How to maintain steady cash flow during the COVID-19 crisis using Zoho Invoice

How to maintain steady cash flow during the COVID-19 crisis using Zoho Invoice

Dear customers,

I hope this finds you and your loved ones in good health.

As we are witnessing, the COVID-19 pandemic has started taking a toll on businesses of all types. Here are some useful tips that could help you streamline your invoicing and AR processes to keep your business healthy.

1. Communicate clearly with your customers:
During this period, transparent communication with customers is a necessity. A lot of businesses have started displaying messages on their home pages, explaining their BCP (Business Continuity Process) and other important announcements they want to convey to their customers.

As an additional means of communication, you can use the banner message in the customer portal of Zoho Invoice. The banner message is visible in the home page of the portal, so it can help get the customer's attention quickly. You can set up this message under Settings > Preferences > Portal.

2. Relax the deadlines for estimates and invoices:
Your customers' priority at this moment will be keeping their family and loved ones safe, which might mean your estimates get accepted a little later than usual. Same goes for your invoice payments. Instead of bombarding the customer with multiple reminder emails, you can relax your policy and push back the expiration dates and due dates of your estimates and invoices. 

To push back the dates on individual transactions, you can simply edit and make the changes. However, you can also perform this action in bulk (for up to 25 transactions in one go). Here's a screenshot that explains the steps:



You can follow the same steps in the Estimates section to update expiration dates in bulk.

 3. Be approachable:
As a standard business practice, you might have set up automatic payment reminders in Zoho Invoice to go out on specific days before or after the invoice due date. However, given the current circumstances, you can definitely expect delays in payment.

Since you have control over the content that goes out in these reminder emails, think about rephrasing it to let your customers know that if they need any assistance, they can reach out to you by phone or email. This way, your finance team doesn't have to wait and wonder whether the customer will make their payment or not, or spend time sending extra emails. You can tweak your reminder email content under Settings > Reminders.

By making it easy for your customers to approach you and treating them on a case-by-case basis, you can actually bring down the number of unpaid transactions.

Let's say you have done this and have clearly stated how your customers can contact you. Now, what responses can you expect from them?
a) "I might not be able to pay the full invoice amount on time."
b) "I might not be able to pay the full invoice amount at all."
c) 'If you can offer me a discount, I can pay now."

Tips 4, 5, and 6 can help you handle these cases efficiently.

4. Enable partial payments for invoices:
Rather than waiting for your customers to be able to make a full invoice payment, you can encourage them to make partial payments for invoices so that you can have a steady cash flow. If you are collecting payments online, you can enable this option while creating or editing an invoice.



If you collect payments offline, you can convey this information through the 'Terms and Conditions' field on the invoice.

5. Offer discounts:
By offering discounts on your outstanding invoices, you are proving that you care about your customers enough to give them a bit of a break. If you don't see the option to apply discounts to existing invoices, please enable it under Settings > Preferences > General.

6. Write off invoices in special cases:
If you've extended the deadline for a payment, but your customer has really run out of funds and won't be able to make the payment any time soon, you can waive the invoice so you can move ahead with your accounting. 



Since written-off invoices turn into bad debt, use the Bad Debt report in the Reports section of Zoho Invoice to make sure you're not accumulating too much. 

7. Increase the credit limit for loyal customers:
If a customer has been with you for a long time and is sticking with you during this period, an increased credit limit is a good way to thank them for their business. By increasing their credit limit, you are letting them know that you continue to want their business. The option to set a credit limit is available when you create or edit a customer profile.

Though some of these tips might have a negative effect on your finances temporarily, they can gain you long-term benefits like customer loyalty and customer retention, which will help your business recover more easily. 

Did you find these tips useful? Can you think of some other best practices that businesses can use to get through difficult times? Let us know in the comments. 

