Customer Management: #3 Giving Customers Control & Privilege

Rio, the founder of RenoTech Solutions, a fast-growing digital service company, found itself juggling a dozen different services for its clients. They handled one-time setup fees, recurring monthly invoices, and custom milestone-based billing for projects. As the client base expanded, so did the volume of routine requests:

"Can I see my past invoice?"

"When is my next subscription renewal?"

"Can I update my billing contact?"

None of these were complex cases. But tracking those calls, emails and texts and responding to them, altogether, added pressure.

The finance team spent hours each week responding to emails requesting invoice copies.

The support team handled password resets and billing profile updates. Project management was often pulled into billing conversations to confirm payment status.

At one point, a support representative said, "Most of this information already exists... our customers just can't see or access it themselves."

That was a turning point.

Instead of managing every request manually, RenoTech realised they needed to provide customers with controlled access to their billing information without compromising security or losing visibility. This is where Zoho Billing Customer Portal becomes a natural extension of their customer experience.

Customer Portal in Zoho Billing 

The Customer Portal in Zoho Billing is a secure, self-service space where customers can manage their billing-related activities independently. Rather than reaching out for every small request, customers can log in to access all their account information anytime.

This shift doesn't just reduce workload for internal teams. It fundamentally changes how customers interact with a business, from dependency to empowerment.

Let's look at what customers can do through the portal and how it supports different billing models.

Managing One-Time Transactions 

For businesses like RenoTech that charge a one-time fee for setup, onboarding, or standalone services, customers often need access to past invoices for accounting or internal approvals.

Through the Customer Portal, customers can:

• View all their invoices in one place.

• Download or print invoices whenever required.

• Check payment status (paid, due or overdue)

• See applied credits or adjustments.

• Directly download account statements.

 

Instead of emailing the finance team for documents, customers get instant access. This not only saves time but also reduces friction during audits, reimbursements or internal reporting.

Subscription Management 

Recurring billing brings predictability, but also more questions and amendments. Customers frequently want clarity on renewal dates, plan details and upcoming charges.

The Customer Portal allows customers to view and modify their subscriptions. Customers can:

• View Active subscriptions and associated plans.

• Convert the trial to live, extend the trial or cancel the trial

• Switch plans, update quantity.

• Purchase addons & redeem coupons.

• Upgrade, Downgrade, Pause or Resume Subscription.

• Cancel subscription either immediately or at the end of the term.

• Reactivate subscription.

• Change the Auto-charge preference.

• View Historical subscription invoices.

 

When customers understand what they are being charged and why, it builds confidence; they don't have to guess or wait for reminders. They can check their subscription details at any time.

For businesses, this transparency significantly reduces renewal-related queries and confusion around recurring charges.

Supports Project-Based Billing 

Many service businesses bill customers based on project milestones or phases. In such cases, customers often want to track how payments align with the work delivered.

Using the Customer Portal, customers can:

• View invoices linked to the project.

• Track payment made against specific invoices.

• Review billable hours.

• Understand outstanding balances clearly.

 

This ensures that billing conversations stay factual and transparent. Both parties are always looking at the same time, reducing disputes and follow-ups.

 Payments, Credits & Account Balances 

Another key privilege customers appreciate is visibility into how their payments are applied.

Through the Customer portal, customers can:

• View payment history.

• See available credits or advance payments.

• Understand how credits are applied to invoices.

• Track overall account balance.

• Make bulk payments for multiple outstanding invoices at once.

 

This helps customers manage their finances more effectively and avoid misunderstandings about partial payments or unused credits.

Updating Billing & Contact Information 

Customer information, such as email addresses, billing contacts, phone numbers, and addresses, changes over time.

Instead of sending update requests to the support team, the customer portal allows customers to:

• Update their contact details.

• Modify billing address.

• Update saved credit card information.

 This ensures the business consistently has accurate data, while customers feel in control of their own records.

