What's New? - May 2025 | Zoho Backstage

What's New? - May 2025 | Zoho Backstage

Hi everyone, 

A May-zing month for you!

As summer rolls in and event season picks up the pace, we’ve been working on a set of updates in Zoho Backstage to help make your day-to-day life a little easier. This month’s improvements are all about tackling the real challenges that event professionals face daily, from complex stakeholder communications to payment processing bottlenecks.

Module-Specific Primary Contacts

May the right message reach the right inbox

Modern event management often involves multiple stakeholders managing different specialized areas. The new Module-Specific Primary Contact feature allows event organizers to assign dedicated primary contacts for each module individually, creating clearer communication pathways where registration queries reach the registration team, speaker communications connect with speaker coordinators, and sponsor-related emails land in the appropriate inbox. 

Setting up these specialized contacts is straightforward. Event organizers can navigate to Communicate, then Email, Preferences, Primary Contact, and Assign Primary Contact, where they can add and verify contact details before assigning them to specific modules, including Registrations, Speakers, Sponsors, and Exhibitors. Once configured, each module operates with its own communication pathway, improving clarity and coordination.

The system includes essential management controls such as the ability to change primary contacts, edit sender names, and unassign contacts when team structures evolve. To ensure reliable email delivery, the platform provides authentication notifications when needed, maintaining reliable communication.

These primary contacts are integrated into their respective module interfaces:
  • Registration Settings
  • Speaker Settings
  • Sponsor Settings
  • Exhibitor Settings


When changes are needed, clicking Change Primary Contact in any module provides direct access to the email management interface.

Plan availability: Included in the Premium and Ultimate plans


Offline payments with visuals and verification

May offline payments be crystal clear

Building on recent registration improvements, Zoho Backstage has upgraded its offline payment system with two key features: the ability to upload QR codes or instruction images, and a transaction ID verification process.

The visual enhancement allows event organizers to upload QR codes or detailed bank instruction images for each offline payment method during the setup process. Located in Registrations > Setup > Payments under the Offline Payment options, this feature includes live preview capabilities and the flexibility to replace or remove images as needed.



For attendees, this translates to a clearer payment experience. When selecting offline payment options, they see the uploaded visual guidance, enhancing clarity and reducing payment errors. After placing their order, attendees can optionally enter a Payment Transaction ID if they've completed the payment, creating a direct link between their transaction and registration. 

The organizer experience becomes more efficient with the verification process. Orders with transaction IDs enter a Payment Verification Pending status, where organizers can review the provided ID and choose to verify it or mark it as a mismatch. Verified orders are updated to Paid status, while mismatched entries trigger automated emails prompting attendees to correct their details.



The system maintains flexibility throughout the process. Attendees who initially skip the transaction ID can log in later to add or update this information, automatically triggering the verification process. Meanwhile, organizers retain the ability to manually enter transaction IDs when adding new orders, checking in attendees, or recording missed registrations, ensuring no payment scenario goes unaccounted for.

Plan availability: Included in the EssentialsPremium, and Ultimate plans


WhatsApp number change

May you change your mind—and your WhatsApp number

Zoho Backstage offers the ability to change registered phone numbers within WhatsApp integrations at any time. This enhancement provides flexibility for teams to update their communication settings as needed.

The phone number change process operates through Portal Settings > Integrations > Event Communication > WhatsApp, where organizers can click the Change button next to their current number and select any verified alternative from their WhatsApp Business account. For unverified numbers, the platform provides direct verification capabilities through OTP systems, allowing organizers to verify and switch to new numbers within the Zoho Backstage interface.
Importantly, changing phone numbers preserves all existing configurations. WhatsApp triggers, templates, and automated processes continue functioning as configured, ensuring communication continuity while providing the flexibility to adapt to changing organizational needs.


Plan availability: Included in the EssentialsPremium, and Ultimate plans


Recovering lost registrations with winback emails

May we remind you?

The Reminders for Missed Registrations feature introduces a sophisticated winback email system designed to recover potential attendees who begin but don't complete the registration process. 

The system identifies missed registrations when purchasers reach the payment page but don't complete their order within the established registration time limit. These registrations are stored for up to 180 days, creating opportunities for recovery efforts through targeted reminder campaigns.

Event organizers can configure up to five reminder intervals through Communication > Reminders, setting triggers based on minutes, hours, or days after abandonment. A typical strategy might include an immediate 30-minute follow-up, a one-day reminder, and a final three-day appeal, though the system accommodates various timing strategies to match different event types and audience behaviors.



