Building extensions #1: Creating and testing extensions for Zoho Finance Suite applications

Building extensions #1: Creating and testing extensions for Zoho Finance Suite applications

Hello developers!

We're excited to announce a new series called "Building extensions" to assist developers in creating efficient extensions for Zoho Finance Suite products. We'll support and guide you through the process of creating an extension and using the features offered in the developer portal.

What are extensions?

Extensions are installable plugins or add-ons that help enhance the existing functionality of your Zoho product or seamlessly integrate and interact with third-party applications for data transmission.

How can you build extensions?

Zoho offers a developer platform called Zoho Developer that allows you to build different types of applications. Sigma is a platform offered within Zoho Developer that is specifically designed for creating extensions for various Zoho products. Throughout this series, we'll look at how to create and develop extensions for the Zoho Finance Suite applications using Sigma.

Get to know all about extensions and building them further in detail.

Sigma extension support

The Zoho Finance Suite consists of seven applications: Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory, Zoho Expense, Zoho Invoice, Zoho Billing, Zoho Checkout, and Zoho Payroll. Currently, the Sigma platform supports creating and building extensions for these five Zoho Finance applications:
  • Zoho Books
  • Zoho Inventory
  • Zoho Expense
  • Zoho Invoice
  • Zoho Billing
Creating an extension
  • Log in or sign up at developer.zoho.com.
  • Go to Sigma and access your workspace.
  • Once you enter your workspace, you'll be taken to the Extensions section in Sigma.
  • Click the New Extension button to start building an extension.                                                                                     
  • Enter a name and description for the extension and choose the service you want to build the extension for. As mentioned earlier, Sigma offers support for Zoho Books, Zoho Invoice, Zoho Inventory, Zoho Billing, and Zoho Expense.                                                                                          
  • For our demo, let's choose the service as Zoho Books. Accept the terms and conditions, and then click Create.                                                                                          
  • The extension is successfully created. You can click the Extension Details icon to see an overview of the extension.                                                                                          
The extension details page shows the general details of the extension, such as creation date, creation time, and version, and allows you to associate developers with the extension.
  • Click the Edit Extension icon to start developing the extension.                                                                                  
  • The Zoho Books Developer Portal opens with the options and native features available to customize, curate, and develop your extension.                                                                
Zoho Books Developer Portal sections

The developer portal has four different sections to help customize and build your extension.

Learn: This section lists the native Zoho Books capabilities that can be used to create and develop extensions. Clicking the Set up Now button next to each feature will take you to the feature's development setup page.
                                                                                           

Build: This is the development setup section, which includes customization, automation, and components like connections, widgets, schedules, webhooks, and signals. You can customize your extension preferences, establish connections to integrate with other applications, and design custom interfaces to enhance user experience.
                                                                                          

Configure: This section assists with handling your extension's required configurations, whether they are generic settings or customizations required from the user. You can add global fields, which can be incorporated as either variables that store static data or through custom widgets that retrieve user inputs. You can also define functionalities that happen during installation and uninstallation.
                                                                                          

Publish: Once the extension has been built and configured, you can use this section to publish it for either private or public use. In both cases, the Zoho Books team will review the extension; for public extensions listed on Zoho Marketplace, the Zoho Marketplace approval team will also review them. You can share your privately published extension with other users using the Shared List option.
                                                                                          

We will explore more about each of these sections and their features in upcoming posts.

Testing an extension

The Zoho Books Developer Portal offers a dedicated testing environment for each extension, allowing you to test and validate it before publishing.

As a developer, you can use the Test Your Extension option in the top right corner of the portal to access your extension's sandbox environment.
                                                                  

This will redirect you to the sandbox testing environment for the extension you're developing, which is similar to Zoho Books and contains relevant modules to test with.
                                                                  

You can populate necessary data and test your extension functionality. Once everything is validated, you can go ahead and publish your extension for private or public use.

For support or questions related to Zoho Finance Suite extension development, you can email developer@zohofinance.com.

We hope you found this guide useful. Keep following this space for more information!

    Access your files securely from anywhere


          All-in-one knowledge management and training platform for your employees and customers.






