What's New - September 2025 | Zoho Backstage

What's New - September 2025 | Zoho Backstage

September has been a different month for Zoho Backstage. Instead of rolling out a long list of new features, we focused on something just as important:

Performance, reliability, and stability

The event season is in full swing, and organizers are running larger and more complex events. Our goal this month was simple: make your experience faster, smoother, and more intuitive. 

That said, we do have a few updates to share with you.

Tax Rules – South Africa

Accurate tax calculation is vital for ensuring compliance and transparency in event management. With the new Tax Rules feature for South Africa, you can now automatically apply the correct VAT rates to your events, making tax management simpler and more efficient. Zoho Backstage automatically configures tax rules based on your organization and event location, ensuring compliance with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) regulations.



This feature supports in-person, hybrid, and virtual events, helping organizers stay compliant while reducing manual tax management.

How do taxes work on South African events?

VAT registration thresholds
  1. Businesses must register for VAT if their annual taxable sales exceed ZAR 1 million.
  2. Businesses may choose to register voluntarily if their taxable sales are above ZAR 50,000.
VAT rates
  1. Standard rate: 15%
  2. Zero rate: 0%
VAT terms
  1. VAT: Value-Added Tax
  2. VAT Registration Number Label: TIN (Tax Identification Number)
  3. VAT Registration Number Format: 10-digit number
In-person and hybrid events
​
​

If an event is held in South Africa, the place of supply is considered within South Africa, and 15% VAT must be charged on ticket sales (unless exempt or zero-rated).

Virtual events
​
​

For virtual events, the attendee’s location determines the place of supply. For foreign attendees, the transaction is treated as an export of service and is zero-rated.

How to use

To enable South Africa tax rules, configure your organization’s location:
  1. Navigate to Portal Settings > Payments and Tax.
  2. Select South Africa as the organization location.
  3. The system automatically populates:
    1. 2 default tax rates (15% and 0%).
    2. 4 tax rules (in-person/hybrid, virtual, and two non-taxable rules).
Unlike other countries, South Africa Tax Rules are predefined. You can't edit existing rules or add new ones.

Applying Tax Rules to in-person and hybrid events

When South Africa is selected as the organization location, Zoho Backstage automatically applies the correct VAT (15%) to in-person and hybrid events. This ensures compliance with SARS requirements. A preview of the tax to be applied is shown during event publishing, so organizers know exactly what their attendees will be charged.

Applying Tax Rules to virtual events

For virtual events, Zoho Backstage automatically applies the zero-rated VAT rule for foreign attendees. South African attendees are charged the standard 15% VAT. This setup ensures accurate handling of local and international transactions without manual intervention.
Info
  1. Tax rules in Zoho Backstage are fixed for South Africa. They can't be edited or expanded.
  2. Organizers can change the applied rule during event setup, but updates only affect new transactions. Existing transactions retain their original tax rule.
  3. If the event location is set to any country other than South Africa, South African VAT won't be applied.
Plan availability: Included in the Essentials, Prem​ium, and Ultimate plans

Full page floor plan  

We’ve taken the exhibitor experience to a whole new level with the introduction of the full page floor plan. This enhanced layout gives everyone including organizers, exhibitors, and attendees a more immersive and detailed view of the event venue.



For organizers, the full-page view provides better visibility and control when managing booth layouts and exhibitor placements. Whether you’re reviewing space allocation or showcasing your setup, the new Fit to Screen option lets you adjust the view instantly, making it ideal for large displays and on-site monitors.



Visitors can explore the floor plan in full-screen mode, view the exhibitor list, and discover details about each exhibitor. Signed-in attendees can further filter exhibitors by category and mark their favorites to plan their visit efficiently. Exhibitors can browse the directory or register directly from the same page, making navigation and engagement effortless.
​
Plan Availability: All plans that include the Exhibitor management module

Date & Time form field 

We’ve enhanced the existing Date field to support time preferences, giving you more flexibility when collecting scheduling details. By enabling the Include Time toggle, you can now capture both date and time within a single field.

Similar to the standalone Time field, organizers can configure properties to accept entries in either 12-hour or 24-hour format and even set restrictions within a specific time range. A default date and time value can also be defined to simplify form submissions.

The default time format for this field automatically aligns with your event’s configuration under Manage > Event Info, ensuring consistent formatting across your forms.

Plan availability: Included in the Ultimate plans

With the event season in full swing, we’re focused on making your experience with Zoho Backstage faster, more reliable, and ready for every challenge. We look forward to bringing you more updates next month.
Info
All the features and enhancements mentioned in this article are available across all Zoho Backstage-supported data centers.
If you need further assistance with our features, please contact support@zohobackstage.com. 

