A new month, a new set of updates. With a mix of new features and thoughtful improvements, you get smoother workflows and better control across registrations, exhibitors, and communications.
Let's take a look at what's new and enhanced in Zoho Backstage for November 2025.
Ticket Waitlist
You asked, you waited, and yes…the waiting finally paid off.
The Waitlist feature helps organizers manage sold-out ticket classes by automatically handling excess demand. When tickets become available due to cancellations or increased quantities, waitlist tickets are automatically confirmed, subject to event and ticket limits. The feature is enabled per ticket class from Registrations > Ticket Class > Edit > Advanced Settings > Waitlist, where organizers can set a specific waitlist quantity. Once tickets sell out, the website displays the Join Waitlist option.
All waitlisted entries appear in a dedicated Waitlist tab under Registrations, where organizers can view, edit, or cancel entries individually or in bulk (up to 20 at a time). Once confirmed or canceled, entries are removed from this tab. Waitlist orders remain visible in the Orders tab with a clear indicator, and waitlisted tickets are tagged within order details. Associated attendees display a Waitlist status in the Attendees tab.
If a waitlist ticket is canceled, a full refund is always issued, regardless of the event’s cancellation policy. Online payments are refunded to the original payment method, offline payments are marked as refunded offline, and unpaid orders are simply canceled. In mixed orders, cancellation fees apply only to confirmed tickets.
For approval-based tickets, requests go through approval before joining the queue. Waitlist confirmations stop once the event enters the Running state. Unconfirmed waitlist tickets are automatically canceled and refunded three days after the event starts. Automated emails notify purchasers about waitlist orders and confirmations.
Plan availability: Included in the Premium and Ultimate plans.
Exhibitor Pro
A smarter, more flexible way to manage exhibitors and booths.
Zoho Backstage introduces a major upgrade to exhibitor management with the Exhibitor Pro add-on, bringing a clear separation between exhibitor visibility (directory listing) and interactive booth management. This structure gives organizers better flexibility, clearer pricing, and the ability to scale across events of any size.
Organizers can create exhibitor categories with benefits, manage exhibitor profiles, handle requests and proposals, display exhibitors on the website and app, assign booths, manage floor plans, and track booth-level analytics such as revenue, leads, meetings, members, and exhibitors. Exhibitors don't log in at this level. It's designed purely for organizer-managed visibility.
Exhibitor Pro is a paid, booth-level upgrade that unlocks full booth functionality. Organizers can assign one Exhibitor Pro add-on per booth, manage booth members and admins, enable collateral, videos, banners, lead scanning, meetings, and complimentary tickets, as well as track detailed booth analytics. Exhibitors gain access to their Exhibitor Space to manage content, leads, meetings, inquiries, members, and rehearsal tools.
Organizers can explore a fully functional booth with sample content, media, leads, meetings, inquiries, members, and Exhibitor Space navigation before purchasing.
Included across Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans, this layer supports unlimited exhibitor listings per event. Exhibitor Pro remains $49 per booth. Existing customers are auto-migrated. Premium plans includes 5 Pro add-ons, Ultimate includes 15, and they now support unlimited exhibitor listings by default.
Exhibitor Import
Exhibitor Import makes it easy to onboard exhibitors in bulk for large expos and recurring events. Instead of creating exhibitors one by one, organizers can now upload exhibitor data using CSV, XLS, or XLSX files and manage everything in one go—saving time and reducing manual errors.
The import option is available within the Exhibitors module and follows a simple three-step flow, supporting up to 500 records per upload. During import, organizers can choose whether to send the Exhibitor Request Approved email to imported exhibitors. This option is enabled by default and can be turned off when communication isn't required.
Smart field mapping and validations ensure data accuracy. Mandatory fields include Exhibitor Category, Company Name, First Name, Email, and Booth Number. The system checks for duplicate emails, category mismatches, duplicate booths, and missing mandatory data. For blank price fields, organizers can apply default pricing, mark exhibitors as free, or skip those records.