                                Zoho Developer Community




                                                      • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                      • Digest


                                                      • Functions


                                                      • Meetups


                                                      • Kbase


                                                      • Resources


                                                      • Glossary


                                                      • Desk Marketplace


                                                      • MVP Corner


                                                      • Word of the Day


                                                      • Ask the Experts





                                                                Manage your brands on social media



                                                                      Zoho TeamInbox Resources



                                                                          Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                                            Zoho Books Resources


                                                                              Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                                                Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                                  Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                                    Qntrl Resources


                                                                                      Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                                          Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                                          • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                                            CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                                          • Kaizen

                                                                                            Kaizen

                                                                                          • Functions

                                                                                            Functions

                                                                                          • Meetups

                                                                                            Meetups

                                                                                          • Kbase

                                                                                            Kbase

                                                                                          • Resources

                                                                                            Resources

                                                                                          • Digest

                                                                                            Digest

                                                                                          • CRM Marketplace

                                                                                            CRM Marketplace

                                                                                          • MVP Corner

                                                                                            MVP Corner









                                                                                              Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                              Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                              Get Started Now


                                                                                                Zoho Show Resources

                                                                                                  Zoho Writer

                                                                                                  Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                                  Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                                    Zoho CRM コンテンツ





                                                                                                      Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                                          ご検討中の方





                                                                                                                    • Recent Topics

                                                                                                                    • mail did't send for particular email

                                                                                                                      mail did't send for particular email
                                                                                                                    • Group settings in Zoho Mail: Manage members, moderation, and spam controls for your organization's groups

                                                                                                                      When teams rely on group email addresses like team@org.com, hr@org.com, or sales@org.com, managing them without clear controls leads to unapproved senders, flooded inboxes, and no accountability over what gets delivered. Zoho Mail's Group settings in
                                                                                                                    • Update to Free plan attendee limit

                                                                                                                      Hi everyone! A quick update about Zoho Webinar's Free plan. We’ve adjusted the Free plan attendee limit from 100 to 20 attendees. Everything else in your Free plan stays the same; you'll continue to have access to all your existing features. If your webinars
                                                                                                                    • Possibility to modify a standard wedget to create my own customized wedget

                                                                                                                      Below is the std wedget available for dashboard which is great to show the the overdue, current, and all tasks as well as issues for each team member. My problem is this; The list of users cannot be edited (there are admin users which are not relavant
                                                                                                                    • Feature Request: Include Creator-applicable Deluge updates in the Creator Release Notes

                                                                                                                      I'd like to put forward a suggestion about how Deluge updates are surfaced to Zoho Creator developers, and I'm hoping the Creator team will consider it. Zoho Creator is built on Deluge. Every workflow, custom function, validation and schedule we write
                                                                                                                    • Add home page or dashboard in CRM customer portal

                                                                                                                      is it possible to add home page or dashboard in CRM customer portal?
                                                                                                                    • Close task on Completion Date entry

                                                                                                                      This discussion is similar to my issue: "backdated-task-completion-date" discussion Scenario: A bunch of tasks have been completed. But, they have not been closed. Time goes by You finally get around to closing those tasks Projects assigns the date the
                                                                                                                    • Introducing Color and Order Preferences for Blueprint Transitions

                                                                                                                      Blueprints exist to improve the efficiency of your company's processes and ensure compliance — but only if your users follow them promptly. More often than not, your users may find it challenging to adopt your processes and follow through on them, especially
                                                                                                                    • Groups and Moderation

                                                                                                                      Hi, I have set up a Group in my organisation but am having trouble with moderation. The members are a mix of addresses within the organisation and external emails addresses. The issue is how to set moderation to be off whenever any of the members sends
                                                                                                                    • Introducing Radio Buttons and Numeric Range Sliders in Zoho CRM

                                                                                                                      Release update: 1. 2 March 2026: Currently out for CN, JP, AU and CA DCs (Free and standard editions). For other DCs, this will be released by mid-March. 2. 26 March 2026: CA, SA, AU, JP, CN DCs - Free, Standard, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate, CRM
                                                                                                                    • Zoho CRM Sandbox now supports integrations

                                                                                                                      Hello everyone, We are now expanding Zoho CRM Sandbox to support integrations with other Zoho products. You can connect, configure, and validate the behavior of your integrated tools within a safe, isolated environment - testing end-to-end without touching
                                                                                                                    • Archiving Contacts

