What's New - April 2025 | Zoho Backstage
Hello there,
Phew! It’s been a busy month—and it’s all for you.
You know that feeling when your to-do list is long, your coffee’s gone cold, but your team is absolutely crushing it behind the scenes? That’s been us this month. Between brainstorming, building, tweaking, and testing—we've had our heads down, sleeves rolled up, and minds focused on one thing: helping you run smoother, smarter, and more engaging events.
Every little update we pushed live this month was sparked by a real need from organizers like you. And honestly? That’s our favorite way to build. You throw us the challenges, and we’ll keep showing up with better, faster, and (hopefully) cooler ways to handle them.
So as the calendar flips, we hope you’ll take a moment to explore what’s new, give it a spin, and tell us what you think.
Automated refunds with cancellation fee deductions
Plan availability: Included in the Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans
Event organizers often face the challenge of handling last-minute cancellations and issuing partial refunds. With our new custom cancellation policy, you can now automatically deduct a cancellation fee from the refund amount when an attendee cancels their booking.
How it works:
- Set a cancellation fee as a percentage of the ticket price.
- The system automatically handles fee deduction and tax adjustments.
Setting up:
- Navigate to Registrations > Cancellation Policy.
- Select Custom Cancellation Policy.
- Define up to 10 cancellation rules. (maximum window: 60 days before event)
Attendees will see the applicable policy:
- During registration
- On their Your Orders page
- While canceling their order
The deducted fee is automatically logged in the cancellation and refund history, viewable by both attendees and organizers.
Fee changes apply only to new orders. For partially refunded orders, any remaining amount can still be refunded later.
Order and attendee activity logs
Plan availability: Included in the Free, Essentials, Premium and Ultimate plans
Get complete visibility into every update made to attendee and order data with our new activity log. Whether changes were made by an organizer, purchaser, or attendee, you can now view a detailed activity trail.
This audit log captures a record of updates and changes related to attendee and order management. Whether an organizer updates an attendee’s name, a purchaser reassigns a ticket, or a ticket class is changed, the system now logs each of these actions automatically for full traceability.
The log currently captures the following types of activities:
- Updates to attendee details, such as name, email, or custom fields.
- Changes made to order details, including purchaser info and billing data.
- Ticket reassignment, when a ticket is transferred to another attendee.
- An order being marked as paid or unpaid, reflecting changes in payment status.
- Ticket class changes, such as upgrading or downgrading an attendee's ticket.
These logs are grouped into three categories for easy review:
- Portal Activities – actions performed via the organizer portal.
- Order Activities – all modifications related to individual orders.
- Attendee Activities – updates and changes linked directly to attendees.
This enhancement is especially helpful for teams managing large events, providing an added layer of accountability and operational clarity. With audit trails now available, you can confidently trace back who made what change and when, minimizing confusion and improving team collaboration.
Export attendee data with deleted fields
Plan availability: Included in the Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans
Managing attendee information often requires flexibility, especially when event organizers make changes to registration forms mid-way through the event setup or after registrations have already started. To support this, Zoho Backstage now offers a new enhancement that allows organizers to include deleted fields when exporting attendee data.
This enhancement ensures that you won’t lose access to that data, even if the field no longer appears on the live form. This gives full control over whether historical data from removed fields should be preserved and reviewed offline.
How to use:
- Navigate to Registrations > Attendees.
- Click Export.
- There, you'll find a new option: Include deleted fields. When selected, any data submitted for removed fields will be included in the export.
In the exported file, these deleted fields will be clearly marked using the following format: {fieldName}_Deleted. This helps distinguish them from currently active fields while still making the historical data available for review or reporting purposes.
Add attachments to scheduled emails
Plan availability: Included in the Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans
Attachments are a common and essential part of email communication, especially in event planning. Organizers often need to send event brochures, images, venue maps, or other materials to attendees ahead of time. With this update, they can now do so simply within their scheduled emails.
