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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
- Retainer Invoice for One-time & Projects: Businesses can raise invoices for upfront retainers, record the payment, and apply it to the final bill.
- Advance Invoices: Businesses can raise a valid taxable invoice for upfront payment and track it until adjusted.
- 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.
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.
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
Apply Advance option not shown in report
We are facing an issue in Zoho Expenses. While approving an Expense Report, the "Apply Advance" option is not appearing under the three dots (More Options). Details: Module: Expense Reports Issue: "Apply Advance" option not visible Status of Report: AwaitingAuto Capitalize First Letter of Words
Hi I am completely new to ZOHO and am trying to build a database. How can i make it when a address is entered into a form field like this: main st it automatically changes is to show: Main St Thank YouFollow-up emails via Workflow Automation not staying in the same thread
Dear Zoho Support Team, I am currently using Workflow Automation in Zoho Campaigns to send follow-up emails. In my test case, I noticed the following behavior: All emails in the automation have the same subject line. If the follow-up email is sent withinClient Script refuses to set an initial value in Subform field
I tried a very simple, 1 line client script to set a default value in a custom subform field when the "Add Row" button is clicked and the user is entering data. It does not work - can someone tell me why? ZDK documentation suggests this should be doable.Help Center IFrame Issue
I have had a working Help Center on my website using an iframe for a while. But now for some reason the sign in page gets a refused to connect error. Can someone please help. If I go to the url manually it works correcltyComment Templates
Is it possible to add a template option for comments? We have some agents in the process who's responses require a pre-formatted layout. It would be incredibly handy to have a template for them where they can insert the template and then add their responses[ZohoDesk] Improve Status View with a new editeble kanban view
A kanban view with more information about the ticket and the contact who created the ticket would be valueble. I would like to edit the fields with the ones i like to see at one glance. Like in CRM where you can edit the canvas view, i would like to editAdding Markdown text using Zoho Desk API into the Knowledge Base
Hi Zoho Community members, We currently maintain the documentation of out company in its website. This documentation is written in markdown text format and we would like to add it in Zoho Knowledge Base. Do you know if there is REST API functionalityShared values: From classroom lessons to teaching moments in customer service
While the world observes Teachers’ Day on October 5, in India, we celebrate a month earlier, on September 5, to mark the birth anniversary of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a great teacher, renowned scholar, educationist, and advocate for empowerment.Create a list of customers who participated in specific Zoho Backstage events and send them an email via Zoho CRM
How to create a list of customers who participated in specific Zoho Backstage events and send them an email via Zoho CRM? I was able to do a view in CRM based on customer that registered to an event, but I don't seems to be able to include the filterZoho Desk blank page
1. Click Access zoho desk on https://www.zoho.com/desk/ 2. It redirects to https://desk.zoho.com/agent?action=CreatePortal and the page is blank. Edge browser Version 131.0.2903.112 (Official build) (arm64) on MacOSI hate the new user UI with the bar on the left
How can I reverse this?Question regarding import of previous deals...
Good afternoon, I'm working on importing some older deal records from an external sheet into the CRM; however, when I manually click "Add New Deal" and enter the pertinent information, the deal isn't appearing when I look at the "Deals" bar on the account'sClient Script also planned for Zoho Desk?
Hello there, I modified something in Zoho CRM the other day and was amazed at the possibilities offered by the "Client Script" feature in conjunction with the ZDK. You can lock any fields on the screen, edit them, you can react to various events (fieldOne person/cell phone to manage multiple accounts
Hi. I have a personal Free account to keep my own domain/emails. Now I need to create a Business account to my company's own domain, but I have only one mobile phone number I use to everything. How do I do to manage this? Can I manage a Free domain andTracking KPIs, Goals etc in People
How are Zoho People users tracking employee targets in People? For example, my marketing assistant has a target of "Collect 10 new customer testimonials every month". I want to record attainment for this target on a monthly basis, then add it to theirZoho Desk: Ticket Owner Agents vs Teams
Hi Zoho, We would like to explore the possibility of hiding the ‘Agents’ section within the Ticket Owner dropdown, so that we can fully utilise the ‘Teams’ dropdown when assigning tickets. This request comes from the fact that only certain agents andCan not Use Attachment Button on Android Widget
this always pops up when I touch the attach button on android widget. going to settings, there is no storage permission to be enabled. if I open the app, and access the attach feature there, I can access my storage and upload normally.Announcing new features in Trident for Mac (1.24.0)
Hello everyone! Trident for macOS (v.1.24.0) is here with interesting features and thoughtful enhancements to redefine the way you plan and manage your calendar events. Here's a quick look at what's new. Create calendar events from emails. In additionMass Mail Statistics - Number of unsent emails
How do I find out which emails were not sent?Est-il possible d'annuler l'envoi d'un mail automatique ?
