How to maintain steady cash flow during the COVID-19 crisis using Zoho Invoice

Dear customers,

I hope this finds you and your loved ones in good health.

As we are witnessing, the COVID-19 pandemic has started taking a toll on businesses of all types. Here are some useful tips that could help you streamline your invoicing and AR processes to keep your business healthy.

1. Communicate clearly with your customers:

During this period, transparent communication with customers is a necessity. A lot of businesses have started displaying messages on their home pages, explaining their BCP (Business Continuity Process) and other important announcements they want to convey to their customers.

As an additional means of communication, you can use the banner message in the customer portal of Zoho Invoice. The banner message is visible in the home page of the portal, so it can help get the customer's attention quickly. You can set up this message under Settings > Preferences > Portal.

2. Relax the deadlines for estimates and invoices:

Your customers' priority at this moment will be keeping their family and loved ones safe, which might mean your estimates get accepted a little later than usual. Same goes for your invoice payments. Instead of bombarding the customer with multiple reminder emails, you can relax your policy and push back the expiration dates and due dates of your estimates and invoices. 

To push back the dates on individual transactions, you can simply edit and make the changes. However, you can also perform this action in bulk (for up to 25 transactions in one go). Here's a screenshot that explains the steps:

You can follow the same steps in the Estimates section to update expiration dates in bulk.

 3. Be approachable:

As a standard business practice, you might have set up automatic payment reminders in Zoho Invoice to go out on specific days before or after the invoice due date. However, given the current circumstances, you can definitely expect delays in payment.

Since you have control over the content that goes out in these reminder emails, think about rephrasing it to let your customers know that if they need any assistance, they can reach out to you by phone or email. This way, your finance team doesn't have to wait and wonder whether the customer will make their payment or not, or spend time sending extra emails. You can tweak your reminder email content under Settings > Reminders.

By making it easy for your customers to approach you and treating them on a case-by-case basis, you can actually bring down the number of unpaid transactions.

Let's say you have done this and have clearly stated how your customers can contact you. Now, what responses can you expect from them?

a) "I might not be able to pay the full invoice amount on time."

b) "I might not be able to pay the full invoice amount at all."

c) 'If you can offer me a discount, I can pay now."

Tips 4, 5, and 6 can help you handle these cases efficiently.

4. Enable partial payments for invoices:

Rather than waiting for your customers to be able to make a full invoice payment, you can encourage them to make partial payments for invoices so that you can have a steady cash flow. If you are collecting payments online, you can enable this option while creating or editing an invoice.

If you collect payments offline, you can convey this information through the 'Terms and Conditions' field on the invoice.

5. Offer discounts:

By offering discounts on your outstanding invoices, you are proving that you care about your customers enough to give them a bit of a break. If you don't see the option to apply discounts to existing invoices, please enable it under Settings > Preferences > General.

6. Write off invoices in special cases:

If you've extended the deadline for a payment, but your customer has really run out of funds and won't be able to make the payment any time soon, you can waive the invoice so you can move ahead with your accounting. 

Since written-off invoices turn into bad debt, use the Bad Debt report in the Reports section of Zoho Invoice to make sure you're not accumulating too much. 

7. Increase the credit limit for loyal customers:

If a customer has been with you for a long time and is sticking with you during this period, an increased credit limit is a good way to thank them for their business. By increasing their credit limit, you are letting them know that you continue to want their business. The option to set a credit limit is available when you create or edit a customer profile.

Though some of these tips might have a negative effect on your finances temporarily, they can gain you long-term benefits like customer loyalty and customer retention, which will help your business recover more easily. 

Did you find these tips useful? Can you think of some other best practices that businesses can use to get through difficult times? Let us know in the comments. 

Note from Zoho: If you need any assistance regarding Zoho Invoice, our support team is available 24 hours a day, Monday-Friday. You can also reach out to us through email (support@zohoinvoice.com), live chat, or phone.

Because Zoho recognizes that our own customers may be facing difficult times right now, we have rolled out an Emergency Subscription Assistance Program (ESAP) to help small businesses through this crisis. Learn more about this program.

Take care and stay safe! We'll get through this storm together.