The reminder system includes intelligent safeguards for optimal communication. Only the most recent missed registration per purchaser receives reminders, and all automated emails conclude when the event ends. For events requiring more than five reminder intervals, limits can be increased upon request, ensuring the system scales with various event marketing strategies.

Plan availability: Included in the EssentialsPremium, and Ultimate plans


Directly convert approval requests to orders

May your approvals turn into orders instantly

Event planning frequently involves various payment methods and approval processes. This new feature provides organizers with direct transformation of approval requests into confirmed orders.



This enhancement proves invaluable for managing offline payments made through bank transfers, cash transactions, or other non-digital methods. Organizers can efficiently convert approved, pending, or rejected requests into active orders with complete payment details recorded in the system.

The process is simple: organizers locate the relevant request in their Registration Approval requests section, click the Convert to Order option, and complete the process by recording offline payment details. This direct conversion capability ensures that all registration records remain current and accurate within Zoho Backstage.

Plan availability: Included in the EssentialsPremium, and Ultimate plans


Looking ahead together

May these be the foundation for what's next

These May 2025 updates are all about making everyday event planning simpler, smoother, and more connected. Whether it’s clearer communication, easier payment tracking, or smarter follow-ups, each new feature is designed to solve real challenges you face while managing events.

We know how fast things move during event season. That’s why we’ve focused on updates that blend seamlessly into your existing workflows, helping you stay in control without adding complexity.

We hope these improvements make a meaningful difference for you and your team. As always, we’re here to support you—and we can’t wait to share what’s coming next.

Info
All the features and enhancements mentioned in this article are available across all Zoho Backstage-supported data centers.
For additional assistance or questions regarding these new features, contact support@zohobackstage.com. Stay tuned for continued updates designed to enhance your event management capabilities.

    Access your files securely from anywhere









                          Zoho Developer Community




                                                • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                • Digest


                                                • Functions


                                                • Meetups


                                                • Kbase


                                                • Resources


                                                • Glossary


                                                • Desk Marketplace


                                                • MVP Corner


                                                • Word of the Day


                                                • Ask the Experts





                                                          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

                                                                                                            • Introducing the locking option for CRM records

                                                                                                              Last modified on 06/04/2023: Record locking option in CRM is now available for all Zoho CRM users in all DCs. Note that it was an early access feature available only upon request. Hello All, Hope you're doing well! We're thrilled to introduce our latest
                                                                                                            • Two new enhancements in Zoho CRM: Introducing new criteria for user fields and displaying group information in users page

                                                                                                              Announcement moderated on 14th June, 2023. Dear All, These enhancements are opened for all users in all DCs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear All, Hope you're well! We are here with two useful
                                                                                                            • Tip #49- Navigating the Remote Support Dashboard in Zoho Assist- 'Insider Insights'

                                                                                                              The Remote Support dashboard in Zoho Assist is designed to help technicians quickly access, manage, and monitor all their support sessions from a single, intuitive interface. Whether you’re starting a new session, managing ongoing connections, or reviewing
                                                                                                            • BMI formula

                                                                                                              I've been trying for hours to calculate BMI using height and weight as my only inputs. It's a simple calculation and I even went to ChatGPT to help me figure this out in Zoho Forms, but it led me down a path of "try this" and "try this". None of my attempts
                                                                                                            • SEO on blogs

                                                                                                              Hello, google is not able to find my blogs. Can you advice me if I need to change some settings or anything else to make it retrievable via SEO many thanks, hans
                                                                                                            • Duplicated Notebooks

                                                                                                              Out of the blue, almost all of my notebooks got duplicated and the different copies contain different information. Some seem like older copies than the others. I use the linux desktop app and sometimes the Android app. I assume that the sync failed at some point and was unable to merge the two versions together. But I'm afraid to add anything else to my notebook because if it can't properly sync 5 notebooks with only a handful of notes each, what will happen when I have hundreds of notes and I lose
                                                                                                            • Mind mapping in Zoho Projects

                                                                                                              Good morning,   I would like to congratulate the Zoho team for building such an inovative and responsive application that fits in the daily challenges of so many work groups. I would like suggest you another functionality that helps a lot in project planning and development: mind mapping. Mind mapping would be of great help for brianstorming, knowledge management and other needs in online collaboration.   Thanks and wish you all the best! George Maha Empresa Júnior Multidisciplinar do Instituto de
                                                                                                            • Retainer invoice in Zoho Finance modlue

                                                                                                              Hello, Is there a way of creating retainer invoices in the Zoho Finance module? If not can I request this is considered for future updates please.
                                                                                                            • Documents don't sync properly

