Credit Management: #6 Tackling Common Mistakes in Credit Based Billing

Businesses extend credit to build relationships, make buying easy, and drive more sales. But somewhere between extending and collecting, things begin to slip. A few late payments here and there, an overlooked invoice, and a backlog make cash flow feel tighter than it should.

It's not that businesses don't care about credit control. They often underestimate how quickly it can spiral when left unmanaged.

​
Let's explore some of the companies' most common mistakes when managing credits and how they can be handled effectively.

1. Extending Credits without Defined Limits 

We've always trusted them; they'll pay when ready." That's a familiar phrase when you're working with loyal customers. At first, it works fine, but without defined credit boundaries, even dependable customers may intentionally hold up value beyond what your business can safely play with. Soon enough, you're wondering whether you should accept a new order or wait for the earlier one to clear.

With Zoho Billing, you can assign a personalised credit limit per customer. The system tracks their outstanding balance in real time and flags when the limit is nearing or exceeded. That means you keep giving credits within a safe, measured, controlled limit.

2. Relying on Memory for Follow-up 

"I'll remind them next week," someone says. But next week becomes two weeks, and the customer's invoice quietly drifts into overdue territory. Without timely reminders, credit becomes ageing receivables, and good customers become bad debt risks.

Zoho Billing sends automated scheduled reminders before, on, and after the due date. You don't need to rely on someone to manually remember and do a follow-up. The system does it for you. Payments get nudges, outstanding balances stay visible, and nothing gets buried in the "we'll deal with it later".

3. Not Tracking Partial or Split Payments 

Does a customer split their payments into several parts or pay partially because one department reimburses later? It often happens. The problem is when these payments aren't linked and tracked properly. "I paid half last month, why is it showing as overdue?" a customer might ask. That kind of ambiguity damages your firm's reputation.

Zoho Billing is a robust billing system that lets you record and reconcile partial payments under each invoice and customer account. You see exactly what's still owed and what's been applied. Your team stops answering "Where is my payment?" questions and starts driving growth.

4. Letting Credit Overuse Go Unchecked 

A growing business might hesitate to push back on a long-time client over the credit limit. "They've been with us for years, we'll send the invoice anyway". But that's the moment risk creeps in. Before you know it, overdue balances multiply and cash flow tightens.

Zoho Billing lets you automatically block or restrict new invoice creation once a customer exceeds their threshold limit. This isn't about pushing the customer, it's about transparent collaboration. You avoid the issue, encourage timely payment, and reduce risk without awkward conversations.

5. Using Common Terms for All 

Using the same credit policy for every customer is tempting because it's simple. However, flexibility suffers when your most reliable clients feel restricted and your new ones are treated the same way as seasoned ones. One client might deserve more leniency, another less.

In Zoho Billing, you can configure different payment terms per customer, including limits, due dates, and payment conditions based on history. This keeps your relationship fair and acknowledged and adjusts risk appropriately.

6. Missing out on Available  Credits

When you owe credits to your customers, keeping them visible and ready to redeem is essential. However, several businesses miss the available credit and attempt to charge the customer the full amount against the invoice raised.

With Zoho Billing, you can view the available credits and apply them before sending the invoice to your customers in case of offline payments. For invoices that are paid online, it provides a more seamless process of automatic credit redemption when available, which makes the process even more hassle-free.

Credit Risk to Credit Offering 

Credit management isn't often discussed in boardrooms, but it underpins business health. Extending credit thoughtfully, following up reliably, tracking payment precisely, enforcing limits proactively, and customising when needed will keep your cash flow alive.

Zoho Billing supports all of that with real-time visibility, configured limits, automated communication, and personalised terms. Use it to manage credit and "manage credit wisely."

• Topic Participants

• Hari | Zoho Billing

  

• 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

• Free webinar alert on October 16 - Less Complexity, More Security: Workplace + Directory

  Hello Zoho Workplace Community! Security and productivity shouldn't be at odds—and with Zoho, they're not. Discover how Zoho Workplace + Directory delivers seamless collaboration with enterprise-grade security, all in one integrated ecosystem. Join our

• Email Recall Feature In Zoho Mail Which Should Also Work For Outside Organisation Members

  Add a feature to recall or undo sending an email within a configurable short time window (e.g., 30 seconds to 2 minutes) after hitting send, similar to Gmail’s undo send. Currently the sent email can not be recall If the recipient is not from within your