Note from Zoho: If you need any assistance regarding Zoho Invoice, our support team is available 24 hours a day, Monday-Friday. You can also reach out to us through email (support@zohoinvoice.com), live chat, or phone.

Because Zoho recognizes that our own customers may be facing difficult times right now, we have rolled out an Emergency Subscription Assistance Program (ESAP) to help small businesses through this crisis. Learn more about this program.

Take care and stay safe! We'll get through this storm together.

Regards,
Harikrishna
Customer Relations | Zoho Finance


    • Sticky Posts

    • Zoho Finance Workshop 2023 is coming to the USA. Get exclusive training on Zoho Finance apps, one-on-ones, and more.

      Hello all, We'd like to invite you to our biggest Zoho Finance workshop in the United States. After a brief break, we are excited to be back. This year, we're bringing together our customers and community members for two days of curated hands-on sessions,

    • How to maintain steady cash flow during the COVID-19 crisis using Zoho Invoice

      Dear customers, I hope this finds you and your loved ones in good health. As we are witnessing, the COVID-19 pandemic has started taking a toll on businesses of all types. Here are some useful tips that could help you streamline your invoicing and AR processes to keep your business healthy. 1. Communicate clearly with your customers: During this period, transparent communication with customers is a necessity. A lot of businesses have started displaying messages on their home pages, explaining their

    • Introducing: Digital signature for estimates and invoices

      Dear customers, We are pleased to announce that the much awaited Zoho Invoice - Zoho Sign integration is live! You can now sign your estimates and invoices before emailing it to your customers. Also, you can have them sign your estimates while accepting it. Here is our help document to help you get started: https://www.zoho.com/invoice/help/integrations/sign-integration.html Note: This feature is available across all editions of Zoho Invoice except the Indian edition. Out of all the feature requests

    • Webinar: Introduction to the Client Portal

      Business owners know there is never enough time in the day. Not only do you have to beat the competition and make the sale, you then have to make sure you get paid. In fact, the sales process starts way before the sale, and never really ends. Preparing and getting estimates approved, collecting payments, and fielding customer requests for information related to past transactions are all part of the day in the life of a business owner. Well, Zoho Invoice can offer some relief to weary business owners.

    • Recent Topics

    • Add Built-in "Partner Finder" / "Contractor Directory" Tab to Zoho Desk Help

      Hi Zoho Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request a new feature for the Zoho Desk Help Center: A built-in, configurable "Partner Finder" / "Contractor Directory" tab or section, similar in concept to your own Zoho Partner Finder at: 🔗

    • Can't get sender adress to work

      Hi, I am having some trouble getting the sender adress to work for responses on tickets. I would like to configure a sender adress that is different from the zohodesk emailadress that is normally used. These are the steps I have followed: 1. Add a new

    • Question Regarding Deleted Reports in Zoho Desk Analytics

      Dear Zoho Desk Support Team, I hope this message finds you well. We have a question regarding the Analytics module in Zoho Desk, specifically related to deleted reports/dashboards. We would like to understand the following: Is there a recycle bin, recovery

    • Add an option to start zobot when user clicks the Chat with Us button

      I would like to have an option to start the zobot when user clicks on "Chat with us" button when chat widget is maximized

    • Zoho Books - Feature Request - Provide "Show PDF View" toggle on Invoice records

      I have noticed it is possible to activate or deactivate the PDF preview on some records but not all. This would be very helpful on Invoices when a custom template is being used and the PDF preview does not represent the output file. Not available on:

    • Incorrect Handling of XLSX data

      Trying to import an XLSX schedule of bills into Zoho Books I ran across the problem of date formatting. To replicate: Build a CSV file with bill dates in whatever format you like and import it - this should work if you match the "dd/MM/yyy" etc. format

    • How do I modify the the incoming/current call popup? I can modify other call pages but not that one.

