What's New - April 2025 | Zoho Backstage

What's New - April 2025 | Zoho Backstage

Hello there,

Phew! It’s been a busy month—and it’s all for you.

You know that feeling when your to-do list is long, your coffee’s gone cold, but your team is absolutely crushing it behind the scenes? That’s been us this month. Between brainstorming, building, tweaking, and testing—we've had our heads down, sleeves rolled up, and minds focused on one thing: helping you run smoother, smarter, and more engaging events. 

Every little update we pushed live this month was sparked by a real need from organizers like you. And honestly? That’s our favorite way to build. You throw us the challenges, and we’ll keep showing up with better, faster, and (hopefully) cooler ways to handle them.

So as the calendar flips, we hope you’ll take a moment to explore what’s new, give it a spin, and tell us what you think. 

Automated refunds with cancellation fee deductions

Plan availability: Included in the Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans



Event organizers often face the challenge of handling last-minute cancellations and issuing partial refunds. With our new custom cancellation policy, you can now automatically deduct a cancellation fee from the refund amount when an attendee cancels their booking.

How it works:
  • Set a cancellation fee as a percentage of the ticket price.
  • The system automatically handles fee deduction and tax adjustments.
Setting up:
  1. Navigate to Registrations > Cancellation Policy.
  2. Select Custom Cancellation Policy.
  3. Define up to 10 cancellation rules. (maximum window: 60 days before event)
Attendees will see the applicable policy:
  • During registration
  • On their Your Orders page
  • While canceling their order
The deducted fee is automatically logged in the cancellation and refund history, viewable by both attendees and organizers.


Notes
Fee changes apply only to new orders. For partially refunded orders, any remaining amount can still be refunded later.

Order and attendee activity logs  

Plan availability: Included in the Free, Essentials, Premium and Ultimate plans

Get complete visibility into every update made to attendee and order data with our new activity log. Whether changes were made by an organizer, purchaser, or attendee, you can now view a detailed activity trail.

This audit log captures a record of updates and changes related to attendee and order management. Whether an organizer updates an attendee’s name, a purchaser reassigns a ticket, or a ticket class is changed, the system now logs each of these actions automatically for full traceability.

The log currently captures the following types of activities:
  • Updates to attendee details, such as name, email, or custom fields.
  • Changes made to order details, including purchaser info and billing data.
  • Ticket reassignment, when a ticket is transferred to another attendee.
  • An order being marked as paid or unpaid, reflecting changes in payment status.
  • Ticket class changes, such as upgrading or downgrading an attendee's ticket.
These logs are grouped into three categories for easy review:
  1. Portal Activities – actions performed via the organizer portal.
  2. Order Activities – all modifications related to individual orders.
  3. Attendee Activities – updates and changes linked directly to attendees.
This enhancement is especially helpful for teams managing large events, providing an added layer of accountability and operational clarity. With audit trails now available, you can confidently trace back who made what change and when, minimizing confusion and improving team collaboration.

Export attendee data with deleted fields 

Plan availability: Included in the Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans



Managing attendee information often requires flexibility, especially when event organizers make changes to registration forms mid-way through the event setup or after registrations have already started. To support this, Zoho Backstage now offers a new enhancement that allows organizers to include deleted fields when exporting attendee data.

This enhancement ensures that you won’t lose access to that data, even if the field no longer appears on the live form. This gives full control over whether historical data from removed fields should be preserved and reviewed offline.

How to use:
  1. Navigate to Registrations > Attendees.
  2. Click Export.
  3. There, you'll find a new option: Include deleted fields. When selected, any data submitted for removed fields will be included in the export.
In the exported file, these deleted fields will be clearly marked using the following format: {fieldName}_Deleted. This helps distinguish them from currently active fields while still making the historical data available for review or reporting purposes.

Add attachments to scheduled emails 

Plan availability: Included in the Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans

Attachments are a common and essential part of email communication, especially in event planning. Organizers often need to send event brochures, images, venue maps, or other materials to attendees ahead of time. With this update, they can now do so simply within their scheduled emails.



How to use:
  1. To add an attachment, simply go to Communicate > Emails > Scheduled Emails > Create an Email > Options > Add Attachment. You can upload relevant files from your event or space library during the email creation process.
  2. You can upload relevant files from your event or space library during the email creation process.
When you preview the email, the attachments will be visible so you can verify everything is in place before sending. If any attached file is later removed from the event or space library, it will be shown as “deleted” in the email preview—helping you avoid broken links or missing files.

Try it out the next time you send a scheduled email!

Session details in speaker emails   

Plan availability: Available in the Free, Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans



We’ve enhanced speaker communication in Zoho Backstage by adding session details directly to speaker emails. This ensures speakers have all the information they need—without requiring additional follow-ups or manual updates.

