Extensions 101: Build Extensions for Zoho Finance suite

Extensions 101: Build Extensions for Zoho Finance suite



Hello Developers!

We are thrilled to announce our 5-day webinar series on building extensions for Zoho Finance Suite products.

Our first session was a resounding success, introducing Extensions, Zoho Developer, Zoho Marketplace, and the Zoho Books Developer platform. The session was not only informative, but also highly interactive. We look forward to continuing this momentum in our upcoming sessions.

If you missed the first session, you can find the recording below. To participate in our upcoming sessions of this series, you can register here.



As part of our commitment to your learning, we have carefully curated the questions received during the session and provided answers. We understand your questions are crucial to your understanding, and we are here to support you.
  1. Could you help us with more information related to Zoho Platform in general, Zoho Flow, and Zoho Creator.
    You can find the details about the different platform capabilities in the following link. https://www.zoho.com/developer/apps.html. You can also refer to this video, which explains the Zoho Developer platform and the different sections available in it.

  2. How do we make connections work in the test environment?
    The base URL for testing APIs in the developer portal sandbox is     https://extension-books.sandbox.zoho.com.
    The respective team is working on a fix to resolve this, so that "api_root_endpoint" from the Organization map can be used without any issues to test the APIs in the sandbox. We will keep you updated here in this post once the fix is rolled out live.

    [Updated on 02/Jul/2024]
    As mentioned earlier, the issue has been fixed and rolled out. Now, you can use the "api_root_endpoint" from the Organization map, which will automatically fetch the current environment's base URL. You can refer to the code snippet below for fetching Books information with your connection details:

    organizationID = organization.get("organization_id");
    apiEndpoint = organization.get("api_root_endpoint");
    respcontacts = invokeurl [
         url :apiEndpoint + "/contacts?organization_id=" + organizationID
         type :GET
         connection:"xxxxxxxxxx"
         ];

  3. What are the criteria to be considered while choosing to utilize a Private Extension or performing the customizations on a Zoho Books instance?
    A private extension would be helpful when you need to share a customized feature with multiple Zoho Books instances (orgs or users). Otherwise, you can go with product customization.

  4. Are global variables created in an extension accessible in other extensions/widgets?
    No, global fields can be accessible within the extension in which they were created. If necessary, visibility can be controlled within the extension.
    https://www.zoho.com/books/developer/extensions/configuration.html#global-fields

  5. Is it possible to connect WhatsApp business account with Zoho books along with its features?
    No. You cannot directly connect an application with Zoho Books. For any integration with Zoho Books, a secure and valid connection with the respective product must be established. Following that, you need to build the integration based on the use cases you plan to achieve. This implementation will depend upon the platform as well as the products' supported features.

  6. How do I construct data for items, materials, and prices without manually editing items as it consumes more time?
    With widgets and APIs, you can use your own user interface to create the respective module's records.

  7. Can we use global variables to store sensitive information needed for use by the extension/widget? What is the alternative to global variables?
    While reviewing the extension, we don't encourage storing users' sensitive information as per privacy policies. Other than that, if you need some data to be stored securely and used within an extension, global variables would be the best option. Otherwise, you can store it through a widget.

  8. Is the sandbox data retained between tests?
    Yes. The data will be retained.

  9. How do widget and extension share data?
    Similar to how you add various components to your extension, widgets are also added as a component. Unlike the other components, widgets must be embedded into Zoho Books at a specific, customizable location. Consequently, data or values defined within an extension will be accessible from a widget. The visibility and accessibility of the data can be controlled depending on how it is defined.

  10. Can I access the Zoho Developer from my Zoho Books?
    No. Zoho Developer is a free cloud platform that allows users to build different types of apps for Zoho products. You can only develop extensions for Zoho Books using this platform.

  11. Use case: When a contact is linked to a product in Zoho CRM, a new ticket needs to be created in Zoho Desk. To implement this, how can I connect to Zoho Desk to create a ticket?
    To implement your use case, you must create an extension for Zoho CRM with a connector for Zoho Desk. You can invoke the Desk API to create a ticket using that connector.

  12. Is approval from the Zoho Books team required for a private extension?
    Yes. A review of private extensions will be done for the initial phase. Since finance suite extensions involve financial data, the review is mandatory.

  13. Which Zoho Books plan is offered in the developer platform? Also, which plan of Zoho Books is required to test and install an extension?
    The Ultimate plan of the Indian edition is applied by default in the Zoho Books developer platform to build extensions. All the features available as part of the Ultimate plan will be available during your extension development on the developer platform.