​
Secure Access with Control 

Access to billing data must be secure. Zoho Billing's Customer Portal includes built-in self-service control that balances convenience with protection.

Customers can:

• Log in using secure credentials.

• Reset passwords on their own if they forget them

• Manage login access without contacting support.

 

To further strengthen security, Zoho Billing supports Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for the Customer Portal. With MFA enabled, customers verify their identity using an additional step, such as a one-time password, alongside their regular login process.

​
Zoho Billing also supports Single Sign-On (SSO) for Portal and federated login, allowing customers to access the portal using their existing identity provider. This makes login even easier for enterprise customers who prefer to use a centralised authentication system.

​
To maintain brand consistency, businesses can enable a portal on a custom domain. This ensures customers interact with a portal that looks and feels like a natural extension of your business, reinforcing trust.

​
Customer Portal also supports Web Tabs, allowing businesses to embed external links or internal resources directly into the portal interface to share help documents, Knowledge base articles, etc.

​
With so much to offer, the Customer Portal serves as a secure, intuitive customer workspace.

​

Configuring the Right Level of Access 

Not every business wants customers to do everything, and that's understandable.

Zoho Billing lets businesses configure Customer Portal Preference, deciding:

• What customers can view or manage.

• Whether the customer can add a comment or build a conversation from the portal.

• Whether payment can be made through the portal.

• How notifications and portal invitations are sent.

• Whether to share documents through the portal.

• If the customer can review your service from the portal.

• Whether the customer can reach out through an integrated chat support powered by Zoho Salesiq.

 

This flexibility ensures businesses stay in control while still offering meaningful self-service capability.

What the Customer Portal does for Business 

Providing customers with access to a portal isn't just about convenience; it's about trust. When customers can view their invoices, track their subscriptions, manage payments, and update their details with minimal friction, they feel informed and respected. They're less dependent on the support team and more confident in their relationship with the business.

For businesses, this means:

• Fewer repetitive support requests.

• Faster resolution of billing-related disputes.

• Cleaner, more accurate customer data.

• Stronger customer satisfaction and retention.

 

Customers gain clarity, control and confidence while businesses benefit from reduced operational overheads and improved trust. In the long run, a well-designed customer portal doesn't just simplify billing, it reinforces a professional, transparent and customer-first experience. 

Up Next: Enhance Customer Journey

• 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

• Search Bar positioning

  Why is the Search bar on the far right when everything is oriented towards the left?

• How to use Rollup Summary in a Formula Field?

  I created a Rollup Summary (Decimal) field in my module, and it shows values correctly. When I try to reference it in a Formula Field (e.g. ${Deals.Partners_Requested} - ${Deals.Partners_Paid}), I get the error that the field can’t be found. Is it possible

• How to Filter timewise question to check uploaded one month or two months before in these community question ?

  i want to find the question that is asked some month or before any particular year, so how can i filter it ?

• Send Whatsapp with API including custom placeholders

  Is is possible to initiate a session on whatsapp IM channel with a template that includes params (placeholders) that are passed on the API call? This is very usefull to send a Utility message for a transactional notification including an order number

• Welcome to the Zoho ERP Community Forum

  Hello everyone, We are thrilled to launch Zoho ERP (India edition), a software to manage your business operations from end to end. We’ve created this community forum as a space for you to ask questions, comment answers, provide feedback, and share your

• Proposal for Creating a Unique "Address" Entity in Zoho FSM

  The "Address" entity is one of the most critical components for a service-oriented company. While homeowners may change and servicing companies may vary, the address itself remains constant. This constancy is essential for subsequent services, as it provides

• How to apply customized Zoho Crm Home Page to all users?

  I have tried to study manuals and play with Zoho CRM but haven't found a way how to apply customized Zoho CRM Home Page as a (default) home page for other CRM users.. How that can be done, if possible? - kipi Moderation Update: Currently, each user has

• Workflow Down/Bug

  We have a workflow that sends an email to one of our internal departments 10 minutes after a record is created in a custom module. The workflow actually works correctly. However, we have now noticed that on January 8, between 3:55 p.m. and 4:33 p.m.,

• Please can the open tasks be shown in each customer account at the top.