                                                                                                              Hello, My team recently moved to Zoho workDrive, some of my team, work remotely so we believed Zoho would be the best way to share and edit files as well as access files withing the team. However we are experiencing sync issues, when a file is uploaded in the file explorer and shows sync complete, same file can be seen on the Zoho web app but other team members can't see the said file because it is not syncing properly. i figured out that if i were to go to preferences in settings and resync the
                                                                                                            • We are looking for an experienced Zoho Developer

                                                                                                              Hi Everyone! We’re on the lookout for a skilled Zoho Developer with hands-on experience in the Zoho Developer Platform (The Vertical CRM Platform) and if you don't know what that is, then you are not the person we are looking for. You would also need
                                                                                                            • Initiate approval workflow after "on edit --> on success"

                                                                                                              Dear Community,  currently I am working on a initiative tracker which should handle approval workflows based on different initiative status. As far as I understand, an approval workflow can be triggered (only?) when data is entered for the input form to the database.  Example: A new initiative is created and submitted. --> Approval Workflow triggered Here comes my question: Is it also possible to trigger an approval workflow if the form was "simply" updated? (on edit --> on success) Imagine the initiative
                                                                                                            • Tax Deductible Donations to a Charity Organisation

                                                                                                              For Australia, what's the best/proper method for entering an expense that is a tax deductible donation to a charitable organisation. And thus is appears correctly in Accounts and BAS as a GST payable deduction?
                                                                                                            • Simultaneous use of WhatsApp Account in SalesIQ and ZohoDesk

                                                                                                              Hi, We have only one number registered in Meta, it's possible use same account for two apps? All times here we try is stopping in SalesIQ. Regards,
                                                                                                            • External lookup fields to synchronise with Analytics

                                                                                                              Hello. I suggest adding external lookup custom fields to the Zoho Analytics integration settings. Currently, these types of fields are not available for synchronisation, so they cannot be used to generate reports with related tables in Analytics. Thank
                                                                                                            • We should have an option to Toggle Off KB Article Links in AI Answer Bot Replies

                                                                                                              Hi everyone, I'm creating this topic to share a feature idea that I think would improve the customer experience when using the AI Answer Bot for self-service. The Current Behavior (The Problem) Currently, when the AI Answer Bot generates a summary or
                                                                                                            • Boot Loop After Removing Service from Client via Admin

                                                                                                              We have multiple laptops experiencing a boot loop / unable to login after the Zoho Remote service was removed from their machine remotely via the desktop client. The Windows sign-in screen is not available, and users are unable to login. This seems like
                                                                                                            • Request Backend Correction — Domains Mapped to Same Help Center (Multi-Brand Setup Failure)

                                                                                                              Hello Zoho Desk Support Team, I need assistance correcting a domain-to-brand mapping issue in our Zoho Desk instance (The Blue Ribbon Project). Both of our verified domains currently point to the same Help Center instead of separate brand portals. Current
                                                                                                            • is there any option to enable the participants interact - can write on the screen, while the screen is shared by the host?

                                                                                                              this is most expected features - for teaching children. is there any option to enable the participants interact - can write on the screen, while the screen is shared by the host?
                                                                                                            • How to disable the Login button in Desk Helpcenter

                                                                                                              Hey there, I'm testing out whether the help center within Zoho Desk could replace our existing Customer FAQ. I tried to customize the themes for the public help center frontend, but stumbled across the login button in the navigation bar. Is there any
                                                                                                            • Client Portal ZOHO ONE

                                                                                                              Dear Zoho one is fantastic option for companies but it seems to me that it is still an aggregation of aps let me explain I have zoho books with client portal so client access their invoice then I have zoho project with client portal so they can access their project but not their invoice without another URL another LOGIN Are you planning in creating a beautiful UI portal for client so we can control access to client in one location to multiple aps at least unify project and invoice aps that would
                                                                                                            • 60 Days Into Zoho - Tiktok Branding Startup -7 Questions?!

                                                                                                              Wsp Everybody I co-own a TikTok Branding / Consulting Startup & have been using Zoho for the past 60 days - Am now looking to make our overall operations & processes more Efficient & Effective! Curious to know how others are using the platform & what's
                                                                                                            • Subforms in stateless forms

                                                                                                              I think the title says it all. We need to be able to add subforms to stateless forms. Currently the only workaround is to create a Form and delete each record upon submission of the form. I need to build an interface to update our inventory. Basically
                                                                                                            • Standard Payment Term is not pulled from account to quotation

                                                                                                              Hey Team There seems to be something off. I do have "Net 30" as my default payment term in Zoho Books for my customers. If, from the customer overview or quote section, I create a new Quotation, the payment terms field stays blank and doesn't get the
                                                                                                            • Zoho Analytics Export API

                                                                                                              Hi Team, I’m working on some integration tasks and wanted to confirm if it’s possible to retrieve a Zoho Analytics table as JSON data using a Deluge script. I’ve already stored my custom data from multiple sources and combined it into a single source.
                                                                                                            • Best way to display complex Bookings Consultation Descriptions on Zoho Site?

