Zoho Books | Product Updates | November 2024

Zoho Books | Product Updates | November 2024

Hello users,

We are back with exciting new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From multi-criteria workflows to writing off customer opening balances, discover the new updates designed to make your bookkeeping swift.

Attach XRechnung to Invoices [Germany Edition]

When you create an invoice, you now have the option to attach an XRechnung compliant invoice file to the email sent to your customer. This feature ensures that your invoices meet the legal requirements for transactions with government or public organizations in Germany.



To include an attachment of XRechnung in the invoice sent to your customer, go to Sales > Invoices. Create an invoice and click Save and Send. Check the Attach XRechnung option.

Extend the Validity Period of e-Way Bills [India Edition]

E-way bills are valid only for a specific period of time. This may cause issues during unexpected circumstances such as an accident, which can delay the transportation of goods. We've introduced an option to extend the validity period of an e-way bill.

This option is only available for e-way bills that are in the Generated and Expired statuses. You can extend the validity of an e-way bill 8 hours before or 8 hours after its expiration time. 



To extend the validity period of an e-Way bill, go to e-Way Bills > Select an e-way bill and click Extend e-Way bill at the top.

Validate VAT [Germany Edition]


You can now validate the VAT Registration Number to ensure that a business associated with it is still active. This is required for applying reverse charges on Sales transactions and will also serve as a verification step for e-invoicing.

To validate a VRN, go to Settings > Taxes and Compliance > Taxes > Vat Settings. Enter the Vat Registration Number (VRN) and click Validate.

Manage your Income TDS Rates [India Edition]

With the addition of the newly-introduced  Direct Taxes tab under Settings, you can easily manage your TDS rates. Now, you can select whether to associate TDS at the line-item level or the transaction level from Income TDS Settings.  You can also view the total number of transactions associated with different modules for a TDS rate by clicking View Associated Entities. For recurring transactions, such as recurring bills and invoices, clicking on the total number of transactions will redirect you to the list page.



To manage your TDS Rates, go to Settings > Taxes and Compliance > Direct Taxes > Income TDS Rates. To see the total number of transactions linked to a TDS rate across different modules, hover over the TDS rate, click the dropdown, and select View Associated Entities.



To manage your TDS settings, go to Settings > Taxes and Compliance > Direct Taxes > Income TDS Settings.

Associate Multiple Criteria for Workflows

At times, you might need to create multiple workflow rules to complete a  task. For example, if you want to send an email alert and notify a third-party application via webhook whenever the status of a created invoice changes in Zoho Books, you would have to create multiple workflow rules for the different invoice statuses. This can be time-consuming and may exhaust the number of permitted workflow rules you can create under your organization's plan. 

Now, you can achieve the same outcome with a single workflow rule by associating multiple criteria and linking them to their appropriate actions.



Write Off Customer Opening Balance

If a customer is unlikely to pay their outstanding balance, if there are discrepancies, or if the account has remained outstanding for an extended period, you can write off the customer's opening balance. You can also cancel the write-off.



To write off customer opening balance, go to Sales > Customers. Select a customer and click View Opening Balance. Click the Menu icon and select Write Off.

Auto-Populate Customer or Vendor Details [India Edition]

Creating a customer or vendor can be time-consuming, especially when you are adding multiple entries. If this is a concern, we’ve got you covered. You can now auto-populate the contact details by entering the GSTN of the customer or vendor, which will be fetched from the GSTN portal. You can then select the address from the list of addresses associated with that GSTN. Additionally, you can edit the auto-populated details as needed.



To auto-populate contact details for your customers, go to Sales > Customers > Select a customer and click + New. Click Fetch From GSTN and enter the GSTN. Click Fetch Customer Details. Similarly, you can auto-populate contact details of your vendors.

Bulk Export Invoices as a ZIP File

Downloading invoices separately and searching for them can be a hassle, especially when you’re downloading multiple invoices. Now, you can download multiple invoices as a single ZIP file with just the click of a button. A single ZIP file is easier to manage and transfer and keeps all the documents together. 




