Tip #9 : Different ways to create a subscription for your customer

Tip #9 : Different ways to create a subscription for your customer

Hello everyone,

We've been sharing a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which can be implemented for your subscription business. Last week, we shared a tip about how to implement metered billing with Google Sheet. This week we will be looking at the different ways to create subscriptions for your customers.

Let's say you are the owner of a gym and a fitness centre. Your customers can subscribe to your gym in two ways:
  1. Automatic: The customer goes through your website and subscribes online.

  2. Manual: The customers come directly to your gym and you manually onboard them.
Let's look into the above processes in detail.

1) Automatic Subscriptions:

Majority of subscription businesses will have their own website that lists their products (or) services. These websites will have a detailed pricing page where the customers can select a plan as per their requirements and check out instantly.

To help you with the process, Zoho Subscriptions provides you with the Embed Widget feature. You can use the Embed Widget feature to create a Checkout Button and Pricing Table for your plans. The Checkout Button and Pricing Table can be embedded on your website. Embedding this feature in your website is to make it easier for your customers to get information about the plans you offer through the Pricing Table and instantly subscribe to a plan of their choice, by clicking the Checkout Button.

Refer to this video for a more detailed information.

2) Manual Subscriptions - Onboard the customers from Zoho Subscriptions dashboard:

For manually on-boarding your customers, you have to create a new customer in Zoho Subscriptions. After creating a customer, there are three ways to collect the payments.

  1. When the customer pays via cash or card:

    Once the customer has been created in Zoho Subscriptions, create a new subscription for the customer. Then choose the Payment Mode as Offline and record the payment for the first billing cycle in the following page. A subscription will now be created for the customer and the first created invoice will be marked as paid.

  2. When you send an invoice to the customer and they opt to pay online: 

    After creating a new customer, create a new subscription for the customer by choosing the Payment Mode as Offline and choose the configured payment gateway of your choice. A subscription will now be created and an invoice will be sent to the customer via email automatically with a link to pay for it. Your customers can click the link on the email to make the payment.

  3. When the customers give their card details to charge them on every renewal:

    Customers might also give you their card details to charge them upon every renewal and send an invoice copy to them for the same. To help you with these type of payments, Zoho Subscriptions provides you with the Request Payment Page. You can easily send an email to the customer with a link to update their card details using the Request Payment page.

    Once the customer has updated the card details, you will be notified with an in-app notification. After that, you can create a new subscription for the customer by choosing Payment Mode as Online and the Card has the payment option for the customer. The customer will then be charged automatically every month and an invoice will be sent to them.
All the above-mentioned ways can be done via;
      ii) APIs; and
      iii) Mobile Apps.

Refer to this video for a more detailed explanation. If you have any queries, feel free to comment below. We are here to answer them.

Cheers,
Sasidaran K,
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

    • How to update task start date when project start date changes?

      Hi there, When the start date of a project changes, it's important to update the start dates of the tasks associated with that project to reflect the new timeline. Is there a way to shift the start date of all project tasks when the start date of a project
    • Issue with Picklist Dropdown Not Opening on Mobile

      Hello I am experiencing an issue with picklist values on mobile. While the arrow is visible, the dropdown to scroll through the available values often does not open. This issue occurs sporadically, it has worked occasionally, but it is very rare and quite
    • using the client script based on the look up filed i wnat to fetch the record details like service number , service rate

      based on selected service look up field iwant to fetch the service serial number in the serice form how i achive using client script also how i get the current date in the date field in the on load of the form
    • Zoho Books/Square integration, using 2 Square 'locations' with new Books 'locations'?

      Hello! I saw some old threads about this but wasn't sure if there were any updates. Is there a way to integrate the Square locations feature with the Books locations feature? As in, transactions from separate Books locations go to separate Square locations
    • Zoho Commerce - How To Change Blog Published Date and Author

      Hi Commerce Team, I'm discussing a project with a client who wants to move from Woo Commerce / Wordpress to Zoho Commerce. They have around 620 blog posts which will need to be migrated. I am now aware of the blog import feature and I have run some tests.
    • Does zoho inventory need Enterprise or Premium subsrciption to make Widgets.

