Tips and Tricks #21: How to schedule tasks in Zoho Subscriptions using Custom Schedulers

Tips and Tricks #21: How to schedule tasks in Zoho Subscriptions using Custom Schedulers

Custom Schedulers is one of our newest features, which helps you save time by scheduling frequently performed tasks. In this week's post, we'll be taking a look at how you can set up custom schedulers to address niche use-cases for your subscription business.
Missed our previous post? Give it a read to learn how you can prevent contact duplication with existing leads from Zoho CRM.


1. Schedule crucial sales reports to stay informed about your business' health

Reports like Lost Opportunities, Churned Subscriptions and Under Risk provide actionable insights about your sales. They can help your sales team proactively follow up with customers on crucial events like errors while signing up, subscription payments that are overdue and subscriptions that have been cancelled. 

Accessing this information on time can be vital--that's where custom schedulers come in handy. With custom schedulers, you can schedule a summary of these reports to be sent directly to your email, which will allow you to make informed decisions about your business' sales.

Apart from the reports mentioned above, the custom scheduler that you're about to create will also include the number of trial subscriptions that are about to expire in the next seven days.

The script for this custom scheduler has already been written and works thanks to Zoho Subscriptions' powerful APIs. All you have to do is configure the scheduler with the script, which we've made available on Github. Here's how to set it up:
  • Go to Settings > Automation > Custom Schedulers.
  • Click + New Custom Scheduler.

  • Set the Frequency as Daily (or Weekly, based on your needs) and the Start Date as your current date.
  • Copy the script for the custom function from Github and paste it in the Deluge script editor.
  • Make sure to edit the script with your Auth Token as well as any other changes that you'd like. 
  • Click Save.
Now, the scheduler will automatically send a summary of these reports along with a link to the full report to your email address.



2. Schedule a subscription to get cancelled on a particular date

Zoho Subscriptions lets you cancel your customers' subscriptions immediately or at the end of the current cycle. However, there may be cases where you or your customers want a subscription to be cancelled on a particular date in the future. This custom function will let you handle such cases.

How It Works

To achieve this, we'll be using custom schedulers. First, you'd have to create a custom field that can store a custom cancellation date in your subscriptions. Next, a custom scheduler, which runs daily, will go through subscriptions that have custom cancellation dates. If the scheduler finds a custom cancellation date that matches the current date, it will cancel the subscription.

End result? You'll be able to cancel a subscription simply by updating it with a cancellation date and let the custom scheduler do the rest.

Setting It Up

There may be a lot of steps involved with this one, but the setup is fairly simple and shouldn't take you more than 5-10 minutes.

To start things off, create a custom field that can store a date in your subscriptions.
  • Go to Settings > Preferences > Invoice.
  • Navigate to the Custom Field tab and click + New Custom Field.

  • Enter the Label Name as "Custom Cancellation Date".
  • Select the Data Type as Date.
  • Ensure that you leave the Default Value field empty.
  • Click Save.
When you want to cancel a subscription at a future date, update the custom field. Here's how: 
  • Go to the Subscriptions module from the left sidebar and select the subscription that you want to cancel.
  • Click the More dropdown and select the Update Custom Fields option.

  • Set the subscription's cancellation date in the custom field that you created earlier. 
  • Click Save
You can also customize the columns in the default subscription list view to make it easier to view cancellation dates. In the Subscriptions module, click the Column Customization icon and mark the custom field for cancellation dates. Click Save to show the cancellation date in the default subscription list view.



Our custom scheduler will also need a Custom View, which will help it sort through subscriptions with cancellation dates. To create the custom view: 
  • Go to the Subscriptions module and click the View Filters dropdown. 
  • Click + New Custom View. 

  • Enter a Name for the custom view. 
  • Add a criterion with the Field as your cancellation date's custom field, the Comparator as is and the Value as This Month.

  • Click Save.

Now, it's time to wrap things up and finally create our custom scheduler. 
  • Go to Settings > Automation > Custom Schedulers.
  • Click + New Custom Scheduler.

  • Set the Frequency as Daily and the Start Date as your current date.
  • Copy the script for the custom function from Github and paste it in the Deluge script editor.
  • Edit the script to suit your needs and also make sure to copy and paste the previously created script's customview_id parameter. 

(You can find the customview_id parameter by going to your custom view and copying it from your browser's URL bar.) 
  • Click Save.
You're all set! Now, the scheduler will automatically cancel subscriptions whenever it finds a subscription that has a cancellation date in the custom field that you created.