      I want to modify the incoming and active call popup on the crm to include customer relevant information, such as purchase history or length of relationship. Under modules and fields, I don't seem to see active call as a choice to modify, only the main

    • Disable Smart Filters By Default

      The smart filters "feature" is causing confusion for Zoho Mail users. New emails should be delivered to the inbox unless they have specifically opted to redirect them somewhere else. People don't understand that new emails might be waiting in a random

    • Set File Upload fields as mandatory

      Currently the CRM for some reason lacks the ability to set a file upload field as mandatory So we have an issue We have a requirement that before a Deal stage is set as Deal is Won the member needs to upload a file Now for some weird reason in Zoho I

    • Introducing Zoho PDF Editor: Your free online PDF editing tool

      Edit your PDFs effortlessly with Zoho PDF Editor, Zoho's new free online PDF editing tool. Add text, insert images, include shapes, embed hyperlinks, and even transform your PDFs into fillable forms to collect data and e-signatures. You can edit PDFs

    • Empowered Custom Views: Cross-Module Criteria Now Supported in Zoho CRM

      Hello everyone, We’re excited to introduce cross-module criteria support in custom views! Custom views provide personalized perspectives on your data and that you can save for future use. You can share these views with all users or specific individuals

    • Share saved filters between others

      Hi, I am in charge to setup all zoho system in our company. I am preparing saved filters for everybody, but the only one can see its me. How can others see it? Thanks

    • Update Lead Status in Zoho CRM When a Meeting is Booked via Microsoft Bookings

      Hi everyone, I’m trying to streamline our lead management process and would like to automatically update the Lead Status in Zoho CRM whenever a meeting is booked through Microsoft Bookings. Has anyone successfully implemented this kind of integration

    • Adding Columns to Reports

      Hi, Is it possible to choose fields to be added as columns in the reports? Thank you.

    • How do I automatically assign the project owner for all tasks in Zoho Projects?

      I have been researching for days on how to automatically assign all the tasks to the project owner on creation of the project in Zoho Projects. I have been having to go in and manually change all the task owner from 'unassigned' to the owner of the project

    • Import from Linkedin

      Please provide a way to enable importing contact information for Contacts and Companies from Linkedin? Thanks

    • Help Needed with Creating Close % Reporting

      Now that our company has a good data set to work with we want to use ZCRM reports ways to track the performance metrics we have established. Specifically, I want to be able to calculate closing % for individual salespeople and individual support people.

    • Canvas: Add Sections to Detail View

      Currently it is only possible to add fields to a canvas detail view. This makes Canvas hard to maintain, because everytime we add a field to our system, someone needs to go into the canvas view and add it there as well. This leads to additional work and

    • CRM Kiosk - Action for GetRecords

      I have a Kiosk screen with GetRecords and want to use the selected records in a custom function. My particular case is to set a lookup value on the selected records. Generally speaking though, I want to work with the selected records in a function. I

    • Create static subforms in Zoho CRM: streamline data entry with pre-defined values

      Last modified on (9 July, 2025): This feature was available in early access and is currently being rolled out to customers in phases. Currently available for users in the the AU, CA, and SA DCs. It will be enabled for the remaining DCs in the next couple

    • Extract Archived Projects using Zoho Projects API

      In my organization we archive the projects when they are already completed, charged, invoiced, so that only those that are still pending process remain active. I need to access all projects (active and archived) from an external system, but the API v3

    • Email for customer to provide payment information

      Is there a way for customers when you set up a subscription to get an email that prompts them to put in their billing information to start their subscription? Also, can you show the subscription in their portal?

