What's New - April 2025 | Zoho Backstage

What's New - April 2025 | Zoho Backstage

Hello there,

Phew! It’s been a busy month—and it’s all for you.

You know that feeling when your to-do list is long, your coffee’s gone cold, but your team is absolutely crushing it behind the scenes? That’s been us this month. Between brainstorming, building, tweaking, and testing—we've had our heads down, sleeves rolled up, and minds focused on one thing: helping you run smoother, smarter, and more engaging events. 

Every little update we pushed live this month was sparked by a real need from organizers like you. And honestly? That’s our favorite way to build. You throw us the challenges, and we’ll keep showing up with better, faster, and (hopefully) cooler ways to handle them.

So as the calendar flips, we hope you’ll take a moment to explore what’s new, give it a spin, and tell us what you think. 

Automated refunds with cancellation fee deductions

Plan availability: Included in the Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans



Event organizers often face the challenge of handling last-minute cancellations and issuing partial refunds. With our new custom cancellation policy, you can now automatically deduct a cancellation fee from the refund amount when an attendee cancels their booking.

How it works:
  • Set a cancellation fee as a percentage of the ticket price.
  • The system automatically handles fee deduction and tax adjustments.
Setting up:
  1. Navigate to Registrations > Cancellation Policy.
  2. Select Custom Cancellation Policy.
  3. Define up to 10 cancellation rules. (maximum window: 60 days before event)
Attendees will see the applicable policy:
  • During registration
  • On their Your Orders page
  • While canceling their order
The deducted fee is automatically logged in the cancellation and refund history, viewable by both attendees and organizers.


Notes
Fee changes apply only to new orders. For partially refunded orders, any remaining amount can still be refunded later.

Order and attendee activity logs  

Plan availability: Included in the Free, Essentials, Premium and Ultimate plans

Get complete visibility into every update made to attendee and order data with our new activity log. Whether changes were made by an organizer, purchaser, or attendee, you can now view a detailed activity trail.

This audit log captures a record of updates and changes related to attendee and order management. Whether an organizer updates an attendee’s name, a purchaser reassigns a ticket, or a ticket class is changed, the system now logs each of these actions automatically for full traceability.

The log currently captures the following types of activities:
  • Updates to attendee details, such as name, email, or custom fields.
  • Changes made to order details, including purchaser info and billing data.
  • Ticket reassignment, when a ticket is transferred to another attendee.
  • An order being marked as paid or unpaid, reflecting changes in payment status.
  • Ticket class changes, such as upgrading or downgrading an attendee's ticket.
These logs are grouped into three categories for easy review:
  1. Portal Activities – actions performed via the organizer portal.
  2. Order Activities – all modifications related to individual orders.
  3. Attendee Activities – updates and changes linked directly to attendees.
This enhancement is especially helpful for teams managing large events, providing an added layer of accountability and operational clarity. With audit trails now available, you can confidently trace back who made what change and when, minimizing confusion and improving team collaboration.

Export attendee data with deleted fields 

Plan availability: Included in the Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans



Managing attendee information often requires flexibility, especially when event organizers make changes to registration forms mid-way through the event setup or after registrations have already started. To support this, Zoho Backstage now offers a new enhancement that allows organizers to include deleted fields when exporting attendee data.

This enhancement ensures that you won’t lose access to that data, even if the field no longer appears on the live form. This gives full control over whether historical data from removed fields should be preserved and reviewed offline.

How to use:
  1. Navigate to Registrations > Attendees.
  2. Click Export.
  3. There, you'll find a new option: Include deleted fields. When selected, any data submitted for removed fields will be included in the export.
In the exported file, these deleted fields will be clearly marked using the following format: {fieldName}_Deleted. This helps distinguish them from currently active fields while still making the historical data available for review or reporting purposes.

Add attachments to scheduled emails 

Plan availability: Included in the Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans

Attachments are a common and essential part of email communication, especially in event planning. Organizers often need to send event brochures, images, venue maps, or other materials to attendees ahead of time. With this update, they can now do so simply within their scheduled emails.