After import, organizers receive detailed success and error summaries, with row-specific failure reasons and email reports.
A Merge Existing Requests option prevents duplicates by automatically merging matching records while retaining full history.
Plan availability: Included in the Premium and Ultimate plans.
Other enhancements
Quick access to the embeddable widget
We’ve made it easier for event organizers to access the Embeddable Widget for attendee registrations with a new quick-access entry point. The Embeddable Widget is now available directly under Registrations > Setup > Embeddable Widget, allowing organizers to find and configure it right from the Registration module.
This shortcut is in addition to the existing access under Manage > Promote, so your current workflow remains unchanged. With this enhancement, setting up and managing your registration embed is now faster and more intuitive.
Plan availability: Included in the Free, Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans.
WhatsApp message preference for attendee imports
Organizers can now choose whether WhatsApp messages should be sent during attendee imports. This helps prevent unnecessary WhatsApp credit usage, especially when importing attendees for post-event reporting, internal tracking, or data updates.
During the import process, you can enable or disable WhatsApp messaging from Registrations > Attendees > Import. Based on your selection, WhatsApp messages will either be sent or skipped for the imported attendees.
After the import is completed, the summary screen clearly indicates:
- If WhatsApp messages were skipped based on your selection.
- If messaging couldn't be sent because WhatsApp isn't enabled at the event level.
This ensures full visibility into message delivery during imports.
Smarter country code detection during registration
Phone number country codes are now auto-detected during registration based on the attendee’s location, improving WhatsApp messaging accuracy and credit usage. The system follows this priority:
- IP address
- Browser locale
- Event location (for in-person events)
This works across in-person, virtual, and hybrid events.
Zone module support in workflow automation
You can now automate zone-based access control using Workflow Rules in Zoho Backstage. The Zone module is now available as a workflow trigger under Portal Settings > Automation > Workflow Rules.
With the new Before Check-In, Check-In, and Check-Out triggers, you can control how many times a participant is allowed to access a zone. This enables use cases like limiting food counter visits or restricting multiple goodie collections. Once the defined limit is reached, further check-ins are blocked and organizers are notified in real time.
All the features and enhancements mentioned in this article are available across all Zoho Backstage-supported data centers.
We’re excited for you to experience them in your next event. If you have any question or need access to early access features, please contact
support@zohobackstage.com.
Recent Topics
Hiding Pre-defined Views
You can enhance Zoho with custom views - but you cannot hide the pre-defined views. Most users focus on 4 or 5 views. Right now for EVERY user EVERY time they want to move to one of their 4 or 5 views - they have to scroll down past a long list of pre-defined
why can't agent see accounts & contacts
My new user, with 'Agent' privileges, cannot see records that don't belong to them. How can I give them access? Why isn't this the default configuration in Zoho?
Sender Email Configuration Error.
Hello Team, Hope you are all doing well. We are in the process of creating the Zoho FSM environment in the UAE. When we try to add the sender email address “techsupportuae@stryker.com”, we receive the error message: “Error occurred while sending mail
【Zoho CRM】フィルター機能のアップデート:ルックアップ項目を使ったデータフィルタリング
ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの藤澤です。 今回は「Zoho CRM アップデート情報」の中からフィルター機能のアップデートをご紹介します。 ルックアップ項目を使ったデータフィルタリングがより詳細に行えるようになりました。 この機能は詳細フィルターとカスタムビューで利用でき、必要な情報を正確に取得できます。 これにより、タブ間を移動することなく、より深く正確な方法でデータを絞り込むことが可能になります。 ◉できること 詳細フィルターとカスタムビューで、ルックアップ先タブの項目が選択可能
This will be long, Please bear with me - Next Gen Layout - Search
In general, I think that Zoho are going in the right direction with the Next Gen UI. The latest update brings some nice improvements and all-in-all from a user's perspective I think the improvements are generally very good. However, there are some areas
Zoho Books | Product updates | July 2025
Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From plan-based trials to the option to mark PDF templates as inactive, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience. Introducing Plan Based Trials in Zoho
Zoho Books | Product updates | August 2025
Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From the right sidebar where you can manage all your widgets, to integrating Zoho Payments feeds in Zoho Books, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience.