    • Unable to display field label from a hidden Single Line Textbox in Description

      Hi folks, I'm unable to display my hidden field, e.g. ${zf:SingleLine4} , in my description. I'm pre-filling this hidden Single Line Text box via "Field Alias - Pre-fill URL" settings. I noticed that my decimal form fields work, e.g. ${zf:Decimal}, and

    • Zoho Books | Product updates | July 2025

      Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From plan-based trials to the option to mark PDF templates as inactive, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience. Introducing Plan Based Trials in Zoho

    • transforming 1D tables to 2D and the other way round

      Does Dataprep have tools to convert 1D tables to 2D tables and the other way round? The actions that are commonly called "pivot" and "melt". What I mean is transitioning between these two kinds of table: 2D id ____ name ____ surname ____ age 00 ____ Matt

    • More context, fewer tabs: View lookup modules' data within a CRM Canvas page

      Hello everyone, How often do your users juggle multiple browser tabs just to piece together the full context of a record? This update can make their lives easier. You can now add lookup modules' fields to a Canvas detail view page and a Canvas list view

    • Lookup fields

      Is there any way to add Lookup fields to Zoho FSM -- I do not see the option but I see default lookup fields in different modules

    • Zoho Analytics - Bill Table

      Hi I am new to Zoho and mainly work in Books. Recently learned of Zoho Analytics and am exploring it to create reports that would be useful for me. For example, I want to create a bills cash forecast by week for cash flow planning. When I start to create

    • Sudden Layout Issue After Last CSS Update for ZML (Temporary Fix Inside)

      Hi, Our clients have noticed today that every section laid out with ZML suddenly shows an unwanted top padding/blank space that interrupts the user screens. It appears that Zoho has changed the default CSS for the .zcp-col.zcp-panel-rowtype-auto element.

    • How to see history on Bulk send of Customer Statements

      Hi, We bulk send statements to customers every month via Books - every month we have customers emailing requesting a statement. Currently I have no visibility on if a customer was sent the statement or not and if our process is being followed or overlooked

    • Add Prebuilt "Partner Finder" Template with Native Zoho CRM Integration in Zoho Sites To: Zoho Sites Product Team

      Hi Zoho Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request a prebuilt "Partner Finder" template for Zoho Sites, modeled after your excellent implementation here: 🔗 https://www.zoho.com/partners/find-partner-results.html ✅ Use Case: Our organization

    • Creating a tax - amount table in Analytics

      Hi everyone, I would like to create a report in Zoho Anayltics that creates the tax and amounts in a table. I have been able to create a report that shows me all the tax accounts, but I can't get it combined with the amounts of the accounts. Is there

    • Kits: Option to Hide Associate Items on Documents

      The new Kit type of Composite Item is very helpful, and we're already using it in several different ways. One problem is that there seems to be no way to hide the components on some documents, including Package Slips. There is an option given in settings

    • Is it possible to do custom domains on test accounts that use saml setups?

      In Zoho Billing, Is it possible to do custom domains on test accounts that use saml setups for the customer portal?

    • Introducing prompt builder in Zoho CRM

      We’ve introduced a new way to put Zia’s generative AI to work—right where your teams need it most. With the all new prompt builder for custom buttons, you can create your own AI instructions to generate tailored content, suggestions, or summaries across

    • I’m facing an issue while trying to upload a PDF file to a custom file upload field within the Leads module via the Zoho CRM API.

      Hi Zoho Team, I’m facing an issue while trying to upload a PDF file to a custom file upload field within the Leads module via the Zoho CRM API. I am able to manually upload a PDF into this field through the UI. I am also able to upload files as attachments

    • No chat option

      Chat option is not available in Android app.

    • Centralized Domain Verification in Zoho CRM Plus

      Hi Team, I have a suggestion regarding Zoho CRM Plus. It's quite frustrating to verify the same domain separately for each application within the suite. It would be really helpful if you could introduce a centralized admin console—similar to what's available

    • Why Are Columns Reset When Deleting Entry

      Hello, this is quite annoying. We use forms as a questionnaire for candidates, we filter entries by removing columns, when we delete an entry the columns reset. Every "delete" the columns reset, why!? Thank you

    • How to add custom templates in zoho sheets mobile

      How can I add custom templates in Zoho spreadsheet mobile?

    • Next Page