  Hi there This has happened before, where the open tasks are no longer visible at the top of the page for each customer in the CRM. They have gone missing previously and were reinstated when I asked so I think it's just after an update that this feature

• Service Locations: Designed for Shared Sites and Changing Customers

  Managing service addresses sounds simple—until it isn’t. Large facilities, shared sites, and frequently changing customers can quickly turn address management into an operational bottleneck. This is where Service Locations deliver clarity and control.

• Can I re-send the Customer Satisfaction Survey after a ticket closure?

  Hello, Some customers does not answer the survey right after closure, is it possible to re-send after a few days or weeks? Best Regards!

• Filter contacts based on selected category in Zoho Desk ticket

  Hello community, I’m setting up the Tickets module in Zoho Desk and I need help implementing the following: When a category is selected in a ticket, I want the Contact field to be filtered so that it only displays contacts that are related to that category.

• Mapping a new Ticket in Zoho Desk to an Account or Deal in Zoho CRM manually

  Is there any way for me to map an existing ticket in Zoho desk to an account or Deal within Zoho CRM? Sometimes people use different email to put in a ticket than the one that we have in the CRM, but it's still the same person. We would like to be able

• Introducing Multi-Asset Support in Work Orders, Estimates, and Service Appointments

  We’re excited to announce a highly requested enhancement in Zoho FSM — you can now associate multiple assets with Work Orders, Estimates, and Service Appointments. This update brings more clarity, flexibility, and control to your field service operations,

• Assign Income to Project Without Invoice

  Hello, Fairly new user here so apologies if there is a really obvious solution here that I am just missing... I have hundreds of small deposits into a bank account that I want to assign to a project but do not want to have to create an invoice every time

• Tracking Non-Inventory Items

  We have several business locations and currently use zoho inventory to track retail items (sales and purchase orders). We were hoping to use zoho inventory to track our non-inventory items as well (toilet paper, paper towels, etc). I understand that we

• Profile Page View Customization

  I need to change the fields, sections from the profile view of an emplyoyee.

• Zoho Desk Android app update: Filter, Sort and Saved filters Enhancements

  Hello everyone! We are excited to introduce the below features on the Android version Zoho Desk mobile app: 1. Filter & Sort support has been introduced for the Contacts and Accounts modules. 2. Sort options is now available in Custom Modules as well.

• Zoho CRM Meetings Module Issues

  We have a use-case that is very common in today's world, but won't work in Zoho CRM. We have an SDR (Sales Development Rep) who makes many calls per day to Leads and Contacts, and schedules meetings for our primary Sales Reps. He does this by logging

• How to filter Packages in zoho inventory api

  Hi Team, I want to perform some tasks in a schedular on the packages which are in "Shipped" state. I tried to use filter_by in my api call but in return I get response as {"code":-1,"message":"Given filter is not configured"} My Api request is as follows

• Accessing shared mailboxes through Trident (Windows)

  Hi, I have a created a couple of shared mailboxes. The mailboxes are showing up on the browser based Zoho workplace, but I cannot seem to figure out how to access my shared inboxes through Trident (Windows). Am I missing something or is this feature not

• Issues Logging into ZOHO

  Hello, one of my coworkers is having issues logging into ZOHO, she has requested a code when entering and the email is correct but she has not received the code. can you help us with this?

• Feature Request: Ability to set Default Custom Filters and apply them via URL/Deluge

  I've discovered a significant gap in how Zoho Creator handles Custom Filters for reports, and I'm hoping the Zoho team can address this in a future update. This limitation has been raised before and continues to be requested, but remains unresolved. The

• Closing the Loop: Why Lookup Asymmetry is Harming Data Integrity in Creator

  TL;DR: Lookup fields allow users to add new related records inline via the "+" icon, but there's no equivalent ability to edit an existing related record without navigating away and losing form context. Adding a native "Edit" icon—with automatic User

• Syncing with Google calendar, Tasks and Events

  Is it possible to sync Zoho CRM calendar, task and events with Google Calendar's tasks and events. With the increasing adoption by many major tool suppliers to sync seamlessly with Google's offerings (for instance I use the excellent Any.do task planning

• filtering lookup field options based on information in another module.

