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
COQL order by COUNT not working
Dear community, I am trying to get a list of deal amounts per planner working on it and sorted to get see who has the least amount of deals. For some reason, I am unable to use sort by in combination with a COUNT. My original code was: query = "selectI want to duplicate a report and name it something else
Hi, I have created a report, and now want to reproduce it and call it something else. so that I will end up with TWO separate reports with different titles. Please tell me how do I copy / reproduce a report pleaseZoho CRM: Sales Rep Professional Certification Program on Coursera
We are happy to share that we have published the Zoho Sales Representative Professional Certificate in partnership with Coursera, a leading platform for online learning and career development that offers access to courses and degrees from leading universitiesOS X Notebook quits immediately upon launch
NoteBook for OS X (Sequoia, but also under Sonoma) always quits immediately upon launch (so I cannot use the "Attach user log" option). I've restarted my MacBook but the problem persists. If it helps, attached is a diagnostic report from Library>LogCan External users upload files or images to WorkDrive?
I want to know if it is possible for someone externally through a link and PW be able to upload files and images onto WorkDrive?Multi-line fields character limits
Is there a way to set the character limit higher on multi-line fields so that we are not losing information pasted into the field? When the text is entered or pasted, there is no error to say that the text is too large. After saving and going back to view most of the text is gone. Also, when viewing the resume, the text is not wrapped in the multi line fields and can t be read without scrolling across the page.Taz bot not working — What should I do to resolve this issue?
I am experiencing issues with the Taz bot in Zoho Cliq—not receiving responses or it does not seem to work as expected. Could you please explain why the Taz bot might not be functioning and what steps I should take to resolve this issue? Thank you!Zoho Calendar soft bounce on @hotmail.com and @yahoo.com email addresses
Hello, our Zoho calendar recently does not send the calendar invites to emails with hotmail and yahoo domains and comes back with a "soft bounce". other domains like Gmail works fine. Also sending "email" to the same emails to the above domains work wellOneNote Migration
I am trying to migrate two notebooks from OneNote. For five days now I have had no notification that migration has completed and the migration page show 50% complete - one notebook completed one not finished. It just stays like this. I am unable to cancelSet various time slot reminders for task and event
Hi I would like known if there is possibility to set various time reminders for a task or event like we have the possibility to do in google calendar or google task. For example I'am creating an event or task and I want to be alerted before 30min andis it possible to add more than one Whatsapp Phone Number to be integrated to Zoho CRM?
so I have successfully added one Whatsapp number like this from this User Interface it seems I can't add a new Whatsapp Number. I need to add a new Whatsapp Number so I can control the lead assignment if a chat sent to Whatsapp Phone Number 1 then assignZoho Calendar not functioning---cannot edit, add attendees, etc.
Hello, My calendar is acting strange. I'm using Chrome as my browser and pop ups are not blocked (the calendar worked fine yesterday). When creating an event, I'm not able to "edit" the event and add attendees, etc. The link is non-responsive. I cannotSpilt Axis for stacked column and line graph
Each month around this time I prepare a business review deck. One of the biggest annoyances I have with Zoho, also happens to be something that most other platforms have provided for a long time now, and that is being able to create a chart with stackedPin a note on top
Dear Zoho Notebook Team, Please highly consider adding ability to pin a note on top and arrange pinned notes. I have a lot of notes that I want to pin important ones on top and this feature is missing badly. Thank you.Windows 11 app ver 2.2.8
I have been trialing Zoho Notes syncing between my PC and iphone. No problems with iphone but the Windows 64 bit app ver 2.2.8 was very buggy and would lock up completely, needing a Control Alt Delete etc to close it down. It seemed to be connected toDeluge Script: Onboarding → Access Form
Hello everyone, Edit: Sorry, I think I put this topic in the wrong section. I’ve recently run into an issue that’s been giving me a bit of a headache for the past few weeks. Context: This is my first time using Deluge to create a script, but it’s notZOHO BOOKS - EXCESSIVELY SLOW TODAY
Dear Zoho Books This is not the first time but it seems to be 3 times per week now that the system is extremely slow. I work on Zoho Books 95% of my day so this is very frustrating. Zoho you need to do something about this. I have had my IT guy checkWindows Device Authentication
We have recently started using ManageEngine, and my boss saw a device management feature in the Zoho One directory. We thought it would either help give us more intergration into Zoho one through bringing ManageEngine services through Zoho one. Or, itHow can I change spell check language?
I cannot find the way to change spell check language. My "display language" is English, and I want to have the same one for Spell Check, but it is Russian!!! How can I change it? In one of your explanations you mentioned that I have to choose it fromMail is so slow - doesn't even work!
Mail has been getting slower and slower - and today it's not even pulling up emails in either Inbox or Unread. This is beyond frustrating since email is a big part of business. Sent a request through the useless help portal - no response. Called the uselessUser marked as SPAMMER. Mail Fetch has also been disabled for any active POP accounts.