Two key email updates have been introduced:
  • Welcome Speaker email now includes the speaker’s assigned session details, helping them understand exactly when and where they’re expected to present.
  • Session Updated email is a new automated email that gets triggered whenever sessions are assigned to a speaker or when existing session details, such as timing or location, are changed. The email will show either a New Sessions section, an Updated Sessions section, or both, depending on the changes made.


You can find and manage these templates under:
  • Communication > Emails > Automated Emails > Speakers

Enable/disable Workflows during event creation 

Plan availability: Included in the Premium and Ultimate plans
 



This feature gives event organizers more control over workflow management during the event creation process in Zoho Backstage. Any workflows configured at the portal level are automatically listed when creating a new event. By default, these workflows are enabled, but organizers can choose to disable specific ones based on the needs of the event—directly during setup.

This flexibility helps prevent workflows from being overlooked or incorrectly applied, making the event setup more efficient and consistent. Organizers can also revisit and update these settings later, ensuring each event has the most relevant workflows in place.

SalesIQ chat in OnAir  

Plan availability: Included in the Premium and Ultimate plans



We’re excited to share that SalesIQ Chat is now integrated with the OnAir platform, enabling real-time communication between participants and organizers during live events and rehearsals.

 Attendees can now initiate chats directly within OnAir, ensuring timely responses to their questions. Speakers and exhibitors can also use the chat feature during rehearsals for smooth coordination.

Organizers can configure chat visibility from:
  • Design > Edit Website > Integrations > Zoho Sales IQ
  • Settings > Integrations > Live Chat
You can choose to display the chat on the event website, within OnAir, or both. All conversations are managed through your existing SalesIQ portal.

This integration enhances engagement and simplifies event communication for a better overall experience.

Gamification Leaderboard now supports public display links  

Plan availability: Included in the Premium and Ultimate plans

Leaderboard display allows event organizers to showcase real-time competition results across the venue, encouraging attendees to engage more actively through visible, friendly competition.

This encourages friendly competition and boosts attendee engagement.

You can generate secure, public links directly from the Manage Leaderboard page. These links display only ranking information—no sensitive attendee data—and are ideal for projection screens throughout your event space. Multiple links can be created, each with a unique session ID, screen name, browser, and IP, giving you full visibility and control.



Key features include:
  • Expiration controls: Links expire at the event’s end time, with the option to extend or set a custom expiry date.
  • Security: A password-protected interface ensures only authorized users can access the leaderboard. Use the Copy Password button to easily share credentials with your AV team or display partners.
  • Screen tracking: Each display session requires a screen name, which appears alongside session data in your dashboard, making it simple to identify and manage screens.
  • Session control: End individual sessions instantly or reset the password to terminate all active sessions for added security.


Info
Important: If you don’t copy the link at the time of creation, it can’t be retrieved again—make sure to save it immediately.

 To set it up, go to Manage > Engagement > Gamification.

 Bring your leaderboard to life—visibly, securely, and with complete control.

Time field in forms  

Plan availability: The availability of this feature depends on the type of form:

  • Registration form – Included in Premium and Ultimate plans
  • Custom forms – Included exclusively in the Ultimate plan
  • Exhibitor request form – Included in the Premium and Ultimate plans. Also available in the Essentials plan when used with the Exhibitor add-on.
  • Sponsor request form – Included in the Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans
  • Session feedback form – Included in the Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans

You can now collect time-specific responses using the newly introduced Time field in the form builder. Ideal for gathering details like arrival times, session preferences, or any time-based input, this feature gives you greater precision and control during data collection.

Organizers can configure the field to accept inputs in 12-hour or 24-hour format, and optionally define a time range to limit selections. The default format shown to respondents will align with the event’s time format set under Manage > Event Info.

For example, if you're coordinating airport pickups or hotel transfers, you can easily request attendees’ expected arrival times during registration or through custom forms.

Registered session participants export  

Plan availability: Included in the Free, Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans



You can export the list of registered attendees for individual sessions, making it easier to manage participation and access attendee details at the session level.

To use this feature, navigate to Manage > Sessions, select the relevant session, and go to the Participants > Registered tab. From there, you’ll find the option to export the list of participants who have registered for that specific session.



The export file will include the following columns:
    1. Name
    2. Email
    3. Ticket ID
    4. Ticket Class
    5. Session Title
This update provides quick access to session-specific attendee data, helping organizers better plan logistics, monitor participation, and coordinate follow-ups.


You keep the ideas coming—we’ll keep delivering.

Let’s make May 2025 even better.

Info
All the features and enhancements mentioned in this article are available across all Zoho Backstage-supported data centers.
If you have any questions, please contact support@zohobackstage.com. 