How to use:
- To add an attachment, simply go to Communicate > Emails > Scheduled Emails > Create an Email > Options > Add Attachment. You can upload relevant files from your event or space library during the email creation process.
- You can upload relevant files from your event or space library during the email creation process.
When you preview the email, the attachments will be visible so you can verify everything is in place before sending. If any attached file is later removed from the event or space library, it will be shown as “deleted” in the email preview—helping you avoid broken links or missing files.
Try it out the next time you send a scheduled email!
Session details in speaker emails
Plan availability: Available in the Free, Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans
We’ve enhanced speaker communication in Zoho Backstage by adding session details directly to speaker emails. This ensures speakers have all the information they need—without requiring additional follow-ups or manual updates.
Two key email updates have been introduced:
- Welcome Speaker email now includes the speaker’s assigned session details, helping them understand exactly when and where they’re expected to present.
- Session Updated email is a new automated email that gets triggered whenever sessions are assigned to a speaker or when existing session details, such as timing or location, are changed. The email will show either a New Sessions section, an Updated Sessions section, or both, depending on the changes made.
You can find and manage these templates under:
- Communication > Emails > Automated Emails > Speakers
Enable/disable Workflows during event creation
Plan availability: Included in the Premium and Ultimate plans
This feature gives event organizers more control over workflow management during the event creation process in Zoho Backstage. Any workflows configured at the portal level are automatically listed when creating a new event. By default, these workflows are enabled, but organizers can choose to disable specific ones based on the needs of the event—directly during setup.
This flexibility helps prevent workflows from being overlooked or incorrectly applied, making the event setup more efficient and consistent. Organizers can also revisit and update these settings later, ensuring each event has the most relevant workflows in place.
SalesIQ chat in OnAir
Plan availability: Included in the Premium and Ultimate plans
We’re excited to share that SalesIQ Chat is now integrated with the OnAir platform, enabling real-time communication between participants and organizers during live events and rehearsals.
Attendees can now initiate chats directly within OnAir, ensuring timely responses to their questions. Speakers and exhibitors can also use the chat feature during rehearsals for smooth coordination.
Organizers can configure chat visibility from:
- Design > Edit Website > Integrations > Zoho Sales IQ
- Settings > Integrations > Live Chat
You can choose to display the chat on the event website, within OnAir, or both. All conversations are managed through your existing SalesIQ portal.
This integration enhances engagement and simplifies event communication for a better overall experience.
Gamification Leaderboard now supports public display links
Plan availability: Included in the Premium and Ultimate plans
Leaderboard display allows event organizers to showcase real-time competition results across the venue, encouraging attendees to engage more actively through visible, friendly competition.
This encourages friendly competition and boosts attendee engagement.
You can generate secure, public links directly from the Manage Leaderboard page. These links display only ranking information—no sensitive attendee data—and are ideal for projection screens throughout your event space. Multiple links can be created, each with a unique session ID, screen name, browser, and IP, giving you full visibility and control.
Key features include:
- Expiration controls: Links expire at the event’s end time, with the option to extend or set a custom expiry date.
- Security: A password-protected interface ensures only authorized users can access the leaderboard. Use the Copy Password button to easily share credentials with your AV team or display partners.
- Screen tracking: Each display session requires a screen name, which appears alongside session data in your dashboard, making it simple to identify and manage screens.
- Session control: End individual sessions instantly or reset the password to terminate all active sessions for added security.
Important: If you don’t copy the link at the time of creation, it can’t be retrieved again—make sure to save it immediately.
To set it up, go to Manage > Engagement > Gamification.
Bring your leaderboard to life—visibly, securely, and with complete control.
Time field in forms
Plan availability: The availability of this feature depends on the type of form:
- Registration form – Included in Premium and Ultimate plans
- Custom forms – Included exclusively in the Ultimate plan
- Exhibitor request form – Included in the Premium and Ultimate plans. Also available in the Essentials plan when used with the Exhibitor add-on.