To bulk export multiple invoices as a single ZIP file, go to Invoices > select invoices and click the ZIP icon.

Import or Export Custom Modules

We have extended the import and export option to custom modules. The import/export will occur asynchronously, with the first module being imported/exported first, followed by the second module upon the completion of the first import/export.
If your file exceeds 1,000 or your export file exceeds 25,000, the import/export will be scheduled, and a summary will be emailed to you after successful completion.



To import/export custom modules, go to Custom Modules. Select a custom module. Click the More icon and select the required option. 

Other Enhancements

  • If the number of default filters exceeds 10 or if there are any custom views for a module, a search bar will appear, allowing you to search for the desired filter.
  • We have introduced a new label, Bill Amount Without TDS in vendor payments, allowing you to view the bill amount excluding the TDS deduction and the TDS amount separately.
  • You can now enable endorsements for SEZ and overseas customers, indicating whether the supply is made with or without the payment of Integrated Tax (IGST). This feature is only supported in Spreadsheet and Standard templates, and your business must be GST-registered.
  • You can now search all fields in a custom module rather than just the primary field. Previously, we only supported lookups for the primary field of a module, but this feature has now been enhanced to support lookups for all fields in custom modules.



We hope you like the new features and enhancements in Zoho Books! Take some time to explore the latest updates. We’ll be back next month with even more updates, as we continually strive to elevate your accounting experience.

You can also visit the What's New timeline for byte-sized information about our previous feature updates and enhancements. If you need any assistance, feel free to reach out at support@zohobooks.com.

Best regards,
The Zoho Books Team

      • Recent Topics

      • Workflow Rule - Field Updates: Ability to use Placeholders

        It will be great if you can use placeholder tags to update fields. For example if we want to update a custom field with the client name we can use ${CONTACT.CONTACT_FIRSTNAME}${CONTACT.CONTACT_LASTNAME}, etc
      • Need a Universal Search Option in Zohobooks

        Hello Zoho, Need a Universal Search Option in Zohobooks to search across all transactions in our books of accounts. Please do the needful Thanks
      • Implement Date-Time-Based Triggers in Zoho Desk

        Dear Zoho Desk Support Team, We are writing to request a new feature that would allow for the creation of workflows triggered by specific date-time conditions. Currently, Zoho Desk does not provide native support for date-time-based triggers, limiting
      • Why is my Lookup field not being set through Desk's API?

        Hello, I'm having trouble setting a custom field when creating a Ticket in Zoho Desk. The endpoint I'm consulting is "https://desk.zoho.com/api/v1/tickets" and even though my payload has the right format, with a "cf" key dedicated to all custom fields,
      • How exactly does "Reply assistance" work in Zoho Desk? What context is sent to the LLM?

        Hi, Im trying to better understand the technical behavior of the feature "Reply assistance" in Zoho Desk, and I couldn’t find detailed information in the current documentation. Specifically, I have questions about what data is actually being sent to the
      • Deletion Workflows

        Hello, Unless I missed it, we can't create deletion workflows. My usecase is to auto-delete junk leads. We have field called lead status, and an agent qualify all our new leads. When it's a junk lead she chose the correspondant value in the picklist. My goal is that the system delete them automatically. Is that possible? Planed ?
      • URGENTImpossible to book an appointement

        J'essaie plusieurs fois mais aucun créneau n''est disponible Message d'erreur lorsque j'essaie de sélectionner une date
      • Sendpulse SMTP/IMAP Issues

        It’s possible Zoho made some changes on their side. Sometimes, even if your regular password works, Zoho requires an app-specific password for external apps like SendPulse to connect via IMAP. You can create this in Zoho’s security settings and use it
      • Insane mail security

        I cannot access my email... anywhere. For some reason the password for the Mail app on my Mac is being rejected, it worked yesterday but now it doesn't? Ok let's try the web interface. I can access my general Zoho login with the password but if I want
      • UI issue with Organize Tabs

