Building extensions #3: Fundamental features of a Zoho Books extension

Building extensions #3: Fundamental features of a Zoho Books extension

In our earlier posts, we covered how to create, test, and publish an extension for Zoho Finance suite applications. Moving forward, we'll look specifically at instances relating to one of the products from the Zoho Finance suite: Zoho Books.
In this post, we'll explore the key features listed below that are available in the Zoho Books extension developer portal.
  1. Automation and customization
  2. Seamless integration
  3. Widgets
  4. Event-based data transfer and notifications
  5. Extension configuration

Automation and customization

These are defined sets of rules that automatically execute operations and customize standards for tailoring modules and fields.

Achieving it in Zoho Books

The Zoho Books extension developer portal provides a variety of automation features, including workflows (rules, actions, and triggers), custom actions, and schedules. There are also customization features, like creating custom modules and fields, adding buttons, and including related lists for both standard and custom modules.

Example use case

Automate emails to customers in various organizations based on their accounts receivable (A/R), so that different emails are sent indicating different actions that will be taken against them based on the total value of credit payments they owe.

By using an extension, you can easily add a new custom field for accounts receivable and specify workflow rules to send an email based on the value.


Widgets

A widget is a user interface that displays data to the end-user in order to facilitate their understanding or collects input data from them in order to perform additional operations.

Achieving it in Zoho Books

The developer portal's widget feature helps create a user interface or run a client-side script. You can easily design and develop user interfaces with any web development framework; these widgets could gather user input, if required, and, based on those inputs, perform logical operations.

Example use case

Issue a mortgage lien release (certificate of release) to a borrower who has paid off their mortgage completely. This certificate indicates that the lien on the borrower's property has been released and they have regained title ownership. In this situation, a customized widget can be developed to collect personalized inputs, such as the issuing bank's (lender's) information and a customized message to be sent to the borrower, before sending the certificate out.


Seamless integration

A seamless integration or tightly coupled integration to establishes a connection between applications for data transfer and synchronization.

Achieving it in Zoho Books

The Connections feature in the Zoho Books extension developer portal can be used to achieve seamless integrations.

You can establish connections between Zoho Books and other apps by:
➤ Using the default, ready-to-use connections offered in the Zoho Books extension developer portal
➤ Creating customized connections for the applications you want to integrate with Zoho Books
Example use case

You can sync data between Zoho Books and Shopify, running your business more efficiently by completing activities from a single app and reducing manual data entry.

This data sync can be achieved by establishing a connection between these apps using the Connections feature. This enables seamless collaboration between sales and finance operations; sales contacts can be added as Zoho Books customers, and invoices issued in Zoho Books can be instantly logged and synced in Shopify.


Event-based data transfer and notifications

These are real-time notifications or actions that are triggered and executed in response to the occurrence of a real-time event.

Achieving it in Zoho Books

Webhooks and signals on the developer portal facilitate real-time data updates and notifications in Zoho Books.
The webhooks feature enhances the connection between two applications. It allows you to capture the occurrence of an event and collect and post the real-time data as an update to another application.

The Zoho Books extension developer portal provides support for both incoming and outgoing webhooks, allowing real-time data updates to Zoho Books from another application and vice versa.

The signals feature allows you to receive real-time notifications.

Example use case

A finance meeting is planned and organized using an event management app, and future potential clients are gathered from the meeting. If the follow-up is successful and a client would like an event organized, it's scheduled for them.

In this case, webhooks capture the occurrence of the event being created, collect the event-related data, update it in Zoho Books, and generate an invoice for the event. Signals can be used to display real-time notifications when new customers are added to Zoho Books.

Learn more about webhooks and signals.

Extension configuration

Manage extension configuration by allowing users to provide their preferences or user-specific data and perform actions when extensions are installed or uninstalled.

Achieving it in Zoho Books

Global fields and installation actions help achieve extension setup and execute installation-related scripts.
  • You can either create global fields to collect input from users or design widgets (with global fields, if necessary), allowing users to provide inputs and choices to configure and use the extension.
  • Perform custom actions during the extension's installation and uninstallation.
Example use case

You can sync and manage Zoho Books projects with Trello, a project management platform, to create customized task views and visually manage tasks.

This is easy to accomplish with global fields and installation actions. Since Trello requires an API key to establish a safe connection with another app, we can add a global field for it in Zoho Books. After installing the extension, users can provide their user-specific API key to establish a secure connection between the apps. Then, an install action script can be created to transfer records.


In this post, we've covered an overview of the features available while developing a Zoho Books extension and how they might be useful. We'll explore each of these features in detail in upcoming posts. We hope you found this information helpful. Keep following us for more posts!


