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.

Reports based on upcoming payments  (Top 3) 

1. AR Ageing Summary: Displays 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 Renewals: Helps 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.

Reports based on Processing Payment  (Top 3)

1. Payment Received: Displays all recent payments collected, facilitating monitoring of the inflow as payments are processed.
   
   
2. Payment Failures: Essential 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.

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.

Up Next: Self-checkout: Next level convenience

 

 

 

• Topic Participants

• Hari Hara Sudhan. S

  

• 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

• Update Existing Records greyed out in Free Version

  Trying to update records from an Excel sheet, and not getting the option to update. Only option is to add as new accounts. All documentation I can see says update should be an option! Accounts, Leads, Contacts, all the same.

• Dynamically Populate Picklist Values from Another Module Using Client Script

  I am working in Zoho CRM and trying to dynamically populate a picklist field in the Partners module using values stored in another custom module. I have two modules: 1. Partners Module Field: Partner_Type_Pick Field Type: Picklist 2. Partners_Type Module

• Add zoho calendar to google calendar

  Hi I keep seeing instructions on how to sync Zoho CRM calendar with google calendar but no instructions on how to view Zoho calendar in my google calendar.

• Zoho Community Digest : Jan 2026 | Part 1

  Hello Everyone! Staying in the loop with Zoho's latest product updates and features across the vast Zoho Community Forums can be a real challenge. We get it. With over 50+ applications, each with its dedicated forum, it's easy to miss out on important

• World date & time format

  Hello, Is there a timeline to get the worldwide used date and time format ? I mean not the american one... I mean day month year, and 24 hours clock. Regards

• Nimble enhancements to WhatsApp for Business integration in Zoho CRM: Enjoy context and clarity in business messaging

  Dear Customers, We hope you're well! WhatsApp for business is a renowned business messaging platform that takes your business closer to your customers; it gives your business the power of personalized outreach. Using the WhatsApp for Business integration

• Conditional layouts - support for multi-select picklists

  Hi, The documentation for conditional layouts says the following: "Layout Rules cannot be used on the following field types: Auto Number Lookup Multi Select Lookup User Lookup Formula File Upload Multi Line" I have a custom module with a multi-pick list

• Dont want to list inactive items.

  If an item is made inactive, there is no point in showing it in the item list. Please provide an option to hide all inactive items in 'Preferences'. 

• Client Script Not Working When Field is Set by Workflow

  Problem Context: I have implemented a client script in the Cases module that automatically assigns commands based on the value of the Priority field. The script functions correctly when the Priority field is manually set by a user through the form. Observed

• Integration of CRM and Recruit

  hi team, Is it possible to sync deals <> job openings from only 1 pipeline? My configuration of CRM has pipeline for each business unit, so I will have all data in the CRM system. body leasing and recruitment is one BU (hence 1 pipeline) - can I sync

• integrating Zoho CRM vendors with Zoho projects

  In most of our projects we collaborate with our Vendors. Being able to integrate only Accounts and not Vendors from CRM, is a huge limitation for our perspective and needs. We would really love to see this feature in the CRM-Projects integration.

• Zoho Creator Workshops 2026—Europe & UK | Coming to a city near you!

  Hello everyone! We're excited to announce the Zoho Creator Workshop Series 2026, coming to cities across Europe and the United Kingdom this year! Whether you're looking to explore the intermediate-to-advanced capabilities of Creator or you're a seasoned

• Number 9 envelopes for invoice printing

  I email and print invoices. Being new to Zoho and coming from QB, we did both as we have a more traditional So in Zoho i want to do the same using Number 9 envelopes. These have both a return window and mail to windoow see attached image. Im just looking for best suggestions on how to get a ZOHO invoice to work, so I can mail my invoices...

• Zoho Books/Square integration, using 2 Square 'locations' with new Books 'locations'?

  Hello! I saw some old threads about this but wasn't sure if there were any updates. Is there a way to integrate the Square locations feature with the Books locations feature? As in, transactions from separate Books locations go to separate Square locations

• Open Sans Font in Zoho Books is not Open Sans.

  Font choice in customising PDF Templates is very limited, we cannot upload custom fonts, and to make things worse, the font names are not accurate. I selected Open Sans, and thought the system was bugging, but no, Open Sans is not Open Sans. The real

• Add Reporting feature to display variance/change columns when comparing periods

  When running reports to compare periods (for example, Profit and Loss comparing current year to previous), I would like to be able to display variance columns in both (a) amount or (b) percentage.

• Payroll and BAS ( Australian tax report format )

  Hello , I am evaluating Zoho Books and I find the interface very intuitive and straight forward. My company is currently using Quickbooks Premier the Australian version. Before we can consider moving the service we would need to have the following addressed : 1.Payroll 2.BAS ( business activity statement ) for tax purposes 3.Some form of local backup and possible export of data to a widely accepted format. Regards Codrin Mitin

• Invalid scope choice: Workdrive integration in CRM

  Bug: There is an invalid option in the permission choices for Workdrive integration in CRM. If the entry "WorkDrive.teamfolder.CREATE" is selected, it will return a message indicating invalid OAuth scope scope does not exist.

• What's New - February 2026 | Zoho Backstage

  February 2026 brings a major new addition and a collection of enhancements across Zoho Backstage. We thought about writing a long introduction, but the updates in this release make a strong case on their own. So we’ll skip the buildup and dive straight

• Attaching files to emails within CRM Deals.

