Collections Management: #4 Before, During & After Payment Processing

Collections Management: #4 Before, During & After Payment Processing

"Mark, I think the payment link isn't working. Can you send it again?" Staring at a message, Mark got on his phone. This was the third time the same customer had asked him that week.


A few minutes later, another message came, "Hey, the invoice total seems different this month. Can you check?" Before he could respond, a new email appeared: "Our payment failed. Should we try again or wait?"

Mark leaned back in his chair and laughed, certainly not from humour but with exhaustion. Payments were supposed to be simple. Why so many questions, interruptions, and follow-ups? "Isn't payment just, send invoice ---> customer pays ---> done?" he murmured.

But as his business grew, he realised something important. Getting paid is not a simple action; it's a journey that starts even before the customer begins paying for the service. Yes, it starts long before the customer clicks "Pay Now" and it continues long after the money arrives.

It is crucial to analyse where your business needs control and where it needs to be automated. Having a system with that kind of flexibility will definitely help as you scale.

Zoho Billing brings that kind of comfort to business. It doesn't just help in collecting payments; it also allows companies to manage everything before, during, and after the transaction is created.

Before Payment Process 

Preparing Customers for a Smooth Onboarding 

The payment experience begins with the invoice itself. Zoho Billing generates invoices that promptly reflect usage charges, proration, add-ons, discounts, taxes, and more. The accuracy and clarity eliminate billing disputes and prevent the confusion that delays payments, such as "why is this amount different?"


Predictable Billing 

Whether the business uses milestone billing, recurring cycles, a prepaid model or usage-based pricing, Zoho Billing aligns every billing event seamlessly. Even mid-cycle plan changes are recalculated automatically, keeping charges consistent and predictable. 


No/Less Extra Effort for Collection 

Invoices come with embedded payment options, hosted payment pages, and a customer portal, providing customers with immediate access to make payments. They don't need to search for payment instructions.


Proactive Communication 

Zoho Billing handles all reminders leading up to the due date. From invoice notifications to upcoming due alerts and expiring card notices, customers stay informed and prepared, significantly reducing the risk of overdue payments. You can even configure reminders on trial subscription where it will prompt the customer before trial is about to expire.



Idea
Reports based on upcoming payments  (Top 3) 
  1. AR Ageing SummaryDisplays outstanding receivables categorised by the number of days. This helps identify which customers or invoices are approaching overdue status, allowing payment follow-up to begin even before the due date.

  2. Upcoming RenewalsHelps businesses forecast upcoming subscription renewals, ensuring they know who will be charged soon. This works perfectly for pre-payment communication and customer readiness.

  3. Card Expiry: Payment failures mostly happen due to issues with the card or an expired card. This report helps you with the list of customer cards with expiring payment methods. This is crucial in preventing future failed transactions and ensuring smoother upcoming payments.

During Payment Process 

Multiple Payment Methods 

Zoho Billing integrates with multiple payment methods/gateways, including Stripe, Razorpay, PayPal, PayTabs, and GoCardless. This gives customers the freedom to pay using cards, UPI, ACH, direct debit or whichever works best for them. The best part is that businesses can now configure a backup payment method in addition to the primary payment method in use. This helps increase the likelihood of receiving payment successfully and without requiring manual or retry attempts.


Effortless Auto-pay 

Once a customer approves a payment mandate, Zoho Billing automatically handles renewals. Payments are charged on schedule without customer intervention, ensuring predictable cash flow.


Intelligent Failure Handling 

If a payment fails, Zoho Billing instantly captures the failure reason, notifies the customer, and triggers the configured dunning process. Customer can update their payment method directly from the notification. Retries occur automatically based on predefined rules, converting failures into recoveries.


Instant Updates 

Successful payments update invoices, issue receipts, trigger provisioning workflows in real time, making everything in sync without any manual effort or follow-up needed.



Idea
Reports based on Processing Payment  (Top 3)
  1. Payment ReceivedDisplays all recent payments collected, facilitating monitoring of the inflow as payments are processed.

  2. Payment FailuresEssential during the payment phase to identify failed attempts in real-time, enabling quicker resolution or automated dunning actions.

  3. Under Risk:  Displays invoices currently in dunning and at risk of churn. This acts as a key report for understanding which customers are in the middle of the recovery process.


