How to maintain steady cash flow during the COVID-19 crisis using Zoho Invoice
Dear customers,
I hope this finds you and your loved ones in good health.
As we are witnessing, the COVID-19 pandemic has started taking a toll on businesses of all types. Here are some useful tips that could help you streamline your invoicing and AR processes to keep your business healthy.
1. Communicate clearly with your customers:
During this period, transparent communication with customers is a necessity. A lot of businesses have started displaying messages on their home pages, explaining their BCP (Business Continuity Process) and other important announcements they want to convey to their customers.
As an additional means of communication, you can use the banner message in the customer portal of Zoho Invoice. The banner message is visible in the home page of the portal, so it can help get the customer's attention quickly. You can set up this message under Settings > Preferences > Portal.
2. Relax the deadlines for estimates and invoices:
Your customers' priority at this moment will be keeping their family and loved ones safe, which might mean your estimates get accepted a little later than usual. Same goes for your invoice payments. Instead of bombarding the customer with multiple reminder emails, you can relax your policy and push back the expiration dates and due dates of your estimates and invoices.
To push back the dates on individual transactions, you can simply edit and make the changes. However, you can also perform this action in bulk (for up to 25 transactions in one go). Here's a screenshot that explains the steps:
You can follow the same steps in the Estimates section to update expiration dates in bulk.
3. Be approachable:
As a standard business practice, you might have set up automatic payment reminders in Zoho Invoice to go out on specific days before or after the invoice due date. However, given the current circumstances, you can definitely expect delays in payment.
Since you have control over the content that goes out in these reminder emails, think about rephrasing it to let your customers know that if they need any assistance, they can reach out to you by phone or email. This way, your finance team doesn't have to wait and wonder whether the customer will make their payment or not, or spend time sending extra emails. You can tweak your reminder email content under Settings > Reminders.
By making it easy for your customers to approach you and treating them on a case-by-case basis, you can actually bring down the number of unpaid transactions.
Let's say you have done this and have clearly stated how your customers can contact you. Now, what responses can you expect from them?
a) "I might not be able to pay the full invoice amount on time."
b) "I might not be able to pay the full invoice amount at all."
c) 'If you can offer me a discount, I can pay now."
Tips 4, 5, and 6 can help you handle these cases efficiently.
4. Enable partial payments for invoices:
Rather than waiting for your customers to be able to make a full invoice payment, you can encourage them to make partial payments for invoices so that you can have a steady cash flow. If you are collecting payments online, you can enable this option while creating or editing an invoice.
If you collect payments offline, you can convey this information through the 'Terms and Conditions' field on the invoice.
5. Offer discounts:
By offering discounts on your outstanding invoices, you are proving that you care about your customers enough to give them a bit of a break. If you don't see the option to apply discounts to existing invoices, please enable it under Settings > Preferences > General.
6. Write off invoices in special cases:
If you've extended the deadline for a payment, but your customer has really run out of funds and won't be able to make the payment any time soon, you can waive the invoice so you can move ahead with your accounting.
Since written-off invoices turn into bad debt, use the Bad Debt report in the Reports section of Zoho Invoice to make sure you're not accumulating too much.
7. Increase the credit limit for loyal customers:
If a customer has been with you for a long time and is sticking with you during this period, an increased credit limit is a good way to thank them for their business. By increasing their credit limit, you are letting them know that you continue to want their business. The option to set a credit limit is available when you create or edit a customer profile.
Though some of these tips might have a negative effect on your finances temporarily, they can gain you long-term benefits like customer loyalty and customer retention, which will help your business recover more easily.
Did you find these tips useful? Can you think of some other best practices that businesses can use to get through difficult times? Let us know in the comments.
Note from Zoho: If you need any assistance regarding Zoho Invoice, our support team is available 24 hours a day, Monday-Friday. You can also reach out to us through email (support@zohoinvoice.com), live chat, or phone.
Because Zoho recognizes that our own customers may be facing difficult times right now, we have rolled out an Emergency Subscription Assistance Program (ESAP) to help small businesses through this crisis. Learn more about this program.
Take care and stay safe! We'll get through this storm together.
