Function #48: Tracking refunds and adjusting the sales executive's revenue in Zoho CRM

Function #48: Tracking refunds and adjusting the sales executive's revenue in Zoho CRM



Welcome back everyone!

Last week's function was about creating an event from Deals automatically. This week, it's going to be about real-time recording of refunds and sales revenue tracking based on the refunds.

Business scenario

Having a clear refund policy goes a long way in gaining customer trust. Depending upon the line of business, the refund window might vary. This is even more important in the case of online purchases where customers get to see and feel the product only after making the purchase.

The Deals module in CRM helps track the revenue associated with the sales executives. By taking a report of all the 'won' businesses pertaining to a month, you'll be able to calculate the revenue associated with the sales executives concerned. Recently one of our users asked if there is any working solution to track refunds. Typically, the refund period is 30 days and the refunds have to be tracked without affecting the revenue numbers from the preceding month. Hence updating the closed Deal stage to a "Refunded" stage won't work.

A simple solution to this problem is to clone the won deal that needs to be refunded and make the following updates in the cloned deal:
  • Update the deal value in negative to account for the refund amount

  • Update the deal closing date to current date.

  • Update the status of the cloned deal to "Refunded".

This leaves the revenue numbers of the preceding months and the sales forecast for the current month intact while accounting for the refunds too. Expecting your sales executives do all these steps manually is a tall order. Fret not, the Function I'm sharing this week helps you do all these steps at the click of a button.

Pre-requisites

  • Create a Deal Status named "Refunded".

Getting started with the function

  1. Go to Setup > Customization > Modules > Deals > Links and buttons > Create new button.
  2. Provide a name for the button. For example: "Refund". Add a description(optional).
  3. Select the placement of the button as View page.
  4. Select the action to be performed as "Writing function".
  5. Copy the code given below.
  6. Click “Edit arguments”.
  7. Enter the name as “dealId” and select the value as “Deal Id”.
  8. Click Save&Execute Script.
  9. Save the script.
  10. Select the profiles who can view this button.
  11. Click Save.


The Code

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

dealDetails = zoho.crm.getRecordById("Deals", input.dealId.toLong());
mp=map();
mp.put("Deal_Name",ifnull(dealDetails.get("Deal_Name"),""));
mp.put("Owner",ifnull(dealDetails.get("Owner"),"").get("id"));
mp.put("Account_Name",ifnull(dealDetails.get("Account_Name"),"").get("id"));
mp.put("Contact_Name",ifnull(dealDetails.get("Contact_Name"),"").get("id"));
mp.put("Amount","-"+ifnull(dealDetails.get("Amount"),""));
mp.put("Stage","Refunded");
mp.put("Closing_Date",today);
create=zoho.crm.create("Deals", mp);
info mp;
info create;
return "success";

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before Refund



After Refund



Note

  • The code given above works only for V2 version of Zoho APIs. Please note that the code WILL NOT work for Version 1.0 APIs.

Found this useful? Try it out and let me know how it works! If you have questions, do not hesitate to ask! Do check out other functions shared in this series here.

See you all next week with another interesting function. Ciao!

    Access your files securely from anywhere







                            Zoho Developer Community




                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Digest


                                                  • Functions


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner


                                                  • Word of the Day


                                                  • Ask the Experts



                                                            • Sticky Posts

                                                            • How to reach the official Zoho Support channels and avoid fake ones.

                                                              Dear Customers, Thanks a lot for choosing Zoho! Our applications are built to help achieve your day-to-day business goals. We are committed to engaging with you, to understand and develop solutions that enhance your productivity.  We are happy and ready to help you use our services effectively. Understanding and avoiding fake support Just like using popular bank names and financial applications for phishing purposes, using Zoho and claiming to be providing Zoho Support or services with false numbers
                                                            • Function #35: Close all tasks associated with a lead and create a new task.

