What's New - March 2025 | Zoho Backstage

What's New - March 2025 | Zoho Backstage

Hello there,
 
We’re thrilled to introduce a much-awaited lineup of powerful features and enhancements designed to fulfill your event management needs. Here's a round-up of the latest updates that will enhance your experience with Zoho Backstage this month.

Offer Tickets 

Early bird and limited-time offers are powerful tools to boost ticket sales and generate early revenue. With the new Offer Tickets feature, you can create multiple offers as tiers within a single ticket class, making the process more streamlined and automated.

Previously, you had to create separate ticket classes for each offer and manually manage their availability. Now, you can:
  • Add multiple offers under a single ticket class
  • Automate the offer start and stop conditions
  • Reduce manual intervention
Key benefits
 
  • Increased marketing impact: Time-sensitive discounts create a sense of urgency, encouraging faster ticket purchases.
  • Early revenue and cash flow: Early sales provide immediate cash flow to cover event expenses like venue deposits, marketing, and logistics.
  • Leverage Psychological Triggers:
    • FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): Limited-time availability compels attendees to act quickly.
    • Perceived Savings: Attendees feel they are getting a deal, making them more likely to buy.
How to use
 
Setting up offers



You can add offers as tiers within a ticket class and configure their availability based on:
  • Time: Set specific start and end dates for the offer.
  • Quantity: Define the number of tickets available at the offer price.
Flexible offer progression
 
From the second offer onward, you can choose to automatically start the next offer when the previous one ends. Or, set a custom start date for the new offer.

Customizing offer display

You can customize how offers are displayed on your event website using the Website Designer. The offer card can show:


  • Current Offer
  • Previous Offer
  • Next Offer
  • Both Previous and Next Offers
This flexibility helps you highlight the most relevant deals and enhance visibility.
 
Good to know 
  • During the ticket purchase process, the offer name appears alongside the ticket class name. The order summary clearly displays the applied offer.
  • After attendees purchase their tickets, the "Your Orders" section displays the offer name along with the ticket class name. The invoice also reflects the offer name for transparency.
  • When manually adding an order, any valid offers associated with the ticket class are applied automatically. There's no need for manual price adjustments.
  • During check-in, only the original ticket class amount is displayed.
  • Offer-tiered tickets cannot be selected during manual check-in.
Click here to learn more. 

Tax Rules - Canada (Early access)

Accurate tax calculation is essential for ensuring compliance and transparency in event management. With the new Tax Rules feature for Canada, you can automatically apply the correct tax rates based on your event location, making tax management simpler and more efficient. Zoho Backstage now allows you to create tax rules for all 10 provinces and 3 territories, which can be selected and applied to an event automatically, ensuring the correct tax rates are applied without manual adjustments. This feature supports in-person, hybrid, and online events, offering flexibility and accuracy.
 
The Canadian tax rule engine covers 10 provinces, 3 territories, multiple tax agencies, and 12 sales tax rates, providing a comprehensive solution for handling event-related taxes.
 


How do taxes work on Canadian events?  
 
For in-person and hybrid events, the tax rate is determined by the event’s physical location, based on the Place of Supply, in compliance with Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) regulations. This ensures attendees are charged the appropriate tax rate according to the province or territory where the event takes place.
 
For online events, where no physical venue exists, the tax is calculated based on the attendee’s location. This ensures the correct sales tax is applied, even when attendees purchase tickets from different provinces or countries.
 
How to use
 
To enable Canada Tax Rules, configure your organization’s location:
  1. Go to Portal Settings > Payments and Tax.
  2. Select Canada as the organization location. 
Once configured, the system automatically populates:
  • 12 default tax rates covering all provinces and territories.
  • 13 tax rules (one for each region).
  • A default rule for online events, applying the correct tax based on the attendee’s location.
  • 5 tax agencies for accurate tax handling. 
You can create new tax rates, groups, and authorities to meet your event’s specific needs. Additionally, you can add custom tax rules for both in-person/hybrid and online events, giving you full control over how taxes are applied.
 
Applying Tax Rules to In-Person and Hybrid events  

​
 
For in-person and hybrid events, Zoho Backstage automatically suggests tax rules based on the event location. The 13 default tax rules cover all Canadian provinces and territories. If the event location changes, the system automatically updates the relevant tax rules to reflect the new region’s rates.
 
You can also create custom tax rules by selecting a specific province or territory and applying a custom tax rate, offering greater flexibility for managing event taxes.
 
Applying Tax Rules to Virtual events
 
For online events, the system uses a default tax rule that covers all Canadian provinces and territories. Taxes are applied based on the attendee's location.
 
Canadian attendees are charged the applicable provincial tax rate.
International attendees are assigned a zero tax rate by default.
 
