Tips and Tricks #21: How to schedule tasks in Zoho Subscriptions using Custom Schedulers

Tips and Tricks #21: How to schedule tasks in Zoho Subscriptions using Custom Schedulers

Custom Schedulers is one of our newest features, which helps you save time by scheduling frequently performed tasks. In this week's post, we'll be taking a look at how you can set up custom schedulers to address niche use-cases for your subscription business.
Missed our previous post? Give it a read to learn how you can prevent contact duplication with existing leads from Zoho CRM.



1. Schedule crucial sales reports to stay informed about your business' health

Reports like Lost Opportunities, Churned Subscriptions and Under Risk provide actionable insights about your sales. They can help your sales team proactively follow up with customers on crucial events like errors while signing up, subscription payments that are overdue and subscriptions that have been cancelled. 

Accessing this information on time can be vital--that's where custom schedulers come in handy. With custom schedulers, you can schedule a summary of these reports to be sent directly to your email, which will allow you to make informed decisions about your business' sales.

Apart from the reports mentioned above, the custom scheduler that you're about to create will also include the number of trial subscriptions that are about to expire in the next seven days.

The script for this custom scheduler has already been written and works thanks to Zoho Subscriptions' powerful APIs. All you have to do is configure the scheduler with the script, which we've made available on Github. Here's how to set it up:
  • Go to Settings > Automation > Custom Schedulers.
  • Click + New Custom Scheduler.

  • Set the Frequency as Daily (or Weekly, based on your needs) and the Start Date as your current date.
  • Copy the script for the custom function from Github and paste it in the Deluge script editor.
  • Make sure to edit the script with your Auth Token as well as any other changes that you'd like. 
  • Click Save.
Now, the scheduler will automatically send a summary of these reports along with a link to the full report to your email address.



2. Schedule a subscription to get cancelled on a particular date

Zoho Subscriptions lets you cancel your customers' subscriptions immediately or at the end of the current cycle. However, there may be cases where you or your customers want a subscription to be cancelled on a particular date in the future. This custom function will let you handle such cases.

How It Works

To achieve this, we'll be using custom schedulers. First, you'd have to create a custom field that can store a custom cancellation date in your subscriptions. Next, a custom scheduler, which runs daily, will go through subscriptions that have custom cancellation dates. If the scheduler finds a custom cancellation date that matches the current date, it will cancel the subscription.

End result? You'll be able to cancel a subscription simply by updating it with a cancellation date and let the custom scheduler do the rest.

Setting It Up

There may be a lot of steps involved with this one, but the setup is fairly simple and shouldn't take you more than 5-10 minutes.

To start things off, create a custom field that can store a date in your subscriptions.
  • Go to Settings > Preferences > Invoice.
  • Navigate to the Custom Field tab and click + New Custom Field.

  • Enter the Label Name as "Custom Cancellation Date".
  • Select the Data Type as Date.
  • Ensure that you leave the Default Value field empty.
  • Click Save.
When you want to cancel a subscription at a future date, update the custom field. Here's how: 
  • Go to the Subscriptions module from the left sidebar and select the subscription that you want to cancel.
  • Click the More dropdown and select the Update Custom Fields option.

  • Set the subscription's cancellation date in the custom field that you created earlier. 
  • Click Save
You can also customize the columns in the default subscription list view to make it easier to view cancellation dates. In the Subscriptions module, click the Column Customization icon and mark the custom field for cancellation dates. Click Save to show the cancellation date in the default subscription list view.



Our custom scheduler will also need a Custom View, which will help it sort through subscriptions with cancellation dates. To create the custom view: 
  • Go to the Subscriptions module and click the View Filters dropdown. 
  • Click + New Custom View

  • Enter a Name for the custom view. 
  • Add a criterion with the Field as your cancellation date's custom field, the Comparator as is and the Value as This Month.

  • Click Save.

Now, it's time to wrap things up and finally create our custom scheduler. 
  • Go to Settings > Automation > Custom Schedulers.
  • Click + New Custom Scheduler.

  • Set the Frequency as Daily and the Start Date as your current date.
  • Copy the script for the custom function from Github and paste it in the Deluge script editor.
  • Edit the script to suit your needs and also make sure to copy and paste the previously created script's customview_id parameter. 

(You can find the customview_id parameter by going to your custom view and copying it from your browser's URL bar.) 
  • Click Save.
You're all set! Now, the scheduler will automatically cancel subscriptions whenever it finds a subscription that has a cancellation date in the custom field that you created.

Note: Zoho Subscriptions will not charge your customer for their pro-rated usage. So, if you want to charge your customer for their usage until the cancellation date, you can do it by adding an additional charge to their subscription before it gets cancelled.