    With regard to the plan required to test an extension, a 14-day trial plan should suffice. However, if you already have a paid org, it's recommended to have a Premium or above plan to test and install the extension. If you're using other paid plans, the suitability depends on the component's limits. Please refer to this link for more details: https://www.zoho.com/in/books/pricing/pricing-comparison.html?highlight=professional#:~:text=Customization%20and%20automation

  14. Should we post in the developer forum or write directly to the support email for suggestions and help.
    If your query is a support question related to a Zoho product, you can email the respective Zoho product's support email address. However, the developer forum is ideal if you want to validate your thoughts from other Zoho users. There are 100+ million users in the forum. The challenge you face could have already been shared and discussed by other users. Hence, the Zoho Cliq developer forum is an efficient mode of quick exchange of thoughts.

  15. When will the comments in threads be accessible to Cliq channel users in EU data center?
    We love for all customers across the world to come together, exchange knowledge, and grow together. Our Cliq team is working to address some bottlenecks, like checking the thread, regardless of your DC. We will be the first to update you once the feature is ready.

  16. How can I use the request method within a widget?
    We have SDKs for widgets to communicate with Zoho Books. The ZFAPPS.request() method will help you to make a network request. You can learn more here.

  17. Will there be support for SDK methods for package module in future?
    We have currently supported SDK methods for limited modules. We will add the missing modules in future updates.

  18. Does the get method work only when we are on a particular module?
    The get method helps you to get records' data only on specific locations. For example, consider that you are on the sales order page; you can get the 'salesorder' data only. If you require other details, you have to use the request method to initiate an API call.

  19. What is the difference between Integration and extension?
    The terms integration and extension are almost similar. Integrations include both API-built apps as well as platform-built apps.

    Extensions: We use this term to the apps that are built using the Sigma platform, wherein you can make enhancements to extend the existing functionality of a Zoho product by customising the product or connecting with other applications.

    API-built apps: These apps could be built in any development environment of your choice, and you would consume the respective Zoho product REST APIs to implement your use case. In these types of apps, you would be operating more on the data of the respective apps.

  20. What's an example of a web tab?
    Say you've created a Zoho Creator application to manage the manufacturing process, POS, or a specific aspect of your business. You can copy the embed URL and create a web tab for it. Now, you’ll be able to access this Zoho Creator application within Zoho Books instead of opening it in a separate browser tab.

  21. Can we have a Zoho Books web tab directly inside Zoho CRM? Finance is available, but it is limited in its functionality.
    No, the entire Zoho Books product cannot be constructed as a web tab inside Zoho CRM. In general, a web tab is used to embed a page inside the product. However, Zoho finance inside the Zoho CRM is an integration with additional functionalities.

  22. What happens if an extension is not approved after review? Can it not be published on the Marketplace, or can I not use it as well?
    An approved extension can only be deployed in the Zoho marketplace. If it is not approved, you can make the necessary changes and send it again for review. Until then, you can use the extension locally and share it privately with your customers.

  23. What is the size limit for data storage in the Zoho Books widget?
    Up to 10000 characters can be stored.

  24. For third-party integrations, can you host the API pull request on Sigma?
    Yes. To invoke third-party APIs, you can use the request SDK method. These topics will be covered in our upcoming sessions. Stay tuned :)

  25. Is there any charge for building and listing extensions?
    No, the Zoho Developer platform is free, and hence, there is no charge for building extensions or listing them in the Zoho Marketplace.

  26. Can we create extensions using trial account also? I am unable to create extensions for CRM in my trial account.
    In general, trial accounts can be used to test product functionalities. Since Zoho Developer is a free cloud platform, you can sign up for a Zoho Developer account and directly start with extension development. Also, the extensions for Zoho CRM can be developed using a Zoho Developer account in the U.S. DC only.

  27. In the Zoho Books widget, is there any method to retrieve records from another module without using the request method, perhaps through any SDK methods?
    Sorry, this is not possible right now.

  28. As an individual developer and not a company, is it possible for me to create extensions?
    Yes, you can go ahead and create extensions if you have a Zoho Developer account.

    • Recent Topics

    • Zoho CRM Reports Module on Mobil App

      I have the mobile app and the reports module doesn't appear in the sidebar for some reason. I saw a Youtube video where the user had the Reports module on mobile. Is there a setting to show it on mobile? Thanks.

    • Inquiry on Help Centre Tab Customisation

      Hi Zoho team, I’m wondering if it’s possible to further customise the Help Center tabs, specifically the descriptions under Knowledge Base, Community, and Tickets. While the current setup allows customising tab names, being able to tailor the descriptions

    • Passing a form object to a function

      Suppose I have a sort_order field in multiple tables and I want to increment it by +1 onCreate of a new record. Is there a way to pass the form object as an argument into the function to keep things DRY? The following function from Zia works, but I'd

    • Can you copy and paste a page within a form?