                                                                                                                      How do I archive a list of contacts, or individual contacts?
                                                                                                                    • Introducing the New Zoho Assist Quick Support Plugin

                                                                                                                      We are thrilled to announce the new Zoho Assist Quick Support Plugin, the upgraded and enhanced version of the Zoho Assist Customer Plugin. This new plugin allows organizations and IT administrators to deploy it directly onto their customers’ devices,
                                                                                                                    • What's New - June 2026 | Zoho Backstage

                                                                                                                      Hello everyone! We’ve rolled out a new set of improvements across Zoho Backstage to help you manage events more efficiently and provide a better experience for your attendees. Take a look at what’s new in this month’s update. Assign attendees later and
                                                                                                                    • More Zia AI capabilities are included across additional Zoho Desk editions

                                                                                                                      Hello everyone, We are expanding the availability of AI-powered features in Desk to the other paid subscriptions from 7th July 2026. Right now, the following AI-based features are available for Enterprise edition users: Intelligence: Sentiment analysis,
                                                                                                                    • Summer release '26 should be called Enterprise Summer Release '26

                                                                                                                      Summer release '26 should be called Enterprise Summer Release '26 because almost all updates or the more useful ones, are limited for Enterprise subscriptions. us with Basic or Premium susbcriptions are basically left in the cold.
                                                                                                                    • Previous conversation title on new messenger widget translation

                                                                                                                      The title of previous conversations title on the new messenger widget personalisation appears in english even when spanish is selected as default language
                                                                                                                    • Export Tickets from the Help Center

                                                                                                                      Hello everyone! We are now allowing end users to export tickets directly from the help center. The ticket export allows users to: Filter tickets by Department, Priority, and Account before exporting. Download files from Export History (Setup > Data administration
                                                                                                                    • Account Duplication Control in Zoho CRM

                                                                                                                      The Goal Prevent users from creating duplicate Account records in Zoho CRM. Accounts should be sourced from ERP and synced into Zoho—no. Allow to create Accounts if they don't exist in our ERP. What I've Implemented removed Account creation permissions
                                                                                                                    • Error 1011 saving website personalisation — blocking all changes (corrupted "home_page.content" field)

                                                                                                                      When trying to save changes under Settings → Brands → MY COMPANY → Website → Personalisation → Messenger, I receive the following error: "Either the request parameters are invalid or absent" upon checking on the developer console of the browser I get
                                                                                                                    • Canvas View: Add font family selection (incl. Google Fonts / Hebrew & RTL fonts)

                                                                                                                      Hi Zoho CRM team, The Canvas design suite (List View, Tile View, Table View and Record Detail) currently allows customizing font weight, size, color, alignment and case - but there is no option to choose the font family. All text is rendered in the built-in
                                                                                                                    • This user is not allowed to add in Zoho. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details

                                                                                                                      Hello, Just signed up to ZOHO on a friend's recommendation. Got the TXT part (verified my domain), but whenever I try to add ANY user, I get the error: This user is not allowed to add in Zoho. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details I have emailed as well and writing here as well because when I searched, I saw many people faced the same issue and instead of email, they got a faster response here. My domain is: raisingreaderspk . com Hope this can be resolved.  Thank you
                                                                                                                    • Issue embedding image Zoho Books email signature

                                                                                                                      I am trying to embed my company logo to my email signature using the image url tool on the settings but I keep getting the following error: Enter a valid public image URL I am using a public link from either WorkDrive or OneDrive and I still get the same
                                                                                                                    • E-Mail Distribution List

                                                                                                                      How do I create an e-mail distribution list in Zoho Mail?
                                                                                                                    • Tip #80- Secure Connect: Add an Extra Layer Before You Connect – 'Insider Insights'

                                                                                                                      Tip 80 – Secure Connect: Add an Extra Layer Before You Connect – 'Insider Insights' Hello Zoho Assist Community! Picture this: your support team relies on unattended access to keep the business running. Servers need overnight patches. Remote workstations
                                                                                                                    • Business Whatsapp is not Showing

                                                                                                                      I’ve attached a screenshot from the Zoho CRM Android app when clicked the call button. It is showing Personal WhatsApp, which is not installed on the phone. Also, the installed WhatsApp Business account is not showing.
                                                                                                                    • How to access a unified inbox for more than one zoho accounts (using paid workplace services)

                                                                                                                      Hello, we are using zoho for a few months and also suggest your services, setting them up for our clients. Several from our clients, our company as well, use more than 1 email addresses. Using the web version, we are only able to add them as accounts
                                                                                                                    • Modify a standard wedget to create my own customized wedget ?