How to use:
  1. To add an attachment, simply go to Communicate > Emails > Scheduled Emails > Create an Email > Options > Add Attachment. You can upload relevant files from your event or space library during the email creation process.
  2. You can upload relevant files from your event or space library during the email creation process.
When you preview the email, the attachments will be visible so you can verify everything is in place before sending. If any attached file is later removed from the event or space library, it will be shown as “deleted” in the email preview—helping you avoid broken links or missing files.

Try it out the next time you send a scheduled email!

Session details in speaker emails   

Plan availability: Available in the Free, Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans



We’ve enhanced speaker communication in Zoho Backstage by adding session details directly to speaker emails. This ensures speakers have all the information they need—without requiring additional follow-ups or manual updates.

Two key email updates have been introduced:
  • Welcome Speaker email now includes the speaker’s assigned session details, helping them understand exactly when and where they’re expected to present.
  • Session Updated email is a new automated email that gets triggered whenever sessions are assigned to a speaker or when existing session details, such as timing or location, are changed. The email will show either a New Sessions section, an Updated Sessions section, or both, depending on the changes made.


You can find and manage these templates under:
  • Communication > Emails > Automated Emails > Speakers

Enable/disable Workflows during event creation 

Plan availability: Included in the Premium and Ultimate plans
 



This feature gives event organizers more control over workflow management during the event creation process in Zoho Backstage. Any workflows configured at the portal level are automatically listed when creating a new event. By default, these workflows are enabled, but organizers can choose to disable specific ones based on the needs of the event—directly during setup.

This flexibility helps prevent workflows from being overlooked or incorrectly applied, making the event setup more efficient and consistent. Organizers can also revisit and update these settings later, ensuring each event has the most relevant workflows in place.

SalesIQ chat in OnAir  

Plan availability: Included in the Premium and Ultimate plans



We’re excited to share that SalesIQ Chat is now integrated with the OnAir platform, enabling real-time communication between participants and organizers during live events and rehearsals.

 Attendees can now initiate chats directly within OnAir, ensuring timely responses to their questions. Speakers and exhibitors can also use the chat feature during rehearsals for smooth coordination.

Organizers can configure chat visibility from:
  • Design > Edit Website > Integrations > Zoho Sales IQ
  • Settings > Integrations > Live Chat
You can choose to display the chat on the event website, within OnAir, or both. All conversations are managed through your existing SalesIQ portal.

This integration enhances engagement and simplifies event communication for a better overall experience.

Gamification Leaderboard now supports public display links  

Plan availability: Included in the Premium and Ultimate plans

Leaderboard display allows event organizers to showcase real-time competition results across the venue, encouraging attendees to engage more actively through visible, friendly competition.

This encourages friendly competition and boosts attendee engagement.

You can generate secure, public links directly from the Manage Leaderboard page. These links display only ranking information—no sensitive attendee data—and are ideal for projection screens throughout your event space. Multiple links can be created, each with a unique session ID, screen name, browser, and IP, giving you full visibility and control.



Key features include:
  • Expiration controls: Links expire at the event’s end time, with the option to extend or set a custom expiry date.
  • Security: A password-protected interface ensures only authorized users can access the leaderboard. Use the Copy Password button to easily share credentials with your AV team or display partners.
  • Screen tracking: Each display session requires a screen name, which appears alongside session data in your dashboard, making it simple to identify and manage screens.
  • Session control: End individual sessions instantly or reset the password to terminate all active sessions for added security.


Info
Important: If you don’t copy the link at the time of creation, it can’t be retrieved again—make sure to save it immediately.

 To set it up, go to Manage > Engagement > Gamification.

 Bring your leaderboard to life—visibly, securely, and with complete control.

Time field in forms  

Plan availability: The availability of this feature depends on the type of form:

  • Registration form – Included in Premium and Ultimate plans
  • Custom forms – Included exclusively in the Ultimate plan
  • Exhibitor request form – Included in the Premium and Ultimate plans. Also available in the Essentials plan when used with the Exhibitor add-on.
  • Sponsor request form – Included in the Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans
  • Session feedback form – Included in the Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans

You can now collect time-specific responses using the newly introduced Time field in the form builder. Ideal for gathering details like arrival times, session preferences, or any time-based input, this feature gives you greater precision and control during data collection.