After Payment Process 

Consistent Post Payment Communication 

Zoho Billing automates thank-you messages, renewal confirmations, usage summaries, and future billing reminders. These touchpoints maintain transparency and build customer trust.


Handling Adjustments 

Whether a customer needs a partial refund, a correction or a credit note, Zoho Billing applies all changes while maintaining accurate records across billing and accounting modules.


Visibility on Unpaid Invoices 

Zoho Billing highlights accounts that need attention, allowing businesses to intervene before revenue loss occurs. Invoices that remain unpaid enter an automated dunning flow and appear as overdue, clearly indicating the outstanding receivables.



Idea
Reposts based on processed payment  (Top 3)
  1. Recognised Revenue: Shows the actual revenue recognised from payments over time. This is a crucial report that provides financial accuracy after payments are complete.

  2. Refund History: Tracks refunds issued to customers. Essential for understanding post-payment adjustments and their impact on customer satisfaction.

  3. Renewal Summary: Shows which subscriptions have been successfully renewed after payment. Critical for recurring revenue tracking and retention analysis.

Zoho Billing Ensuring Seamless Payment Journey 

Zoho Billing brings structure to the entire payment workflow by guiding customers even before a payment attempt is made. It delivers clear invoices, predictable billing cycles and timely reminders that reduce confusion and delays. During the payment process, Zoho Billing eliminates friction with various payment options and provides intelligent handling of failed payment attempts, ensuring the process remains smooth and dependable.


After payment, it maintains accuracy through automated receipts and proper insights on the payments collected. With Zoho billin,g payment collection becomes predictable, automated and friendly with all possibilities to scale in the future.


Notes
Up Next: Self-checkout: Next level convenience

 

 

 

    • Sticky Posts

    • Community Learning Series | Digest #5 — September 2020

      Dear customers, We're happy to bring you the September edition of our #CommunityDigest! Keep track of your subscription KPIs right from your smartphone: Last month, we enhanced our Android mobile app to help our customers get daily updates on their business health. We got to know from a lot of customers that this has made their job much more easier because they no longer have to keep a reminder to manually check on the previous day's revenue or activations. If you have not downloaded it yet, here's
    • Community Learning Series | Digest #4 - August 2020

      Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. I'm happy to bring you the fourth edition of our #CommunityDigest with some brand-new updates from us. 1. Daily Business Updates (for Android users) The Zoho Subscriptions Android app has got a cool new update: You can now get a push notification to your smartphone that lets you know how many activations and cancellations have taken place, and what's the net revenue for the previous day. The best part is, you can tell the app when exactly you
    • Community Learning Series | Digest #3 - July 2020

      Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. We're glad to bring you the July edition of our #CommunityDigest. New community members can view our previous newsletters here. This time, we have two major updates and three interesting topics for you: 1. Zoho Subscriptions Developer Community Since the inception of Zoho Subscriptions, our team believed that the recurring billing platform we provide should be able to offer an extensive API library that empowers businesses to automate most
    • Introducing: Community Learning Series | Digest #1 - May 2020

      Dear customers, We hope you are staying safe and healthy. Helping businesses manage their customer subscriptions more efficiently has always been, and always will be, our goal at Zoho Subscriptions. We strongly believe this is possible if we grow together as a community and share what we know with each other. To nurture this shared learning experience, here is our brand-new Community Learning Series! ​ Welcome to the first edition of our digest! Each edition of our community digest includes guides
      • Recent Topics

      • Problem applying batch operation error keeps looping that error

        Problem applying batch operation error keeps looping that error an wont login
      • Shared Email Sending Duplicate Copies of Emails

        Hi there, We recently have moved our info@ email to Team Inbox to trial. We set this channel up using the Microsoft setup which works fine and have 3 users. I am wanting to know: 1. When I send a new email, it will create a copy of that email and send
      • merhaba

        merhaba sosyal medya paketimiz mevcut ama yorumları göremiyoruz ve o yüzden cevap veremiyoruz destek rica ediyoruz.
      • Teaminbox not working

        We couldn't send or receive any mail within the team inbox. Displaying error 'Unable to process this request.'
      • Related lists New option in missing

        hi I have created quite a few modules and added as related lists to my main module. Some have new, some dont I can not see why?
      • Cliq and ToDo integrations?