Regards,
Harikrishna
Customer Relations | Zoho Finance
Access your files securely from anywhere
Centralize Knowledge. Transform Learning.
All-in-one knowledge management and training platform for your employees and customers.
New to Zoho Recruit?
Zoho Developer Community
New to Zoho LandingPage?
Zoho LandingPage Resources
New to Zoho Survey?
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Bigin?
Topic Participants
Harikrishna
Buyers
garyhorsman
Sticky Posts
Zoho Finance Workshop 2023 is coming to the USA. Get exclusive training on Zoho Finance apps, one-on-ones, and more.
Hello all, We'd like to invite you to our biggest Zoho Finance workshop in the United States. After a brief break, we are excited to be back. This year, we're bringing together our customers and community members for two days of curated hands-on sessions,How to maintain steady cash flow during the COVID-19 crisis using Zoho Invoice
Dear customers, I hope this finds you and your loved ones in good health. As we are witnessing, the COVID-19 pandemic has started taking a toll on businesses of all types. Here are some useful tips that could help you streamline your invoicing and AR processes to keep your business healthy. 1. Communicate clearly with your customers: During this period, transparent communication with customers is a necessity. A lot of businesses have started displaying messages on their home pages, explaining theirIntroducing: Digital signature for estimates and invoices
Dear customers, We are pleased to announce that the much awaited Zoho Invoice - Zoho Sign integration is live! You can now sign your estimates and invoices before emailing it to your customers. Also, you can have them sign your estimates while accepting it. Here is our help document to help you get started: https://www.zoho.com/invoice/help/integrations/sign-integration.html Note: This feature is available across all editions of Zoho Invoice except the Indian edition. Out of all the feature requestsWebinar: Introduction to the Client Portal
Business owners know there is never enough time in the day. Not only do you have to beat the competition and make the sale, you then have to make sure you get paid. In fact, the sales process starts way before the sale, and never really ends. Preparing and getting estimates approved, collecting payments, and fielding customer requests for information related to past transactions are all part of the day in the life of a business owner. Well, Zoho Invoice can offer some relief to weary business owners.
New to Zoho TeamInbox?
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
Design. Discuss. Deliver.
Zoho Show Resources
Get Started. Write Away!
Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.
Zoho CRM コンテンツ
-
オンラインヘルプ
-
Webセミナー
-
機能活用動画
-
よくある質問
-
Ebook
-
-
Zoho Campaigns
- Zoho サービスのWebセミナー
その他のサービス コンテンツ
Nederlandse Hulpbronnen
ご検討中の方
Recent Topics
How do I change the account bank charges are charged to?
I want bank charges charged to my Credit Card Fees account. Is there a way to do this?Real signature in Zoho Expense PDF report ?
Hello ! Is there a way to put a real signature on the signature line when a PDF report is generated in Zoho Expense? Through Zoho Sign or another way? Can't seem to make it work.Copy paste settings
Hello all i have 2 organizations running in ZOHO books in one organization i have customised Tax rates, codes and customized templates instead of manually doing again in org 2 can i have some shortcut to copy paste or export and import??Custom TDS on Vendor Credits via API
Hi, We are using Zoho Books APIs for posting Bills and vendor credits. We are unable to post custom TDS amount posting vendor credits. Can you please share the API spec and Payload that need to be sent for Custom TDS for Vendor Credits."Unlink" Advance from Bill without Deleting the Payment Record
I am writing to highlight a significant workflow issue in Zoho Books (India Edition) regarding Vendor Advances and Bills. The Scenario: I recorded an Advance Payment to a vendor. I matched/reconciled this payment in the Banking module. I received a BillAdvance Payment Record Removed When Deleting Applied Credit from Bill
Hello, So while working with vendor advance payments, I noticed that removing the applied credit from a bill also removes the corresponding entry from the Payments Made section. What I did : Recorded an advance payment to a vendor through Payments Made.What is the best way to convert MSG file to Word format?