      I have been looking at trying to copy/duplicate a whole page within a form. I can't see how I can do this without having to add all the data in again. This is very time consuming. Any help would be great.

    • Zoho Desk Limitations

      Good day, all, I would like to know whether others share my frustration with some of Zoho's limitations. Don't get me wrong, I like Desk (and I also have a subscription for Analytics), I have been with them for close to 10 years, and unfortunately, I

    • SMS to customers from within Bigin

      Hi All, Is there anyone else crying out for Bigin SMS capability to send an SMS to customers directly from the Bigin interface? We have inbuilt telephony already with call recordings which works well. What's lacking is the ability to send and receive

    • Unable to sort as Descending order

      Trying to change the sort order for a lookup field (checkboxes) from Ascending to Descending and keep getting an error in Deluge that the order must be Ascending Did anyone ran into this? Thanks Eyal

    • How do I copy an email message to one or more other folders?

      I can move a message to another folder using the "move to" option but I can't figure out how to copy a message. 

    • New feature request: Allow copy of email message to another folder

      Hello Zoho team, This is a suggested new feature to allow copy an email message to either another folder or the same folder. Within the same Zoho account. This is not a support request about "label". This is a suggested new feature to allow copies of

    • Hotmail is blocking the zoho mail IP

      Greetings, Since last Tuesday (5 days ago today) I wrote to Zoho support and I still haven't received a single response (Ticket ID: 2056917). Is this how you treat people who pay for your email service? I am making this public so that those who want to

    • Desk DMARC forwarding failure for some senders

      I am not receiving important emails into Desk, because of DMARC errors. Here's what's happening: 1. email is sent from customer e.g. john@doe.com, to my email address, e.g info@acme.com 2. email is delivered successfully to info@acme.com (a shared inbox

    • Creator Simplified #11: Create a custom button to download files

      Hey there! This time, let's see how to create custom buttons to download the files uploaded in the file upload field. Sample use-case A training app has a module that provides the materials for all the available courses. Students can click on the corresponding

    • Hide horizontal lines at bottom of form

      Hi I have a page with 3 forms embedded in html snippets. On each of the forms I can hide the submit button easily but I am left with the horizontal lines that bound that section and I cannot figure out to remove them (see below for the two sets of horizontal

    • Autosaving of Form Field

      HI can anyone suggest a way of autosaving or simulating an autosave function for a specific field in a form. The story is as follows. I have a bunch of technicians who write notes on how they do a repair. Sometimes they write for a couple of hours the troubleshooting process. If they click incorrectly, press ESC, Cancel or the browser crashes the information is lost which can be heartbreaking so my guys use notepad and then copy the information in. The only way around this is to click submit on the

    • Zoho Tracking Image location

      So we've been having an issue with tracking email opens. Specifically in Gmail. Our emails are not that long either, maybe 4 sections of image/250 characters of text/button per section.  But all my test accounts I used via Gmail we're showing opens. But then come to find out the tracking image is at the very bottom of the email. So If the message is clipped (It always just clips our social icons on the bottom) and the user doesn't click the show more button it never tracks the open.  Looking at other

    • AI Interview Insights: Turn Recorded Interviews into Quick Transcripts & Summaries

      Evaluating interviews shouldn’t require replaying long recordings or taking manual notes. With AI Interview Insights, you can now review complete transcripts and AI-generated summaries of your One-way (Recorded) interviews right inside Zoho Recruit. This

    • How do I associate pricebooks to a customer?

      I setup a few pricebooks, that worked fine. But now the only thing I can do with it, when I enter a quote or sales order, I can select which pricebook to use, but I have to do this product by product every time I add one. Is there a way to connect a pricebook

    • Employee Appraisal Applicability - Why is Date of Joining Hard-Coded?

      In the new (to me, at least) Performance Appraisal Cycle wizard, it's possible to set criteria to determine for whom the appraisal process should apply. This makes sense on its face. However, one MUST use the Date of Joining criterion as a filter. Why

    • Spotlight series #6: The Show app for Android TV has a new look!

