Tip #2 - Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date

Tip #2 - Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date

Hello everyone,

As you all know, we are coming up with a custom function workflow every week to address specific business scenarios. In continuation of this previous blog, this week we will be seeing about Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date.

Business Scenario:


In general, for any business, the customers make payments via online as well as offline. In case of subscription where the automatic collection of charge is enabled (aka online subscription), the customer's card on file will be automatically charged on the renewal date on a regular basis. If for some reason the collection of charge fails on renewal, the Retry Settings (Dunning Settings) will handle the payment collection and sending notification reminders on specified intervals. Upon failure of all the retry attempts, the system will automatically cancel that subscription.

Whereas in the subscription for which the payment is made via cash (or) check, the business (sales) person collects the payment and record it manually into the billing system. There can be situations where even after multiple reminders and personal follow-ups by the salesperson, the customer might not have still paid for the invoice. In such cases, to avoid churn and to keep the cash flow coming, there can be a negotiation between the salesperson and the customer to collect the payment before a final date. This final date can be marked as the Expected Payment Date in that particular invoice.

In most of these scenarios, the customers will usually pay within the expected payment date which was previously agreed upon. However, if the customer fails to do so, the salesperson might have to cancel their subscription manually as there is no business value associated with it. 

Now, let's see how we can automate this process without any manual work. By doing this, you could save a significant amount of time which can be put into developing your business.

Logic Explanation:

As you would have guessed by now, we would be using our Custom Function Workflow to achieve this. Since this scenario involves date based actions, we will be using Date based Workflow. The Date based workflow is something that can be configured to run after a particular date and at a particular time depending on our requirement.

Now, if you were wondering how to configure the custom function to automate our process, please find the answers to your questions below.

What type of Workflow is to be followed?
Date Based Workflow

When is the date of execution?
1 day(s) after the Expected Payment Date.


Are there any additional filters required?

Yes. Execute this workflow only for unpaid invoices.

So to summarize, this custom function should be set to run exactly one day after the expected payment date for the unpaid invoices. After configuring this custom function, you would have to code (the functionality) in such a way that the subscription associated with the invoice is cancelled immediately.

Please be informed that this custom function workflow will work only on the invoices which are created after configuring this custom function.


Code Explanation:

You can refer the code through this GitHub link. The code is written in Deluge script, which is easily understandable to non-programmers. 

1) This snippet of code will be executed only for invoices which are unpaid even after the expected payment date. Kindly replace the "authtoken variable" with your generated authtoken.

2) Initially, we will retrieve the Subscription that is associated with that particular invoice.

3) After retrieving the associated subscription, we will be cancelling it by using the Cancel Subscription API.


Getting started with the Custom Functions: 

1. Go to Settings -> Automation -> Custom Functions.


2. Create a new Custom function. Provide a name for the function. 


3. Choose the module as 'Invoice' and click on 'Create Custom Events'. 


4. Choose Date Based workflow type and Date of Execution as 1 day(s) after Expected Payment Date. You can also set a different Execution Time based on your requirement.

5. In order to run the function for unpaid invoices, Apply Advanced Filter as When Status isn't Paid. 

6. Copy the code which was given above.

7. Save the Custom function and you are good to go.


Further Enhancements:

1)  While using this custom function, there might be a scenario where you would like to exclude a few of your prime customers' subscription from being cancelled automatically without your consent. In order to do this, you can add a Custom Field of type CheckBox to the Subscription. 

While creating a subscription, you can leave this CheckBox marked (or) unmarked in order to differentiate your prime customers from others. Later, you can add this custom field in the Addition Criteria of your workflow, such that the workflow is executed only for your non-prime customers.

Please refer the below image for your reference, where the CheckBox custom field is named as "Cancel subscription automatically?".

2) When the subscription is cancelled, the last renewed invoice will still be in open status. If you would like to void that invoice before cancelling the subscription, you can modify the workflow to address that need. 

Found this useful? Try it out and let us know how it works! If you have questions, do not hesitate to ask!

Cheers,
Sasidaran K,
Zoho Subscriptions.