                                                                                                                      Below is the std wedget available for dashboard which is great to show the the overdue, current, and all tasks as well as issues for each team member. My problem is this; The list of users cannot be edited (there are admin users which are not relavant
                                                                                                                    • Advanced Formatted Resume Templates for Applications

                                                                                                                      Advanced Formatted Resume Templates can now be created and used directly from the Applications module, with support for application module fields. Until now, Advanced templates were limited to the Candidates module. That meant resumes generated from Applications
                                                                                                                    • Zoho Books | Product updates | July 2026

                                                                                                                      Hello users, We’re excited to bring you the latest updates in Zoho Books for July 2026! This month's release introduces Terminal Payments, CMP-08 filing for composition taxpayers, SEPA Credit Transfer support, the new Receipts and Payments Report for
                                                                                                                    • Boost your CRM communication with new font types, sizes, and default reply-to options while composing emails

                                                                                                                      Hello Everyone, We’re excited to introduce a series of impactful enhancements to the email composer settings in Zoho CRM. These updates enable you to personalize and optimize your customer interactions with greater efficiency. So what's new? Add custom
                                                                                                                    • Zoho CRM Community Digest - June 2026| Part 2

                                                                                                                      Hello Everyone! Welcome to the second half of our June Zoho CRM Community Digest! We are keeping the momentum going with powerful updates to filter out unnecessary email syncs, a revamped CRM Import tool, smarter follow-up updates in cadences, and Zia
                                                                                                                    • Migrate from Zoho Mail to G Suite

                                                                                                                      I am unable to find any documentation on how one can migrate from Zoho Mail to another platform, like G Suite or Office 365. Please point me to the right documentation. Thank you.
                                                                                                                    • Zoho Desk Android app - Option to set an email template as default

                                                                                                                      Hello everyone! We have enhanced the Email Template section in our app by introducing the ability to set a template as default directly from the Zoho Desk Android app, making it easier to access your preferred template without repeated manual selection.
                                                                                                                    • Zoho Desk Android and iOS app update: Odia Language

                                                                                                                      Hello everyone! We have now brought in support to access the Zoho Desk app in Odia language. Please update the app to the latest version directly from the Play Store/ App Store or using the links below: Zoho Desk - Play Store Zoho Desk - App Store Once
                                                                                                                    • How to check Leads with no Task (open activity)

                                                                                                                      Hi everyone, I was wondering if there’s a way to view leads that don’t have any tasks assigned or open activities linked to them.
                                                                                                                    • How do I migrate from Office 365 to Zoho Mail?

                                                                                                                      Check out Advik Email Migration Wizard, this software is specially developed to move mailboxes from Office 365 to Zoho Webmail. In addition you can migrate from Gmail, Yahoo, Rediffmail and 80+ webmail servers to ZOHO MAIL. Isn't it amazing? This is an all in one email migration solution. Steps to export emails from Office 365 to Zoho Webmail are as follows; Run Advik Email Migration Tool in your system. Select Office 365 as source and enter its login credentials. Select mailbox folders and choose
                                                                                                                    • Bridging the gap between incident management and project delivery

                                                                                                                      As an organization, you can have structured backup plans to handle issues that arise during project execution. Despite best efforts, even efficient processes can fall into an escalation trap where a red flag travels up the tiers but no real action follows.
                                                                                                                    • Update on default settings for AI features in Cliq

                                                                                                                      Hello all, We'd like to provide clarity on a recent change to AI feature defaults in Cliq. As part of our regular review of AI features conducted in April 2026, we re-evaluated how these features are enabled by default. We've decided that the AI features
                                                                                                                    • Associate Zoho Billing Invoices with multiple Zoho FSM Work Orders

                                                                                                                      Hello Latha, We are writing a custom Deluge automation script in Zoho FSM to handle monthly consolidated billing. The script successfully compiles line items from multiple completed Work Orders, interfaces with the Zoho Billing API, and generates a single
                                                                                                                    • Next Page