Bonjour, Lorsque je refuse un candidat, il reçois un mail dans les 24h pour l'informer que sa candidature n'est pas retenue. J'ai rejeté un candidat par erreur. Savez-vous s'il possible d'annuler l'envoi de ce mail ? Merci d'avance pour votre aide.embed a form in an email
Hello, how to embed a form in an email that populates Zoho CRM cases? I would like to send emails to a selected audience offering something. In the same email the recipients - if interested - instead of replying to can fill in a Zoho CRM form that createsHow to add Zoho demo site page designs to my Zoho Sites website
Hi, I would like to add the design from the following demo URLs into my current Zoho website. I have already created two new pages on my site, named “Menu2” and “Menu3.” For the “Menu2” page, I want to use the design from this demo: https://naturestjuice-demo.zohosites.com/menuDigest Août - Un résumé de ce qui s'est passé le mois dernier sur Community
Bonjour chère communauté ! Voici le résumé tant attendu de tout ce qui a marqué Zoho le mois dernier : contenus utiles, échanges inspirants et moments forts. 🎉 Découvrez Zoho Backstage 3.0 : une version repensée pour offrir encore plus de flexibilité,Text snippet
There is a nice feature in Zoho Desk called Text Snippet. It allows you to insert a bit of text anywhere in a reply that you are typing. That would be nice to have that option in Zoho CRM as well when we compose an email. Moderation Update: We agree thatKaizen #206 - Answering your Questions | Displaying Related Purchase Orders from Zoho Books in CRM Deals using Queries
Hello everyone! We're back with another post in the Kaizen series. We're grateful for the feedback we received from all of you! One of the questions we received was "I would like to see the list of Purchase Orders in Zoho Books for a Deal in CRM." WeAdd Analytics function for Title case (capitalising each word in a string)
At present, you can only capitalise each word in a string in Analytics during data import. It would be really useful to be able to do this with a formula column, but there is no Title Case function.How to conditionally embed an own internal widget with parameters in an html snippet?
Hello everyone, I'm trying to create a dynamic view in a page using an HTML snippet. The goal is to display different content based on a URL parameter (input.step). I have successfully managed to conditionally display different forms using the followingSync more than one Workdrive
Hello Please I'm facing some difficulties since some days. In my company we have many zoho accounts in different organisations. And I have to find a way to sync all these Workdrives. I spend many hours to search it on zoho Workdrive but no solution. Could someone help me ? Any idea how I can achieve it ? Thanks in advance. RegardsBase Currency Adjustment Reversal
Two questions surrounding the base currency adjustments (BCA). I recently ported over from QB so I need to enter the base currency adjustments. In QB, it will calculate the BCA for you at the end of the year and then reverse it at the top of the following year. Makes sense. Does Zohobooks not do this as well? I created a BCA for Dec 31, 2016 but no reversing entry was made Jan 1, 2017. Am I supposed to manually do a reversal? I'm not even allowed to post journals directly to the 'exchange gain loss'Please implement UAE Central Bank FX rates
Hello, as I understand from your knowledge base, any UAE business account created from September 15, 2018 does not have foreign exchange rates fetched automatically. This is a serious inconvenience and I am not sure why ZOHO has not looked into the waysSearch Records returning different values than actually present
Hey! I have this following line in my deluge script: accountSearch = zoho.crm.searchRecords("Accounts","(RS_Enroll_ID:equals:" + rsid + ")",1,200,{"cvid":864868001088693817}); info "Account search size: " + accountSearch.size(); listOfAccounts = zoho.crm.searchRecords("Accounts","(RS_Enroll_ID:equals:"Super Admin Access to All Courses and Spaces in Zoho Learn
Dear Zoho Learn Team, We hope this message finds you well. We are using Zoho Learn extensively for internal and agent training. While managing our courses and spaces, we encountered a significant limitation regarding admin access and course management.Print checks for owner's draw
Hi. Can I use Zoho check printing for draws to Owner's Equity? This may be a specific case of the missing Pay expenses via Check feature. If it's not available, are there plans to add this feature?[New Release 2024] Create and embed custom capabilities across CRM with Kiosk Studio, our latest no-code tool
[Update | New series] We've started publishing a series of posts on Kiosk Studio. It's called Kiosk Studio Sessions and you can check out the first one here! [Update | 15 Oct} Session #2 is live! This one will look at how to create a kiosk for your callRevenue Management: #10 Common Mistakes while Recognizing Revenue
We are at the end of the series on Revenue Management, covering how different businesses recognise revenue. Even with clear standards like ASC 606 and IFRS 15 in practice, businesses often struggle with the nuances of revenue recognition. Especially growingWindows Desktop App - request to add minimization/startup options
Support Team, Can you submit the following request to your development team? Here is what would be optimal in my opinion from UX perspective: 1) In the "Application Menu", add a menu item to Exit the app, as well as an alt-key shortcut for these menusintegarting attachments from crm to creator
when i tried to integrate pdf attachments from crm to creator via deluge i am getting this error {"code":2945,"description":"UPLOAD_RULE_NOT_CONFIGURED"} the code i used is attachments = zoho.crm.getRelatedRecords("Attachments","Sales_Orders",203489100020279XXX8);Search Option
🚫 Current Limitation: As of now (September 2025), Zoho FSM lacks a global search functionality, which makes it difficult to quickly: Find specific Work Orders by number or keyword Search for customer records or contact info Locate assets, jobs, or serviceMobile Chat Window - Full Screen
Hello, The mobile chat window takes up the full screen, which is highly confusing for most customers! Using a desktop machine, I see the same happens when reducing the browser width to 800px or below. This suggests that it responsive web design, causing the switch to full screen. Can we fix this very annoying behaviour ourselves using a custom css file? If so, can you please let me know how? ThanksNext Page