Organizers can configure the field to accept inputs in 12-hour or 24-hour format, and optionally define a time range to limit selections. The default format shown to respondents will align with the event’s time format set under Manage > Event Info.

For example, if you're coordinating airport pickups or hotel transfers, you can easily request attendees’ expected arrival times during registration or through custom forms.

Registered session participants export  

Plan availability: Included in the Free, Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans



You can export the list of registered attendees for individual sessions, making it easier to manage participation and access attendee details at the session level.

To use this feature, navigate to Manage > Sessions, select the relevant session, and go to the Participants > Registered tab. From there, you’ll find the option to export the list of participants who have registered for that specific session.



The export file will include the following columns:
    1. Name
    2. Email
    3. Ticket ID
    4. Ticket Class
    5. Session Title
This update provides quick access to session-specific attendee data, helping organizers better plan logistics, monitor participation, and coordinate follow-ups.


You keep the ideas coming—we’ll keep delivering.

Let’s make May 2025 even better.

Info
All the features and enhancements mentioned in this article are available across all Zoho Backstage-supported data centers.
If you have any questions, please contact support@zohobackstage.com. 

    • Recent Topics

    • Scheduling Tasks in Relation to Project End Date

      I use Zoho project  to help manage tasks that relate to a number of specific business events that take place.  I would like to be able to have my project end date be the date of the event and then work "back" from that date to say...   Add a task 2 weeks before the project end date to remind me to XYZ.  Does anyone know if there is a way to base task timings back from a project due date rather than a project start date?

    • Notes of Tasks in Zoho CRM

      Hello, Is there a way to filter the Notes that appear on a Task to only show the notes related to that specific Task and not display all the Notes of the objects related to that Task (Accounts, Contacts, Deal, etc). In essence, our team struggles to understand

    • Passing the CRM

      Hi, I am hoping someone can help. I have a zoho form that has a CRM lookup field. I was hoping to send this to my publicly to clients via a text message and the form then attaches the signed form back to the custom module. This work absolutely fine when

    • How to next stage blueprint in Zoho Creator

      Hello, I have question, its possible to next stage blueprint? in case, Start - (first stage) Leader 1 (with condition 1) - (second stage) Leader 2 (with condition 2) - (third stage) Leader 3 (with condition 3) - (fourth stage) After first stage, i want

    • Feature Request: Email Follow-Up Sequences Similar to Zoho CRM

      I’m wondering if Zoho Recruit is planning to introduce a feature similar to the Email Automation – Follow-Up Sequences that is available in Zoho CRM. In CRM, this allows users to send a series of timed follow-up emails triggered by specific actions (for

    • Currency limitation when integrating Zoho CRM & Zoho Books

      Brief Video of Problem: https://www.loom.com/share/d61d1d07d0904e149d80c1901a22418e. Background ·       Our business is based in Australia and we have to have Zoho Books in AUD to comply with tax and reporting regulations in Australia. ·       We sell

    • Multi-select Lookup does not have Advanced filter options in CRM

      With much fanfare Zoho announced the advanced filter options for CRM lookup fields which was a nice addition. This feature is not available for Multi-Select lookup fields. Will it be rolled out in the next 3-6 months, considering the standard lookup filter

    • Experience effortless record management in CRM For Everyone with the all-new Grid View!

      Hello Everyone, Hope you are well! As part of our ongoing series of feature announcements for Zoho CRM For Everyone, we’re excited to bring you another type of module view : Grid View. In addition to Kanban view, List view, Canvas view, Chart view and

    • Kaizen #157: Flyouts in Client Script

      Hello everyone! Welcome back to another exciting edition of our Kaizen series, where we explore fresh insights and innovative ideas to help you discover more and expand your knowledge!In this post, we'll walk through how to display Flyouts in Client Script

    • Admin Control Over Profile Picture Visibility in Zoho One

      Hello Zoho Team, We hope you are doing well. Currently, as per Zoho’s design, each user can manage the visibility of their profile picture from their own Zoho Accounts page: accounts.zoho.com → Personal Information → Profile Picture → Profile Picture