      Hello everyone! We are delighted to introduce our revamped and redesigned Show app for Android TV.  Smart TVs are exploding in popularity. Android TV alone has over 110 million active monthly devices. Zoho Show, as part of a constant effort to improve

    • Ask the Experts 26: Brighten every customer interaction with Zoho Desk all year long

      Hello everyone, Greetings and welcome to Ask the Experts 26. As we wrap up 2025, we are excited to invite you to the 26th episode of our Ask the Expert series. 🎄The Merry Metrics Edition = Best of Zoho Desk [Best Practices + Holiday Automation + Year-End

    • Pricing calculator

      Alright, so I'm trying to create a pricing calculator/pricing report generator to use in a cabinet shop. I did all the logic and such, and the calculator works. I have a few other things that I would need it to be able to do though, I'll do my best to

    • Bug Details

      In the Bug detail the milestoneid is missing

    • Group by Owner/ Owner Kanban /Group by Custom Field

      Hi, We are missing the option of viewing Tasks grouped by their owner, as it is an essential function for us to manage our employees' working tasks. We find it hard to inspect what are the tasks that our employees are working on.  We are seeking an option

    • Stop completed task lists from disappearing?

      Is there any way to stop projects from making tasks lists disappear when all the tasks in the list are completed? That's one of those little things where we're constantly fighting the product. For instance we have some projects which are ongoing - no start and end date. We use Kanban view to show the various task lists. We don't want the kanban list to disappear every time the items on it happen to be closed out. Thanks

    • Exciting Updates to the Kiosk Studio Feature in Zoho CRM!

      Hello Everyone, We are here again with a series of new enhancements to Kiosk Studio, designed to elevate your experience and bring even greater efficiency to your business processes. These updates build upon our ongoing commitment to making Kiosk a powerful

    • Change of Blog Author

      Hi, I am creating the blog post on behalf of my colleague. When I publish the post, it is showing my name as author of the post which is not intended and needs to be changed to my colleague's name. How can I change the name of the author in the blogs?? Thanks, Ramanan

    • Allow customers to choose meeting venue and meeting duration on booking page

      My business primarily involves one-to-one meetings with my clients. Given the hybrid-work world we now find ourselves in, these meetings can take several forms (which I think of as the meeting "venue"): In-person Zoom Phone call I currently handle these

    • Booking outside of scheduled availability

      Is there a way for staff (such as the secretary) to book appointments outside of the scheduled availability? Right now to do this special hours must be set each time. There should be a quicker way. Am I missing something?

    • Operation Questions.

      Hello, I hope you are well. To explain a little, we are a company that sells services and products with a technical team responsible for installation and maintenance. Zoho FSM can be useful for the technical team, namely for the technical coordinator

    • Direct Access and Better Search for Zoho Quartz Recordings

      Hi Zoho Team, We would like to request a few enhancements to improve how Zoho Quartz recordings are accessed and managed after being submitted to Zoho Support. Current Limitation: After submitting a Quartz recording, the related Zoho Support ticket displays

    • Update date & time when a cell is edited

      Hi All, I am desiring to have a cell update with the current date and time when another cell is edited. Any ideas?  Thank you

    • Add "Groups" to "Share With" on Reports & All Entries

      Hi, On Forms we can share Publicly, with Specific Users And/Or Specific Groups or All Users. With Reports and All Entries we lack the "Groups" option, please add this as with many users this saves a lot of work. Thanks Dan

    • Add Pause / Resume Option to Zoho Quartz Recordings

      Hi Zoho Team, We would like to request an enhancement to Zoho Quartz recordings: the ability to pause and resume an ongoing recording. Current Limitation: At the moment, when recording an issue with Zoho Quartz, the recording continues even when we are

    • Custom Fields Not Showing Up in Invoice PDF Template Document Information

      I have added 2 custom fields under Sales > Invoices > Manage Custom Fields. They are set to show in all PDFs. However when I am editing my Invoice PDF template, i do not see the custom fields under Document Information.

    • 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

    • Can I use a Standalone CRM Function as the Callback URL For Async Export Data API?

      I am creating an export job using this API https://www.zoho.com/analytics/api/v2/bulk-api/export-data-async/create-export/view-id.html There is a "callbackUrl" key in the CONFIG object. I tried copying the URL for a standalone function in CRM which can

    • ZOHO Books

      Hi there, Why after I upgrade my Zoho invoice > Books then i wanted to add plugin which i cannot do. Please advise.

    • How is Your eCommerce Experience w/Zoho Inventory?

      First off, I'm SUPER grateful for the advent of Zoho Inventory and now the Zoho Commerce Suite. Overall, Inventory is a great product, especially for customers without an eCommerce presence. For eCommerce companies (especially those shipping more than ~10 packages/day), however, there are certain drawbacks that keep my clients from moving over to Zoho Inventory: Cons: 1. Invoice + Package Creation from Shopify/Other eCommerce Integrations: Zoho Inventory makes the somewhat perplexing decision to

    • 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

    • Error AS101 when adding new email alias

      Hi, I am trying to add apple@(mydomain).com The error AS101 is shown while I try to add the alias.

    • Next Page