      • Sticky Posts

      • Tip #4 : Refer and Earn Workflow system for your Subscription Business

        Hello everyone, We've been coming up with a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which can be implemented for your business. In continuation to the previous post, this week we will be seeing about how you can implement the Refer and Earn Workflow system to acquire more customers. Why are Referrals important? Customer Acquisition is crucial for any business to sustain itself in a constantly evolving market. It involves persuading new consumers to purchase your products. Customers

      • Tip #2 - Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date

        Hello everyone, As you all know, we are coming up with a custom function workflow every week to address specific business scenarios. In continuation of this previous blog, this week we will be seeing about Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date. Business Scenario: In general, for any business, the customers make payments via online as well as offline. In case of subscription where the automatic collection of charge is enabled (aka online subscription), the customer's

      • Tip #3 : Send SMS Reminders for your Subscription Business

        Hello everyone, As you all know, we are coming up with a tip every week to address specific business scenarios. In continuation to the previous blog, this week we will be seeing how you can use SMS reminders for your Subscription Business. Using SMS messages for your Subscription Business: While managing your subscription business, more often than not, you need to keep your customers informed about upcoming renewals, payment reminders and cancellations. By keeping them informed in advance, you can

      • Tips And Tricks - Announcement

        Hello everyone, Every business is unique and each of them follows a specific workflow. While managing your customers' subscriptions with Zoho, you might have some needs unique to your business. Custom Functions helps you address such needs. This is a start to a series of posts, where we will be coming up with a custom function workflow every week that addresses specific business scenarios. Watch this space for further updates! Also, if you have any specific business scenario which needs to be addressed,

      • Tip #6 : Accessing external URLs from Zoho Subscriptions

        Hello everyone, We have been sharing a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which you can implement for your subscription business. Last week, we shared a tip about implementing the Approval Workflow system. This week, let's look at how you can access external URLs with the help of Custom Link. Business Scenario: Every business functions differently and has its unique requirements. At times, businesses might want to access other websites or applications by appending specific information

        • Recent Topics

        • an issue in Zoho CRM where the workflow rule is not triggering

          H I’m currently facing an issue in Zoho CRM where the workflow rule is not triggering when a new lead is created through a webform. I’ve double-checked the criteria and field updates, everything seems fine but it still doesn’t fire. Has anyone faced this

        • Allocating inventory to specific SO's

          Is there a way that allocate inventory to a specific sales order? For example, let's say we have 90 items in stock. Customer 1 orders 100 items. This allocates all 90 items to their order, and they have a back order for the remaining 10 items which could

        • This version of app doesn't support this notecard type Error

          So this problem is happening for any notes created within the last week, as well as any note recently edited on Android. I can open them on my phone fine, but they don't open on the website version. They DO work on the desktop app version. It's just web

        • Automatically Update Ticket Status in Zoho Desk Based on Actions in Zoho Projects

          Hi Zoho Desk Team, Hope you’re doing well. We’re using the Zoho Desk–Zoho Projects integration to manage tasks related to customer tickets, and it works well for linking and tracking progress. However, there are a few important automation capabilities

        • How to sync Zoho CRM Quotes with Zoho Books/Finance Estimates or Quotes

          Hi everyone, We’re building quotes in the Zoho CRM Quotes module because of its strong CPQ features and better communication options (multiple contacts, email customization, etc.). However, these don’t sync directly with Zoho Books/Finance for invoicing.

        • Is this a SCAM email or is it really Zoho?

          L.S. I received the following message. Is this from Zoho? I have had a Zoho One account for many years and my website has been online for years. If it is a scam, I think you should know about it.

        • How to close an estimate ?

          Hello, I have created estimates, and converted them to invoices to get 50% payment. Now I have 2 cases where the estimate stills shows status partially invoiced, however: 1. for one of them, project stopped half way, so the remaining part will never be

        • Updating Analytical Fields Data

          Dear Zoho team, I'm having an issue with the recently added fields in both Analytical Desk and Analytical. How can I generate the data in Analytical when new fields are added? https://analytics.zoho.com/workspace/2436819000000007005/edit/24368190000

        • My Zoho mail stopped receiving or sending emails about 3 hours ago

          Its a pop 3 account. The emails get into the actual mailbox on the server and I can send emails directly from the server, but they are no longer in Zoho, in neither of my Zoho accounts. All green ticks under Mail Accounts under Settings

        • Can I hide empty Contact fields from view?