We hope you try this out and let us know how it goes in the comments below. We're always open to suggestions, so let us know if you have a specific business scenario that you'd like to see us tackle in our weekly tips and tricks. Until next time!

Cheers,
Varun Steven
The Zoho Subscriptions Team

    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



                                                                  • Sticky Posts

                                                                  • Tip #4 : Refer and Earn Workflow system for your Subscription Business

                                                                    Hello everyone, We've been coming up with a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which can be implemented for your business. In continuation to the previous post, this week we will be seeing about how you can implement the Refer and Earn Workflow system to acquire more customers. Why are Referrals important? Customer Acquisition is crucial for any business to sustain itself in a constantly evolving market. It involves persuading new consumers to purchase your products. Customers
                                                                  • Tip #2 - Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date

                                                                    Hello everyone, As you all know, we are coming up with a custom function workflow every week to address specific business scenarios. In continuation of this previous blog, this week we will be seeing about Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date. Business Scenario: In general, for any business, the customers make payments via online as well as offline. In case of subscription where the automatic collection of charge is enabled (aka online subscription), the customer's
                                                                  • Tip #3 : Send SMS Reminders for your Subscription Business

                                                                    Hello everyone, As you all know, we are coming up with a tip every week to address specific business scenarios. In continuation to the previous blog, this week we will be seeing how you can use SMS reminders for your Subscription Business. Using SMS messages for your Subscription Business: While managing your subscription business, more often than not, you need to keep your customers informed about upcoming renewals, payment reminders and cancellations. By keeping them informed in advance, you can
                                                                  • Tips And Tricks - Announcement

                                                                    Hello everyone, Every business is unique and each of them follows a specific workflow. While managing your customers' subscriptions with Zoho, you might have some needs unique to your business. Custom Functions helps you address such needs. This is a start to a series of posts, where we will be coming up with a custom function workflow every week that addresses specific business scenarios. Watch this space for further updates! Also, if you have any specific business scenario which needs to be addressed,
                                                                  • Tip #6 : Accessing external URLs from Zoho Subscriptions

                                                                    Hello everyone, We have been sharing a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which you can implement for your subscription business. Last week, we shared a tip about implementing the Approval Workflow system. This week, let's look at how you can access external URLs with the help of Custom Link. Business Scenario: Every business functions differently and has its unique requirements. At times, businesses might want to access other websites or applications by appending specific information


                                                                  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

                                                                                                                      • Zoho CRM Community Digest - July 2026| Part 2

                                                                                                                        Hello everyone! The second half of July brought five CRM updates, including a heads-up for developers on API changes coming in October, one Quick Win on keeping your attribution data intact through lead conversion, two Dev's Corner threads worth bookmarking,
                                                                                                                      • Keeping project teams in the know with Zoho Cliq

                                                                                                                        Project management is all about processes, data flow, and maintaining order. But communicating appropriate information at crucial times to stakeholders is as important as the moving parts of a project. Zoho Cliq can facilitate effective communication
                                                                                                                      • Enable Credit Note creation for Sales Returns BEFORE receiving goods

                                                                                                                        Currently, it is not possible to issue a Credit Note linked to a Sales Return until the goods have been officially marked as "received" in the system. In our business, we often need to issue a credit note to our clients immediately upon the initiation
                                                                                                                      • Getting Internal Server Error message when filing for MTD

                                                                                                                        I am trying to file for the MTD submission, and after I filled in all the information and click (Fetch Obligation) this message "Internal Server Error [500]" pops up. I have been trying for awhile and its still the same. What shall I do as today is deadline
                                                                                                                      • No access to change view permission for team members

                                                                                                                        Hi, I want team members to be able to update the percentage progress on their goals at mid year. Currently they cannot edit this, they can only update the comments against the goals. The ability to add view permission to goal progress for team members
                                                                                                                      • Turn your Zoho One Home into your workspace with Dashboard 2.0

                                                                                                                        When you open Zoho One, you probably don't need to see everything. You need to see what matters to you. A sales manager may want to track pipeline and revenue. An HR manager may want to monitor employee information. A business leader may want a quick
                                                                                                                      • Zoho Assist Feature Update: August 2026

                                                                                                                        Web Forms Web Forms in Zoho Assist help you collect support requests directly from your website and route them to the right team. Embed a customizable form so customers can raise issue details or join an active remote session using a session ID. Depending
                                                                                                                      • Tip #84 – A More Natural Remote Experience with Custom Cursor Support – 'Insider Insights'

                                                                                                                        Hello Zoho Assist Community! Anyone who has spent time in a remote support session knows the feeling. You're guiding a customer through a task, moving the cursor across the screen, and something feels just slightly off. The cursor doesn't behave the way
                                                                                                                      • 【無料/オンライン】8/20開催|Zoho ワークアウト|ユーザー同士で学び合うオンラインもくもく会