  In our CRM system. We have the standard Accounts and Deals modules. We would like to introduce the ability to classify Accounts by Sector. Our desired functionality is to have a global list of all sectors that an Account can select, with the ability to

• Really want the field "Company" in the activities module!

  Hi team! Something we are really missing is able to see the field Company when working in the activities module. We have a lot of tasks and need to see what company it's related to. It's really annoying to not be able to see it.🙈 Thx!

• Cliq iOS can't see shared screen

  Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? Regards

• Service op locatie organiseren met Zoho FSM: waar lopen organisaties tegenaan?

  Bij organisaties met service teams op locatie merken we vaak dat de complexiteit niet zozeer in de planning zelf zit, maar in wat er rond die planning gebeurt. Denk aan opvolging na interventies, consistente servicerapporten, en het bijhouden van installaties

• Introducing Assemblies and Kits in Zoho Inventory

  Hello customers, We’re excited to share a major revamp to Zoho Inventory that brings both clarity and flexibility to your inventory management experience! Presenting Assemblies and Kits We’re thrilled to introduce Assemblies and Kits, which replaces the

• Automate pushing Zoho CRM backups into Zoho WorkDrive

  Through our Zoho One subscription we have both Zoho CRM and Zoho WorkDrive. We have regular backups setup in Zoho CRM. Once the backup is created, we are notified. Since we want to keep these backups for more than 7 days, we manually download them. They

• Does the ability exist to make tax on the customer profile mandatory?

  I am reaching out to inquire about the possibility of making the "Customer Tax" field mandatory when creating a new customer in Zoho. We want to ensure that all customers have their tax information recorded to maintain compliance with our internal processes.

• CRM gets location smart with the all new Map View: visualize records, locate records within any radius, and more

  Hello all, We've introduced a new way to work with location data in Zoho CRM: the Map View. Instead of scrolling through endless lists, your records now appear as pins on a map. Built on top of the all-new address field and powered by Mappls (MapMyIndia),

• IMAP mail after specify date

  Hi My customer's mail server is on premise and mail storage is very huge. So It never finish sync. and finally stop sync. Cloud CRM have a option like zoho mail sync mail after some date.

• How to integrate XML with Zoho CRM

  Hi, I have an eCom service provider that gives me a dynamic XML that contains order information, clients, shipments... The XML link is the only thing I have. No Oath or key, No API get... I want to integrate it into Zoho CRM. I am not a developer nor

• email association with CRM

  Why is it 2024 (almost 2025) and Zoho has not figured out how to integrate email with CRM? It is so inconsistent at associating emails within CRM. I am an attorney. I have clients and work with other attorneys. Attorney John Doe is associated with multiple

• Fix the speed

  It takes ages to load on every step even though my dataset is quite small.

• Credit Note for Shipped and Fatoora pushed invoices

  We have shipped a Sales Order and created an Invoice. The Invoice is also pushed to Fatoora Now we need to create a credit note for the invoice When we try it, it says we need to create a Sales Return in the Zoho Books, we have already created a Sales

• Whatsapp Connection Status still "Pending" after migration

  Hello, I migrated my WhatsApp API to Zoho from another provider a day ago. So far the connection status is still “Pending”. There is a problem? How long does it usually take?

• FSM - Timesheet entires for Internal Work

  Hi FSM Team, Several of my clients have asked how they can manage internal timesheets within Zoho FSM. Since their technicians already spend most of their day working in FSM, it would be ideal if they could log all working hours directly in the FSM app.

• Next Page