Note: Zoho Subscriptions will not charge your customer for their pro-rated usage. So, if you want to charge your customer for their usage until the cancellation date, you can do it by adding an additional charge to their subscription before it gets cancelled.

We hope you try this out and let us know how it goes in the comments below. We're always open to suggestions, so let us know if you have a specific business scenario that you'd like to see us tackle in our weekly tips and tricks. Until next time!

Cheers,
Varun Steven
The Zoho Subscriptions Team

    • Sticky Posts

    • Tip #4 : Refer and Earn Workflow system for your Subscription Business

      Hello everyone, We've been coming up with a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which can be implemented for your business. In continuation to the previous post, this week we will be seeing about how you can implement the Refer and Earn Workflow system to acquire more customers. Why are Referrals important? Customer Acquisition is crucial for any business to sustain itself in a constantly evolving market. It involves persuading new consumers to purchase your products. Customers

    • Tip #2 - Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date

      Hello everyone, As you all know, we are coming up with a custom function workflow every week to address specific business scenarios. In continuation of this previous blog, this week we will be seeing about Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date. Business Scenario: In general, for any business, the customers make payments via online as well as offline. In case of subscription where the automatic collection of charge is enabled (aka online subscription), the customer's

    • Tip #3 : Send SMS Reminders for your Subscription Business

      Hello everyone, As you all know, we are coming up with a tip every week to address specific business scenarios. In continuation to the previous blog, this week we will be seeing how you can use SMS reminders for your Subscription Business. Using SMS messages for your Subscription Business: While managing your subscription business, more often than not, you need to keep your customers informed about upcoming renewals, payment reminders and cancellations. By keeping them informed in advance, you can

    • Tips And Tricks - Announcement

      Hello everyone, Every business is unique and each of them follows a specific workflow. While managing your customers' subscriptions with Zoho, you might have some needs unique to your business. Custom Functions helps you address such needs. This is a start to a series of posts, where we will be coming up with a custom function workflow every week that addresses specific business scenarios. Watch this space for further updates! Also, if you have any specific business scenario which needs to be addressed,

    • Tip #6 : Accessing external URLs from Zoho Subscriptions

      Hello everyone, We have been sharing a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which you can implement for your subscription business. Last week, we shared a tip about implementing the Approval Workflow system. This week, let's look at how you can access external URLs with the help of Custom Link. Business Scenario: Every business functions differently and has its unique requirements. At times, businesses might want to access other websites or applications by appending specific information

    • Recent Topics

    • Bulk Delete Attachments

      Is there a way to bulk delete attachments on the form entries? our storage is full and deleting files one by one is pain taking process.

    • How do I sync multiple Google calendars?

      I'm brand new to Zoho and I figured out how to sync my business Google calendar but I would also like to sync my personal Google calendar. How can I do this so that, at the very least, when I have personal engagements like doctor's appointments, I can

    • Ability to Disable System Banner Messages in Chat Flow Control

      Dear Zoho SalesIQ Team, Greetings, We would like to request an enhancement related to the system banner messages in Zoho SalesIQ chat flow control. Current Behavior: SalesIQ allows configuring various automatic banner/system messages such as: Waiting

    • Idle Chat Reminders for Agent-Handled Conversations

      Dear Zoho SalesIQ Team, Greetings, We would like to request an enhancement to the Idle Chat Handling functionality in Zoho SalesIQ—specifically for chats that are handled by human agents after a bot-to-agent transfer. Current Behavior: In Zobot settings,

    • Snapchat

      Are there any plans to add Snapchat to Zoho Social or is there any API that we can use to integrate into Zoho.

    • Zoho Sign "An unexpected error occured" when clients trying to sign documents

      We are unable to have clients sign our documents. When attempting to complete the process an error appears saying "an unexpected error occured" and in the document history just shows "signing failure." We are at a complete standstill with no response

    • ¡Vuelven los Workshops Certificados de Zoho a España!

      ¡Hola usuarios de Español Zoho Community! Hace ya unos días que hemos dado la bienvenida al 2026, y promete ser un año de lo más emocionante. Y es que nos gustaría haceros nuestro particular regalo de Reyes, aunque lleguemos un poco tarde. 🎁 ¡Nos gustaría

    • How to list services on quote instead of products

      I need to create a customer facing estimate that displays our services. The default quote layout only allows products to be listed. Is there a way to correct this?

