Customer Management: #2 Organize Customers to Enhance Efficiency

When Ankit started his digital services firm, things felt simple. A client would call, ask for a website or a one-time consultation, Ankit would send an invoice, get paid, and move on.

"Just one client, one invoice. Easy.", he thought.

Fast forward a year, and the business looked very different. Some clients paid one-time for projects. Some were on monthly maintenance retainers.

A few large clients had multiple teams, each raising requests and invoices separately. Some partners and resellers also required special pricing.

One afternoon, while reviewing outstanding payments, Ankit caught himself asking,

"Wait.. which invoice belongs to which team?"

"Did the head office already pay for this?"

"Why does this customer have three different records?"

That's when it hit him: onboarding customers was only the first step.

To scale smoothly, he needed a better way to organise customers rather than add them.

Zoho Billing addresses this exact challenge by helping businesses structure and segment customers in ways that match how they operate.

Organising Customers in Zoho Billing 

Once customers are onboarded, the next step is organising them effectively to support growth, improve visibility, and maintain strong customer relationships. As businesses expand, managing customer data, transactions and financial workflows can quickly become complex.

Zoho Billing simplifies this with two powerful features:

• Customer Hierarchy

• Customer Groups

These features help businesses clarify customer relationships while keeping billing operations flexible and scalable.

Customer Hierarchy 

Many businesses work with customers who operate across multiple locations, departments, or business units. In such cases, a hierarchical structure becomes essential.

Typically, a parent company oversees the financial obligations of one or more child companies.

Zoho Billing's Customer Hierarchy feature allows you to organise customers into a clear parent-child structure, providing centralised visibility and control over transactions.

In this setup:

• The parent customer represents the central organisation or head office.

• Child customers represent branches, departments or sub-entities. 

Transactions created for a child customer can be made visible to the parent customer. This ensures transparency and avoids confusion when multiple teams or locations are involved.

Additionally, Zoho Billing allows payments and credits from the parent customer to be applied to the child customer's invoices, providing additional flexibility.

Imagine a company offering network infrastructure to corporate clients with offices in four cities. Each office raises separate service requests and receives individual invoices.

Instead of treating each office as a distinct customer, Zoho Billing allows you to:

• Create the corporate entity as the parent customer.

• Add each branch as a child customer.

 

This way, the head office can view all outstanding balances, track invoices across locations, and make consolidated payments when needed. The billing team gains clarity, and the customer gets a smoother billing experience.

Customer Groups 

While Customer Hierarchy focuses on structural relationships, Customer Groups help businesses organise customers based on shared characteristics.

As a business grows, it often serves customers with similar pricing needs, payment terms, or discount structures. Managing these preferences individually can be time-consuming and error-prone.

Customer Groups in Zoho Billing let you segment customers by common attributes and manage them together. With Customer Groups, you can:

• Assign a common pricelist

• Apply discounts

• Set payment terms

• Make bulk updates across multiple customers.

Changes made at the group level can be allowed to apply automatically, or you can choose how it can be used by customers within that group, ensuring consistency.

Picture this, a SaaS company offers its product to:

• Direct customers

• Resellers

• Enterprise clients 

Each category requires different pricing and payment terms. Using Customer Groups, the business can create groups such as Resellers, Enterprise Customers and Direct Customers.

Special pricing and terms can be defined for each group. Whenever a new reseller is onboarded, they are added to the Resellers group and automatically receive the suitable pricing and conditions, without manual adjustments.

Customer Hierarchy Vs Customer Groups 

While both features help organise customers and have similarities to an extent, they serve different purposes.

Features	Customer Hierarchy	Customer Groups
Structure	Parent-child relationship.	Grouped by common attributes.
Transaction Visibility	A parent can view/manage their child's transactions (with permission).	No transaction sharing.
Reporting	Consolidated financial reporting is possible.	Group-based insights can be obtained.
Best Fit for	Businesses with branches, subsidiaries or departments.	Businesses need segmented pricing or terms.

 

Understanding the difference helps businesses choose the proper structure or even use both together for optimal organisation.

What does Organising Customer offer to businesses? 

An effective customer organisation goes beyond clearer records. It directly impacts how efficiently a business operates.

When customers are structured correctly:

• The billing team spend less time resolving confusion

• Payments are tracked more accurately

• Pricing and terms remain consistent

• Customer relationships feel more professional and reliable

By leveraging Customer Hierarchy and Customer Groups, Zoho Billing helps businesses shift from reactive billing management to proactive financial control, laying a strong foundation for long-term growth. 

Up Next: Offering Customers different privileges

• 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

• Facebook follower count doesn't match FB Analytics

  Hi all, I am wondering if anyone else has issues with follower counts for Facebook not matching FB's native analytics tool. On the Zoho dashboard, it's showing 1,007, but FB shows 1,060. All the other channels match up. Any insights are much appreciated!