        I'm a bit surprised not to find any way to open a Cliq chat for the current thread, or to create a Zoho Mail ToDo from a thread. Are these on the roadmap?
      • Reply-to names are mangled

        Hello, I'm seeing an odd behavior in replies. Steps to reproduce: 1. Click reply to an email from "John Doe <doe.john@example.com> in TeamInbox Expected outcome: TO field pre-filled with "John Doe <doe.john@example.com>" Actual outcome: TO field pre-filled
      • I CANT UPGRADE MY FREE ACCOUNT

        I TRY TO UPGRADE MY FREE ACCOUNT AND I COULD NOT UPGRADE IT CAN SOMEBODY TELL ME WHY? AND I HAVE THE MONEY SO.
      • Level up your ASO game with tags & categories in store reviews

        Introducing tags and categories in Apptics' store reviews Dear Apptics community, If your app is listed on the Play Store or App Store, you already know how important store reviews and ratings are. They’re one of the most direct signals of user sentiment
      • Including attachments with estimates

        How can attachments be included when an estimate is sent/emailed and when downloaded as a .pdf? Generally speaking, attachments should be included as part of an estimate package. Ultimately, this is also true for work orders and invoices.
      • Adding VENDOR SKU to PURCHASE ORDERS

        how can we add the Vendor SKU when issuing a Purchase Order , so the PO shows the Supplier SKU and our own Internal SKU , which is what we want to receive into the system .
      • Possible to freely prompt/query CRM data using Zia?

        Is it possible to prompt Zia to query on any information stored in the CRM, especially on the data stored in custom text fields? My use case is the people in my organisation have entered lots of text in custom text fields to capture information from an
      • Restrict employees to take only one day holiday from a multi-day festival holiday

        Hi everyone, I have a requirement related to Optional/Festival Holidays in Zoho People. For example, in the month of May there are three optional holiday dates: May 11, May 12, and May 13. Employees can choose one of these days as their optional holiday.
      • Cannot modify colours in invoice email template

        I have tried switching browsers... but I cannot change the (pretty horrible) default colours in the preset email when sending an invoice... the blue banner, red outstanding total and the bright green button... I can change other things but not the colours?
      • Cannot find zpuid for Zoho Projects user

        I'm using the Zoho Projects v3 API to create a task. The task is created successfully, but in order to assign the task owner, the "Create a Task" API also requires the zpuid of the task owner. Unfortunately I cannot find any user-related API calls that
      • Print a document from Zoho Writer via Zoho Creator

        If i use the code below i can get writer to create a new document or email it to me but i want to be able to print it directly from the browser and not have to send it via email and then print. Below is the code im using. Attached options form zoho writer
      • Allow styling for specific Subform fields in Zoho Creator

        Sometimes in forms we need to visually highlight a specific field inside a Subform (for example Sanctioned Amount, Approved Value, Critical Fields, etc.) so that users immediately notice it while entering data. Currently there is no direct UI option to
      • Career site URL - Suggestion to modify URL of non-english job posting

        Hi, I would like to suggest making a few modification to career sites that are not in english. Currently, the URL are a mix of different languages and are very long. It makes for very unprofessional looking URLs... Here is an example of one of our URL
      • 3/18 オンライン勉強会のお知らせ Zoho ワークアウト (無料)

        ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの中野です。 3月開催のZoho ワークアウトの開催が決定しましたのでご案内します。 今回はZoomにて、オンライン開催します。 ▶︎参加登録はこちら(無料) https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/BoNTN7zYR8OvOPGShqBY0A ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Zoho ワークアウトとは? Zoho ユーザー同士で交流しながら、サービスに関する疑問や不明点の解消を目指すイベントです。
      • New 2026 Application Themes

        Love the new themes - shame you can't get a little more granular with the colours, ie 3 different colours so one for the dropdown menu background. Also, I did have our logo above the application name but it appears you can't change logo placement position
      • Placeholder format in Number field does not reflect Max Digits configuration

        When the Max Digits (Maximum digits of number) property is set to a smaller value (for example, 2 digits), the placeholder in the input field still displays a 7-digit format (#######). The same behavior can also be observed in Decimal and Currency field
      • How does SKU work when selling products in parts in Zoho Inventory

        Hello everyone, Zoho Inventory does not understand the physical cutting of the piece.. It only tracks quantities of the unit (like feet ). So when you sell part of an item, the system simply reduces quantity for that SKU. Assume that i have a 50 ft long
      • CRM Cadences - working timesThe Friday afternoon? The next Monday morning? Not at all?