                                                              Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to close all tasks of a deal depending upon the deal stage. This week, let's look at a custom function that lets you close all of the tasks associated with a lead while simultaneously creating a new task, like when you need to halt all progress towards a lead while the lead is not available at the moment but create a reminder task. Business scenario: The success of a company, in one way or another, is determined by the leads it gets. Each lead is just
                                                            • Zoho CRM Webinar - Redesigning Daily User Experiences with Canvas

                                                              <br> Your users across roles use the CRM for day-to-day tasks that are necessary. Whether they perform their tasks on time, the right way, or at all depends on a lot of factors, including User Experience. Many businesses struggle with rigid layouts,
                                                            • Join us at the Canada ZUG Meetup: What’s New in Zoho CRM

                                                              Hello Zoho Community! Start your year with fresh insights into Zoho CRM’s latest updates and tools. Whether you're a CRM beginner or a experienced user, this meetup is crafted to help you optimise your processes and leverage new features. Explore practical
                                                            • CRM Hack #2: Automate sending of birthday greetings to your customers.

                                                                Hello everyone! What sets you apart as a sales person is your ability to add that personal touch to your business relationship with your customers. Sending a gift on a special day, or leaving a note wishing them on their birthdays, are small, yet significant actions that show your customers that you care. And these are actions done without any expectations :) You must be engaging with a lot of customers and it is highly unlikely that they all are your friends on Facebook or some social channel,


                                                            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

                                                                                                              • Customer Management: #6 Common Mistakes in Customer Handling

                                                                                                                Managing customers doesn't usually fall apart overnight. More often, slight gaps in the process slowly become bigger problems. Incidents like missed follow-ups, billing confusion, and unhappy customers will lead to revenue loss. Many businesses don't
                                                                                                              • Zoho Desk iOS app update: UI enhancement of picklist and multi picklist fields

                                                                                                                Hello everyone! We have enhanced the UI of the picklist and multiselect picklist fields on the Zoho Desk iOS app to provide a more refined, efficient, and user-friendly experience. We have now supported an option to Search within the picklist and multiselect
                                                                                                              • Zoho Desk iOS app update: Revamped scribbles with Apple pencil kit

                                                                                                                Hello everyone! We’re excited to introduce a revamped Scribble experience, rebuilt from the ground up using Apple PencilKit for smooth strokes, proper scaling, and seamless image uploads. Please update the app to the latest version directly from the App
                                                                                                              • Zoho Desk Android app update: Norwegian language support

                                                                                                                Hello everyone! In the most recent Android version of the Zoho Desk app update, we have brought in support to access the app in Norwegian language. We have introduced the Norwegian language on the IM module of the Zoho Desk app as well. Please update
                                                                                                              • Payment Vouchers

                                                                                                                Is there any Payment Vouchers in Zoho? How can we create payment for non-trade vendors, i.e. professional fees, rent, and payment to commissioner income tax?
                                                                                                              • When I click on PDF/PRINT it makes the invoice half size

                                                                                                                When I click PDF / Print for my invoice in Zoho Books, the generated PDF appears at half size — everything is scaled down, including the logo, text, and layout. The content does not fill the page as it should. Could someone advise what causes Zoho Books
                                                                                                              • Search by contain letter in a column

                                                                                                                Hello, everyone I need a filter function that searches by letter in a cell, and it should be a macro. To clarify further, if I have a column with several names and I chose a search cell and what I want is search by a single letter, for example, "a" then
                                                                                                              • Enrich your contact and company details automatically using the Data Enrichment topping

                                                                                                                Greetings, I hope you're all doing well. We're happy to announce the latest topping we've added to Bigin: The Data Enrichment topping, powered by WebAmigo. This topping helps you automatically enhance your contact and company records in Bigin. By leveraging
                                                                                                              • Can add a colum to the left of the item in Zoho Books?