    • Published Course Not Reflecting In Hub

      Hi! I am trying to create micro-learning courses for our team to be available for self-guided learning. I have published the courses with enrollment settings open to all users of the hub, but they don't appear to be available for enrollment. Am I missing

    • Unlock Locked Users via Zoho One Mobile App

      Hello Zoho One Team, We have noticed that in the Zoho One web admin panel, we can unlock a locked user when needed. However, when using the Zoho One mobile app, there is no indication that a user is locked, nor is there an unlock button similar to what

    • Tip #47- Stay Ahead with Automated Scheduled Reports in Zoho Assist- 'Insider Insights'

      We’ve made it easier for you to stay informed, even when you’re busy managing remote sessions! With Scheduled Reports in Zoho Assist, you can now automatically receive detailed insights about your remote support and unattended access activities directly

    • Colour Coded Flags in Tasks Module List View

      I really like the colour coded flags indicating the status of the tasks assigned to a Contact/Deal in the module list view. It would be a great addition to have this feature available in the list view of activities/tasks. I understand you have the Due

    • Uploading data to S3

      Has anyone successfully uploaded data from Creator to S3 using the InvokeURL command or any other method in Deluge? (keywords: S3, AWS, Amazon, bucket)

    • UPS Label size when generated via Zoho

      We've integrated UPS with Zoho inventory. When creating and downloading the shipping labels they are created in a larger paper size. I'd like them to be generated to print on a 4x6 printer. Zoho have told me I need to do this within our UPS portal. UPS

    • Credit Management: #4 Credits on Unused Period

      Recall a familiar situation. You sign up for a monthly gym membership. You pay the subscription fee upfront, get motivated, and show up consistently for the first week. Then, suddenly, you get caught up in work deadlines, travel plans, or a dip in motivation.

    • Zoho Analytics Automatically Deletes Queries and Reports When a Synced CRM Field Is Removed

      We’ve encountered a serious and recurring issue that poses a massive data integrity risk for any Zoho Analytics customer using Zoho CRM integration. When a field is deleted in Zoho CRM — even an unused one — Zoho Analytics automatically deletes every

    • Prevent new Record Association

      Hello all, We have a small sales organization therefore, it's helpful for everyone on the sales team to be able to view the full list of accounts to assist in preventing duplicate accounts from being created. However we want to prevent people from creating

    • Tip of the Week #73– Automate workflow with Make integration.

      Make is a no-code workflow automation platform designed to connect your favorite apps and automate repetitive tasks across services. By integrating Make with Zoho TeamInbox, you can streamline everyday inbox management and save valuable time. With this

    • Viewing attachments

      I'm using a Web Form integrated in my web site to collect Leads several info, including a image upload. In order to to approve each lead, we have to view the image uploaded. Unfortunately, in the Leads view, the Attachments can only be downloaded, not

    • Kaizen #89 - Color Coding using Client Script

      Hello everyone! Welcome back to another exciting Kaizen post. Today let us see how you can apply color codes to the List and Detail Pages of Zoho CRM using Client Script. Need for color code in Zoho CRM When you mark things with different colors as a

    • Instant Sync of Zoho CRM Data?

      With how valuable Zoho Analytics is to actually creating data driven dashboards/reports, we are surprised that there is no instant or near instant sync between Zoho CRM and Zoho Analytics. Waiting 3 hours is okay for most of our reports, but there are

    • Is it possibly to directly set the tax amount on order instead of indirectly via tax rates?

      We own an eCommerce application and want to funnel submitted orders from that system into Zoho. We're already calculating tax in our application and just need a way to set it in Zoho. We tried to use Zoho's tax objects for tax by setting the rates to

    • Zoho account sign in with passkey

      Hello, I am trying to sign in using passkey, but the option doesn't show up in the web and is disabled in Oneauth on mobile, saying the admin has restricted the use. On the Admin page in Security MFA I can find no option for passkey. Help would be greatly

    • Rescheduled US meetups: Zoho Desk user meetups are coming to seven U.S. cities in October and November, 2025