          Some contacts have a lot of empty fields, others are mostly filled. Is there a way I can hide/show empty fields without changing the actual Layout? I would like to de-clutter my view, and also be able to add information later as I am able. I would be

        • Zoho Cliq not working on airplanes

          Hi, My team and I have been having this constant issue of cliq not working when connected to an airplane's wifi. Is there a reason for this? We have tried on different Airlines and it doesn't work on any of them. We need assistance here since we are constantly

        • Option in pipeline deal to select which hotel or branch or store if client has more than one local store

          Hi, I would like to know if there is an option in the deal pipeline to select which hotel, branch, or store a deal is related to—if the company has more than one location. For example, I have a client that owns several hotels under the same company, and

        • Request to Recover Deleted Task List – Project ID: RIV-MOD-10722

          Hi Zoho Team, I hope this message finds you well. My Zoho task list associated with Project ID: RIV-MOD-10722 appears to have been deleted. When I clicked on the task link from the email notification, I received the following message: "Task has been deleted

        • Is it possible to use HTML formatting in SMS messages sent from Zoho?

          Hi everyone, I have a question regarding sending SMS from Zoho When we send emails from Zoho, we can include HTML code to format the message (like adding links, styling, etc.). Is it possible to do something similar when sending SMS messages through Zoho

        • Email Insights included in Bigin emals are marked as SPAM everywhere

          Today I noticed that email recipients who use Office 365 never receive emails sent from Bigin. Further examination showed that all Email Insights links in email headers are marked as spam/phishing by Office 365. Example screen included. The problem is

        • Email Parser Not Extracting Fields Correctly with Certain Label Formats

          I’ve been testing the Email Parser functionality in Zoho CRM to automatically extract data from incoming emails and map it to CRM fields. During testing, I noticed that parsing sometimes fails when the email contains field labels formatted like this:

        • How do I import Connected Records for a Deal?

          Can you point me to an example of the CSV file that would add related records to an existing CRM Deal? I imported a Deal, then tried importing a connected record using a unique ID that references the Deal ID, but it doesn't attach it to the Deal rec

        • File Upload Field in Zoho Forms Not Updating Existing File in Zoho CRM

          Hi everyone, I’m trying to understand the behavior of a file upload field mapped from Zoho Forms to Zoho CRM. Scenario There is a File Upload field in a Zoho CRM module. A Zoho Form also has a File Upload field, which is mapped to that CRM field. When

        • Zoho Training

          Greetings! I am trainer. My focus area is Project Management and MS Project. I have used Zoho CRM to a good extent. Though, I was interested in using ZOHO projects, as there were no live projects, I could not take it up for studies. Recently a client

        • Detailed list of scoring rules in Zoho CRM

          Good morning Zoho community, warm greetings The reason for my message today is that I have a problem with my CRM, which I will explain below: Our organization has scoring rules designed to rate our potential customers or leads in the application based

        • How to create a summary document from Projects details

          Hi, Our team is creating many projects inside Zoho Project. When closing a project, they write a summary document containing data from the projects it-self (understand project budget, customers, etc...), and editable (ie the document is either a Writer

        • Host in US Data Centre

          I humble apply to be registered on US Data centre

        • convert the project to templet

          i have some deployment ME product for different customer , i need to create a fixed template for use it rather then keeping creating this template every time

        • Best practices for managing Project Charters, Business Case and RAID logs within Zoho?