If you need to apply taxes to international attendees, you can create new tax rules tailored for online events, ensuring compliance with international tax regulations.
Info
  • Tax rules in Zoho Backstage are flexible and dynamic. You can modify them at any time during your event setup. However, changes will only apply to new transactions. Existing transactions will retain the original tax rule, ensuring previous purchases remain unaffected.
  • If you select a non-Canadian location for your event, the Canada Tax Rule will not be applied. This ensures taxes are only charged where applicable, preventing errors in cross-border events.

Event Category  


Categorize and filter events based on custom classifications for organizers and attendees to find and manage events easily. This new addition is aimed at improving event management by giving organizers the flexibility to create, manage, and filter events using custom categories. Organizers can now create up to 100 custom categories when setting up an event, giving them the freedom to define categories that suit their specific needs.
 
Previously, categories selected in Event Info were not utilized elsewhere, and there was no option to add new/manage categories.
Now, organizers can tailor categories to their specific needs and filter them on the Event Directory.

To access: 
  • While Creating an Event: On the Event Info page.
  • For Category Management: Under Portal Settings > Branding > Event Category.
Permissions:
 
Portal Owners & Admins:
  • Add, edit, and delete custom categories.
  • Cannot edit or delete default categories.
Event Organizers:
  • Can only add new categories.
  • Cannot edit or delete existing custom or default categories.

Other Enhancements 

Floor plan Focus Area 



The Focus Area in the floor plan refers to designated spaces within the event venue that are visually highlighted to draw attention to specific sections, such as booths, stages, or key locations. These areas allow organizers to emphasize important spots, making navigation easier for attendees and improving the overall flow of the event. Focus areas help guide visitors to essential parts of the venue, enhancing their event experience.

Custom Dates for  ticket classes (Early access)

In cases where smaller sessions or events (like welcome events, after-event parties, etc.) occur before or after the main event, this feature allows organizers to assign specific dates to separate ticket classes, ensuring tickets are only valid for the selected dates.
Info
Custom dates can be set within 30 days before or after the main event.

New WhatsApp triggers and templates 

The WhatsApp Integration, designed to enhance communication and engagement with all event stakeholders, now includes new triggers and templates to facilitate messaging and ensure timely updates for everyone.
 
For Purchasers:
  • Send Registration Confirmation: Instantly confirm registration to enhance the attendee experience.
  • Order Canceled: Notify purchasers promptly in case of any order cancellations.
For Speakers:
  • Welcome Speaker: Extend a warm welcome to our speakers and set a positive tone for their participation.
  • Speaker Added to a Session: Inform speakers when they’re added to a session, ensuring they are well-prepared.
  • Speaker Removed from a Session: Provide timely updates should there be any changes to their session involvement.
For Sponsors:
  • Thank a Sponsor Before Website is Live: Show appreciation early on, fostering positive relationships with sponsors.
  • Welcome and Thank Sponsor After Website is Live: Acknowledge sponsors publicly once the event website goes live.
  • Deny Sponsor Proposal: Deliver sensitive information with professionalism and clarity.
  • Acknowledge Sponsor Proposal: Confirm receipt of sponsor proposals, keeping communication open and transparent.
For Participants:
  • Event Canceled: Quickly inform participants in the event of cancellations, ensuring they’re kept in the loop.
We are continuously refining Zoho Backstage to make your event management experience even more powerful and intuitive. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming months!
 
If you have any questions, please contact support@zohobackstage.com. 

    • Recent Topics

    • [Important announcement] Removal of Zoho Writer's DocuFiller Add-on

      Hi users, Effective 21st Feb. 2025, we will be removing the DocuFiller add-on for Zoho Writer's Fillable Templates. From that point on, the add-on's functionalities, such as sharing or publishing fillable forms for data collection and receiving submissions

    • Send Automated WhatsApp Messages and Leverage the Improved WhatsApp Templates

      Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. We're excited to announce a major upgrade to Bigin's WhatsApp integration that brings more flexibility, interactivity, and automation to your customer messaging. WhatsApp message automation You can now use

    • Weekly Tips: Manage External Images in Zoho Mail

      When you receive emails every day, whether from clients, newsletters, or services, many of them contain external images that automatically load when you open the message. While this can make emails look more engaging, it can also impact your privacy and

    • Implementing a Self-Invoicing/Vendor Portal in Zoho Creator

      Hello Zoho Community / Creator Experts, We would like to build a Self-Invoicing Portal (Vendor Portal) in Zoho Creator for our external contractors. Our goal is to allow approved contractors to log in, submit their invoice details (hours worked, project

    • Function #32: Schedule low stock notifications on a timely basis to specific users of the organization

      Hello everyone and welcome back to our series! For a business that heavily relies on inventory, monitoring the stock levels and getting timely notifications of low stock items will ensure a smooth sail. Zoho Books allows you to always keep a check on

    • Is it really true that I can't set the default 'deposit to' account in 2025?