      We have Zoho One Enterprise and yet we can't create widgets on inventory.
    • ZMA shows as already connected to Zoho CRM, but integration not working

      When I try to connect ZMA with Zoho CRM, it shows as already connected, but the integration doesn’t seem to be working. I’ve attached the screen recording for reference.
    • Automatic Email Alerts for Errors in Zoho Creator Logs

      Hello, We would like to request a feature enhancement in Zoho Creator regarding error notifications. Currently, Zoho Creator allows users to view logs and errors for each application by navigating to Zoho Creator > Operations > Logs. However, there is
    • Password Assessment Reports for all users

      I'm the super admin and looking at the reporting available for Zoho Vault. I can see that there is a Password Assessment report available showing the passwords/weak and security score by user. However I'm confused at the 'report generated on' value. Monitor
    • Setting certian items to be pickup only

      How do we have some items that are pickup only? I have several items in my item's list that I do not ship. But they need to be on the website to be sold, and picked up in store. Need to be able to do this as one of these products is a major seller for
    • Using gift vouchers

      We would like to be able to offer a limited number of gift vouchers, of varying values, to our customers, and are looking for the best way to do this. We have looked at Coupons and Gift Certificates, but neither seem to fit the bill perfectly. Coupons:
    • Automatically updating field(s) of lookup module

      I have a lookup field, which also pulls through the Status field from the linked record. When the lookup is first done, the Status is pulled through - this works perfectly. If that Status is later updated, the lookup field does not update as well. As
    • Zoho Commerce and Third-party shipping (MachShip) API integration

      We are implementing a third-party shipping (MachShip) API integration for our Zoho Commerce store and have made significant progress. However, we need guidance on a specific technical challenge. Current Challenge: We need to get the customer input to
    • Adding custom "lookup" fields in Zoho Customization

      How can I add a second “lookup” field in Zoho? I’m trying to create another lookup that pulls from my Contacts, but the option doesn’t appear in the module customization sidebar. In many cases, a single work order involves multiple contacts. Ideally,
    • Can you import projects into Zoho Projects yet?

      I see some very old posts asking about importing project records into Zoho Projects. But I can't find anything up to date about the topic. Has this functionality been added? Importing tasks is helpful. But we do have a project where importing projects
    • Zoho Inventory. Preventing Negative Stock in Sales Orders – Best Practices?

      Dear Zoho Inventory Community, We’re a small business using Zoho Inventory with a team of sales managers. Unfortunately, some employees occasionally overlook stock levels during order processing, leading to negative inventory issues. Is there a way to
    • Automation #10 - Auto Assign Ticket based on Keywords

      This is a monthly series designed to help you get the best out of Desk. We take our cue from what's being discussed or asked about the most in our community. Then we find the right use cases that specifically highlight solutions, ideas and tips on optimizing
    • Automate attendance tracking with Zoho Cliq Developer Platform

      I wish remote work were permanently mandated so we could join work calls from a movie theatre or even while skydiving! But wait, it's time to wake up! The alarm has snoozed twice, and your team has already logged on for the day. Keeping tabs on attendance
    • Reusable Custom Functions Across Department Workflows

      Dear Zoho Desk Team, We appreciate the powerful workflow automation capabilities in Zoho Desk, particularly the ability to create and use custom functions within workflows. However, we have encountered a limitation that impacts efficiency and maintainability.
    • Don't Allow Customer to Edit Values After Submitting Ticket

      After a customer submits a ticket through the customer portal, they can go into the ticket and see some of the values from the questions they answered in the sidebar. Currently, a customer can edit these values even after they submitted them. This makes no sense. We ask very specific questions that we don't want customers to later change! Please disable the ability for customers to edit the values to their submission questions in the portal. Screenshot attached.
    • Analytics <-> Invoice Connection DELETED by Zoho

      Hi All, I am reaching out today because of a big issue we have at the moment with Zoho Analytics and Zoho Invoice. Our organization relies on Zoho Analytics for most of our reporting (operationnal teams). A few days ago we observed a sync issue with the
    • text length in list report mobile/tablet

      Is there a way to make the full text of a text field appear in the list report on mobile and tablet? With custom layouts, the text is always truncated after a certain number of characters.
    • Automation #4 - Auto Delete Tickets based on Rules

      This is a monthly series in which we pick some common use cases that have been either discussed or most asked about in our community and explain how they can be achieved using one of the automation capabilities in Zoho Desk. Unwanted tickets spamming
    • Zoho Community Digest — Enero 2026