          Hello everyone, I’m currently refining our PMO setup within Zoho Projects and I’m curious how others are handling high-level governance documentation. We’ve been using the standardized Project Charter, Business Case and RAID frameworks from projectmanagertemplate.com

        • Resource Management System built using Zoho CRM, Creator, Projects, and People:

          In a Resource Management System built using Zoho CRM, Creator, Projects, and People: CRM Deal Closed → Creator Allocation Engine → Zoho Projects Task Assignment What is the recommended architecture to handle dynamic reassignment when: an employee goes

        • Dynamic Remaining Quantity in Lookup During Allocation

          Hi everyone, From what I understand in Zoho Creator, lookup fields only display the stored value from the source record and do not dynamically update while a form is being filled. Because of this, showing a real-time updated remaining quantity inside

        • connect zoho creator with google drive

          Hello everyone, I need to connect to a folder drive. The idea, is that google drive loads a text document with some data, I must read that text document to be able to autofill a form that I have in zoho creator with that data. I also attach PDFs and place

        • Ability to Attach Record-Specific Files Automatically in Workflow Email Templates

          Currently in Zoho CRM, email templates allow attachments to be added, but these attachments are static and remain the same for every recipient. There is no straightforward option to automatically attach a file that is stored within the specific CRM record

        • Uploaded files are not included when using "Include user submitted data" in Email Notification

          In Send Email notification workflow in Zoho Creator, there is an option called "Include user submitted data" which allows the email to contain all the form submission details. However, when this option is enabled, files or images uploaded through File

        • kanban view for client portal

          Are kanban views an option for client portals? Access to Kanban views in the client portals would solve some mobile-compliant issues I have with the UI. Kanban functions very nicely on mobile and would be a super asset for my clients and vendors as they

        • Credit Card Pre-Authorization with later Capture/Settlement

          We really enjoy the convenience of being able to pay off a customer's invoice using our Auth.Net integration with Zoho Books. Unfortunately, we can only take advantage of this feature with a small percentage of our customers as it leaves a gaping hole

        • Zoho Sign 2025–2026: What's new and what's next

          Hello! Every year at Zoho Sign, we work hard to make document signing and agreement execution easy for all users. This year we sat down with our head of product, Mr. Subramanian Thayumanasamy, to discuss what we delivered in 2025 and our goals for 2026.

        • Work Orders / Bundle Requests

          Zoho Inventory needs a work order / bundle request system. This record would be analogous to a purchase order in the purchasing workflow or a sales order in the sales cycle. It would be non-journaling, but it would reserve the appropriate inventory of

        • Izettle or Sumup Integration for Zoho Books.

          The Stripe & Square clearing works great in Zoho Books. Any further integrations planned in the future for Izettle or Sumup? These card processors are very common for taking payments with a card reader.

        • Train Zoho Answer Bot Based on Customer

          Hi all, Is it currently possible to mark Help Centre articles to a specific customer, and restrict the answer bot to only use relevant information if it is either marked as "General", or tagged for the specific customer in question? We currently have

        • Trying to access records in a custom module in Zoho Desk and not having luck

          I've built a custom module in Zoho Desk and am using a custom function to query the records in the module and I'm not having any luck. The only way I have found to retreive a record is by getting it by its recordID (the long zoho assigned one). The function

        • Composite items inside of composite items; bill of materials needed

          Hi Zoho and Everyone, I am evaluating whether Zoho Inventory will work for my small business. I grow and harvest herbs and spices but also get from wholesalers. I use all these items to make herbal teas, but also sell them as individual items on my Shopify store and Etsy. I discovered the composite item bundling and am wondering if I could get some assistance since there is no bill of materials: Our herbal company's best selling tea is a sleepytime tea. Sleepytime Tea can be purchased in three weights

        • ZOHO Books Smart Accounting Software for Travel Agency

          Dear Travel partner, Contact for Travel Agency Accounting Setup & Training Vansh Travel (ZOHO Books Authorised partner) Email: info@vanshtravel.com Mo: +91 98984 95155 Please find PDF   

        • 452 Mailbox delivery restricted by policy error

          We have been testing Zoho desk for about a week now and have been forwarding emails in via an Exchange Online Mail flow rule without issue until yesterday. Suddenly yesterday morning we started getting the vast majority of the emails stuck in Pending

        • Send Email reply on behalf of Agent

          Hi, When using the send email reply via the API I can set the reply on behalf of the customer by using impersonatedUserId in the header of the API call. Is there a way to do this for Agents too? I need to be able to send an email reply on behalf of an

        • Next Page