- Sponsor request form – Included in the Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans
- Session feedback form – Included in the Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans
You can now collect time-specific responses using the newly introduced Time field in the form builder. Ideal for gathering details like arrival times, session preferences, or any time-based input, this feature gives you greater precision and control during data collection.
Organizers can configure the field to accept inputs in 12-hour or 24-hour format, and optionally define a time range to limit selections. The default format shown to respondents will align with the event’s time format set under Manage > Event Info.
For example, if you're coordinating airport pickups or hotel transfers, you can easily request attendees’ expected arrival times during registration or through custom forms.
Registered session participants export
Plan availability: Included in the Free, Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans
You can export the list of registered attendees for individual sessions, making it easier to manage participation and access attendee details at the session level.
To use this feature, navigate to Manage > Sessions, select the relevant session, and go to the Participants > Registered tab. From there, you’ll find the option to export the list of participants who have registered for that specific session.
The export file will include the following columns:
- Name
- Email
- Ticket ID
- Ticket Class
- Session Title
This update provides quick access to session-specific attendee data, helping organizers better plan logistics, monitor participation, and coordinate follow-ups.
You keep the ideas coming—we’ll keep delivering.
Let’s make May 2025 even better.
All the features and enhancements mentioned in this article are available across all Zoho Backstage-supported data centers.
If you have any questions, please contact support@zohobackstage.com.
Access your files securely from anywhere
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
Jithan Raghuraj
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
Meta and Facebook data report discrepancy
I have been currently gathering manually facebook follower data thru meta. In zoho marketing plus the social media reporting only allows for page likes, and so there is a discrepancy with the data. please the difference in files attached. Is there wayDevelop and publish a Zoho Recruit extension on the marketplace
Hi, I'd like to develop a new extension for Zoho Recruit. I've started to use Zoho Developers creating a Zoho CRM extension. But when I try to create a new extension here https://sigma.zoho.com/workspace/testtesttestest/apps/new I d'ont see the option of Zoho Recruit (only CRM, Desk, Projects...). I do see extensions for Zoho Recruit in the marketplace. How would I go about to create one if the option is not available in sigma ? Cheers, Rémi.Unlocking New Levels: Zoho Payroll's Journey in 2025
Every year brings its own set of challenges and opportunities to rethink how payroll works across regulations and teams. In 2025, Zoho Payroll continued to evolve with one clear focus: giving businesses more flexibility, clarity, and control as they grow.Can I export all attachments from Zoho CRM?
Can I export all attachments from Zoho CRM?Please can the open tasks be shown in each customer account at the top.
Hi there This has happened before, where the open tasks are no longer visible at the top of the page for each customer in the CRM. They have gone missing previously and were reinstated when I asked so I think it's just after an update that this featureWhat's new in Zoho Sheet: Simplify data entry and collaboration
Hello, Zoho Sheet community! Last year, our team was focused on research and development so we could deliver updates that enhance your spreadsheet experience. This year, we’re excited to deliver those enhancements—but we'll be rolling them out incrementallyCommunity Digest — Noviembre y Diciembre 2025
¡Hola, Comunidad de Zoho en Español! Cerramos el año de la mejor forma con nuestro último Community Digest de 2025, donde podrás encontrar las últimas novedades de nuestros productos. ¿Todo listo para empezar 2026 con el mejor pie? ¡Vamos a ello! ZohoZoho Projects Plus’ 2025- the year we launched
We’ve been building project management tools for the past 19 years, and a question we often hear is: Different teams in our organization prefer different project management methods; while the development team prefers agile, the marketing and sales teamsWhy can't we change the Account type from an Expense to an Asset?
Like the question. Why in QuickBooks for example if I mistakenly created an account as an expenses and I already captured information in those accounts, I can just change the account type from expense to assetMove email between inboxes?
