Billing Management: #4 Negate Risk Free with Advances

In the last post, we explored how unbilled charges accumulate before being invoiced. But what happens when businesses need money before service begins?

​
Picture this: A construction company takes on a $500,000 commercial building project expected to last 12 months. The first step is sending the client a detailed quote. Once accepted, the builder requires a 20% advance before breaking ground. This advance payment doesn't represent complete work; it secures raw materials, labour, and permits to get the project moving. The client feels reassured that the project will start on schedule, while the builder gains the cash flow needed to set everything in motion.

​
This is the essence of advance billing. Unlike unbilled charges raised after usage or delivery, advance billing ensures businesses have funds available before or during service execution, reducing the risk and ensuring smooth operations.

This post will explore the nuances of advance billing and the best way to handle it.

 

Types of Advances 

Across industries, businesses collect advances in different ways depending on their needs: Advance Invoices, Security Deposits or Retainers, Prepaid Subscriptions, Down Payments, Reservation or Booking Advances, and so on. Though these advances carry different names and practices, they all represent the same principle: to secure funds upfront before service fulfilment.

 

When do businesses need/use Advance Billing?  

Businesses rely on advance billing in two situations:

• Before a Project or Subscription Begins- Customers agree to pay in advance, securing their commitment and giving the business working capital.
  

• ​Ahead of a Billing Cycle- Customers make payment before the cycle starts, allowing businesses to run smoothly with guaranteed funds.
  

Let's look at some real-time use cases where Advances becomes handy.

 

​Scenario 1: Hospitality Bookings 

A corporate client plans a $50,000 retreat at a luxury resort six months in advance. To confirm the booking, reserve rooms, and coordinate vendors, the resort requires a 20% upfront payment. Without this, the business would risk blocking dates without certainty of the client's commitment. By collecting advance payment, the resort secures the funds and the assurance that the event will occur.

 

​Scenario 2: Consulting Project 

A consulting firm signs a $120,000 strategic engagement with a client. Before the project begins, the firm must dedicate senior consultants, purchase specialized research reports, and reshuffle schedules. Covering these costs and securing the client's commitment requires a 30% payment before the project process. This advance ensures the consulting team can jump into the work with resources ready rather than worrying about delayed payments or last-minute cancellations.

 

​Scenario 3: SaaS Annual Prepayment 

A SaaS platform charges $2000 per month for its enterprise plan. Instead of paying month by month, a client chooses to prepay the entire year for $24,000. This advance means guaranteed revenue and reduces churn risk for the SaaS provider. For the client, it simplifies budgeting and often comes with a cost benefit or a discount. The advance serves as a year-long commitment on both sides.

 

​Scenario 4: Online Training  

An education company launches a six-month course at $500 per month. Before the end of the month, the training institute sends a payment link to ensure that students pay ahead of the renewal cycle. This advance confirms students' continuity and allows the institute to plan the resources properly.

 

Beyond the four different businesses, advances or credits are vital in Construction and infrastructure, Professional services, Education and training, Healthcare, Travel agencies, and many more.

 

The first and second scenarios are one-time deliverable tasks: a one-time booking and a consulting project. They require an advance invoice to collect payment, which will be adjusted against the total amount. This invoice should not necessarily be part of the usual invoice, as it will be applied against the total when the service is delivered.

 

When you look at the other two scenarios, they are subscription-based and typically billed either ahead of the billing cycle or as an advance while the subscription is in progress.

 

Bail out with Zoho Billing

Across these cases, businesses face two recurring needs:

• Sometimes advances must be invoiced upfront- for cases like consulting retainers or SaaS prepayments.
  

• ​Sometimes, advances are commitment payments held as credits, such as event deposits, manufacturing down payments, or hospitality booking advances.
  

Zoho Billing's Advance Billing & Retainers are carefully built to handle:

1. ​Retainer Invoice for One-time & Projects: Businesses can raise invoices for upfront retainers, record the payment, and apply it to the final bill.
   
2. Advance Invoices: Businesses can raise a valid taxable invoice for upfront payment and track it until adjusted.
   
3. Advance Payment Request: Businesses can collect money securely through a payment link as credits and apply it later to the final bill.
   

Zoho Billing stands out because retainers can be applied to an invoice anytime it is created. On the other hand, in a subscription-based ecosystem, advanced billing does not disrupt the regular billing cycle. Invoices are still raised on schedule, monthly, quarterly, or annually.

​
The difference lies in how payments are applied. Advances are automatically adjusted against invoices, ensuring that businesses always receive funds in advance while customers continue to receive their regular bills accordingly.

Billing Spectrum 

Adopting advanced billing allows businesses to create financial stability and secure customer commitment early on. This naturally sets the stage for usage-based billing, where charges depend on actual consumption. Unbilled charges, advance billing, and usage billing complete the billing spectrum for modern revenue management using Zoho Billing.

 

Our next stop will be at Usage Billing. Stay tuned!