                                                                                                                        ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。 コミュニティグループの中野です。 8月20日(木)開催の「Zoho ワークアウト」をご案内します。 Zoho ワークアウトは、参加者それぞれが取り組みたいテーマを持ち寄り、 ユーザー同士で交流しながら、設定・検証・運用改善を進めるオンラインの「もくもく会」です。 「作業を進めたいけれど、一人だと手が止まってしまう」 「他社がどのように活用しているのか知りたい」 「同じ課題を持つユーザーと情報交換したい」 そんな方は、ぜひお気軽にご参加ください。 ▶︎ 参加登録はこちら(無料)
                                                                                                                      • Assign Price Book to Accounts (again!)

                                                                                                                        I can see this topic has been bumping about for over 10 years and unfortunately Zoho hasn't seen the need (or use case) in CRM to be able to assign an account to a price book to automate quoting (amongst other things). Strange given they DO assign price
                                                                                                                      • Custom Statuses - Can You Do Anything With Them?

                                                                                                                        As far as I can tell, one really cannot do much with custom statuses. I created a new custom status for sales orders called "Customizing / Hold". This is for sales orders that have the Confirmed status. The use case here is that, as an e-commerce company,
                                                                                                                      • Price Book in foreign currency

                                                                                                                        We have many customers who buy in foreign currency (USD), where our base currency is our local currency (AUD). It would be normal (it is in Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory etc.) to assign a currency to a price book, but I cannot find this option in Zoho CRM
                                                                                                                      • How to disable option to search (In Advanced Field > Matrix Choice > Dropdown)

                                                                                                                        In Advanced Field > Matrix Choice > Dropdown I don’t want the option to search or type to fill in words. How can I disable or remove this function?
                                                                                                                      • Layout rules in Zoho FSM

                                                                                                                        As titled, is there an item in the pipeline or an ETA for the implementation of layout rules in Zoho FSM? Similar to how they work in Zoho CRM https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/customize-crm-account/customizing-page-layouts/articles/create-conditional-layouts
                                                                                                                      • Marketing Tip #45: Use WhatsApp to engage customers and drive more sales

                                                                                                                        Email is great. Social media is useful. But when it comes to getting a message actually read? WhatsApp wins. In general, open rates on WhatsApp messages are significantly higher than email, and the conversation feels personal rather than promotional.
                                                                                                                      • Client Script also planned for Zoho Desk?

                                                                                                                        Hello there, I modified something in Zoho CRM the other day and was amazed at the possibilities offered by the "Client Script" feature in conjunction with the ZDK. You can lock any fields on the screen, edit them, you can react to various events (field
                                                                                                                      • View Answer Bot conversations?

                                                                                                                        We are trialing Zia and are experimenting with Answer Bot on our knowledge base. So far so good! Management asks me if it is possible to view Answer Bot conversations, the purpose being to look over its shoulder and confirm that it is working as des
                                                                                                                      • Add Comment workflow action delayed by 1–2 minutes in Zoho Desk

                                                                                                                        Hello Zoho Support team, We are experiencing an issue with a workflow in Zoho Desk. The workflow is triggered when the Quote ID field is updated and performs two actions: A standard Field Update An Add Comment custom action When the Quote ID field is
                                                                                                                      • Zoho CRM Layout Rules: Nine New Actions, Profile-Based Execution, and Interactive Preview

                                                                                                                        Hello everyone, Availability: This feature is now available for customers in the JP and SA DCs. It is planned to be released for other customers in soon. We’re excited to announce powerful new enhancements to Layout Rules in Zoho CRM - a feature built
                                                                                                                      • Zoho Books and TRAINING SALES receipt label for eTims?

                                                                                                                        Hi, Can Zoho Books implement TRAINING SALES receipts and push them to eTims for test? In other words how can we send to Zoho or even create in Zoho training mode invoices and TEST the workflow POS>Zoho Books>eTims and back without actually registering
                                                                                                                      • Reporting Tags and COGS

                                                                                                                        Is there any way to get COGS recorded against reporting tags? The use cases seems very straightforward to me. If I'm running a P/L report against a specific reporting tag (I use mine for customer type, but it could be used for regions, etc.), the revenue
                                                                                                                      • Hide Custom Fields for Customers or Vendors

                                                                                                                        For whatever reason, all custom fields added to the Customer module also get added to the Vendor module. This leads to a clunky experience for users, as many custom fields we add only apply to one or the other. There should be a "hide" option to hide
                                                                                                                      • Onboarding process

                                                                                                                        I urgently need onboarding support. My account still shows trial period.
                                                                                                                      • Detailed General Ledger - Display Transaction Description in Reports

                                                                                                                        Hi Zoho Team, I'm currently using Zoho Books and have a question regarding the Detailed General Ledger report. When we enter a description or narration in transactions (Bills, Journal Entries, Expenses, etc.), the report does not display this description.
                                                                                                                      • Which Zoho CRM tasks would you want an AI assistant to handle?