      ¡Hola, comunidad! 🌟 Aquí os traemos las novedades más interesantes de Zoho durante este mes de enero, incluyendo actualizaciones de productos, integraciones y un recordatorio sobre los workshops certificados que vuelven a España. 🎓 Eventos y Comunidad
    • Automation #3 - Auto-sync email attachments to tickets

      This is a monthly series where we pick some common use cases that have been either discussed or most asked about in our community and explain how they can be achieved using one of the automation capabilities in Zoho Desk. Most of our customers use email
    • Automation #11 - Auto Update Custom Fields with Values from Emails

      This is a monthly series designed to help you get the best out of Desk. We take our cue from what's being discussed or asked about the most in our community. Then we find the right use cases that specifically highlight solutions, ideas and tips to optimize
    • Automation #13 - Auto assign tickets based on agent shift time

      This is a monthly series designed to help you get the best out of Desk. We take our cue from what's being discussed or asked about the most in our community. Then we find the right use cases that specifically highlight solutions, ideas and tips to optimize
    • Automation #14: Capture Jira Issue Key/ID in a Ticket Custom Field

      Hello Everyone! This month's edition brings you a custom function to consolidate your records associated with Jira integration. Jira integration enables support engineers and R&D units to collaborate seamlessly on feature development, product improvement,
    • Automation #16: Automate Ticket Reopening on Scheduled Timestamp

      Hello Everyone! This edition uncovers the option to schedule reopening a ticket automatically. Zylker Finance tracks insurance policyholder activities through Zoho Desk. For policyholders who pay monthly premiums, tickets are closed upon payment completion.
    • Automation#19:Auto-Close Tickets Upon Task Completion

      Hello Everyone! We’re excited to bring you another custom function this week. In this edition, we’ll show you how to automatically close tickets when all associated tasks are marked as completed. Let’s see how ZylkaPure, a leading water filter company,
    • Automation #15: Automatically Adding Static Secondary Contacts

      Rockel is a top-tier client of Zylker traders. Marcus handles communications with Rockel and would like to add Terence, the CTO of Zylker traders to the email conversations. In this case, the emails coming from user address rockel.com should have Terence
    • Improved UX design for Projects CRM integration

      The current integration embeds the entier projects inteface into the CRM this is confusing and allows users to get lost. For example as a user i navigate to an account and go down to the related projects list and want to get information about a specific
    • Transformer vos stocks en décisions intelligentes avec Zoho Inventory et Zoho Analytics

      Zoho Inventory permet de suivre facilement les niveaux de stock et d’anticiper les restockages. Pour de nombreuses entreprises, cela suffit à gérer les opérations au quotidien. Mais à mesure que l’activité se développe, cette clarté peut commencer à montrer
    • Security Enhancements | Migrate to the Updated Policies

      Hello everyone, Zoho Directory's security policies have been updated and reorganized into three new policies with features that enhance the overall organization security. These policies provide a stronger and more secure sign-in methods and improve the
    • Bring Zoho Shifts Capabilities into Zoho People Shift Module

      Hello Zoho People Product Team, After a deep review of the Zoho People Shift module and a direct comparison with Zoho Shifts, we would like to raise a feature request and serious concern regarding the current state of shift management in Zoho People.
    • Facturation électronique 2026 - obligation dès le 1er septembre 2026

      Bonjour, Je me permets de réagir à divers posts publiés ici et là concernant le projet de E-Invoicing, dans le cadre de la facturation électronique prévue très prochainement. Dans le cadre du passage à la facturation électronique pour les entreprises,
    • Quick Create needs Client Script support

      As per the title. We need client scripts to apply at a Quick Create level. We enforce logic on the form to ensure data quality, automate field values, etc. However, all this is lost when a user attempts a "Quick Create". It is disappointing because, from
    • How to block a WhatsApp user for sending spam

      Is there a way to block those whatsapp users that just come to play and annoy our service, they also spam us. We have a waba service with sales iq
    • Inquiry regarding auto-save behavior for Zoho Sign Embedded Sending

      Dear Zoho Support Team, I am currently integrating Zoho Sign's Embedded Sending functionality using iframes on my website. I would like to know if there is a way to ensure that the document state (including any added fields) is automatically saved as
    • Introducing Connected Records to bring business context to every aspect of your work in Zoho CRM for Everyone

      Hello Everyone, We are excited to unveil phase one of a powerful enhancement to CRM for Everyone - Connected Records, available only in CRM's Nextgen UI. With CRM for Everyone, businesses can onboard all customer-facing teams onto the CRM platform to
    • Next Page