• Meta and Facebook data report discrepancy

  I have been currently gathering manually facebook follower data thru meta. In zoho marketing plus the social media reporting only allows for page likes, and so there is a discrepancy with the data. please the difference in files attached. Is there way

• Unlocking New Levels: Zoho Payroll's Journey in 2025

  Every year brings its own set of challenges and opportunities to rethink how payroll works across regulations and teams. In 2025, Zoho Payroll continued to evolve with one clear focus: giving businesses more flexibility, clarity, and control as they grow.

• Can I export all attachments from Zoho CRM?

  Can I export all attachments from Zoho CRM?

• Community Digest — Noviembre y Diciembre 2025

  ¡Hola, Comunidad de Zoho en Español! Cerramos el año de la mejor forma con nuestro último Community Digest de 2025, donde podrás encontrar las últimas novedades de nuestros productos. ¿Todo listo para empezar 2026 con el mejor pie? ¡Vamos a ello! Zoho

• Zoho Projects Plus’ 2025- the year we launched

  We’ve been building project management tools for the past 19 years, and a question we often hear is: Different teams in our organization prefer different project management methods; while the development team prefers agile, the marketing and sales teams

• Zoho Books emails suddenly going to Spam since 11 Nov 2025 (Gmail + now Outlook) — anyone else?

  Hi everyone, We migrated to Zoho Books in July 2025 and everything worked fine until 11 Nov 2025. Since then, Zoho Books system emails are landing in customers’ Spam (first Gmail, and now we’re seeing Outlook/Office 365 also starting to spam them). Impacted

• How do you print a refund check to customer?

  Maybe this is a dumb question, but how does anyone print a refund check to a customer? We cant find anywhere to either just print a check and pick a customer, or where to do so from a credit note.

• Company Multiple Branch/ Location Accounting

  Hi All, anyone know whether company can maintain their multiple Branch Accounting in Zoho  Books. It will be chart of Accounts & Master Data will be same but different report available as per per Branch. Thanks & regards, Vivek +91 9766906737

• Zoho Books Invoices Templates

  It would be really helpful to have more advanced features to customise the invoice templates in Zoho Books. Especially I´m thinking of the spacing of the different parts of the invoice (Address line etc.). If you have a sender and receiver address in

• Email Administrators! Join our tips & troubleshooting series

  Greetings to all the admins out there! This announcement is exclusively for you. As we step into the New Year, we’re excited to start a dedicated series of admin-specific tips curated to support you. These posts will help you overcome everyday challenges

• Deprecation of the Zoho OAuth connector

  Hello everyone, At Zoho, we continuously evaluate our integrations to ensure they meet the highest standards of security, reliability, and compliance. As part of these ongoing efforts, we've made the decision to deprecate the Zoho OAuth default connector

• Free Webinar : Unlock AI driven business insights with Zoho Inventory + Zoho Analytics

  Are you tired of switching between apps and exporting data to build customized reports? Say hello to smarter & streamlined insights! Join us for this exclusive webinar where we explore the power of the Zoho Inventory–Zoho Analytics integration. Learn

• Import Function: ONLY update empty fields

  When setting up an import from a spreadsheet to CRM, there is a checkbox "Don't update empty values for existing contacts" (see screenshot below). While I see some limited benefit from this functionality, I think there should also be an "ONLY update empty

• Begin the year with best practices in the Zoho Desk mobile app : Part 2

  In focus: Optimizing collaboration and supervision Let's begin 2026 with Part 2 of our tips series on driving your ticketing operations at your fingertips. In Part 1, we explored streamlining operations within tickets. This helped individuals at Omniserve

• How to update "Lead Status" to more than 100 records

  Hello Zoho CRM, How do I update "Lead Status" to more than 100 records at once? To give you a background, these leads were uploaded or Imported at once but the lead status record was incorrectly chosen. So since there was a way to quickly add records in the system no matter how many they are, we are also wondering if there is a quicker way to update these records to the correct "Lead Status". I hope our concern makes sense and that there will be a fix for it. All the best, Jonathan

• JWT Token authentication problem that sometimes generates infinite redirect loops

  Description : Nous proposons un bouton sur notre plateforme permettant de rediriger l'utilisateur vers le portail ZohoDesk via un jeton JWT pour une authentification transparente. Cependant, il arrive que certains utilisateurs soient pris dans une boucle

• ZOHO Work Drive Back Up

  I am looking for a ZOHO Work Drive backup solution. Something that is cloud based. There's lots of these kinds of options for Google Drive and other providers, but I have not seen anything for WorkDrive. Any suggestions?

• ZOHO Reports - Filter Logic?