                                                                                                                I would need to add a column to the left of the item column in Books. When i create custom fields, i can only display them to the right of the item.
                                                                                                              • Verifying Zoho Mail Functionality After Switching DNS from Cloudflare to Hosting Provider

                                                                                                                I initially configured my domain's (https://roblaxmod.com/) email with Zoho Mail while using Cloudflare to manage my DNS records (MX, SPF, etc.). All services were working correctly. Recently, I have removed my site from Cloudflare and switched my domain's
                                                                                                              • AI Bot and Advanced Automation for WhatsApp

                                                                                                                Most small businesses "live" on WhatsApp, and while Bigin’s current integration is helpful, users need more automation to keep up with volume. We are requesting features based on our customer Feedbacks AI Bot: For auto-replying to FAQs. Keyword Triggers:
                                                                                                              • 2025 Ask the Experts sessions wrap-up : Key highlights from the experts

                                                                                                                Here is a rewind journey of our Ask the Experts (ATE) Sessions, where we brought you expert insights and practical best practices together in one place. This recap highlights the key takeaways, learnings, and best practices from all these sessions so
                                                                                                              • How to disable the edit option in subform

                                                                                                                How to disable the edit option in subform
                                                                                                              • Move record from one custom module to another custom module

                                                                                                                Is it possible to create a button or custom field that will transfer a record from one custom module to another? I already have the 'Leads' module used for the Sr. Sales department, once the deal is closed they convert it to the 'Accounts' module. I would like to create a 'Convert' button for a custom module ('Locations') for the department that finds locations for each account. Once the location is secured, I want to move the record to another custom module called 'Secured Locations'. It's basically
                                                                                                              • Notes Not Saving

                                                                                                                Hello,  My notes are continuously not saving.  I make sure to save them, I know the process to save them.  It is not operator error.  I go back into a Leads profile a while later and do not see the previous notes that I have made.  I then have to go back and do unnecessary research that would have been in the notes in the first place.  Not a good experience and it is frustrating.  Slows me down and makes me do unnecessary work.  Please resolve.   As a quick heads up, deleting cookies is not a fix
                                                                                                              • Prefill form with CRM/Campaigns

                                                                                                                I created a form in zForms and created prefill fields. I added this to the CRM and selected the fields so when sending from the CRM, the form works great. However, I want to use the same form in Campaigns and I want it to pull the data from CRM (which
                                                                                                              • Triggering a campaign automation from a Form

                                                                                                                I used Forms to create a lead form that is accessed by a button on my website. The field information flows into the CRM. However, I am trying to figure out how to use Campaign automations to start a workflow (series of campaign emails) that is triggered
                                                                                                              • Employee Appraisal Applicability - Why is Date of Joining Hard-Coded?

                                                                                                                In the new (to me, at least) Performance Appraisal Cycle wizard, it's possible to set criteria to determine for whom the appraisal process should apply. This makes sense on its face. However, one MUST use the Date of Joining criterion as a filter. Why
                                                                                                              • Formula fields

                                                                                                                Zoho People now supports formula fields. This post illustrates it. Formula fields are fields whose value is calculated instead of being entered by the user. Using this, number, decimal and date manipulations can be done. The value of this field could be numeric or date depending on the output of the formula. In date manipulations, the result will be given in milliseconds, which you can format as per you need. The operators we support are +, - , *, /. Formula fields get recalculated automatically
                                                                                                              • Zobot operator information

                                                                                                                I am working on a zobot that calls a plug to send data to our API. I want the response data from that API to be shown only to the operator and not the customer. I have tried writing this data out to the visitorCity field but nothing gets updated on the
                                                                                                              • Copy paste from word document deletes random spaces

                                                                                                                Hello Dear Zoho Team, When copying from a word document into Notebook, often I face a problem of the program deleting random spaces between words, the document become terribly faulty, eventhough it is perfect in its original source document (and without
                                                                                                              • Is it possible to use module field filters via URL parameters?

                                                                                                                It would be really convenient if I could quickly link to a filter. For reference, this is the filter functionality I'm referring to: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/customize-crm-account/advanced-filters/articles/advanced-filters For example: My
                                                                                                              • Transitioning FESCO Bill Project to Zoho Sheets and Integration Options

                                                                                                                Hello Zoho Support, I'm considering transitioning my FESCO bill project from Google Sheets to Zoho Sheets and wanted to know if there are integration options to seamlessly migrate our existing work. You can view our platform here, any guidance would be
                                                                                                              • Credit card

                                                                                                                Coming from another software, is it possible here to typically have credit card payment off, but independently per customer, click a box (possibly on the invoice when I go to to send) allowing that 1 allowed customer credit card payment, NOT ALL of my
                                                                                                              • Lightbox Pop-up form