    • Recent Topics

    • Capture Stripe’s Customer ID

      Does anyone know of a way to capture Stripe’s customer ID that is created when the form/payment is processed? I would like to have the customer ID stored in our CRM so we could utilize in some custom functions down the road.

    • Custom Modules - Where are Comments??

      In the standard ticket module and in the tasks module, we have an interactive comment box that we can post important details/notes and can tag others if needed. Where is this functionality for Custom Modules? Ideally, custom modules would have very similar,

    • スマホでキャンペンメールを見ると正しく表示されない

      キャンペーンのメール（HTML）を作成しましたが、スマホ表示に切り替えると正しく表示されません（添付参照）過去に作成したキャンペーンでは特に意識してませんでしたが、問題なく表示されていたようです。うまく表示される場合とされない場合の違いは何でしょうか？

    • Dynamic Signature - Record owner

      Hi everyone, I’m using Zoho Writer merge templates from Zoho CRM and have two questions: Owner signature: How can I automatically insert the CRM record owner’s signature in the merged document? I’m not sure where this signature is stored or how to reference

    • Color of Text Box Changes

      Sometimes I find the color of text boxes changed to a different color. This seems to happen when I reopen the same slide deck later. In the image that I am attaching, you see that the colors of the whole "virus," the "irology" part of "virology," and

    • PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK (CORPORATE) INDIA - NOT AVAILABLE IN BANKING

      Dear sir, Kindly fix it. PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK (INDIA) is available but PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK (CORPORATE) is not available. Kindly enable this banking since we need to categorize the entries. Regards, Sanjay Jena email id/ user id : travewithmerchant@

    • Applications built with Zoho Creator

      Hi, I’m really interested in seeing how others have built their application using Zoho Creator, especially those designed for external users (clients, vendors, or the public). If you’ve developed something along those lines and don’t mind sharing, I’d

    • Amazon invoice in Zoho Books

      I have just made my first few sales on Amazon India. Amazon Seller account generates invoices for the sales made on Amazon. These invoices are sent to customers also. Now when I was only making offline sales, I used to create Invoices in Zoho Book. Now

    • Exported Slide Image Lacks Portion of the Background Image

      This does not always happen, but when I export (or "download") the rendered image of a slide, it sometimes lacks a portion of the background image. I created a sample slide deck to demonstrate it and shared it with the admins. It is also publicly available

    • CUSTOM FUNCTION GIVE ERROR #EVAL!

      CUSTEM FUNCTION CREATE KYA ZOHOSHEET ME US FUNCTION KO USE KIYA LEKIN DATA TO SAHI HAI LAKIN DATA SHEET ME NAHI LAG LAHA HAI KRUPYA SOLVE KARE MY CODE IS float ADDTWO_TWO(float NO1, float NO2) { ADD = NO1 + NO2; return ADD; }

    • Sales Order, Invoice and Payment numbers

      Hi zoho friends, it is me again, the slow learner. I'm wondering if there is a way to have it so the Sales order, invoice and payment numbers are all the same? It would be easier for me if they were the same number so there is not so many reference numbers

    • Items Below Reorder Point Report?

      Is there a way to run a report of Items that are below the Reorder Point? I don't see this as a specific report, nor can I figure out how to customize any of the other stock reports to give me this information. Please tell me I'm missing something s

    • Enhance Sign CRM integration

      Hello all, I'm working on a custom Deluge script to enhance the integration between Zoho CRM and Sign by using a writer merge template for additional flexibility. I want to replicate the post-sign document integration that exists between CRM and Sign

    • Shortcut to fill a range of cells

      Good evening: I'm writing because I haven't been able to find a feature that allows you to select a range of cells, type in one of them, and then use a key combination to type in all of them. In Excel, the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Enter. I haven't found

    • Passing the CRM

      Hi, I am hoping someone can help. I have a zoho form that has a CRM lookup field. I was hoping to send this to my publicly to clients via a text message and the form then attaches the signed form back to the custom module. This work absolutely fine when

    • External User onboarding for zoho connect is not really intuitive.

      So the external user is sent an invite, which has a button that directs them to login to zoho to view the invite, but if they don't have a zoho account, they cannot access that invite, which seems kinda silly, as there is not real way on for them to create

    • Playback and Management Enhancements for Zoho Quartz Recordings

      Hello Zoho Team, We hope you're all doing well. We would like to submit a feature request related to Zoho Quartz, the tool used to record and share browser sessions with Zoho Support. 🎯 Current Functionality As of now, Zoho Quartz allows users to record

    • Bigin Android app update: Zoho Books integration

      Hello everyone! We’re excited to introduce Zoho Books integration on the 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, and Pipeline records. The

    • IMAP Migration from Gmail

      I have been trying to import my email from a Gmail server and keep receiving the following error. I have reduced the security, activated imap and no improvement. The link to the Google support item has not helped. Unable to connect to your account. Please

    • Your Incoming has been blocked and the emails will not be fetched in your Zoho account and POP Accounts Click here to get unblocked.