      I've been using Books for 7 years and the default account has never been a problem. I usually manually reconcile invoices and have never had a thought about which account. It has always been my account. However, I recently noticed that for the past 4

    • SINCH HUB MESSAGEMEDIA with ZOHO DESK

      1) what I need from MessageMedia, 2) what I want to confirm on the Zoho Desk Dev Forum. MessageMedia – needs and requirements Goal: Send SMS from a Zoho Desk widget for EU users. Auth: HTTP Basic (API Key + Secret). Keys must not live in the browser.

    • Function #46: Auto-Calculate Sales Margin on a Quote

      Welcome back everyone! Last week's function was about displaying the discount amount in words. This week, it's going to be about automatically calculating the sales margin for a particular quote, sales order or an invoice. Business scenario Where there is sales, there's also evaluation and competition between sales reps. A healthy rivalry helps to better motivate your employees to do smart work and close deals faster and more efficiently. But how does a sales rep get evaluated? 90% of the time, it's

    • Invalid URL error when embedded sending url into iframe for my website when using in another region

      Hi team, My site is currently working on integrating your signature feature as part of the system functionality, it's working great but recently there's been a problem like this: After successfully creating the document, i will embed a sending url into

    • New features released: Data from Picture for Web, Pattern Fill, and Translation in Zoho Sheet!

      Hello Sheet users, In 2024, the Zoho Sheet team focused on research and development to bring new features that add to functionalities like productivity, data management, collaboration, and more. This year, we're all set to roll them out incrementally

    • Kaizen #59 - Creating alerts and custom messages using Client Script

      Hello everyone! We are happy to resume our Zoho CRM Developer Community series - The Kaizen series! Welcome back to the new start of Kaizen! This post is about Client Script and its simple use cases involving ZDK Client functions. What is Client Script?

    • Universal search

      Hi, it would be useful if the search bar was universal-so if you entered a term, it would bring up results from contacts, candidates, clients etc all at the same time (but broken down under the relevant headings)

    • Attachment reminder?

      My team and I often need to attach files to our messages, e.g. an explanatory screenshot or a shipping label. More often that I want to admit I mention the attachment but forget to actually attach it. Some email clients have a check-for-missing-attachments

    • ZIA in Zoho Cliq

      Is It possible to use the ZIA feature from Zoho Analytics in the Zoho Cliq?

    • Automating CRM backup storage?

      Hi there, We've recently set up automatic backups for our Zoho CRM account. We were hoping that the backup functionality would not require any manual work on our end, but it seems that we are always required to download the backups ourselves, store them,

    • Multiple upload field CRM

      I desperately need the functionality to add more than one upload field to web to contacts form. How can I do this?

    • Critical Need for Global Search in Zoho FSM

      Hello Zoho FSM Team, We are currently in the process of deciding whether to fully transition to Zoho FSM for managing our field service operations. At present, our team actively uses Zoho Desk (with over 50 users) and Service Fusion, which we are considering

    • Collections Management: # 1 Payment Collection is All About Convenience

      "Sir, can you come tomorrow? My manager wasn't available for the cheque sign-off", the customer said, avoiding eye contact. Ravi forced a polite smile, but inside, he felt a sense of defeat. He had already visited the customer's office twice in the last

    • Can the Product Image on the Quote Template be enlarged

      Hello, I am editing the Quote Template and added ${Products.Product Image} to the line item and the image comes up but it is very tiny. Is there anyway that you can resize this to be larger? Any help would be great! Thanks

    • Audio/video quality issues with Zoho Meeting – Any roadmap for improvement?

      Hi Zoho Team, We’ve been using Zoho Meeting for both internal and external meetings, and unfortunately, the experience has been consistently poor. The video and audio quality are so unreliable that it often renders meetings ineffective—especially with

    • Cash based businesses cannot use the new fixed asset module

      Hello all, If your bookkeeping is reporting in cash, you cannot use the new fixed acid module, as it does all the depreciation bookings accrual and not cash. This is definitive and you can't turn them into a cash booking. They will never appear in your

    • Zoho Learn & Zoho Connect

      Hi, Is there a way to sync the knowledge base we have in Zoho Learn with the manuals section is Zoho Connect? Thanks,

    • Apply Payment Received Amount Zoho Books Invoice

      Hello team here is the sample code How can apply the payment received record over a unpaid zoho books invoice. //......................... paymentID = customer_payment.get("payment_id"); organizationID = organization.get("organization_id"); paymentmaplist