                                                                                                                        I’ve started delegating my Zoho CRM work to AI – and many tasks now take me half the time. It has been so useful that we’re now working to make it available to everyone. Instead of clicking through records and tabs, I simply describe what needs to be
                                                                                                                      • Zoho Mail Does Not Integrate with Analytics

                                                                                                                        Hello everyone, Just wanted to make a quick post about the problem with zoho mail. Currently it does not connect to Zoho Analytics, which I think is crazy considering both of these applications have existed for a long period of time. Even zoho voice a
                                                                                                                      • Net ##th Terms (e.g. due on the following 15th)

                                                                                                                        I have a client who pays me twice monthly per our contract. It would be helpful to have terms on my invoices where the invoice is due on the 15th or the 30th of the same or the following month.
                                                                                                                      • Project status update visibility within a project

                                                                                                                        Currently the only place within Zoho projects to see status updates for a given project is actually not in the project it's self it's in the Collaboration section and then by searching for a given project and clicking on the status tab. It would be great
                                                                                                                      • Using custom CRM fields

                                                                                                                        I have created a series of fields in the Deals module that need to be linked to fields in a contract I have customized. I can only see how to map standard fields, not the custom ones. How do I do this?
                                                                                                                      • Como limitar o Zia Agent?

                                                                                                                        Geralmente quando estamos criando um agente de IA no ZIa Agent Studio, colocamos o que ele deve fazer, utilizando as instruções que colocamos no Knowledge Base. Mas como colocamos limites que não devem ser ultrapassados? Para isso utilizamos os Guardrails,
                                                                                                                      • An important update for Zoho Cliq desktop users

                                                                                                                        The latest version of the Zoho Cliq desktop app (v1.8.0) will no longer be supported on macOS 10.15 Catalina and earlier versions. This is because the framework we use (Electron) no longer supports some older macOS versions. If you’re using macOS 10.15
                                                                                                                      • Zoho Flow - Zoho Desk trigger "Ticket created or updated" overrides Department

                                                                                                                        Just in case anyone else has this issue. We had a Zoho Flow with the Zoho Desk trigger "Ticket created or updated". In the trigger I had selected a Department (Sales). What happens is that the Department ID (Sales) is submitted as part of the request
                                                                                                                      • 2026 Product Roadmap and Upcoming Features

                                                                                                                        This is your guide to what is coming in Zoho Vertical Studio throughout 2026. We’ll update this post throughout the year as items move from development to release, and as and when new initiatives are added. Once a feature is released, it will be reflected
                                                                                                                      • Introducing Canvas templates: Design once, apply everywhere

                                                                                                                        Greetings all! We're happy to introduce Canvas templates, a Forms view enhancement that enables you to design form layouts just once and apply them seamlessly across multiple modules. Imagine you use five CRM modules (Contacts, Deals, Leads, and more),
                                                                                                                      • Zoho Projects - Will there ever be a send email feature in Zoho Project?

                                                                                                                        Hi team, Are there plans to or will there ever be a sendemail feature in Zoho Projects, brining it in line with other similar platforms like Asana, ClickUp and Monday? I know that you can add comments via email to a specific task, but I believe this only
                                                                                                                      • Why cant i see the Campaigns module in my Zoho app

                                                                                                                        I am on the ZOHO CRM Standard edition. I can clearly see and use the Campaign module when viewing the ZOHO CRM desktop. When I switch to my phone, the Campaign Module does not show. I have gone through all the settings I can think of, but I still can't
                                                                                                                      • 📣 Ask the team behind Zoho SalesIQ: Summer '26 Q&A

                                                                                                                        Hi everyone! Following our recent webinars, Summer '26 Release: What's New in Zoho SalesIQ—where we walked you through all the new features, what they do, and how they work—and Driving the AI Evolution: Building Smarter Customer Experiences with Zoho
                                                                                                                      • Always display images from this sender – Is this feature available?

                                                                                                                        In Zoho mail, I had my "Load external images" setting set to "Ask me", and that's fine. That's the setting I prefer. What's not fine though is I always need to tick "Display now" for each email I get, regardless if I've done that multiple times from several
                                                                                                                      • Set Custom Icon for Custom Modules in new Zoho CRM UI

                                                                                                                      • Displayed sample tracking for multi branch setup.

                                                                                                                        We have multiple branches and one of the biggest challenges for us to be able to track if a particular item is in display or not. I am shooting in the dark but I am wondering if there is a solution for the following : Each product used for display is
                                                                                                                      • Next Page