I am the administrator for joelles.com One of our accounts has been blocked saying this: User marked as SPAMMER. Mail Fetch has also been disabled for any active POP accounts. I cannot change the disabled account in the control panel as it says that itMy domain did not activate
Hi, my domain (apsaindustrial.com.ar) did not activate, and the phone verification message never arrived. Please would you solve this problem? Thanks.ME SALE ESTE ERROR: No fue posible enviar el mensaje;Motivo:554 5.1.8 Email Outgoing Blocked
Ayuda!! Me sale este error al intentar enviar mensajes desde mi correo electronico de Zoho! Tampoco recibo correos pues cuando me envia rebotan. Ayuda, Me urge enviar unos correo importantes!! Quedo atenta MAGDA HERNANDEZ +5731120888408Is there a way to sync Tags between CRM and Campaigns/Marketing Hub?
I wonder if there is a way to synch the tags between CRM and Marketing-Hub / Campaigns?how to see if a specific contact opened an email in zoho campaign?
how to see if a specific contact opened an email in zoho campaign?Rich Text For Notes in Zoho CRM
Hello everyone, As you know, notes are essential for recording information and ensuring smooth communication across your records. With our latest update, you can now use Rich Text formatting to organize and structure your notes more efficiently. By usingRevenue Management: #8 Revenue Recognition in Educational & Training Institutions
Educational Institutions and training centres typically collect course fees at the time of enrolment, sometimes for a one-day workshop and sometimes for a year-long certification course. You might also charge separately for course materials or evaluation.How to Customize Task Creation to Send a Custom Alert Using JavaScript in Zoho CRM?
Hello Zoho CRM Community, I’m looking to customize Zoho CRM to send a custom alert whenever a task is created. I understand that Zoho CRM supports client scripts using JavaScript, and I would like to leverage this feature to implement the alert functionality.how to use validation rules in subform
Is it possible to use validation rules for subforms? I tried the following code: entityMap = crmAPIRequest.toMap().get("record"); sum = 0; direct_billing = entityMap.get("direct_billing_details"); response = Map(); for each i in direct_billing { if(i.get("type")Using files from Zoho CRM in Gemini/ChatGPT/Claude
Hi all, I’ve got subscriptions to Gemini and a few other AI tools which I use for tasks like data enrichment, email composition, etc. In our workflow, we often receive various documents from clients — such as process workflows, BRDs/requirement documentsEnhancements to the formula field in Zoho CRM: Auto-refresh formulas with the "Now" function, stop formula executions based on criteria, and include formulas within formulas
Dear Customers, We hope you're well! By their nature, modern businesses rely every day on computations, whether it's to calculate the price of a product, assess ROI, evaluate the lifetime value of a customer, or even determine the age of a record. WithMaximum file limit in zoho people LMS
Dear Team, I am having approximately 4.9 GB of material, including PPTs and videos for uploading in zoho people LMS course. May I know what is the maximum limit limit for the course files Thanking you, With regards, Logeswar V Executive _ OperationsDisplaying related quotes in sales order and back
Hi, My colleague liked to see to which sales orders, the quote has been converted. Quote shows Invoices, but not SO. Same, they would like to see the quotes in the sales order, as they can see invoices, packages, shipment, How can we achieve this ? Thankautomations: Can I execute a step on a specific date?
I have created a form in Zoho forms, and created a contacts list. I have also begun setting up an automation with the intention of sending the form to the contact list on a specific date every month (via email) for the entire year (essentially sendingDynamically prefill ticket fields
Hello, I am using Zoho Desk to collect tickets of our clients about orders they placed on our website. I would like to be able to prefill two tickets fields dynamically, in this case a readonly field for the order id, and a hidden field for the sellerOptimize your Knowledge Base for better visibility by allowing search engine crawling and indexing
All you need to know about no-follow and no-index in KB. What are article crawlability and indexability? Crawlability and indexability are vital for making an article visible and accessible to search engines. When a search engine crawls an article, itHas anyone created a public ASAP Guide that I can check out?
I am thinking of adding an ASAP guide to my web application, but I have noticed that the ASAP widget itself can be really slow to load sometimes. Has anyone created a public ASAP Guide that I can check to see how performant it is? I don't want to spendZoho Desk Partners with Microsoft's M365 Copilot for seamless customer service experiences
Hello Zoho Desk users, We are happy to announce that Zoho Desk has partnered with Microsoft's M365 to empower customer service teams with enhanced capabilities and seamless experiences for agents. Microsoft announced their partnership during their keynoteWhat’s New in Zoho Analytics – September 2025
Hello Users!! In this month’s update, we’re raising the bar across multiple touchpoints, from how you bring in data, plan and track projects to how you design and brand your dashboards. We’ve added the all-new Gantt chart for project visualization, expandedZoho MCP has no tools for Creator or 3rd Party Apps?
I don't see a Zoho MCP community forum so putting this here. Two big problems I see: 1) Although Zoho advertises "over 950 3rd party apps" as available through their MCP, when I go to "Add Tools" there are ZERO 3rd party apps available to choose from.Next Page