Regards,

Harikrishna

Customer Relations | Zoho Finance

• Topic Participants

• Harikrishna

  

• Buyers

• garyhorsman

  

• Sticky Posts

• Zoho Finance Workshop 2023 is coming to the USA. Get exclusive training on Zoho Finance apps, one-on-ones, and more.

  Hello all, We'd like to invite you to our biggest Zoho Finance workshop in the United States. After a brief break, we are excited to be back. This year, we're bringing together our customers and community members for two days of curated hands-on sessions,

• How to maintain steady cash flow during the COVID-19 crisis using Zoho Invoice

  Dear customers, I hope this finds you and your loved ones in good health. As we are witnessing, the COVID-19 pandemic has started taking a toll on businesses of all types. Here are some useful tips that could help you streamline your invoicing and AR processes to keep your business healthy. 1. Communicate clearly with your customers: During this period, transparent communication with customers is a necessity. A lot of businesses have started displaying messages on their home pages, explaining their

• Introducing: Digital signature for estimates and invoices

  Dear customers, We are pleased to announce that the much awaited Zoho Invoice - Zoho Sign integration is live! You can now sign your estimates and invoices before emailing it to your customers. Also, you can have them sign your estimates while accepting it. Here is our help document to help you get started: https://www.zoho.com/invoice/help/integrations/sign-integration.html Note: This feature is available across all editions of Zoho Invoice except the Indian edition. Out of all the feature requests

• Webinar: Introduction to the Client Portal

  Business owners know there is never enough time in the day. Not only do you have to beat the competition and make the sale, you then have to make sure you get paid. In fact, the sales process starts way before the sale, and never really ends. Preparing and getting estimates approved, collecting payments, and fielding customer requests for information related to past transactions are all part of the day in the life of a business owner. Well, Zoho Invoice can offer some relief to weary business owners.

• Recent Topics

• Update Zoho Flow on Sprint Work Item Status Change

  Hello, I've contacted Zoho One support but have been unable to help in a timely manner, so I'm asking the community. I want to start using sprints, but I'm having an issue. I need to post updates to Slack when a Work Item has a status change. My understanding

• Fixed Assets Register

  Thank you Zoho Books for adding fixed assets register. BUT there are certian tweeks that needs to be implemented. I found the following issues and seek improvements. 1) Fixed Asset Register Report in the Report Section has columns which are so much confusing.

• Link to Desk tickets

  Hello, We are using Analytics to analyze data in Desk. Is there a way to embed a link to a ticket in reports? We'd love to be able to see the drill down data, and click a value in a result row that would launch the Desk Ticket in another window/tab. Thanks

• Announcing new features in Trident for macOS (v.1.11.0)

  Hello everyone! Trident for macOS (v.1.11.0) is here with interesting features and enhancements to elevate your workplace communication and productivity. Let's take a quick look at them. Export emails. You can now export emails in the .eml file format

• Simplify your day-to-day sales operations with new List View actions

  Greetings everyone, Here are a few enhancements for quick actions in modular List Views that will make your day-to-day CRM operations much easier. List Views in modules display records in rows and columns based on set criteria, and are useful for presenting

• Zoho Sign Product updates - H2 2024

  Hello! We have almost come to the end of 2024! Here's a list of features and enhancements that went live in the later half of the year. NOM 151 certification Witness signing Formula, conditional, and custom fields Zoho Sign's extension for Bigin by Zoho

• Pulling Specific Products from Sales Orders in Books to a CRM Record

  We currently process orders directly through our website (woocommerce) as well as through manual sales orders in zoho books. When an order comes through the website, all of the individual products from that order show up in the CRM record of that customer.

• Constant Sync Errors 🙄

  I'm constantly getting sync error notifications with no actual resolution. Also... I have folders and files with a (!) on the cloud icon, indicating it's not accessible. This has also led to the complete loss of certain folders. Like... the go missing!