Quotes Approval
Hey all, Could you please help in the following: When creating quotes, how to configure it in a way, that its approval would work according to the quoted items description, not according to quote information. In my case, the quote should be sent to approval
Change Last Name to not required in Leads
I would like to upload 500 target companies as leads but I don't yet have contact people for them. Can you enable the option for me to turn this requirement off to need a Second Name? Moderation update (10-Jun-23): As we explore potential solutions for
Important Update: Facebook Pages API Deprecation
Dear Zoho Analytics users, As of January 26, 2026, Facebook has officially deprecated Facebook Pages API version 18. This update involves the removal of several metrics that were previously supported by the API. As a result, these changes will affect
Adding a Deal to and Existing Contact
I want to easily add a Deal to an existing Contact. If I click on New Deal on the Contact page this currently this is what happens: All of the mandatory field (and other field) information exists within the Contact. Is there a simple way for it to automatically
Email was sent out without our permission
Hi there, One customer just reached out to us about this email that we were not aware was being sent to our customers. Can you please check on your end?
Flexible Partial-Use Coupons (Stored Value Credits)
Subject: Feature Request: Ability for users to apply partial coupon balances per transaction Problem Statement Currently, our coupons are "one-and-done." If a user has a $50 coupon but only spends $30, they either lose the remaining $20 or are forced
Prevent accidental duplicate entry of Customer Ordersome
Zoho Support has confirmed that Zoho currently does not have any method (using Deluge, flow or any other method) to alert a user when a sales order has been entered twice using the same customer reference number (i.e. a duplicate). Most ERP platforms
Customizing Helpcenter texts
I’m customizing the Zoho Desk Help Center and I’d like to change the wording of the standard widgets – for example, the text in the “Submit Ticket” banner that appears in the footer, or other built-in widget labels and messages. So far, I haven’t found
Migrating Brevo Automation Logic to Zoho Campaigns
Hello Zoho Campaigns Support Team, I am in the process of migrating my email marketing from Brevo to Zoho Campaigns. I have around 10,000 contacts, which I have already successfully exported from Brevo and imported into Zoho Campaigns. I now need guidance
Is there a way to delete workspaces?
I want to remove one of the workspaces in my Campaigns account. I don't see any obvious way to do this. Am I missing something?
Boost your Zoho Desk's performance by archiving tickets!
The longer your help desk operations are, the more likely it is to accumulate tickets that are no longer relevant. For example, ticket records from a year ago are typically less relevant than currently open tickets. Such old tickets may eventually lead
Collapsing and expanding of lists and paragraphs
hello Would you ever implement Collapsing and expanding of lists and paragraphs in zoho writer ? Best regards
New Custom View -Sorting the Custom fields
While creating a New Custom View in invoice , Customers, Bills ,expense etc , the sorting of custom fields are not available , a query function "order by / sort by " may also be included in Define new criteria module which will be more beneficial to
Make CAMPAIGNS email look as simple as possible
Hi there I'm trying to make my Campaigns email look as much like a normal email as possible. I'm a bit stuck with the "justification" of the email email block. Can I LEFT JUSTIFY the "whole email" to make it look "normal"? (Please see screenshot attached)
[Webinar] Top 10 Most Used Zoho Analytics Features in 2025
Zoho Analytics has evolved significantly over the past year. Discover the most widely adopted features in Zoho Analytics in 2025, based on real customer usage patterns, best practices, and high-impact use cases. Learn how leading teams are turning data
Sorry! we encountered some problems while sending your campaign. It will be sent automatically once we are ready. We apologize for the delay caused.
Hello. Lately we are having problems with some campaigns, which show us this error message. Sorry! we encountered some problems while sending your campaign. It will be sent automatically once we are ready. We apologize for the delay caused. We can't find
Can I remove or divert certain contacts from an active Campaigns workflow?