• Workdrive and ChatGPT Team Synced Connectors

  Hi, we want to be able to integrate Zoho Workdrive with OpenAI’s ChatGPT Team plan. Google Drive and OneDrive both offer this, zoho please catch up asap. We dont want to have to put our company files in google drive, we want to allow chatgpt Team edition

• Alias Name (on items) use case in Zoho inventory

  Hey, Hope everyone is well. Wondering if anyone can shed some light on the use case of Alias Names on Products in Zoho Inventory? Cheers, Chris

• Updating an Invoice Line Item's Discount Account via API Call / Deluge Custom Function

  I need help updating an invoice line item's discount account via API. Below is a screenshot of the line item field I am referring to. Now the field to the left of the highlighted field (discount account) is the sales income account. I am able to modify

• Send e-mail with attachments

  Dear Zoho, How is that possible in Zoho Flow to send an e-mail with attachment?  Just a simple example: Zoho Flow checks my Zoho mails and if the conditions starts the trigger then I would like to send an email with the original email's attachment. Any idea? BR, Adam

• How to I get checkboxes on a subform to update via deluge

  Hello, would someone be able to tell me what I'm doing wrong here? I am trying to take the contents of a Deals subform and add them to an invoice then update the checkbox on each row so that 'add to invoice' is unticked and 'invoiced' is ticked. The output

• Your bot just got smarter: AI-Powered routing that reads between the lines

  What if your bot could tell the difference? Between a visitor who just needs a quick answer, someone actively comparing options, and a frustrated customer one click away from leaving? Most bots can't. They deliver the same response to everyone, missing

• Urgent Security Feature Request – Add MFA to Zoho Projects Client Portal Hello Zoho Projects Team,

  Hello Zoho Projects Team, We hope you are doing well. We would like to submit an urgent security enhancement request regarding the Zoho Projects Client Portal. At this time, as far as we are aware, there is no Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) available

• Unified customer portal login

  As I'm a Zoho One subscriber I can provide my customers with portal access to many of the Zoho apps. However, the customer must have a separate login for each app, which may be difficult for them to manage and frustrating as all they understand is that

• Zoho Projects - Task Owner filter at Project level

  Hi Projects Team, The feature requests I would like to raise is the ability to create a custom view at the project level for projects with tasks owned by a user or users. For example "Ashley's Projects" custom view might contain a list of project in which

• Cadences

  I have just started using Cadences for follow-up up email pipeline. Is it just me or do you find the functionality very basic? For example, it will tell me (if I go looking for it) if someone has replied to a follow-up and been unenrolled; but it won't

• Zoho Books-Accounting on the Go Series!

  Dear users, Continuing in the spirit of our 'Function Fridays' series, where we've been sharing custom function scripts to automate your back office operations, we're thrilled to introduce our latest initiative – the 'Zoho Books-Accounting on the Go Series'.

• Custom Fonts in Zoho CRM Template Builder

  Hi, I am currently creating a new template for our quotes using the Zoho CRM template builder. However, I noticed that there is no option to add custom fonts to the template builder. It would greatly enhance the flexibility and branding capabilities if

• Would be really awesome to have Created Time and Modified Time showing for custom functions list

  It would be SO HELPFUL to be able to sort custom functions by created time/ modified time. Also seeing a created by/ modified by with the little profile picture would be supremely helpful as well. Just really hard sometimes to find a function you were

• What's New in Zoho Analytics - October 2025

  Hello Users! We're are back with a fresh set of updates and enhancements to make data analysis faster and more insightful. Take a quick look at what’s new and see how these updates can power up your reports and dashboards. Explore What's New! Extreme

• Ticket Export Does Not Include Ticket Threads

  Dear Zoho Desk Support Team, I hope you’re doing well. I would like to report an issue regarding the ticket export functionality in Zoho Desk. Currently, when exporting tickets, the ticket threads or conversation history are not included — only the ticket

• Payments made notification

  This is a really wonderful feature but we can only use it for about 50% of payments made & have to revert to sending statements which is a real chore. Credits applied to the bills paid in the notification aren't included & this causes great confusion in the accounts receivable departments. Please, please add this required feature asap ! .....

• Ability to add VAT to Retainer Invoices

  Hello, I've had a telephone conversation a month ago with Dinesh on this topic and my request to allow for the addition of VAT on Retainer Invoices.  It's currently not possible to add VAT to Retainer Invoices and it was mutually agreed that there is absolutely no reason why there shouldn't be, especially as TAX LAW makes VAT mandatory on each invoice in Europe!   So basically, what i'm saying is that if you don't allow us to add VAT to Retainer Invoices, than the whole Retainer Invoices becomes

• ZOHO DESK link with Power BI

  HI, I am using ZOHO Desk for last two years and now my client is asking to integrate ZOHO desk data to Power BI so that they can use Data for reporting. Kindly guide in details so that i can give access to ZOHO desk export data for more visibility.