• Build custom AI solutions with Catalyst’s QuickML capabilities in CRM

  Hello everyone, We’re thrilled to announce an improvement for our Zoho CRM Enterprise users: the ability to create custom AI solutions using Catalyst’s QuickML directly from Zoho CRM. As you may already know, Zia, Zoho CRM’s AI-powered assistant, offers

• 【Zoho CRM】Webフォームに関するアップデート

  ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの中野です。 「Zoho CRM アップデート情報」の中からフィルター機能に関するアップデートについて紹介します。 今回、「Webフォーム」機能に以下２点のアップデートがありました。 ダブルオプトイン（2段階の同意確認）後の確認メッセージのカスタマイズ 登録から確認まで一貫したユーザーエクスペリエンスを顧客に提供するために、カスタマイズされた確認メッセージを作成できるようになりました。 ダブルオプトイン認証メールのカスタマイズ 顧客に最初から興味を持ってもらえるよう、パーソナライズされたメールを作成できるようになりました。ユーザーのブランドに合った本文を作成し、パーソナライズすることで、様々な顧客に対応することができます。

• Converting Time and Time Zones

  Hi Everyone I am trying to convert a time Zone to the local time of the user. I am fetching some data from an API, and it is coming back in this format: 2024-12-09T16:49:23Z This is in UTC/GMTZulu time. I am looking to convert it to the user time. In

• Tip of the week 34 - 5 ways to maintain your email list

  A proper email list often reflects the reach of an institution. This reach is coveted by all but achieved by some. We often forget about drawbacks and incline towards numbers. Success is often reflected by quality and not quantity. This simple message reverberates in maintaining a hygienic email list. Here are five tips which will help you maintain a proper email list.    Organic email lists   Non-stop competition can make us susceptible to shortcuts like buying and renting lists from third party

• Whatsapp Limitation Questions

  Good day, I would like to find out about the functionality or possibility of all the below points within the Zoho/WhatsApp integration. Will WhatsApp buttons ever be possible in the future? Will WhatsApp Re-directs to different users be possible based

• Can not send campaign

  Hi, I'm trying to send a newsletter to my subscribers, but seems is not working - or maybe I did some wrong steps re. upgrades. I'm the admin for this account, no other person is using Zoho for my campaigns and I did not access the platform during last

• Does Zoho campaign de-duplicate based on mobile for SMS campaigns?

  Hi - We recently sent our first SMS campaign using Zoho Campaign integrated into Burst SMS and got feedback that some of our customers received multiple messages. Upon inspection, this was due to multiple contacts in our list containing the same mobile

• Multilingual Newsletter

  Hi, Can Zoho campaign give the possibility to create and send a campaign in English and French, giving the possibility to the person receiving it to switch from default language chosen for a campaign? thnaks

• Top Menu Disappeared from Blog Page

  Hi, Our top menu disappeared at Blog Posts page. However, it's still visible any other page on the website. I attached two screenshots, so it can be understood clearly. How can we bring back top menu? Thanks, K.

• Add Comment/Notes to Each Action in Zoho Flow for Internal Documentation

  It would be great if Zoho Flow could introduce a field to every action where we can make an internal note about why we are doing something with a specific action. This is especially helpful if more than one person from the organization handles automation

• Questions about To Do

  1. I created a To Do note on Android and there is a line sorting option in the options drop down menu. But I didn’t find such an option in the PC client. I really need this option. 2. Why is there no search in To Do on the PC client? 3. Why is there no

• Tip of the week 03 - Sending emails in batches

  Today's marketers not only want their email marketing to be efficient, but also smart. For an email campaign, you may think you have all the essential elements for lead conversion—a big mailing list, an attractive template design, and the most-engaging message content, but after hitting the ‘send’ button, you may not get the expected conversions. Wondering why? Here’s one of the major reasons. Many marketers miss out on sending the email campaign the right way. Did you know that you should not be

• Sites Speed and Performance Grades

  I noticed that there are no recent inquiries or complaints about load speed or performance issues with Zoho Sites websites. However, I wanted to understand what Zoho has done to ensure that speed remains optimized, images are compressed and lazy loaded,

• Feature Request - Configurable Payment Icons + Pay Now link in email.

  The PAY NOW buttons (icons) on invoices are really small. It would be great if we could make that a big, colored icon. Better would be to add a button to emails as well. 