    • [Live Webinar] New in Zoho WorkDrive: AI enhancements, Data Loss Prevention, Version Controls, and more

      Hello everyone, We're excited to bring you another round of powerful updates in Zoho WorkDrive! Join us on May 15 for an exclusive live webinar where we’ll unveil the latest features designed to enhance your team’s productivity, collaboration, and data

    • Live webinar: Streamlining legal operations: Leveraging Zoho WorkDrive for law firm success

      Hello everyone, Managing legal documents across departments and jurisdictions can be complex, but it doesn’t have to be. Join us on March 6 for an exclusive webinar where we’ll show you how Zoho WorkDrive empowers legal teams to stay compliant, organized,

    • Live Webinar: Optimizing back-office operations in the manufacturing industry to maximize profitability

      Hello everyone, We’re excited to invite you to our upcoming live webinar on February 6! Discover how Zoho WorkDrive can help manufacturing businesses optimize back-office operations, improve efficiency, and boost profitability. Our product experts will

    • Live webinar: 2024 recap of Zoho WorkDrive

      Hello everyone, We’re excited to invite you to our year-end live webinar! This session will take you through the transformative features and updates we’ve introduced in Zoho WorkDrive this year, helping you streamline document management like never before.

    • Live webinar: Explore WorkDrive's seamless integrations with key Zoho apps

      Hello everyone, We’re excited to invite you to our upcoming live webinar, where we'll delve into the seamless integration of WorkDrive with other key Zoho applications! This is a fantastic opportunity to enhance your productivity and streamline your workflows

    • Live webinar: Getting the most out of WorkDrive in Zoho Workplace

      Hello everyone, We’re excited to invite you to our upcoming live webinar, where we’ll explore how to maximize your use of WorkDrive as part of the Zoho Workplace bundle. This is a fantastic opportunity to elevate your productivity and streamline your

    • Live webinar: Mastering data migration, organization, and team collaboration

      Hello everyone, We’re excited to invite you to our upcoming live webinar! Discover how to seamlessly migrate your data, optimize file organization, and boost team collaboration using Zoho WorkDrive’s powerful features. This is a fantastic opportunity

    • Join our live webinar: Explore the WorkDrive TrueSync application!

      Hello everyone, We are thrilled to invite you to a live webinar focused on mastering the WorkDrive TrueSync application. Discover how to seamlessly sync your content between the cloud and your computer, ensuring smooth and efficient file management. Our

    • Zoho Creator customer portal limitation | Zoho One

      I'm asking you all for any feedback as to the logic or reasoning behind drastically limiting portal users when Zoho already meters based on number of records. I'm a single-seat, Zoho One Enterprise license holder. If my portal users are going to add records, wouldn't that increase revenue for Zoho as that is how Creator is monetized? Why limit my customer portal to only THREE external users when more users would equate to more records being entered into the database?!? (See help ticket reply below.)

    • Script Editor not an option

      I am trying to apply a script to a sheet and Script Editor is not an option. I don't want to go outside Sheets to do this (like Creator) if it can be done inside Sheets.

    • Envio de mails

      Hola! No puedo enviar mails pero si recibirlos. No se como solucionarlo! Mi dominio es chidobebes.com.ar

    • ERROR CODE :554 - Your access to this mail system has been rejected due to poor reputation of a domain used in message transfer

      In my email configuration: The domain's MX Records are pointed to Zoho The domain's SPF Records have been pointed out successfully DKIM is enabled. DMARC Record is pointed for the domain. The domain name is digioorja.in. Still facing the issue of Error:

    • This Operation has been restricted. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details

      l tried to verify my domain (casalimpaeperfumada.com.br) and its shows this error: This Operation has been restricted. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details.

    • SLOW EMAILS

      Is there an issue with the Zoho server? For two days now I've been having issues with very long buffering. Please advise. Thank you.

    • POP3 authentication error - SOLVED

      Just in case others are as forgetful as me ... As Zoho has changed the POP server for personal and free organisational users, I needed to change the POP server on my email client. This failed persistently but eventually I remembered that I had chosen

    • Add Zoho One Groups/Departments to Shared Mailbox Access

      Hi, I hope you're doing well. Currently, in Zoho Mail, I can manually add specific users or the entire organization to a shared mailbox. However, there is no option to add Zoho One groups or departments. Feature Request: We would like the ability to assign

    • Allow Filters with Only Special Characters in Zoho Mail

      Hi Zoho Mail Team, I hope you're doing well. We have noticed that currently, Zoho Mail does not allow creating filter criteria using only special characters, such as = or #. However, there are scenarios where such a filter is necessary. For example: Filtering

    • Next Page