    • Syncing calendar with Google Calendar doesn't work when events are sent to auto repeat

      Hi... The ZOHO CRM -- GOOGLE CALENDAR sync is broken. If I create a single event on either side, sync works, but if I create an event with auto repeat on either side it doesn't work. Furthermore, events created before the sync don't show up in the calendar.

    • Invoice status on write-off is "Paid" - how do I change this to "Written off"

      HI guys, I want to write off a couple of outstanding invoices, but when I do this, the status of the invoices shows as "Paid". Clearly this is not the case and I need to be able to see that they are written off in the customer's history. Is there a way

    • Zoho Books - France

      L’équipe de Zoho France reçoit régulièrement des questions sur la conformité de ses applications de finances (Zoho Books/ Zoho Invoice) pour le marché français. Voici quelques points pour clarifier la question : Zoho Books est un logiciel de comptabilité

    • Please, make writer into a content creation tool

      I'm tired of relying on Google Docs. I'm actually considering moving to ClickUp, but if Writer were a good content creation tool instead of just a word processor, I would finally be able to move all my development within the Zoho ecosystem, rather than

    • ZohoSalesIQ.Chat cannot send messages

      Chat cannot send messages. Our app implements the customer service chat window functionality by integrating the Mobilisten SDK. Recently, we encountered an issue: after successful SDK initialization and visitor registration, when the `startWithQuestion`

    • Missed chats on WhatsApp closing after one minute

      Hi, we have added WhatsApp as a channel. However, if a chat is not picked up within 2mins, the chat is marked as missed and is closed within a minute. Why are they not staying in our "missed" queue for 24 hours as per our WhatsApp preference settings?

    • Feature Request: Add Tax ID Display on Event Tickets

      Hello Backstage Team, I’ve had several clients bring up an issue regarding tax compliance when creating events. For tax purposes, they are required to show their Tax ID on the event tickets. Currently, this isn’t an option, so they have to manually generate

    • Release Notes | January 2026

      We have rolled out a set of powerful new enhancements across Zoho Vertical Studio that bring several long-awaited capabilities to your applications. These updates focus on deeper customization, smarter automation, better reporting, and improved usability

    • Email Alias: To keep emails flowing without disruption

      Email Alias acts like a nickname for a user’s primary email address, allowing multiple email addresses to deliver messages into the same mailbox. Consider the scenario where an employee manages multiple responsibilities, such as responding to sales inquiries,

    • Inventory "Bulk Actions" button - add more fields to "Bulk Update > Select a field"

      Can we not get a lot more actions that are commonly used by customers into the "More Actions" button on the Inventory list? More fields listed in the Bulk Update > Select A Field? Possible Bulk update Fields Preferred Supplier ( to quickly move items

    • Bulk upload image option in Zoho Commerce

      I dont know if I am not looking into it properly but is there no option to bulk upload images along with the products? Like after you upload the products, I will have to upload images one by one again? Can someone help me out here? And what should I enter

    • Function #11: Apply unused credits automatically to invoices

      Today, we bring you a custom function that automatically applies unused credits from excess payments, credit notes, and retainer payments to an invoice when it is created. Prerequisites: Create a Connection named "zbooks" to successfully execute the function.

    • Tip #60- Exploring Technician Console: Screen Resolution- 'Insider Insights'

      Hello Zoho Assist Community! Have you ever started a remote session and felt the screen quality wasn’t sharp enough for detailed work? A new user recently explored Zoho Assist after installing the trial version and running a few initial tests. While the

    • Right Moment, Right Message, Right Operator: Never Miss a High-Intent Lead

      Ever been on a website or app, thinking “Should I buy this or not?” and suddenly a friendly message “Hi! How can I help you?” pops up at the perfect moment? That’s not luck. That’s timing done right. Engaging right visitors at the right moment, with the

    • CRM x WorkDrive: We're rolling out the WorkDrive-powered file storage experience for existing users

      Release plan: Gradual rollout to customers without file storage add-ons, in this order: 1. Standalone CRM 2. CRM Plus and Zoho One DCs: All | Editions: All Available now for: - Standalone CRM accounts in Free and Standard editions without file storage

    • Zoho CRM Workflow Automation: Activate & Deactivate Workflows Using API

      Zoho has now enabled: ✅ Activate / Deactivate workflows using API ✅ Schedule workflow activation & deactivation This is extremely useful for real-world automation use cases 💡 🧩 My Use Case I created a scheduled automation that: ☀️ Activates workflows

    • {Action Required} Re-authenticate your Google Accounts to Continue Data Sync

      Hello Users! To align with Google’s latest updates on how apps access files in Google Drive, we’ve enhanced our integration to comply with the updated security and privacy standards, ensuring safer and more reliable access to your data. With this update,

    • Function #53: Transaction Level Profitability for Invoices

      Hello everyone, and welcome back to our series! We have previously provided custom functions for calculating the profitability of a quote and a sales order. There may be instances where the invoice may differ from its corresponding quote or sales order.