• Website Access Blocked (from one pc only) when attempting unattended access to any device

  Hello From one of my laptops I cannot access any remote device using unattended access. A Zoho Assist error page didplays 'Website Access Blocked. See attached.

• Survey end date extension

  Hi, Is there any way to extend the end date of my survey? I needed more time in finding respondents that is why I need to extend the end date of my survey. Help. Thanks

• AI read notes or explanation

  It would be such a great feature to have AI voices be able to read our Notes or Explanation If not having the AI speak the notes at run time, how about a feature where inside of Zoho Show you can have it look at all the notes of all the slides and have

• Managing Prepaid Hours for Consulting

  We are a consulting firm that bills clients a flat upfront annual fee plus an hourly rate and offer a discount for pre-paying a block of hours. Hours that surpass the pre-paid block are billed monthly at the normal rate. If there are any pre-paid hours remaining at the end of the project they are banked for future use. I'm not seeing a method of doing this in Projects/Books/CRM... thoughts?

• Email Verification Tool

  Hi there, just came across this tool for Google Sheets https://www.producthunt.com/posts/email-verification-tool-for-google-sheets-2 How would one do to automatically verify/validate email addresses entered on the CRM in a similar way?

• Get DealID when Deal Created?

  Hi What's the easiest way to grab the DealID when a deal is created?  I want to add it to a custom field on the deal. Thanks

• ZOHO Widget SDK not loading in html

  I have this code below, I have imported the widgetsdk however I get the error shown in the image, I have tried many different ways of importing and initiating the function ZOHO but nothing is working. can someone explain what I'm doing wrong, if I am

• Enhancements to Zoho Corp Help Center "Team Requests" View

  Dear Zoho Team, I hope this message finds you well. The ability to view both my tickets and my team’s tickets in the Zoho Corp Help Center is a fantastic feature, especially as the focal point for Zoho in our organization. However, we’ve encountered a

• Allow Multiple Scheduled Appointments with Zoho Support

  Dear Zoho Team, I hope you're doing well. First, thank you for introducing the option to schedule support calls via the Zoho CRM booking link. This has been a fantastic enhancement, eliminating the need for back-and-forth coordination when scheduling

• Projectwise budget ---

  Can we have a Project wise subject in addition to the Monthly, and quarterly ACCOUNT LEVEL budget?

• WorkDrive API Documentation

  WorkDrive provides users and developers an extensive set of APIs to help integrate functionalities of Zoho WorkDrive with other Zoho applications and third-party tools. We have published the official WorkDrive API Documentation page for all external users.

• Welcome Link Expired

  Hi The links sent to the users didn't get clicked on in time and now all the links have expired. Is there a way to send a new link without deleting them and re-adding them>

• Error 403: Forbidden When Updating Email Signature via API

  Hi Zoho Desk team, First, congratulations again on the excellent Zoho API. But, I’m encountering an issue while attempting to update an email signature via the API. Whenever I make a request to update the signature, the response returns an HTTP 403 Forbidden

• Who can see draft replies on tickets?

  We have noticed that we are able to see draft replies made by other agents. Which settings can limit this visibility? It makes sense to me that admins and the agent who created the draft would be able to see the draft, but no one else. How can we make

• Serious question: Are there actually "solo-preneurs"/small business owners who made Zoho-one work well for them?

  L.S. After already many years of continued struggle with Zoho-One, I am seriously wondering if there are actually solo-preneurs (one person small business owners - without a large, dedicated IT dept.) who got it (Zoho-One) to work well for their businesses.

• Major iOS issues when accessing forms via the browser

  Hi, We have been using forms for some time, while the office staff are accessing the forms via the app on Android mobiles, we have a fleet of sub contractors that we would not like them having access to the main app as some of the forms are confidential

• All notes disappeared

  I've been using the notebook app for over five years on my phone without being logged into an account. A few days ago I opened the app and all my notes had disappeared. Since then I tried restarting my phone, updating the app and logging into my account,

• Leads and Deals Issue

  Hi! Is Zoho having trouble today? I've been experiencing issues today. When I move a deal to closed/won, it previously would require a closing date but today the screen just went blur and the closing date did not pop up. And then under leads, I was trying

• Next Page