• URLs being masked despite disabling tracking

  Hey, We had disabled click tracking from an email update we are sharing with our users. Despite this, the URL the end user is receiving is masked, and looks like "https://qksyl-cmpzourl.maillist-manage.net/click/1d8e72714515cda6/1d8e72714515ca70" instead

• Zoho CRM - Calendar Cards View - Let Users Decide What Is Displayed On Calendar Entries

  Imagine planning your week of face-to-face meetings across three counties. You’re trying to group appointments by location to make the best use of your time, but Zoho CRM’s calendar doesn’t show where each meeting is happening. You’re left trying to remember

• Dashboard Autorefesh

  Good day, I am a dashboard that displays the number of tickets based on "Product Name". This dashboard is displayed on a big TV for the team to monitor. Can the dashboard auto-refresh every few minutes to display the new values? Currently, we have closed

• Deferred/ Unearned revenue

  Dear Zoho Team, Just in case you have missed out my query posted few days ago: We issue invoices relating to 12-month web hosting service. When we issue the invoice, we should record the entire amount of the invoice as DEFERRED/UNEARNED REVENUE (ie. $10

• Report Hover Setting

  Would be great if we will able to show information to the user while hovering a record in a report.

• Bigin Android app update: Zoho Books integration

  Hello everyone! We’re excited to introduce Zoho Books integration on the latest version(v1.8.5) Bigin Android app. Once the integration is completed in the web(bigin.zoho.com), the Zoho Books tab will be visible in detail View of Contacts, Companies,

• Audit Log enhancements: Increased retention period, better user visibility, and more

  Hello everyone, The Audit Log brings in the following enhancements which improve the overall ability to manage data. Why did we make these updates? Extended Data Retention: Audit data can now be filtered and exported for a 60-day period, doubling the

• Question Regarding Managing Sale Items in Zoho Books

  Good day, I was wondering about something. Right now, Zoho Books doesn’t seem to have a way to flag certain items as being on sale. For example, if I want a list of specific items to be on sale from October 1 to October 12, the user would have to export

• [WEBINAR] Smooth year-end closure with Zoho Books (KENYA)

  Hello there, This webinar is for all Kenyan businesses looking to wrap up their financial year smoothly! Join our free session to learn how Zoho Books can simplify your year-end process. What to expect from this webinar: - All the latest updates in Zoho

• System flaws and lack of response from Zoho

  I have had to go on here as no-one is replying to my emails regarding my problem (been 10 days and no email reply) and your chat facility online through your Zoho Books software opens and closes immediately, so not functioning properly. I actually called

• Customer Grouping

  Hi, how can I group multiple customers into single group. So that I can have idea of accounts receivables of all the customers in single group. Like if there are multiple subsidiaries of same company we have having a business with, and want to view the

• Two currencies

  More and more I am finding that internattional payments' fees are unpredictable. I would like, on my invoices that are in a foreign currency (eg. USD$ or EUR€) for there to be a GBP£ TOTAL display alongside the invoice's currency total. This would make

• Zoho Books | Product updates | September 2025

  Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From PayNow payment method to applying journal credits to invoices and bills in other locations, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience. Integrate

• 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

• Zoho Books | Product updates | October 2025

  Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From iOS 26 updates to viewing reports as charts, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience. Zoho Books Updates for Apple Devices At WWDC 2025, Apple

• Need Inactive accounts to be visible in Reports in Zoho Books

  I N=need Inactive accounts to be visible in Reports in Zoho Books to do recons of the accounts but when i see the same they are not visible in the Accountant - Account Transactions report

• Edit item custom fields

  Getting this error : Transactions have been created with the custom field. Hence it cannot be deleted. Not trying to delete it, just trying to change which modules to show in or to not show at all in transactions !

• Zoho Books - How to Invoke a Custom Function in Schedulers

  We have multiple schedulers that send emails to customers in batches. Currently, we are maintaining the same code across several schedulers. Is it possible to use a custom function inside a scheduler script? If yes, how can we invoke the custom function

• Use Zoho Books to bill for work done in Zoho Desk??

  I'm trying to see if something is possible (and if yes, how). We use Zoho One to manage our business. We have a lot of clients that will put in a ticket (via portal) to have work done. Out techs will pick up the ticket, do the work, and then log the time

• 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

• Next Page