        I think I’m writing saying that cadence emails are only sent during the organisations set working hours in CRM. So if a particular email is set to send for example in three days and that lands on a Sunday (when working hours are not operational) when
      • CRM Cadences - working times

        I think I’m right in saying that cadence emails are only sent during the organisations set working hours in CRM. So if a particular email is set to send for example in three days and that lands on a Sunday (when working hours are not operational) when
      • Push Notification for New Bookings in Zoho Bookings App

        when a someone schedules an appointment through the booking page, is there any option to receive a push notification in the mobile app?
      • Intergrating multi location Square account with Zoho Books

        Hi, I have one Square account but has multiple locations. I would like to integrate that account and show aggregated sales in zoho books. How can I do that? thanks.
      • Add the same FROM email to multiple department

        Hi, We have several agents who work with multiple departments and we'd like to be able to select their names on the FROM field (sender), but apparently it's not possible to add a FROM address to multiple departments. Is there any way around this? Thanks.
      • Zoho Desk View Open Tickets and Open Shared Tickets

        Hi, I would like to create a custom view so that an agent can view all the open tickets he has access to, including the shared tickets created by a different department. Currently my team has to swich between two views (Open Tickets and Shared Open Tickets).
      • Clone Banking Transaction

        Why is there no option to CLONE a Transaction in the Banking module?? I often clone Expenses (for similar expense transactions each month) so I would also like to clone Income transactions. But there is no option in Banking to clone an existing Income
      • Zoho Expense - Bi-Weekly Report Automation

        Hi Zoho Expense Team, My feature request is to please include an option to automate creation of reports bi-weekly (every 2 weeks)
      • Application Architecture in Zoho Creator: Why You Should Think About It from the Start

        Many companies begin using Zoho Creator by building simple forms to automate internal processes. This is natural — the platform is extremely accessible and allows applications to be built very quickly. The challenge begins to appear when the application
      • Arquitetura de Aplicações no Zoho Creator: Por que pensar nisso desde o início

        Muitas empresas começam a utilizar o Zoho Creator criando formulários simples para automatizar processos internos. Isso é natural — a plataforma é extremamente acessível e permite construir aplicações rapidamente. O problema começa a aparecer quando a
      • Dark Mode - Font Colors Don't Work

        When editing a document in Dark Mode and selecting font colors, they don't show up on screen.  Viewing/editing the same document in Light Mode shows them just fine.
      • How to Customize & Reorder Spaces in Zoho One 25 (Spaces UI) — Admin Tips Not in the Docs

        Hey Zoho Community, After digging around in the new Spaces UI, I found a couple of admin features that aren't well documented yet but are really useful. Sharing here in case others are looking for the same things. 🔁 How to Change the Default Space Users
      • System Components menu not available for Tablet to select language

        I have attached a screenshot of my desktop, mobile, and tablet menu builder options. I am using 2 languages in my application. Language Selection is an option under the System Components part of the menu, but only for my desktop and phone(mobile). My
      • Approvals in Zoho Creator

        Hi, This is Surya, in one of  my creator application I have a form called job posting, and I created an approval process for that form. When a user submits that form the record directly adding to that form's report, even it is in the review for approval.
      • How Zoho Desk contributes to the art of savings

        Remember the first time your grandmother gave you cash for a birthday or New Year's gift, Christmas gift, or any special day? You probably tucked that money safely into a piggy bank, waiting for the day you could buy something precious or something you
      • Estimate PDF Templates - logo too large

        Hello, I cloned a standard estimate template, but my logo is showing up much larger than intended. This doesn’t happen with the standard invoice template, where the logo displays correctly. How can I adjust the logo size in the estimate template? Thank
      • Select CRM Custom Module in Zoho Creator

        I have a custom module added in Zoho CRM that I would like to link in Zoho creator.  When I add the Zoho CRM field it does not show the new module.  Is this possible?  Do i need to change something in CRM to make it accesible in Creator?
      • Invoice emails not sending but reminders are

        I am a new user. I have been creating some dummy invoices before I go live and have struck a block. Emails for the invoice are not being recieved by the recipient, however, when I send a reminder for the same invoice the email is sent. NOTE: I have checked
      • Next Page