  Hi, I need a way to apply filter logics such as ((1 AND 2) OR 3). All I can see as of now is a way to enter different AND filters in the respective filter column. But how can I add an OR filter? Any advice would be highly appreciated. Mark

• Scanned Doc - selecting Item overwrites Rate

  I have a Vendor Invoice which was uploaded to Documents. I select Add To > New Bill. The OCR is actually quite good, but it is reading an Item Description instead of an Item Number. I remove the description and select the correct Item Number... and it

• Recruit API search

  Hi all, Attempting to call the search api endpoint from Postman using the word element as mentioned in api docs Search Records - APIs | Online Help - Zoho Recruit When making the call to /v2/Candidates/search?word=Saudi receive response of { "code": "MANDATORY_NOT_FOUND",

• Saving reading position + Keep screen on

  While Zoho Notebook is excellent for saving and annotating articles, its utility is severely limited by the lack of reading progress synchronization. On the Android app, if a user exits a long note after reading 50%, the app fails to save the position.

• Multiple Vendor SKUs

  One of the big concerns we have with ZOHO Inventory is lack of Vendor Skus like many other inventory software packages offer. Being able to have multiple vendor skus for the same product would be HUGE! It would populate the appropriate vendor Sku for

• Zoho LandingPage is integrated with Zoho One!

  Greetings to the Zoho One users out there! We're delighted to let you know that Zoho LandingPage is available in Zoho One too! With Zoho LandingPage, you can host custom-made landing pages, and persuade the visitors to dive deeper by making further clicks,

• Android app sync problem - multiple devices have same problem

  Hello, I am having a problem with synchronization in the Android app. When I create a drawing, the data does not sync correctly—only a blank note is created without the drawing. I tested this on multiple devices, including phones and tablets, and the

• How can i resend a campaign to only one of the recipients on the original campaign

  How can i resend a campaign to only one of the recipients on the original campaign ? Sincererly, Mike

• How to show branch instead of org name on invoice template?

  Not sure why invoices are showing the org name not the branch name? I can insert the branch name using the ${ORGANIZATION.BRANCHNAME} placeholder, but then it isn't bold text anymore. Any other ideas?

• Marketing Automation Requirements Questions

  I would like to set up a multi-email drip campaign- please see the structure below and confirm if I can achieve this set up in Zoho marketing automation. Where applicable, highlight gaps and workarounds. Thanks Drip email campaign- Can I create one drip

• how to change the page signers see after signing a document in zoho sign

  Hello, How can I please change the page a signer sees after signing a document in Zoho Sign? I cannot seem to find it. As it is now, it shows a default landing page "return to Zoho Sign Home". Thanks!

• Question about using custom_fields in Storefront Add-to-Cart API (error 2003 – required details)

  Hi everyone, I’m working with the Zoho Commerce Storefront API, specifically the Add to Cart endpoint: POST /storefront/api/v1/cart According to the documentation, this endpoint supports a custom_fields parameter for adding line-item custom data. I’m

• Can a project be cloned?

  Good afternoon, greetings. I would like to ask if it's possible to clone a project in Microsoft Project. I found a way to do it using templates, but I'm not sure if there's a direct way to clone a project. Thank you in advance for your attention, and

• Timesheet Tasks in Zoho Books: associate to service item

  How do we associate a service item to timesheet tasks in Zoho Books? For example: Joe spent 5 hours on project:task1 which is Service Item#1 (Income:Service1). When the invoice is issued thru the Project Invoice section, this is not available. When the

• Task/Activity indicator in SalesPipeline overview has disappeared

  I Just logged in my ZOHO CRM first 2026 checking my salespipeline overview , Every record card used to show an indication that there was an open task (Yellow if the expiry date was close, red if the expiry date was today and grey when it had expired).

• Tip #56- Accessibility Controls in Zoho Assist: Hearing- 'Insider Insights'

  As we begin the new year, it’s a great time to focus on making our tools more inclusive and accessible for everyone. Remote support often involves long hours in front of screens, varying lighting conditions, and users with diverse accessibility needs.

• Zoho Desk Android app update: Table view for All Departments view, custom button

  Hello everyone! In the latest version(v2.9.25) of the Zoho Desk Android app update, we have introduced Table view for the 'All Departments' view in the ticket module. We also have supported an option that allows tickets in the Table view to be sorted

• What's New - December 2025 | Zoho Backstage

  In December, Backstage introduced a focused set of updates that improve how you manage registrations, communicate with attendees, and track participation. These enhancements are designed to give organizers greater flexibility and clearer control across

• Add multiple users to a task

  When I´m assigning a task it is almost always related to more than one person. Practical situation: When a client request some improvement the related department opens the task with the situation and people related to it as the client itself, the salesman

• A Roundup of Zoho Sprints 2025

• Sorting Custom Date in API isn't working w pagination limit

  How can we sort a custom field with DATE using pagination? Starting at page=1 then moving to page=2 with a limit of 10 each, its all messed up and even shows some of the same records as page 1? https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v2/INVOICE_MODULE/search?criteria=(FM_Contact_ID:equals:1234)&sort_by=Invoice_Date&sort_order=desc&per_page=10&page='

• SAP Business One(B1) integration is now live in Zoho Flow

  We’re excited to share that SAP Business One (B1) is now available in Zoho Flow! This means you can now build workflows that connect SAP B1 with other apps and automate routine processes without relying on custom code. Note: SAP Business One integration

• Next Page