        When looking at the organize Tabs window (bellow) you can see that some tabs are grayed out. there is also a "Add Module/Web Tab" button. When looking at this screen it's clear that the grayed out tabs can not be removed from the portal user's screen
      • Task list flag Internal/External for all phases

        Phases are commonly used in projects to note milestones in the progression of a project, while task lists can be used to group different types of tasks together. It makes sense to be able to define a task list as either internal or external however the
      • HAVING PROBLEM WITH SENDING EMAIL

        Hi all, I'm unable to receive emails on info@germanforgirls.eu. I'm getting an error code 550. 5.1.1. invalid email recipients. Moreso, I would like info@germanforgirls.eu to be the default "send from" email and not solomon@germanforgirls.eu. Kindly see
      • Sharing my portal URL with clients outside the project

        Hi I need help making my project public for anyone to check on my task. I'm a freelance artist and I use trello to keep track on my client's projects however I wanted to do an upgrade. Went on here and so far I'm loving it. However, I'm having an issue sharing my url to those to see progress. They said they needed an account to access my project. How do I fix this? Without them needing an account.
      • Different Task Layouts for Subtasks

        I was wondering how it would be possible for a subtask to have a different task layout to the parent task.
      • Subscription went to default (@zoho.com) address instead for custom domain

        Hello! So I bought a lite sub to test things out, wanting to use my own domain. However, after passing through all the verification steps (completed now), it seems that the sub I bought was assigned to the default email that I already had with Zoho and
      • Canvas templates and font-family

        i dont understant why its always the smallest things that waste all of my time! why in some videos i see they have tamplates in the Canvas editor and i cant seem to fint it? and why oih why cant i cange the font? i just want simple Arial! help meeeeeeeeee
      • Re: Ca.gory groups and not all email addresses being added to a group emails

        Hi, I have added emails under 'Contacts' into categories but when sending a group email and putting the category name in not all email addresses go onto the email. I have refreshed the page, deleted and redone the info etc with no luck. I only found out
      • IMPORTANT

        Dear Zoho Support Team, I am currently experiencing an issue when trying to send emails from my Zoho Mail account. Each time I attempt to send a message, I receive the following error: "Unable to send message; Reason: 554 5.1.8 Email Outgoing Blocked."
      • Able to Send Emails from Zoho but Not Receiving Emails from Gmail

        Hello, I am experiencing an issue with my shopify domain email setup and would appreciate your help. Current situation: I can successfully send emails using Zoho. I can receive emails from some services (for example, Facebook). However, I cannot receive
      • Antispam validation failed for your domain in Accounts

        I tried adding a domain to zeptomail.zoho.com, but the “add domain” operation failed. The front‑end error reads: “Domain could not be added. Please contact support@zeptomail.com.” The back‑end API returned: ``` { "error": { "code": "TM_3601", "details":
      • Announcing new features in Trident for Windows (v.1.38.5.0)

        Hello Community! Trident for Windows just received a major update, with a range of capabilities that focuses on strengthening and enhancing communication. Let’s dive into what’s new! View complete technical email details. For those who need deeper visibility
      • Windows Desktop App - request to add minimization/startup options

        Support Team, Can you submit the following request to your development team? Here is what would be optimal in my opinion from UX perspective: 1) In the "Application Menu", add a menu item to Exit the app, as well as an alt-key shortcut for these menus
      • Accounting of Amazon

        I have recently started selling on Amazon.in and I am facing issues with different types of transactions: What entry to do in case of return? If I had sent two products and customer returned both the products but I had received only one and got the claim
      • Compose Emails Faster Using Templates and Snippet

        Hello everyone, We have made an enhancement to the Send as Email option in Tickets. Agents can use templates and snippets to draft their response, which helps save time and maintain consistency. The Send as Email page will display the available templates
      • Customize Colors used on graphs and charts according to users desire.