      When entering my account, this error is thrown at me, and I deleted a good part of my deleted messages, but I still can not unblock it, I would appreciate your help. reservas@lineasperutravel.com

    • Email login error

      Login successfully but email page error

    • I want to add my other zoho account in same pc

      why does zoho restrict me doing many things as i also want to add my second mail account bit its not allowing me to do that

    • Request for Creating Multiple Email Accounts on One Mobile Number

      Dear Zoho Team, I am planning to shift all my work-related communication to Zoho Mail because of its reliability and features. For my work, I need to create 3–4 separate email accounts for different purposes. Could you please confirm if it is possible

    • Automatically Add Recurring Zoho Meeting Events to Zoho Calendar / Zoho Meeting Calendar

      Hello Zoho Meeting Team, Hope you are doing well. We would like to request an enhancement regarding recurring meetings created inside Zoho Meeting. At the moment, when we schedule a recurring meeting in Zoho Meeting, it does not appear in Zoho Calendar

    • Signature issue

      Problem: The signature does not appear when replying or forwarding an email. solve issue: settintgs/Signature Check option place a signature above the content with quotation marks

    • Unable to Receive Emails on Zoho Mail After Office 365 Coexistence Setup – Error: 553 Relaying Disallowed

      Hello, My domain name is bigniter.com, and I’ve been using Zoho Mail as my email service provider without any issues. Recently, I followed the steps outlined in the Zoho documentation to enable Coexistence with Office 365: 🔗 https://www.zoho.com/mail/help/adminconsole/coexistence-with-office365.html#multi-server

    • mail admin not loading

      i am trying to login to mailadmin ... gears keeps rotating forever... its not a password issue whats so ever ... not cookies issues whatsoever from android app i can login but there so few things to do from there .. i changed ip address the same... i

    • Unify All Zoho Video Meeting Experiences into One Standardized Platform

      Hi Zoho Team, We would like to share an important user experience concern regarding the current state of video meeting functionality across the Zoho ecosystem. The Problem Within Zoho, there are multiple ways to initiate or schedule a video meeting: Zoho

    • Unify All Zoho Video Meeting Experiences into One Standardized Platform

      Hi Zoho Team, We would like to share an important user experience concern regarding the current state of video meeting functionality across the Zoho ecosystem. The Problem Within Zoho, there are multiple ways to initiate or schedule a video meeting: Zoho

    • Unify Overlapping Functionalities Across Zoho Products

      Hi Zoho One Team, We would like to raise a concern about the current overlap of core functionalities across various Zoho applications. While Zoho offers a rich suite of tools, many applications include similar or identical features—such as shift management,

    • Zoho One Backup of entire account

      Hello, When using Zoho one is there a way to backup your entire account of all apps that you are using \ activively using in a single step or do you have to backup each applications data individually? Thanks,

    • CRM Mobile reports

      When our engineers finish a job they like to email the customer a job report. This is best done todate as an email template but we can find no way to include an image field from that module. Is there any other options?

    • why cant i access my email account. it keeps asking me for reverifiying my account by entering my password.

      I cant access my account. it keeps asking me for reverifcaton by entering my password. once its entered it asks for it over and over.

    • Issue with “CC” and “Subject Details” of the initial mail when reply / replied all / forward using Zoho Mail Client (Desktop / Web Mail / Mobile App)

      It is observed that when I reply / reply all / forward a mail using Zoho Mail Client (Desktop / Web Mail / Mobile App), the “CC” and “Subject Details” are omitted from the mail which was replied/forwarded. However this is not the case with outlook mail

    • Unable to send Emails - 452 4.3.1 Temporary System Error

      Whene ever i request smtp server to send the email (without attachment). i recieve error "452 4.3.1 Temporary System Error"

    • I can't receive email

      I cannot receive any email sent to my Zoho email after the free upgrade plan trial is finished.

    • Help for the alisa adding

      Sorry, I would like to add a paypal alias on my domain email address. However, the system blocked it. How can I do it?

    • Problem with Writer and Workdrive

      Hi team, I’m the super admin for our Zoho One org. WorkDrive is active, and Zoho Docs is deprecated for our org. However, Zoho Writer cannot connect to WorkDrive at all — we’ve cleared cache, tried incognito, and restarted several times. I was able to

    • Lite plan attachment said 250mb but actually 25mb ?

      Lite plan attachment said 250mb but actually 25mb ? I can't attach over 25mb files, and can't receive mails has attached files over 25mb too

    • How to change a BAS that has been filed

      I have discovered that a group of expense transactions were accidentally placed in a asset account rather than an expense account. As a result I need to adjust the transaction and consequently most of my BAS to correct the error. Because the BAS have

    • Next Page