Is it possible to move emails from one team inbox to another? We would like to be able to have a single "catch-all" inbox for incoming requests, and then move the email to the appropriate department inbox. I was hoping we would be able to accomplish thisZoho Books emails suddenly going to Spam since 11 Nov 2025 (Gmail + now Outlook) — anyone else?
Hi everyone, We migrated to Zoho Books in July 2025 and everything worked fine until 11 Nov 2025. Since then, Zoho Books system emails are landing in customers’ Spam (first Gmail, and now we’re seeing Outlook/Office 365 also starting to spam them). ImpactedHow do you print a refund check to customer?
Maybe this is a dumb question, but how does anyone print a refund check to a customer? We cant find anywhere to either just print a check and pick a customer, or where to do so from a credit note.Data Import | Zoho Analytics Custom Query Window Size
Please increase the window size for the Custom Query Data Import. It's impossible to work with such a small query window.Company Multiple Branch/ Location Accounting
Hi All, anyone know whether company can maintain their multiple Branch Accounting in Zoho Books. It will be chart of Accounts & Master Data will be same but different report available as per per Branch. Thanks & regards, Vivek +91 9766906737Zoho Books Invoices Templates
It would be really helpful to have more advanced features to customise the invoice templates in Zoho Books. Especially I´m thinking of the spacing of the different parts of the invoice (Address line etc.). If you have a sender and receiver address inSupport for Developing Zoho Recruit Extensions via Zoho Sigma
Hi, I’m interested in building an extension for Zoho Recruit using Zoho Sigma. However, when I navigate to Sigma and attempt to create a new extension (via the "New Extension" option), Zoho Recruit does not appear as a listed service—only options likeEmail Administrators! Join our tips & troubleshooting series
Greetings to all the admins out there! This announcement is exclusively for you. As we step into the New Year, we’re excited to start a dedicated series of admin-specific tips curated to support you. These posts will help you overcome everyday challengesNotes badge as a quick action in the list view
Hello all, We are introducing the Notes badge in the list view of all modules as a quick action you can perform for each record, in addition to the existing Activity badge. With this enhancement, users will have quick visibility into the notes associatedDeprecation of the Zoho OAuth connector
Hello everyone, At Zoho, we continuously evaluate our integrations to ensure they meet the highest standards of security, reliability, and compliance. As part of these ongoing efforts, we've made the decision to deprecate the Zoho OAuth default connectorPersonalize your booking pages with Custom CSS
Greetings from the Zoho Bookings team! We’re introducing Custom CSS for Zoho Bookings, designed to give you complete control over the look and feel of your booking pages. With this new feature, you can upload your own CSS file to customize colors, fonts,Free Webinar : Unlock AI driven business insights with Zoho Inventory + Zoho Analytics
Are you tired of switching between apps and exporting data to build customized reports? Say hello to smarter & streamlined insights! Join us for this exclusive webinar where we explore the power of the Zoho Inventory–Zoho Analytics integration. LearnNo OR Filter for Views with a Related Modules Criteria
We would like to create a Deal View where the User can see all their deals. For that, we would need an OR to connect the criteria. One of the Fields is a "multiselect User", these (Related Modules Criteria) can only be Filter with an AND. Even betweenImport Function: ONLY update empty fields
When setting up an import from a spreadsheet to CRM, there is a checkbox "Don't update empty values for existing contacts" (see screenshot below). While I see some limited benefit from this functionality, I think there should also be an "ONLY update emptySales IQ Chat Widget is Only Displaying Last Name
Can anyone suggest why the widget is only displaying "last name"?! We have the latest version of the wordpress plugin installed. Thanks Thanks!Free Webinar: Zoho Sign for Zoho Projects: Automate tasks and approvals with e-signatures
Hi there! Handling multiple projects at once? Zoho Projects is your solution for automated and streamlined project management, and with the Zoho Sign extension, you can sign, send, and manage digital paperwork directly from your project workspace. JoinBegin the year with best practices in the Zoho Desk mobile app : Part 2
In focus: Optimizing collaboration and supervision Let's begin 2026 with Part 2 of our tips series on driving your ticketing operations at your fingertips. In Part 1, we explored streamlining operations within tickets. This helped individuals at OmniserveCan we disable add to cart in Zoho Commerce?