    • [Free Webinar] Zoho RPA - OCR, PDF Automation, & More

      Hello Everyone! Greetings from the Zoho RPA Training Team! We’re excited to invite you to our upcoming webinar on the latest release updates for Zoho RPA, where we’ll unveil powerful new capabilities designed to make your automation journey smarter, faster,

    • Zobot Execution Logs & Run History (Similar to Zoho Flow)

      Dear Zoho SalesIQ Team, We would like to request an enhancement for Zoho SalesIQ Zobot: adding an execution log / run history, similar to what already exists in Zoho Flow. Reference: Zoho Flow In Zoho Flow, every execution is recorded in the History tab,

    • Global Search Settings

      I'd love a way to remove some modules from being included in the global search. This would allow use to provide a better user experience, limiting the global search to only those modules that are regularly used removing any models used for background

    • Card Location in Zobot

      Hello, when using the “Location” card in a codeless builder Zobot, the behavior in WhatsApp is inconsistent. When asking the user to share their location, they can type a message, which will return the message “Sorry, the entered location is invalid.

    • Automation Series: Auto-create Dependent Task on Status Change

      In Zoho Projects, you can automatically create and assign a dependent task when a task’s status is updated. This helps teams stay aligned, ensures reviews happen on time, and reduces manual effort. In this post, we’ll walk through an easy setup using

    • Languages in Zobot

      Hello, I have found a list of supported languages for the Zobot. The information specifies the languages are supported in the following 3 features: SalesIQ supports 34 different languages in the following features. Resources (Articles, FAQs, Small Talks)

    • Function #6: Calculate Commissions for paid invoices

      Zoho Books helps you automate the process of calculating and recording commissions paid to sales persons using custom functions. We've written a script that computes the commission amount based on the percentage of commission you enter and creates an

    • Composite items inside of composite items; bill of materials needed

      Hi Zoho and Everyone, I am evaluating whether Zoho Inventory will work for my small business. I grow and harvest herbs and spices but also get from wholesalers. I use all these items to make herbal teas, but also sell them as individual items on my Shopify store and Etsy. I discovered the composite item bundling and am wondering if I could get some assistance since there is no bill of materials: Our herbal company's best selling tea is a sleepytime tea. Sleepytime Tea can be purchased in three weights

    • Action required: Reauthorizing your Google account in Zoho Sign for automatic cloud backup to Google Drive

      This is applicable to users who have already configured automatic cloud backup to Google Drive. Hi there! Google has mandated reauthorization of all preconfigured third-party integrations to ensure only the necessary scopes are shared as an improved security

    • Zoho CRM Layouts

      I have customised all our modules, Leads, Contacts and deals, and within them, I have created lots of different layouts depending on the type of Lead or contact, for example. Since the new Zoho UI came out, they have all disappeared. I have gone into

    • Streamlining E-commerce Photography with AI Background Tools

      Hey Zoho Community, I’ve been messing around with ways to make product images less of a headache for fashion brands on Zoho Commerce. You know how boring generic backdrops can get, and how much time traditional photoshoots eat up, right? I tried out this

    • WhatsApp IM in Zoho Desk always routes to Admin instead of assigned agent

      Hello Zoho Experts, I connected WhatsApp IM to my Zoho Desk account. I only assigned my Customer Service (CS) agent to the WhatsApp channel, and I did NOT include Admin in this channel. However, every new WhatsApp conversation automatically gets assigned

    • hide resolution from help centre

      to my surprise, i just found out that the resolution text is public in the helpcenter, even if 'notify customer' is off. is there a workaround to that? how do others deal with this? How zoho support does this and I don't think its used by Zoho in the first place. the resolution is meant to be private, not public

    • Zoho Analytics + Facebook Ads: Performance Alerts for Active Campaigns

      Is it possible with integration of Zoho Analytics with Facebook Ads and set up alerts or notifications for active campaigns when performance drops? For example, triggering a notification if CTR goes below a defined threshold or if other key metrics (like

    • Next Page