                                                                                                              I am a new user so apologies if this has been asked before. I couldn't find any answers in the forum. We offer 18 complex Consultations to our subscribers. Our current platform lets me put detail on these Consultations thoroughly (200-300 words) during
                                                                                                            • Gmail is ramping up its email sender policy as of November 2025

                                                                                                              Hello marketers, As you may be aware, Gmail introduced a guideline for bulk senders starting February 2024. If not, here's a quick refresher straight from Google: After this policy was announced first in 2023 and soft-implemented in February 2024, we
                                                                                                            • Modifying iframe data of Zoho booking iframe

                                                                                                              Hello, I have integrated a Zoho Bookings embedded iframe into my website. Currently, I am pre-filling the booking form with default values as part of our process flow. However, I want to ensure that if an input field is already populated with a default
                                                                                                            • Zoho CRM Workflow and Function Backup Options

                                                                                                              Hi everyone! I have been able to make several backups of my CRM data and noticed that the Workflows and Functions are not included in these backups. To my knowledge, there is no backup feature for workflows and functions, which is problematic in of itself.
                                                                                                            • Enhance Sign CRM integration

                                                                                                              Hello all, I'm working on a custom Deluge script to enhance the integration between Zoho CRM and Sign by using a writer merge template for additional flexibility. I want to replicate the post-sign document integration that exists between CRM and Sign
                                                                                                            • YouTube Live streaming? how to? Zoom has this feature, built-in. Can't find it on zoho meetings.

                                                                                                              YouTube Live streaming? how to? Zoom has this feature, built-in. Can't find it on zoho meetings.
                                                                                                            • Is or will be possible to associate meeting transcription and summary, made by Zia, to meeting/contact/account record in CRM?

                                                                                                              Would be useful to keep context and track jobs, better if it will be auto
                                                                                                            • Desk Field Not Showing in Analytics

                                                                                                              Hi there, I recently added a field to our Zoho Desk Ticket Information. I went and added the data retrospectively to the tickets. It is also marked as required, so all new tickets cannot be closed off without it being filled in. When I try to run a report
                                                                                                            • Export data using advanced export options and customizable settings

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, The user interface for exporting data has been revamped with updates to make data exports more flexible and efficient for users. These updates not only enhance usability but also bring advanced capabilities to help users extract precise
                                                                                                            • Moving data from one pipeline to another

                                                                                                              Hey all, I've got some complex pipelines to build and I'd like to seperate them into seperate pipelines rather than have one mammoth one. If I create 2 pipelines, is there any easy way to use the output of Pipeline1 to be the input into Pipeline2? Or
                                                                                                            • How to export/find all deluge code.

                                                                                                              Hi, I have a large app wich contains several forms, reports, html views, I need to find thow my application if any contains specific word, I could find it manually by editing app and see on every section(field code, on succes, on load, etc) but I would like to do it faster. Is there a way to at least export it to a file the whole deluge code on my application?
                                                                                                            • no me llegan los correos a Zoho mail

                                                                                                              No puedo recibir correos pero sí enviarlos, ya hice la modificación de MX y la verificación de teléfonos, qué es lo que ocurre? gracias
                                                                                                            • Have Some Bugs in Zoho CRM Ask Zia Assistant

                                                                                                              Hi Support Team, I have found some bugs in Zoho CRM Ask Zia Feature Please Check below screenshot, insight option is showing twice i think its in early access that's why its have some bugs .
                                                                                                            • COD with Partial payment

                                                                                                              Two reasons why we need COD with partial payment option. 1) Since we deal heavy weight products our shipping costs are too high. If shipment is rejected by customer we incur huge loss. 2) Some competitors place fake orders with different names and return
                                                                                                            • Slicers are now available in Zoho Sheet—filter your data interactively

                                                                                                              At Zoho Sheet, we diligently track user requests and feedback. In line with this, based on extensive user requests, we've integrated Slicers to pivot tables and are delighted to announce its release. Slicers are interactive visual filters that have add,
                                                                                                            • Resizing a Record Template Background Inage

                                                                                                              Hi everyone, I have an issue which I can't seem to resolve: Basically, I'm designing a record template in certificate form. I've specified A5 landscape. I've set my background image the same dimensions with total pixels at 443,520. Whatever I try, when
                                                                                                            • Next Page