  Hello, We have recently started using the extension "Workdrive for CRM" (Related List) to view/store our documents for each Deal, instead of using Attachments. Overall it feels like a better way to go but the user experience is not so great when it comes

• Anyone worked out how to export or screengrab a full heatmap?

  I'd love to be able to include a copy of a heatmap in a report but can't work out how to grab the whole thing as there doesn't appear to be an export function? Thanks in advance.

• Establishing Relationships among contacts/leads with Reciprocal

  Is there any way to create a relationship between contacts and leads and be able to go into just one of the files and have it reciprocate the entry in the other file? For example, if I have two people say John and Jane Smith who are husband and wife.

• Placeholder for Agent Signature in Email Templates

  Dear Zoho Team, I hope this message finds you well. We currently face a limitation when designing email templates in Zoho Desk. While we can create email templates and include a footer at the end, the agent signature is always appended by default at the

• Custom View and Custom Fields on Zoho Books

  Hi, I have some custom fields on Estimates and Invoices. I also use Custom Views so I can have a lot of information at a glance. I want to include my custom fields as columns in my custom views of estimates / invoice, but it looks like is not possible.

• %PaymentLink%

  Does not work. Software creates a BAD link. ....and yes payment options are turned on. Link on the invoice pdf once opened will work but this template is a joke.

• Can Zoho Marketing Automation send OTP codes via WhatsApp during user registration?

  The flow I would like to implement is: A user signs up in the mobile app and enters their phone number. The system generates a one-time verification code (OTP). The OTP is sent to the user via WhatsApp message. The user enters the code in the app to confirm

• Where to show Customization Field ?

  Dear Sir, I have made some New Field in Item Field Customisation. Now I don't require that field in Estimate, Sales Orders etc. I just wants that field in Sales Invoice to Show/Hide... Is that possible ?

• What's New in Zoho Analytics - February 2026

  Hello Users! We're back with another round of updates for Zoho Analytics. This month's release focuses on giving you greater flexibility in how you visualize, manage, and act on your data - with new features like custom visualizations, remote MCP server,

• Zoho Books (and other Finance Suite Apps) - Clickable Item Name on Invoices and Reports

  Hi Zoho Books team, It would be really helpful if the Item Name on Reports were clicable to take me to the item. The same on Invoices, often I am looking at an invoice and I want to look at the deails of a product. A link here would be helpful to jump

• ZOHO Reports are taking longer time to get refresh

  Hi Team, Since last few days, I'm facing issues in getting updated reports. For eg: right after making an expense entry or even posting a journal, it is taking longer then expected for the updated reports. Refer below: "You are viewing the report that

• Display actual mileage on an invoice

  My users are creating expenses in Zoho expense. For example, they expense 10 miles and get paid 7 dollars (10 miles * IRS rate of .70). If I look at the expenses in Zoho Books, it does show them at 10 miles at .70 cent When I add these expense to an invoice

• Can't change form's original name in URL

  Hi all, I have been duplicating + editing forms for jobs regarding the same department to maintain formatting + styling. The issue I've not run into is because I've duplicated it from an existing form, the URL doesn't seem to want to update with the new

• Can you create relationships BETWEEN contacts within the same module

  I am setting up my CRM, and I want to have a way to connect contacts within the same module.  Is there a way to do this?  If not - how do I decide how to split up contacts to make connections?  What are best practices for this? We have clients who need

• Function and workflow to create customer payment and send receipt

   I am attempting to set up a workflow/custom function for the automatic creation of a customer payment and sending the email receipt, but am receiving the error "Improper Statement Error might be due to missing ';' at end of the line or incomplete expression" I've been over everything several times and cannot see where the error is (code is copied into the attached document).  I haven't used custom functions before with Deluge, so it's very likely something very simple, or I've completely mucked

• Disable Sign Up option in Zoho Creator Portal and show only Sign In page

  Is it possible to disable the Sign Up option in a Zoho Creator portal? The requirement is to show only the Sign In page and completely remove or hide the Sign Up page, so users cannot create accounts directly from the portal login page. Is there any setting

• Can I view the KB in the same way as a customer logged in as my Agent?

  Sorry if this seems a mad question.  I have some Articles that I want to be seen by my Agents and the status of these is set to Agents only.  We also have some that are set to Public. When I sign in with my private email address (as a customer) I can

• What’s New in Zoho Inventory — Latest Features, Integrations & Updates | December 2025

  Zoho Inventory has evolved significantly over the past months, bringing you smarter, faster, and more connected tools to streamline your operations. Whether you’re managing multichannel sales, complex fulfillment workflows, or fast-moving stock, our newest

• Which user's capacity is used for Shared Mailbox storage?

  We use shared mailboxes at our company, and their size is increasing daily. Which user(s)'s total mailbox limit is being used up by this space?

• Evernote (ENEX) import limitations

  I have been with Evernote since 2010, but the latest price increase is ridiculous. I am currently testing Zoho Notebook as a replacement. I am impressed so far - if it were not for critical need to import legacy Evernote notes, I would 100% migrate to

• Can I create a CODE 128 custom field for my items in Zoho Inventory and then use it for generating Sales Orders?

  Can anyone helps me, I don't want to use the SKU code for scanning my products.  ​Because all my products have a CODE-128 label attached.

• Next Page