      Hello to our Zoho Desk users in the United States, We're excited to share the revised dates for the upcoming Zoho User Groups happening across the US this summer. Our product experts are heading to seven cities throughout the country, and for the first

    • Checklists as templates

      Is it possible to save checklists as templates to reuse them in other tasks? Example: I have a web project. I maintain individual web URLs as tasks. Within the tasks the same checklist should be used again and again: - Page created in CMS - Properties

    • Send mass email using my secondary email

      Hello, When I send an email to just one person from Zoho CRM, a complete email editor appears, where I can choose which of my email addresses I want to use in the From field. When I send a mass email, there is not such option. I can only select the email

    • ZOHO TEAM INBOX Calendar Integration

      The Problem: Clients send meeting invitations to our TeamInbox address. TeamInbox receives these invites, but we cannot accept them. We do not use individual inboxes for transparency purposes. Ideal Solution: A way to accept calendar invites sent to our

    • Why Can't I add unicode emoji's to my signature?

      Why would Zoho Mail prevent me from adding unicode emojis to my email signature? Every time I try to save the signature, Zoho Mail erases the emoji and any nearby content. Every time I setup something with Zoho, I know I'm going to run into some incredibly

    • Unearned / Deferred Revenue Automatic Calculation for Subscriptions

      As a SaaS business, we have multiple active subscriptions with varying dates and amounts. Is there a way to have a monthly automatic calculation for all of them that debits or credits the unearned revenue and revenue accounts accordingly? Alternatively,

    • Zoho Desk Limit for Comma Separated Queries

      Hi, I have just discovered a limit that I believed is not mentioned in any of Zoho's documentations. My search query looks like so: "query: {"accountId":"786050000091629966,786050000163589273,786050000163589427,786050000162753705,786050000162112971,786050000161987643,786050000160752868,786050000167089504,786050000167089378,786050000167089024,786050000167070005,786050000166295256,786050000128153693,786050000110560021,786050000046594575,786050000039106461,786050000002225356,786050000076889093,786050000047895103,786050000043365354,786050000044765191,786050000041790249,786050000040359116,786050000037945198,786050000024605077,786050000000525015,786050000155333895,786050000157741437,786050000000718125,786050000011574353,","departmentId":"786050000042648070","status":"Finished","sortBy":"createdTime","customField2":"cf_completion_date:2025-01-28T03:00:00.000Z,2025-10-28T03:00:00.000Z","customField3":"cf_billed:false"}"

    • Module Name doesn't exist

      I am trying to create a module named Activity, with plural Activities, but I have an error that module name already exists. This module is doesn't exist, and I don't have a single field called Activity or Activities.

    • Zoho Desk iOS and Android app update: AI powered: Reply Assistance and Refine Messages on IM module.

      Hello everyone! We are excited to introduce new AI powered features on the IM module of the Zoho Desk app. Reply Assistance: Reply Assistance generates suggested responses for incoming chat messages, which you can directly insert into the conversation

    • Is it possible to embed Youtube shorts?

      Hi Zoho desk support, This is Ryan from Accuver America. While I'm trying to create a knowledge base article with embed video, I ran into this issue. "www.youtube.com refuse to connect" A little bit background is that because this video is recorded on

    • Split functionality - Admins need ability to do this

      Admins should be able to split an expense at any point of the process prior to approval. The split is very helpful for our account coding, but to have to go back to a user and ask them to split an invoice that they simply want paid is a bit of an in

    • Delegates - Access to approved reports

      We realized that delegates do not have access to reports after they are approved. Many users ask questions of their delegates about past expense reports and the delegates can't see this information. Please allow delegates see all expense report activity,

    • How to include total km for multiple trips in expense report.

      Whenever I create a mileage report it only shows the total dollar amount to be reimbursed. The mileage for each individual trip is included but I also need to see the total distance for all trips in a report? How do I do this?

    • I didn't receive my domain verification mail

      I didn't receive my domain verification mail 

    • Get logged in user ID in Deluge script

      Hello all, How do I get the id of the logged-in user in a deluge script? the "zoho.loginuserid" function actually returns the users email address or whatever the user id they use to login to zoho with and not the id of the user record, and given that

    • Next Page