 

• 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

• Add an option to disable ZIA suggestions

  Currently, ZIA in Zoho Inventory automatically provides suggestions, such as sending order confirmation emails. However, there is no way to disable this feature. In our case, orders are automatically created by customers, and we’ve built a custom workflow

• Formula field with IF statement based on picklist field and string output to copy/paste in multi-line field via function

  Hello there, I am working on a formula field based on a 3-item picklist field (i.e. *empty value*, 'Progress payment', 'Letter of credit'). Depending on the picked item, the formula field shall give a specific multi-line string (say 'XXX' in case of 'Progress

• Unified Directory : How to Access ?

  I signed in to Zoho One this morning and was met with the pop up about the upgraded directory (yay!) I watched the video and pressed "Get Started" ... and it took me back to the standard interface. How do I actually access the new portal/directory ?

• Zoho CRMの流入元について

  Zoho CRMとZoho formsを連携し、 formsで作成したフォームをサイトに埋め込み運用中です。 UTMパラメータの取得をformsを行い、Zoho CRMの見込み客タブにカスタム項目で反映される状況になっています。 広告に関してはUTMパラメータで取得できているため問題ないのですが、オーガニック流入でフォーム送信の場合も計測したいです。メールやGoogle、Yahoo、directなどの流入元のチャネルが反映されるようにしたいのですが、どのように設定したら良いでしょうか。 また、

• Error While Sign in on Zoho Work Drive

  Dear Team, I hope this email finds you well. I have recently created a Zoho account and started using it. But while I am trying to log in to Zoho work drive it won't log me in its crashing every time I try it. I have tried it on android app, phone browser

• Choosing a portal option and the "Unified customer portal"?

  I am trialling Zoho to replace various existing systems, one of which is a customer portal. Our portal allows clients to add and edit bookings, complete forms, manage their subscriptions and edit some CRM info. I am trying to understand how I might best

• Translation support expanded for Modules, Subforms and Related Lists

  Hello Everyone!   The translation feature enables organizations to translate certain values in their CRM interface into different languages. Previously, the only values that could be translated were picklist values and field names. However, we have extended

• Unified task view

  Possible to enable the unified task view in Trident, that is currently available in Mail?

• Bigin, more powerful than ever on iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe, and watchOS 26.

  Hot on the heels of Apple’s latest OS updates, we’ve rolled out several enhancements and features designed to help you get the most from your Apple devices. Enjoy a refined user experience with smoother navigation and a more content-focused Liquid Glass

• Importing data into Assets

  So we have a module in Zoho CRM called customers equipments. It links to customers modules, accounts (if needed) and products. I made a sample export and created extra fields in zoho fsm assets module. The import fails. Could not find a matching parent

• Allow instruction field in Job Sheets

  Hello, I would like to know if it is possible to have an instruction field (multi line text) in a job sheet or if there is a workaround to be able to do it. Currently we are pretty limited in terms of fields in job sheets which makes it a bit of a struggle

• Streamlining Work Order Automation with Zoho Projects, Writer & WorkDrive

  Hello Community, Here is the first post in 'Integration & Automation' Series. Use Case :: Create, Merge, Sign & Store Documents in Zoho WorkDrive. Scenario :: You have a standard Work Order template created in Zoho Writer. When a task status is chosen

• The dimensions of multilingual power

  Hola, saludos de Zoho Desk. Bonjour, salutations de Zoho Desk. Hallo, Grüße von Zoho Desk. Ciao, saluti da Zoho Desk. Olá, saudações da Zoho Desk. வணக்கம், Zoho Desk இலிருந்து வாழ்த்துகள். 你好，来自 Zoho Desk 的问候。 مرحباً، تحيات من Zoho Desk. नमस्ते, Zoho

• Multi-line address lines

  How can I enter and migrate the following 123 state street Suite 2 Into a contact address. For Salesforce imports, a CR between the information works. The ZOHO migration tool just ignores it. Plus, I can't seem to even enter it on the standard entry screen.

• Accessing Zoho Forms

  Hi all, We're having trouble giving me access to our company's Zoho Forms account. I can log in to a Forms account that I can see was set up a year ago, but can't see any shared forms. I can log into Zoho CRM and see our company information there without

• Cost of good field

  Is there a way we can have cost of good sold as a field added to the back end of the invoicing procedure and available in reports?

• How to add image to items list in Invoice or Estimate?

  Hello! I have just started using Zoho Invoice to create estimates and, possibly to switch from our current CRM/ERP Vendor to Zoho. I have a small company that is installing CCTV systems and Alarm systems. My question is, can I add images of my "items" to item list in Zoho Invoice and Estimates and their description? I would like to show my clients the image of items in our estimates so they can decide if they like these items. And I tell you, often they choose more expensive products just because

• Issue with the Permission to Zoho Form

  I am getting an error by signing in to zoho form as it is stated that i don't have permission to access this is admin account

• CRM templates

  Hello everyone, In my company we use Zoho campaigns where we set up all newsletters and we use Zoho CRM for transactional emails. I have created some templates in Zoho campaigns but from my understanding i cannot use those in Zoho CRM, right?

• Pending Sales Order Reports

  Pending sale order report is available for any single customer, Individual report is available after 3-4 clicks but consolidated list is needed to know the status each item. please help me.