Hello, Our sales happen on the phone. During the call the customer is directed to our website to inspect the products together with the sales rep. So we need a way to present our inventory. I figured Zoho Commerce is a good fit for this use case. However we would have to disable the possibility to purchase products in the shop. Is that possible? Sunny regards, ArtjomHow to update "Lead Status" to more than 100 records
Hello Zoho CRM, How do I update "Lead Status" to more than 100 records at once? To give you a background, these leads were uploaded or Imported at once but the lead status record was incorrectly chosen. So since there was a way to quickly add records in the system no matter how many they are, we are also wondering if there is a quicker way to update these records to the correct "Lead Status". I hope our concern makes sense and that there will be a fix for it. All the best, JonathanZoho DataPrep and File Pattern configuration
I'm using Zoho data prep to ingest data from One Drive into Zoho Analytics... The pipeline is super simple but I can't any way to get all the files that I need. Basically I need to bring all the files with a certain pattern and for that I'm using a regexJWT Token authentication problem that sometimes generates infinite redirect loops
Description : Nous proposons un bouton sur notre plateforme permettant de rediriger l'utilisateur vers le portail ZohoDesk via un jeton JWT pour une authentification transparente. Cependant, il arrive que certains utilisateurs soient pris dans une boucleZoho desk desktop application
does zoho desk has a destop applicaion?How do I bulk archive my projects in ZOHO projects
Hi, I want to archive 50 Projects in one go. Can you please help me out , How can I do this? Thanks kapilZOHO Work Drive Back Up
I am looking for a ZOHO Work Drive backup solution. Something that is cloud based. There's lots of these kinds of options for Google Drive and other providers, but I have not seen anything for WorkDrive. Any suggestions?ZOHO Reports - Filter Logic?
Hi, I need a way to apply filter logics such as ((1 AND 2) OR 3). All I can see as of now is a way to enter different AND filters in the respective filter column. But how can I add an OR filter? Any advice would be highly appreciated. MarkScanned Doc - selecting Item overwrites Rate
I have a Vendor Invoice which was uploaded to Documents. I select Add To > New Bill. The OCR is actually quite good, but it is reading an Item Description instead of an Item Number. I remove the description and select the correct Item Number... and itRecruit API search
Hi all, Attempting to call the search api endpoint from Postman using the word element as mentioned in api docs Search Records - APIs | Online Help - Zoho Recruit When making the call to /v2/Candidates/search?word=Saudi receive response of { "code": "MANDATORY_NOT_FOUND",Saving reading position + Keep screen on
While Zoho Notebook is excellent for saving and annotating articles, its utility is severely limited by the lack of reading progress synchronization. On the Android app, if a user exits a long note after reading 50%, the app fails to save the position.Multiple Vendor SKUs
One of the big concerns we have with ZOHO Inventory is lack of Vendor Skus like many other inventory software packages offer. Being able to have multiple vendor skus for the same product would be HUGE! It would populate the appropriate vendor Sku forZoho LandingPage is integrated with Zoho One!
Greetings to the Zoho One users out there! We're delighted to let you know that Zoho LandingPage is available in Zoho One too! With Zoho LandingPage, you can host custom-made landing pages, and persuade the visitors to dive deeper by making further clicks,Android app sync problem - multiple devices have same problem
Hello, I am having a problem with synchronization in the Android app. When I create a drawing, the data does not sync correctly—only a blank note is created without the drawing. I tested this on multiple devices, including phones and tablets, and theNext Page