    • Recent Topics

    • Get instant summaries of your notes with the help of Zia

      Hello all, We've added a simple yet powerful feature to Zoho CRM that we're excited for you to try: Zia Notes Summary. It's designed to make the daily lives of a CRM user a bit easier by giving you quick summaries of your CRM notes. Whether it's a glance

    • Zoho one web page are not available

      Why I am not able to enter to zoho one web page?

    • Zoho People > Onboarding > Candidate do not view all the data field on the Employee Onboarding

      Hello In my onboarding portal I do not see all the fields that i want the candidate to fill in In my Employee Onboarding Form These details i can see In the work information, i have enable the Company View but in the Employee Portal i do not see I have

    • Has anyone implemented a ""switch"" to redirect emails in production for testing?

      Hi everyone, In our production Zoho CRM we have a fairly complex setup with multiple Blueprints and Deluge functions that send emails automatically — to managers and internal staff — triggered by workflows. We’re looking for a way to *test changes safely*,

    • Restrict Access/Shared Access

      Sometimes access to documents that go out from Zoho Sign need to be restricted or shared. For example: 1) HR department send out employment contracts. Any Zoho Sign admin can view them. Access should be restricted to those that HR would allow to view

    • Tip#44: Integrate with Xero to manage your financial operations

      Managing your project finances becomes more efficient with Xero integration in Zoho Sprints. With this integration, you can sync your Zoho Sprints data with Xero. Once you sync them to Xero, you can easily create invoices in Xero. This feature significantly

    • Zoho People Onboarding Unable to Convert to User

      Hello All I need help in this onboarding of candidate Currently at this stage the candidate is just being offered and we are filling in his details however not all information are fill up. The candidate is still using his/her personal email When i try

    • Integration with SharePoint Online

      Is there an integration where we can add a Zoho Sign link to the context menu of a document in the SharePoint document library. Then, we could directly initiate a workflow of sending a document for signature from a document library in SharePoint onl

    • White screen when connecting Zoho Cliq and Zoho People for birthday notifications

      Hi everyone, I'm new to Zoho and I'm trying to set up the employee birthday notifications, following this guide: Automating Employee Birthday Notifications in Zoho Cliq But when I try to connect Zoho Cliq with Zoho People, I just get a white screen and

    • Word file is messed up when i upload it to zoho sign

      Hi. I am trying to upload a word file to zoho sign and when i do that it ruins the file, It adds spaces and images are on top of each other. What can i do? Thanks.

    • Annotate widget?

      Is there something in creator or any zoho app that allows me to have an image markup field item in the form? I need to be able to complete a form that also allows the user to mark up a preloaded image. Other compay's call this an image markup field or

    • Dashboards / Home Page - Logged In User

      Lots of the dashboards that we use reference the Logged In User.  We also set up Home Pages for specific roles, where the Logged In User is referenced within the custom view.  As an admin, that means that these views are often blank when customizing and

    • I'm pissed as fuck

      What the hell Zoho! Always the same goddam problem. It takes time because the simplest things just don't fucking work. Today it just took me 3 hours to complete and send a 1page privacy letter to a client. And you know what 99% of the document was already

    • Configure Notifications for API Limit

      Hello developers, APIs are essential for businesses today as they enable seamless integration between different software systems, automate workflows, and ensure real-time data sync. To ensure that admins are notified well in advance before APIs reach

    • Introducing Blueprints for Custom Modules!

      Hello developers, We've added a new feature called Blueprints in Custom Modules. Blueprints are the online representation of a business process. In Zoho Books, you can use Blueprints to design a process flow using states and transitions. Developers can

    • Campaign Links Blocked as Phishing- Help!

      We sent a Campaign out yesterday. We tested all of the links beforehand. One of the links is to our own website. After the fact, when we open up the Campaign in our browser, the links work fine. The links in the emails received, however, opened in a new

    • Zoho Tables July 2025 Update: Smart Creation, Smarter Automation

      We’re excited to introduce a powerful set of updates across Web, Android and iOS/iPad apps. From AI-assisted base creation to advanced automations and mobile enhancements, this release is packed with features to help you build faster, automate better,

    • Zoho Voice est désormais en France !

      Nous avons des nouveautés très intéressantes qui vont transformer la façon dont vous communiquez avec vos clients. Zoho Voice, la solution de téléphonie d'entreprise et de centre de contact basée sur le cloud est arrivée en France ! Vous pouvez enfin

    • Numbers in MA

      I have an issue rationalising the various numbers around MA2. Not convinced that any are truly accurate. However have a specific problem in that i have a list with 1301 records in the list view. When i come to email there is only 1289 Then have another

    • Android mobile app unable to log in

      When I open the mobile up for zoho mail it asks me to sign in, but when i push the sign in button nothing happens. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling still not working

    • Pie chart in Zoho Analytics shows ridicoulous numer of decimals of a percentage.