• Zoho Mail SMTP IP addresses

  We are using Zoho Mail and needs to whitelist IP for some redirections from your service to another e-mails. You can provide IP address list for Zohomail SMTP servers?

• Trying to Add Tasks to Other Users Is Utterly Baffling

  As the title says, the process of trying to create a task for someone in my team is so unintuitive and illogical that I have given up trying to do it. This is a feature that I pay for but it is so poorly devised and implemented that my team has given

• Zoho Campaigns - Why do contacts have owners?

  When searching for contacts in Zoho Campaigns I am sometimes caught out when I don't select the filter option "Inactive users". So it appears that I have some contacts missing, until I realise that I need to select that option. Campaigns Support have

• email forwarding not working

  Your email forwarding service does not work. I received the confirmation email and completed the confirmation, after that nothing and nothing since no matter what I have tried. Shame as everything else was smooth. I spose it's harder to run one of these web based internet mail services than you guys thought!!! can you fix the email forwarding asap PLEASE!

• Google Ads Conversions Not Being Tracked in Zoho CRM

  We have 3 different conversions created in our Google Ads Account. Only one of the 3 conversion types is tracking in Zoho CRM. Our forms are Elementor Forms that are mapped into Zoho CRM. It apprears to me that all leads are showing up in Zoho CRM, but

• Enable Locations for Expense

  Hi, please enable Locations (ex Branches) for Zoho Expense so that there is consistency between this app and Zoho Books. Thanks in advance.

• 无法发送消息;原因:5545.1.8电子邮件传出被阻止。

  求帮助，我的邮箱无法发送邮件，请尽快修复。 我们只是用来做正常的资料寄送，如果贵公司再无理封锁我们的邮箱，我们会改用其他公司的服务。 请尽快解封，ID: 815556404

• in the Zoho Creator i have File Upload field get the file on submission of the form Get the File and upload to Zoho Books

  in the Zoho Creator i have File Upload field get the file on submission of the form Get the File and upload to Zoho Books . how I get the file From zoho creator and upload to Zoho Books . using Api response = invokeUrl [ url: "https://www.zohoapis.com/creator/v2.1/data/hh/l130/report/All_Customer_Payments/"+input.ID

• Generate a link for Zoho Sign we can copy and use in a separate email

  Please consider adding functionality that would all a user to copy a reminder link so that we can include it in a personalized email instead of sending a Zoho reminder. Or, allow us to customize the reminder email. Use Case: We have clients we need to

• Rate Limiting in Zoho Flow (OpenAI API)

  Hi Everyone, We are facing some issues when using Zoho Flow as we have a deluge script running which is making external calls to OpenAI endpoint. Sometimes the response takes more than 30 seconds meaning the script will timeout. We want to implement a

• Placing a condition before converting the LEAD

  Hi,  I need some assistance with Lead conversion. I need to place certain conditions before allowing the user to convert the lead.  For example: up until the certain status's doesn't equal "green" don't allow to convert lead.  I tried creating this using

• it is possible to open a widget via deluge script function

  I have one function that is workflow action I call my fucntion I need to call the internal widget it is possible to open or it have to please tell me the solution

• Creator - Portal Custom Domain

  I will pay $100 in crypto to anyone who can actually get my Creator Custom Domain to function (actually tell me how you got yours to).  Domain verifies, Nothing. I've been fighting it a week, multiple chats to customer service. Clearly I'm doing something wrong.  Some datapoints Domain name itself unimportant, can be a string of numbers.  I need to know what registrars are working for you because GoDaddy does NOT.  Do I need hosting? I've tried both ways and nothing works.  I pushed through Cloudflare

• steps and options to change Domain DNS/Nameservers settings

  Please share the options or steps to change  Domain DNS/Nameservers settings 

• Employees in Leave Policy exceptions

  In the Leave Policies we should be able to add specific employees to the exception list So it will be like All Employees except A,B,C in the exception list, currently we can only add departments etc

• How get stock name from other column ?

  How get stock name from other column ? e.g. =STOCK(C12;"price") where C12 is the code of the stock

• Adding a developer for editing the client application with a single user license

  Hi, I want to know that I as a developer I developed one application and handed over to the customer who is using the application on a single user license. Now after6 months customer came back to me and needs some changes in the application. Can a customer

• Download an email template in html code

  Hello everyone, I have created an email template and I want to download it as html. How can i do that? I know you can do it via the campaigns-first create a campaign add the template and download it as html from there. But what if i don't want to create

• Attachment is not included in e-mails sent through Wordpress

  I have a Wordpress site with Zeptomail Wordpress plugin installed and configured. E-mails are sent ok through Zeptomail but without the included attachment (.pdf file) Zeptomail is used to send tickets to customers through Zeptomail. E-Mails are generated

• Upcoming Changes to the Timesheet Module

  The Timesheet module will undergo a significant change in the upcoming weeks. To start with, we will be renaming Timesheet module to Time Logs. This update will go live early next week. Significance of this change This change will facilitate our next

• Next Page