SEE MORE



Next>>



        • Recent Topics

        • API to post drafts for social media

          I we want to post draft posts to our zoho social account and then approve and schedule them within Zoho social. is this possible with for example: https://apis.zoho.com/social/v2/post TIA Jon

        • Canvas View in Zoho Recruit

          Is it possible or would it be possible to have the new 'Canvas View' in Zoho Recruit?

        • What impactful sales coaching techniques have you used to boost your team's performance?

          I'm curious about the real-world impact of sales coaching on team performance. What specific techniques or strategies have you found most effective in driving consistent improvement and growth in your sales team? Any success stories or lessons learned

        • Adding Taxes to paid consultations in Zoho Bookings

          I created a 'paid' consultation under Zoho Booking and integrated it with payment gateways for online/instant payment before a booking is done. How can I add 'taxes' to the price of consultation? I can add taxes to other Zoho apps (liks Books, Checkout,

        • Zoho Finance Suite - Customer Custom Tabs - Dynamic Link

          Hi Finance Suite team, When creating a Custom Tab for a Client Portal, there is no option to add dynamic parameters. This would be very helpful for adding Zoho Analytics dashboards which can be dynamically filtered through the URL to only show information

        • Feature Request - Insert URL Links in Folders

          I would love to see the ability to create simple URL links with titles in WorkDrive. or perhaps a WorkDrive extension to allow it. Example use case: A team is working on a project and there is project folder in WordDrive. The team uses LucidChart to create

        • How to Calculate MTTR (Mean Time to Resolve)

          We want to calculate MTTR (Mean Time to Resolve) in our Zoho Analytics report under Tickets. Currently, we are using the following fields: Ticket ID Ticket Created Time Ticket Closed Time Ticket On Hold Time We are planning to calculate MTTR (in days)

        • Possible to bold or indent text in the description field?

          As part of one item, I often have a detailed description that would be much easier to read if there was the ability to have a bulleted list or bold text and the like. Is this possible? My last invoicing software allowed markup in the field so, for example, an asterisk meant a bullet. I haven't been able to find any documentation related to this.  Any information would be appreciated. Thank you.

        • How can I setup Zoho MCP with Chat GPT

          I can set up custom connections with Chat GPT but I cat an error when I try to set it up. The error is: "This MCP server can't be used by ChatGPT to search information because it doesn't implement our specification: search action not found" Thoughts?

        • Formatting of Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Reports

          The default format of the Balance Sheet and P&L Reports are based on the Account Types and then the individual accounts within the Chart of Accounts. These are then ordered alphabetically under these sub-headings and one is unable to re-order these or

        • UK MTD reports concerning turnover and cerash accounting

          Hi I am a sole trader, and I have just started with Zoho Books in order to comply with the new HMRC requirements. I use 'cash basis' - which I understand to mean that income is when the cash comes in (not the invoice date) and expenses are when they are

        • Retainer Invoice.

          Why ZOHO not have facilities to deduct partially advance payment from an invoice.

        • IMAP Server not responding.

          Trying to connect a phone via IMAP and getting "imap.zoho.com not responding." Is the server down, for maintenance or otherwise? I've tried this on two different devices and got the same error on both.

        • Share saved filters between others

          Hi, I am in charge to setup all zoho system in our company. I am preparing saved filters for everybody, but the only one can see its me. How can others see it? Thanks

        • GST Slabs Redefined: Stay Compliant Using Zoho Books!

          Hello Everyone! The Government of India is rolling out new GST rates, a major reform aimed at simplifying the current tax structure starting 22 September 2025. GST will move from four slabs (5%, 12%, 18%, 28%) to two main slabs (5% and 18%), plus a special

        • Kanban view on Zoho CRM mobile app!

          What is Kanban? The name doesn't sound English, right? Yes, Kanban is a Japanese word which means 'Card you can see'. As per the meaning, Kanban in CRM is a type of list view in which the records will be displayed in cards and categorized under the given

        • Presenting ABM for Zoho CRM: Expand and retain your customers with precision

          Picture this scenario: You're a growing SaaS company ready to launch a powerful business suite, and are looking to gain traction and momentum. But as a business with a tight budget, you know acquiring new customers is slow, expensive, and often delivers

        • No practical examples of how survey data is analyzed

          There are no examples of analysis with analytics of zoho survey data. Only survey meta data is analyzed, such as number of completes, not actual analysis of responses, such as the % in each gender, cross-tabulations of survey responses. One strange characteristic of Zoho analytics is that does not seem aware of how Zoho Survey codes 'multiple response' questions. These are questions where more than one option can be selected from a list. Zoho Survey stores this data as text, separated by commas within

        • Zoho Creator as LMS and Membership Solution

          My client is interested in using Zoho One apps to deploy their membership academy offer. Zoho Creator was an option that came up in my research: Here are the components of the program/offer: 1. Membership portal - individual login credentials for each

        • Adding Chargebee as a Data Connector

          Is it possible to get Chargebee added as a Zoho Analytics data connector?

