to request an enhancement that allows popup designs to be reused across different PageSense projects. Problem Statement: Currently, Zoho PageSense allows popups to be duplicated only

• Are there settings for hyperlinks?

  Clicking a hyperlinked cell in Sheet creates this little pop-up with the actual hyperlink inside. Is it possible to have a 1-click link where if you click the cell it opens the link directly with no pop-up?

• Automatically include all ticket attachments in the ticket resolution email

  Hello Zoho Community, We are implementing Zoho Desk in a real customer-facing production environment and have run into a limitation that is becoming a blocking requirement for our clients. The problem When a ticket is closed or resolved, Zoho Desk sends

• Keep Zoho People Feature Requests in the Zoho People Forum

  Hello Zoho People Product Team, Greetings. We would like to submit a feature request regarding the handling of feature requests themselves, specifically for Zoho People. Issue: Feature Requests Being Moved to Zoho One Zoho People feature requests are

• Can I write a check in Zoho Books with no associated bill?

  This currently does not seem possible, and I have a client that desperately needs this function if I am able to convert them with Quickbooks. Thank you in advance for your reply. 

• Finding text within a ticket: Expand All or Search this Ticket

  The auto-collapse feature within a ticket is nice for screen scrolling, however it makes it difficult to find text within the ticket if the email is collapsed. In fact you cannot find text if it is collapsed. I would like to propose a feature that allows

• Books & Desk. Client mapping

  Hi, I’ve been using Zoho Books for several years and am now looking to improve my customer service. I'm experimenting with Zoho Desk and want to sync and map my client data from Zoho Books. However, it seems that mapping requires both contacts to have

• String handling

  If I cut a currency string from a quote and try and paste it into the Deal "Amount", it will fail unless I manually delete any commas. Dollar signs are no problem, but comma's seem to fail. Please correct this Input Validation error.

• Allow Stripe Credit Card and Stripe ACH payment methods to be enabled separately on an invoice.

  I need to be able to pick at the invoice level whether Stripe Credit Card and/or Stripe ACH payment methods are available. Currently, I'm not able to select from the two Stripe payment methods individually on an invoice. However, there are some larger

• Feature Request - Allow Customers To Pick Meeting Duration

  Hi Bookings Team, It would be great if there was an option to allow customers to pick a duration based on a max and minimum amount of time defined by me and in increments defined by me. For example, I have some slots which are available for customers

• YouTube Live streaming? how to? Zoom has this feature, built-in. Can't find it on zoho meetings.

  YouTube Live streaming? how to? Zoom has this feature, built-in. Can't find it on zoho meetings.

• Feature Request - A Way To Search Item Groups

  Hi Inventory Team, I can't find any way to filter or search by fields of Item Groups. It would be great to see that functionality added. I have a use case where a single product might come from 5 or more suppliers and each supplier's item is an Item in

• Feature Reqeust - Include MPN In Selectable FIelds

  I have noticed that the MPN is not available to show in the list view of Items. Please consider adding it as EAN, UPC and ISBN are all available, so it doesn't make much sense to exclude this similar option. Thanks for considering my feedback.

• Feature Request - Option To Hide Default System Fields on Items

  Hi Zoho Inventory Team, As far as I know it is not possible to hid some of the defult system fields on Items, such as UPC, MPN, EAN, ISBN. A good use case is that in many cases ISBN is not relevant and it would be an improved user experience if we could

• Next Page