I have created a workflow in Zoho Campaigns, which sends different emails, once contacts have been added to a mailing list. To choose which email to send to the contacts, there are conditions, which divert contacts based on their company type and their company size. There was a subsection of this workflow, where company size wasn't selected correctly, and some contacts have been sent down the wrong path and received the wrong email. The workflow contains a reminder loop and a further series of emails.
File Upload field automatically replaces spaces with underscores – support experience
Hi everyone, I want to share my recent experience regarding the File Upload field behavior in Zoho Creator and my interaction with the Zoho support team. When a user uploads a file, the system automatically renames the document by replacing spaces in
How to map fields from Zoho Recruit to Zoho People
I've got these fields from my Job Offer that I'm trying to map to the Work information fields in Zoho People, but they arent showing up. For example, how do I get the department name field (in the job post) to map to the work information field in Zoho
UTM in zoho campaigns
Helloo everybody!!! Someone know how IF ZOHO CAMPAIGNS has UTM for tracking the url of any campaigns. thank u
Full Context of Zoho CRM Records for Zia in Zoho Desk for efficient AI Usage
Hello everyone, I have a question regarding the use of Zia in Zoho Desk in combination with CRM data. Is it possible to automatically feed the complete context of a CRM record into Zia, so that it can generate automated and highly accurate responses for
Knowledge base printing
I saw a posting about printing the knowledge base as I was looking for the answer, but we would like the ability to print out the entire knowledge base with a click, keeping the same organization format. Bonus would include an index of keywords and
Search not working!
I have items in my notebook tagged but when I search for a tag nothing comes up! Any fix for this?
Zoho Books | Product updates | January 2026
Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From e-filing Form 1099 directly with the IRS to corporation tax support, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience. E-File Form 1099 Directly With the
Updates for Zoho Campaigns: Merge tag, footer, and autoresponder migration
Hello everyone, We'd like to inform you of some upcoming changes with regard to Zoho Campaigns. We understand that change can be difficult, but we're dedicated to ensuring a smooth transition while keeping you all informed and engaged throughout the process.
File Upload field not showing in workflow
Hi, I have added a field on Zoho CRM. I want to use it in a workflow where that particular field is updated based on another field, however it is not showing up in the field list to select it in the workflow. Why is this please?
Drag 'n' Drop Fields to a Sub-Form and "Move Field To" Option
Hi, I would like to be able to move fields from the Main Page to a Sub-Form or from a Sub-Form to either the Main Page or another Sub-Form. Today if you change the design you have to delete and recreate every field, not just move them. Would be nice to
Sharing my portal URL with clients outside the project
Hi I need help making my project public for anyone to check on my task. I'm a freelance artist and I use trello to keep track on my client's projects however I wanted to do an upgrade. Went on here and so far I'm loving it. However, I'm having an issue sharing my url to those to see progress. They said they needed an account to access my project. How do I fix this? Without them needing an account.
How do i integrate google analytics to Zoho Campaigns?
Looking to track Zoho Traffic from email Current topic is outdated
How do teams manage meeting follow-ups across Zoho tools?
We’re using Zoho tools for collaboration and tracking, but managing meeting notes, action items, and follow-ups across teams is still challenging. Curious how others are handling this within Zoho workflows. Are there best practices or integrations that
Zoho Sprint Backlog View, filter by item status
Hello, In Zoho Sprints, it would be great to be able filter out specific items in the Backlog based on their status. We would like to track items that were Removed from our backlog without seeing them constantly in the Backlog view, as this view should
Customize Colors used on graphs and charts according to users desire.
It would be great if we could customize the graph's colors as we see fit. I hate that yellow is always the default color!
Let us view and export the full price books data from CRM
I quote out of CRM, some of my clients have specialised pricing for specific products - therefore we use Price Books to manage these special prices. I can only see the breakdown of the products listed in the price book and the specialised pricing for
Next Page