      Is there a way to set the number of decimals of a percentage value in the Pie chart? Now it displays 15 decimals instead of a round-off value. The value is a count and percentage calculated in the chart, so there is no number of decimals that can be specified

    • Zoho People > Leave Management > Unable to import balance leave

      Hello Zoho I am unable to import balance leave into the system I have follow the steps It show only 5 fields - the date field i am unable to select from date and to date Error Date in excelsheet

    • Narrative 4: Exploring the support channels

      Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system - BTS Series Narrative 4 - Exploring the support channels Support channels in a ticketing system refer to the various communication methods that customers use to contact a business for assistance. These

    • Tip of the Week #65– Share email drafts with your team for quick feedback.

      Whether you're replying to a tricky customer question or sharing a campaign update, finding the right words—and the right tone—can be tough. You just wish your teammates could take a quick look and give their suggestions before you send it. Sometimes,

    • How to Initiate WhatsApp Message on SalesIQ?

      I've just activated a Business WhatsApp phone number through SalesIQ because of its touted omnichannel chat approach. Sounds exciting. I understand that when a customer sends me a WA message, I can reply to it on SalesIQ and keep the chat going, perfect.

    • Episode IV:Handling User Inputs in custom functions

      Hi Everyone, We've been exploring custom functions which help in performing advanced automation tasks. Custom functions enable you to achieve possibilities based on your organization's requirements. Custom functions require user inputs that allow the

    • Set a lead as non-marketing if they opt out of email marketing

      I'm gathering Lead data via an enquiry form and wish to give them the option to opt out of marketing emails (which we send from Marketing Automation) whilst retaining the ability to send them non-marketing emails - so the email opt-out field doesn't work.

    • Set up multiple IMAP email addresses

      Hi, I just started using CRM and its great, but I just found out I can only add one imap email address for incoming mail in the included salesinbox ...this is ridiculous. All companies have different email such as sales@domain, info@domain , personal@domain

    • Zoho Recruit to Zoho People integration

      In the mapping of field from Zoho Recruit to Zoho People i am unable to map all fields What can i do

    • Zoho Recruit > Career Site > Customisation

      Hi All I have created multiple career site to represent my different organization In my Quanta Media career site > I set it with the with Quanta Malta view In my job opening : Quanta Malta view 2 job opening In my URL for quanta media https://lri.zohorecruit.eu/jobs/Quanta-Malta

    • Formatting Blueprint Stages (buttons)

      Is there a way to format Blueprint transition buttons in Creator like background colour, text colour etc.

    • Disable Default Value in Multi-Select field

      Hello, Is there a way to disable the default value feature when setting up a custom Multi-Select field? When creating tickets I would like it so there isn't a value pre-selected in the multi-select custom field that was created.

    • How to set custom business hours for different teams in Zoho Desk?

      Hi Zoho Team and Community, I’m trying to set different business hours for multiple departments in Zoho Desk. For example, our tech support team works 24/7, while our billing team is only available from 9 AM to 5 PM (Mon–Fri). Is there a way to assign

    • Zia Auto Tag Keyword Clusters

      Is there a way to remove a keyword from a keyword cluster? We're finding that Zia auto-tag is tagging things incorrectly based on some words that don't really make sense.

    • 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

    • HOw do I make a refund?

      I have a client that needs a refund. I see a refund history in the Report area... but where do I go to make a refund?

    • Creating a work order for dispatch

      We currently uses ZOHO for CRM and Intuit Field Service for creating Work orders and dispatching. This is causing double entry and is not efficient use of time.  I would like to use ZOHO for all customer related activities so can you tell me if you can :  Create a work order that we could manipulate to meet our needs.  Also if you could then dispatch that would be ideal. Thank you

    • "code": "500","description": "Account not exists", mail api

      I have been through all the steps and have a functioning Oath access_token etc etc... I then GET https://mail.zoho.com/api/organization And get my zoid then GET http://mail.zoho.com/api/organization/<hidden>/accounts and get the account details, which

    • Residual Formatting in Text Boxes After Undoing Pasting of Formatted Text

      Hi, guys! I have another problem to report. Actually, I have been aware of this for many months, possibly years, but I have been too lazy to report it to you. My apologies! Let's say you've pasted a formatted string into a text box. You change your mind

    • Feature Request: Stripe Terminal Integration

      I would like to request the addition of Stripe Terminal integration to Zoho Books, which will help process in-person payments. While Zoho Books already supports online payments through Stripe, extending this functionality to include Stripe Terminal would

    • Next Page