The best way to convert MSG files to Word format is by using a reliable and professional tool Aryson MSG file Converter. Manual methods are often time-consuming and may not preserve email formatting, attachments, or metadata accurately. In contrast, ArysonAddress Typeahead Extension for Zoho Books
I installed the Address Typeahead extension for zoho books but when I went to configure it, it said that that version was deprecated. Is there a newer version somewhere?Zoho Projects : Task should auto-update to 'In Progress' if timer started
Namaskaram. Right now, if a Task's timer is started, the Task stays in 'Not Started' status. One has to manually update it to 'In Progress'. From a #uxdesign standpoint, it is an unnecessarily two step process to start working on a task. It would be better that, if I start the timer on a task, it should automatically change to 'In Progress' status. Crafted with ❤️ Zoho Gurus | Zoho One Practice Team @ CubeYogi Zoho Authorised Partner | 7+ Yrs | 200+ Projects | 100+ CustomersInvoice template with sales tax totals
Hi everyone, I am trying to edit my invoice template so that only the total sales tax collected for my tax group shows up. Right now, under by sub total, each individual tax shows up and that takes up a lot of unnessary space, so I just want the oneZoho Delayed Posting & Loss of Article Thumbnails on BlueSky
Hello! I am wondering if anyone else has had the either of the following issues when posting to socials via Zoho and if there is a fix? 1. Post says it is scheduled or it is live when sent off via Zoho but it doesn't show up on socials till some timeConnection Not Secure (Certificate Mismatch) Error
Hi, Just a fyi, when you go to https://bigin.zohocloud.ca/bigin/Home you get a "Your Connection Is Not private" error. (Certificate mismatch to domain.) I get to that page after I have signed up and signed in as a customer and select the Access BiginRecording the Investment
Hello, - One Investor Invested to our company, So how do we record investment which we received in our bank in the Zoho books ? - How do we record if we provide shares to the investor in the Zoho books? ThanksExport Invoices to XML file
Namaste! ZOHO suite of Apps is awesome and we as Partner, would like to use and implement the app´s from the Financial suite like ZOHO Invoice, but, in Portugal, we can only use certified Invoice Software and for this reason, we need to develop/customize on top of ZOHO Invoice to create an XML file with specific information and after this, go to the government and certified the software. As soon as we have for example, ZOHO CRM integrated with ZOHO Invoice up and running, our business opportunitiesClient and Vendor portal at the same time
We have companies that serve both as clients and vendors and they are linked. However, we have a problem giving them access to the vendor/client portal. If they accept the invitation from the client portal, when we try to invite them to the vendor portalIntegrate Multiple ZohoBooks organization with zoho projects
We have successfully connected our Zoho Books with Zoho Projects for synronizing timesheet data. Our Business specialty is, that the staff of the Main company (A) is working on several projects, but the Clients are sometimes contracted and paying to aWays to calculate the difference form two years or months
Hi to everyone I have this request: I need to show the difference or variation from two periods (years or months) whether using a Pivot View or a graph, in this is case is better in a Pivot view. In the pivot view I will have the amount or results fromCareer site URL - Suggestion to modify URL of non-english job posting
Hi, I would like to suggest making a few modification to career sites that are not in english. Currently, the URL are a mix of different languages and are very long. It makes for very unprofessional looking URLs... Here is an example of one of our URLCliq iOS can't see shared screen
Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? RegardsIntroducing Contract Settings & Backdated Contracts in Zoho Contracts
We are rolling out updates that give you more control over how contracts are created and managed in Zoho Contracts. From defining default workflows with Contract Settings to aligning agreements with real timelines using Backdated Contracts, these enhancementsCelebrating our customers on International Client's Day
Hi everyone, Every customer is part of our Zoho Desk family, and we wouldn’t want to miss celebrating you on this special day. This International Client's Day, we’d like to take a moment to appreciate every customer who has helped us grow and build meaningfulZoho Books | Product updates | February 2026
Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From Advanced Reporting Tags to the ability to mark projects as completed, explore the latest updates designed to improve your bookkeeping experience. Introducing Advanced ReportingFaster Ticket Response with use of Snippets in comments
Hello everyone, Responding to tickets often involves repeating the same messages, whether it is sharing updates with customers or leaving notes for internal collaboration. To make this easier and more consistent, we are allowing agents to use snippetsImproving Zoho Creator's email deliverability
Hi all, We're pleased to announce updates to email handling in Zoho Creator to improve the deliverability of the emails sent from the Creator platform. These updates have been designed keeping in mind the fact that emails from domains with strong senderWhat's New in Zoho Billing | February 2026
February brings a powerful set of updates to Zoho Billing, from smarter subscription management and flexible payment options to better reporting and more control over your hosted pages. Here's everything that's new this February. Create SubscriptionsReassign Partially Saved Entries
Hi, I would like to be able to go to Partially Saved Entries and like the option to delete them I would like the option to multi-select and be able to reassign them to another user to complete (Such as when a user has left the company). Thanks DanCan we rely on order of returned ids when inserting multiple records?