        It would be great if we could customize the graph's colors as we see fit. I hate that yellow is always the default color!
      • Emails not integrating

        My emails from Hubspot did not integrtate over. How do I fix that?
      • Creating meetings from an email

        Hi. Similar to Outlook, it would be helpful if a meeting can be scheduled from an email so that the attendees need not be manually entered every time it's created.
      • Zoho Social API for generating draft posts from a third-party app ?

        Hello everyone, I hope you are all well. I have a question regarding Zoho Social. I am developing an application that generates social media posts, and I would like to be able to incorporate a feature that allows saving these posts as drafts in Zoho Social.
      • CRM Percent custom fields: When will it show the % symbol and behave like %?

        1. Actually Percent custom fields fail to show the % symbol. 2. When in formulas Percent fields work like number: 100 x 5% = 5 ideal world 100 x 5% = 500 what happens actually 3. When importing Percent fields the % symbol has to be removed and the data
      • Deprecation 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 connector
      • RouteIQ for Zoho FSM

        Beste, Zou wel top zijn dat we een RouteIQ hebben voor FSM aangezien we constant moeten zien wat de beste route is voor onze monteurs. Nu moeten we een speciale aparte programma hebben om de beste route te berrekenen voor onze monteurs aangezien de planning
      • Let us view and export the full price books data from CRM

        I quote out of CRM, some of my clients have specialised pricing for specific products - therefore we use Price Books to manage these special prices. I can only see the breakdown of the products listed in the price book and the specialised pricing for
      • Changes to the send mail Deluge task in Zoho CRM

        Hello everyone, At Zoho, we continuously enhance our security measures to ensure a safer experience for all users. As part of our ongoing security enhancements, we're making an important update on using the send mail Deluge task in Zoho CRM. What's changing?
      • How to Invoice Based on Timesheet Hours Logged on a Zoho FSM Work Order

        Hi everyone, We’re working on optimizing our invoicing process in Zoho FSM, and we’ve run into a bit of a roadblock. Here’s our goal: We want to invoice based on the actual number of hours logged by our technicians on a job, specifically using the timesheets
      • Inclusion is the new engagement

        When in a very challenging situation, you may have peers or friends around you saying, “Everything will be okay.” They speak to you in a way that they are connected or in a language or tone that feels close. But your inner voice comes to you in a truly
      • DKIM verification for Squarespace website - Corrections to instructions

        Zoho Campaigns DKIM TXT record instructions for Squarespace show that Host field should show: 22111._domainkey.[domain name, e.g. mywebsite.com] However, after 72hrs, I had to reach out to Squarespace tech support, and they confirmed that the domain name
      • Passing the image/file uploaded in form to openai api

        I'm trying to use the OpenAI's new vision feature where we can send image through Api. What I want is the user to upload an image in the form and send this image to OpenAI. But I can't access this image properly in deluge script. There are also some constraints
      • My client requires me to have custom pdf file names to except payment for invoices, how can I customize this before emailing.

        Hello! I love the program so far but there are a few things that are standing in the way. I hope you guys can code them in so I can keep the program for years to come. My client requires I customize the pdf file names I send in for billing. Can you please
      • Disable All

        I want to disable all the fields on the form when it loads.  I know there is a way to do this by listing all the fields as follows: disable Name; disable Address; disable City;  ... I have over 50 fields on my form and i am wondering if there is a single command or way to just disable all fields on load.   On load = disable All Thank you for any help.  
      • Migrating my email from GMAIL to ZOHO MAIL..........

        I am a long time GMAIL user and I really only understand how they operate, but after reviewing your tutorials and forums online, it is quite unbelievable how much more and how much more streamlined ZOHO mail is, not to mention ZOHO's wonderful, more advanced capabilities. I do have several questions about transitioning over to ZOHO.  Primarily, where is the best place to start, what do I do first? And how hard is it actually to move all my business and personal accounts over here?  When I sign up
      • Next Page