        • Webform & spam

          Hi, We set up 2 webform on our website, fowarding the content to Zoho CRM. Since it has been opened up, we are getting lot of spam message (for now about 20 a day). To lower the  amount of false new leads we added the captcha field and new enquieries are send to the Approval Leads list. However we still get some spam. Is there any "anti spam" mechanism built in Zoho CRM, or how is the best way to avoid these kind of spam ? Thanks

        • Dropbox to Workdrive

          Namaste, Trust you all are doing well. Wanted to check how this can be done with Zoho flow. I typically receive dropbox links from my clients. Is there a way where I can provide the link to Zoho flow and it downloads the files from dropbox link to a work

        • Deals by Stages Funnel not showing in correct order

          Using the Stage-Probability Mapping for the Deals module we have created a steps our deals will pass through, RFQ, Closed/Lost, Declined/No-Go, Pricing, Submitted, Negotiations, Won. However when I view the Deal By Stages Funnel it does not show in the

        • Adding a developer for editing the client application with a single user license

          Hi, I want to know that I as a developer I developed one application and handed over to the customer who is using the application on a single user license. Now after6 months customer came back to me and needs some changes in the application. Can a customer

        • Turning off the new UI

          Tried the new 'enhanced' UI and actively dislike it. Anyone know how to revert back?

        • Confirmation prompt before a custom button action is triggered

          Have you ever created a custom button and just hoped that you/your users are prompted first to confirm the action? Well, Zoho knows this concept. For example, in blueprint, whenever we want to advance to the next state by clicking the transition, it is

        • Cost of good field

          Is there a way we can have cost of good sold as a field added to the back end of the invoicing procedure and available in reports?

        • How to create auto populate field based on custom module in Zoho CRM?

          Hello, i'm still new to Zoho CRM and work as administrator in my company. Currently, I'm configuring layout for Quotes Module. So, the idea is, I've created a read-only field in Quotes called "Spec". I want this field automatically filled with Specification

        • 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 using

        • Change Last Name to not required in Leads

          I would like to upload 500 target companies as leads but I don't yet have contact people for them. Can you enable the option for me to turn this requirement off to need a Second Name? Moderation update (10-Jun-23): As we explore potential solutions for

        • Office 365 and CRM mail integration: permission required

          Has anyone run into this weird problem? My email server is Office 365. When I try to configure Zoho CRM to use this server, a Microsoft popup window opens requesting user and password. After entering that, I get a message in the Microsoft window saying

        • Tables improvement ideas / features

          Heya, I've been using Zoho Tables for a few months now and wanted to post some features that I think will be greatly beneficial for the tool: 1. Ability to delete a record in automation or move a record in automation. - Usecase: I move a record from one

        • Deluge - Can't get phone number SalesIQ

          Hey folks, I’m building a custom plug for SalesIQ that’s supposed to register leads into Zoho CRM. The SalesIQ chat is being implemented on WhatsApp, and in my plug I’m using this line: mobile_clean = session.get("phone").get("value"); From what I understand,

        • how to differentiate if whatsapp comes from certain landing page?

          I create a Zobot in SalesIQ to create a Whatsapp bot to capture the lead. I have 2 landing pages, one is SEO optimized and the other want is optimized for leads comes from Google Ads. I want to know from which landing page this lead came through WhatsApp

        • Zoho Desk - Community

          As a regular user of Zoho Cares Community I would really love to see the publish date of articles. For example, when I look at Announcements, it would be very beneficial to see which ones were posted recently, over those which have just and a recent comment.

        • access to quartz for my customers

          Hi how can I have access to the application quartz you use for us to send you screen rocording, this feature would be immensely useful for our customers support https://quartz.zoho.com/

        • Issue with Inline Images in Email Reply via Zoho Desk API

          Hi, I am attempting to send inline images in an email reply using the Zoho Desk API, but the images are not being displayed inline for the recipient. I have followed this documentation: https://desk.zoho.com/DeskAPIDocument#Uploads https://desk.zoho.com/DeskAPIDocument#Threads#Threads_SendEmailReply

        • How to search a value stored in a subform?

          Hello, We store serial numbers in subforms but now we would like to be able to search the values to be able to easily find the record with the serial number. I saw that it's not possible to search such values through global search but is it possible to do it an other way? Thank you,

        • Field Dependency Not Working on Detail Page in Zoho Desk

          Hi Support Team, I’ve created field dependencies between two fields in Zoho Desk, and they are working correctly on the Create and Edit layouts. However, on the Detail page, the fields are not displaying according to the dependencies I’ve set — they appear

        • How do the keyword critera work?

          Hi, I'm working on automated assignment of tickets based on keywords. How does this feature work? Where does this criteria look for keywords - email address, subject, email body? Can you please clarify this as I want to avoid overlapping with criteria

        • Next Page