Hello! API https://www.zoho.com/crm/developer/docs/api/v8/insert-records.html does not mention that the response array will match the input array*, keeping this important information implicit and someone might have doubts to rely on it. (*the responseDisplaying only unread tickets in ticket view
Hello, I was wondering if someone might be able to help me with this one. We use filters to display our ticket list, typically using a saved filter which displays the tickets which are overdue or due today. What I'd really like is another filter thatWhat is a realistic turnaround time for account review for ZeptoMail?
On signing up it said 2-3 business days. I am on business-day 6 and have had zero contact of any kind. No follow-up questions, no approval or decline. Attempts to "leave a message" or use the "Contact Us" form have just vanished without a trace. It stillZoho Books: tax is not automatically pulled from product-data anymore - why?
Hi, until a short time ago, you could set a default taxrate for each product/item. This taxrate automatically appeared each time the item was chosen in an invoice or quote. Why does this not work anymore? The field is still there at the product record,Issue creating a YTD report with last years numbers
I am looking to create a widget to compare the YTD leads we have in 2023 to the YTD leads we had in 2022. I'm having issues with the aggregate formula creation to gain access to the 2022 Leads YTD data point. Feeling like this is a common view of dataBrand Studio Projects in Analytics
Hi All, Currently pulling my hair out over trying to link together some social media posts for a reporting dashboard in Analytics, so I thought I'd see if anyone on here had a solution. Our Marketing Team created a LinkedIn campaign in Zoho Brand Studio,Manage Testing Process in Zoho Sprints
Agile framework supports a robust quality assurance system that incorporates continuous testing throughout the development lifecycle of the product. The agile testing team focuses on planning the testing around the development, identifying defects earlyAnnouncing the Zohotshots of the ZDC Hackathon 2025
Hey everyone, The wait is finally over! After weeks of building, experimenting, and pushing creative boundaries, we’re excited to announce the winners of the second edition of the ZDC Hackathon. This edition brought together an incredible community ofZOHO CRM Button Integration
Hi Team, I’m currently working with Zoho CRM along with a custom application where I fetch deal details from the CRM and use them based on my requirements for each deal. Now, I want to enhance this setup. I plan to create a button on the Deal Detail pageMajor journey crash and not loading. Zoho Marketing Automation
Hi all. Last night (19MAR, 2026) Marketing Automation for a specific journey completely crashed, and since the crash the specific journey has failed to load at all (blank journey canvas, no journey appears, no menu accessible) but other separate journey'sCandidate Assessments, no workflows.
I have an issue where I would like to trigger a workflow based on a candidate assessment being completed. Sometimes a returning candidate will complete a second assessment, on completion the status of the candidate will be updated to "Unqualified" ifMail Merge in Zoho Desk
Hello Team, Do we have an option of mail merge within Zoho Desk like we have in Zoho CRM? We have a requirement to generate some pdf file in the form of mail merge doc from the ticket.Workdrive backup and default storage selection
Hi community, I have been informed by Zoho that workdrive will be the default storage mechanism for crm and projects. These 2 Apps seem to have different design on how they interact with workdrive for storage. 1. Crm: seems to have files saves at theZoho vault filling in a form it's not supposed to fill in
Hey there, I have a problem with ZOHO Vault autofill. In a software package, we have these options: For some reason zoho vault always replaces what's in the top option and fills a 2fa password in there, and then saves that value.. Meaning whatever wasNext Page