                                                                                                                I would like to embed my form using the lightbox pop up. I don't want it to load automatically. I want it to load when some clicks the button. I can see this option, however when I use the "show pop-up launch button" on the website, the button automatically
                                                                                                              • Lightbox Pop-up form

                                                                                                                I would like to embed my form using the lightbox pop up. I don't want it to load automatically. I want it to load when some clicks the button. I can see this option, however when I use the "show pop-up launch button" on the website, the button automatically
                                                                                                              • Connecting Portals from different Zoho apps

                                                                                                                Hi, I note that Zoho has functionality for customer portals for several of the Zoho apps, like CRM, Projects, Desk etc. Is there any way to connect these portals?  It would be great if we could give our customers access to a portal in which they could
                                                                                                              • Customer Management: #5 Never Let the Customer Slip

                                                                                                                When Rahul started Knight's Watch Consulting, his focus was simple: deliver good work and keep clients happy. He offered one-time consulting projects, monthly advisory retainers and usage-based support for growing clients. Business was steady, and customers
                                                                                                              • Deluge date time issue

                                                                                                                The deluge function info zoho.currentdate.toString("MMM/YYYY") returns Dec 2026 instead of 2025
                                                                                                              • Zoho Projects Android and iOS app update: Mobile device permission based on user profiles

                                                                                                                Hello everyone! We have brought in support for mobile device permissions based on the user profiles which are configured in organization level. Administrators can now configure the permissions on the web app(projects.zoho.com) by following the steps mentioned
                                                                                                              • treatment for rehires

                                                                                                                      Hello,  we are aware of the fact that Zoho People at the moment does not has a provision for rejoining exited employees. But is there any quick fix or hack to this? It will be appreciated a lot. 
                                                                                                              • Zoho Projects Android and iOS app update: Timesheet module is now renamed as 'Time Logs', delete option has been renamed to 'Trash'.

                                                                                                                Hello everyone! We have now renamed the Timesheet module as Time Logs and the delete option as 'Trash' on the Zoho Projects Android and iOS app. Time Logs Android: Time Logs iOS: Trash option Android: Trash option iOS: Please update the app to the latest
                                                                                                              • Zoho Mail app update: Manage profile picture, Chinese (Traditional) language support

                                                                                                                Hello everyone! In the latest version (v3.1.9) of the Zoho Mail app update, we have brought in support to manage profile picture. You can now set/ modify the profile picture within the app. To add a new profile picture, please follow the below steps:
                                                                                                              • Reminders for Article Approval

                                                                                                                Is there a way to send reminders for approvers to review articles and approve/deny them? I'm not seeing that option anywhere.
                                                                                                              • Add Full-Screen Viewing for Quartz Recordings in the Client Interface

                                                                                                                Hi Zoho Team, We would like to request an enhancement to the Zoho Quartz client interface when viewing submitted recordings. Current Limitation: When viewing a Quartz recording from the client (user) interface, there is currently no option to switch the
                                                                                                              • 2025 Recap: A Year to Remember | Zoho Inventory

                                                                                                              • Important Update : Pipedrive deprecated fields no longer supported in Zoho Analytics

                                                                                                                Dear Pipedrive users, We would like to inform you about a recent update related to your Pipedrive integration with Zoho Analytics. The Pipedrive team has deprecated certain fields from their application. You can find more details in the official Pipedrive
                                                                                                              • Product Updates in Zoho Workplace applications | November 2025

                                                                                                                Hello Workplace Community, Let’s take a look at the new features and enhancements that went live across all Workplace applications this November. Zoho Mail Format comments easily using Slash Commands With Slash commands, you can easily format text, insert
                                                                                                              • Right-Click Pipeline to Open in New Tab

                                                                                                                Please add the ability to right-click on a pipeline to open it in a new tab
                                                                                                              • Adjusting Physical Inventory

                                                                                                                Not getting very far with support on this one, they say they are going to fix it but nothings happened since November. Please give this a thumbs up if you would like to see this feature or comment if you have some insight. Use Case: Inventory set to be
                                                                                                              • Next Page