Building extensions #1: Creating and testing extensions for Zoho Finance Suite applications

Building extensions #1: Creating and testing extensions for Zoho Finance Suite applications

Hello developers!

We're excited to announce a new series called "Building extensions" to assist developers in creating efficient extensions for Zoho Finance Suite products. We'll support and guide you through the process of creating an extension and using the features offered in the developer portal.

What are extensions?

Extensions are installable plugins or add-ons that help enhance the existing functionality of your Zoho product or seamlessly integrate and interact with third-party applications for data transmission.

How can you build extensions?

Zoho offers a developer platform called Zoho Developer that allows you to build different types of applications. Sigma is a platform offered within Zoho Developer that is specifically designed for creating extensions for various Zoho products. Throughout this series, we'll look at how to create and develop extensions for the Zoho Finance Suite applications using Sigma.

Get to know all about extensions and building them further in detail.

Sigma extension support

The Zoho Finance Suite consists of seven applications: Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory, Zoho Expense, Zoho Invoice, Zoho Billing, Zoho Checkout, and Zoho Payroll. Currently, the Sigma platform supports creating and building extensions for these five Zoho Finance applications:
  • Zoho Books
  • Zoho Inventory
  • Zoho Expense
  • Zoho Invoice
  • Zoho Billing
Creating an extension
  • Log in or sign up at developer.zoho.com.
  • Go to Sigma and access your workspace.
  • Once you enter your workspace, you'll be taken to the Extensions section in Sigma.
  • Click the New Extension button to start building an extension.                                                                                     
  • Enter a name and description for the extension and choose the service you want to build the extension for. As mentioned earlier, Sigma offers support for Zoho Books, Zoho Invoice, Zoho Inventory, Zoho Billing, and Zoho Expense.                                                                                          
  • For our demo, let's choose the service as Zoho Books. Accept the terms and conditions, and then click Create.                                                                                          
  • The extension is successfully created. You can click the Extension Details icon to see an overview of the extension.                                                                                          
The extension details page shows the general details of the extension, such as creation date, creation time, and version, and allows you to associate developers with the extension.
  • Click the Edit Extension icon to start developing the extension.                                                                                  
  • The Zoho Books Developer Portal opens with the options and native features available to customize, curate, and develop your extension.                                                                
Zoho Books Developer Portal sections

The developer portal has four different sections to help customize and build your extension.

Learn: This section lists the native Zoho Books capabilities that can be used to create and develop extensions. Clicking the Set up Now button next to each feature will take you to the feature's development setup page.
                                                                                           

Build: This is the development setup section, which includes customization, automation, and components like connections, widgets, schedules, webhooks, and signals. You can customize your extension preferences, establish connections to integrate with other applications, and design custom interfaces to enhance user experience.
                                                                                          

Configure: This section assists with handling your extension's required configurations, whether they are generic settings or customizations required from the user. You can add global fields, which can be incorporated as either variables that store static data or through custom widgets that retrieve user inputs. You can also define functionalities that happen during installation and uninstallation.
                                                                                          

Publish: Once the extension has been built and configured, you can use this section to publish it for either private or public use. In both cases, the Zoho Books team will review the extension; for public extensions listed on Zoho Marketplace, the Zoho Marketplace approval team will also review them. You can share your privately published extension with other users using the Shared List option.
                                                                                          

We will explore more about each of these sections and their features in upcoming posts.

Testing an extension

The Zoho Books Developer Portal offers a dedicated testing environment for each extension, allowing you to test and validate it before publishing.

As a developer, you can use the Test Your Extension option in the top right corner of the portal to access your extension's sandbox environment.
                                                                  

This will redirect you to the sandbox testing environment for the extension you're developing, which is similar to Zoho Books and contains relevant modules to test with.
                                                                  

You can populate necessary data and test your extension functionality. Once everything is validated, you can go ahead and publish your extension for private or public use.

For support or questions related to Zoho Finance Suite extension development, you can email developer@zohofinance.com.

We hope you found this guide useful. Keep following this space for more information!

    Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


      • Recent Topics

      • Channel Configuration and Default Channels

        There are some of the default fields that cannot be removed or changed. Examples are the social media ones, such as Facebook. It would be nice to be able to remove these fields as it would be confusing if someone selected this but it's not configure
      • Delay function execute

        I've got a workflow which uses a webhook to send information to Flow, which in return updates a record in Creator. Problem is, by the time this has executed, the rest of my script has run and can't find the (yet to be) updated info in the record. Is there
      • Support www.camcard.com

        Hi, Is it possible CRM Zoho have integrations with https://camcard.com/? Thanks Br, Andy
      • Option to Customize Career Site URL Without “/jobs/Careers”

        Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you are doing well. We would like to request an enhancement to the Career Site URL structure in Zoho Recruit. In the old version of the career site, our URL was simply: 👉 https://jobs.domain.com However, after moving to
      • Can't make a document editable to anyone

        Hey everyone, I am using Zoho Workdrive and trying to share a document so that it is editable by anyone with the link. I am trying to convince people to shift from Google to Zoho, but they don't have accounts yet. When I try to change the share settings
      • Edit Default Print

        What I want to do is create / edit the "Default Print" template without changing the layout I'm using. Currently I can create "Email Templates" but I don't use them for emailing and getting to that selection takes multiple clicks. If an email template could be set to be the Default Print template that would be helpful. I'd also like to print these in bulk but don't see that option (there is a mail merge macro but that goes straight to emailing, not to print or PDF).
      • Widget shows error

        Hi, May I ask why below characters will be auto added into the widget link and how to solve this error? As my widget shows 404 error now. ?serviceOrigin=https%3A%2F%2Fcrm.zoho.com&frameorigin=https%3A%2F%2Fcrm.zoho.com
      • How to print envelope labels from Zoho CRM

        Can anybody give me any clue how to print envelope/package labels directly from Contacts view? Regards, Alexandru Moderation Update: The Canvas Print View, which also facilitates the formatting of mailing labels, is now available! Learn more here: Zoho
      • Data Import: New interface, improved field mapping, and more

        Hello everyone! We’ve redesigned the data import process to ensure accurate field alignment and verify that every column in the uploaded file maps correctly with Desk fields before import. Here's how: Streamlined Import Steps Importing data is now more
      • Address labels

        Hi, we've been searching for a long time for a simple way for our employees to print address labels using a Dymo Label Writer 450. We came up with two alternatives that work, bur aren't really optimal.  First one is WebMerge. Webmerge is a great application that does 100% what we need but it is way too expensive for our needs. We only need to print a couple of labels per month. The second one is the integrated print tool in Zoho CRM, (Print preview) You would think this is the obvious way to do this
      • Print Labels

        How can I configure my address to print my labels like this: Name Mailing Address Mailing City, Mailing State Mailing Zip Country Instead of: Name Mailing Address Mailing City Mailing State Mailing Zip Country Thanks!!!!
      • Mailing labels - Improperly formatted

        All I'm trying to do is print one, properly formatted, mailing label. I'm in the Contacts module. In the default "list view" for mailing labels I selected a single client, hit the "more actions" drop down and selected print mailing label. Unfortunately,
      • Printing mailing labels

        The ability to print mailing labels would seem to be an important, basic, function of a good CRM. I find it very surprising that this has still not been addressed adequately by Zoho. When trying to use the existing "mailing label" included: 1. the data
      • Pageless mode needed to modernise Writer

        When we switched from GSuite to Zoho, one of the easiest apps I found to give up, was Docs. In many ways, Writer has always been more powerful than Docs, especially in terms of workflows/fillable forms/etc. However, I went back into Docs because I notice
      • Zoho Projects - Visual improvement to parent and sub-task relationship

        Hi Projects Team, My feature request is to improve sub-task visibility. Please see screenshot below. I really think parent child relationships could be visually improved. Even if the first letter of the parent task was inline with other same level tasks
      • API method to get activity feed in Recruit

        Hi community, I'm trying to figure out - is there any API method tto get information about datetime when Recruit/Candidates record tag where added?
      • Printing Mailing labels

        Is there any way to adjust the size of the printing labels? or product would I use to print labels from Zoho? Thanks, Josef Krieger Moderation Update (14th April 2025): We have another post discussing the same topic with votes and feedback from users.
      • Default to Current Date

        I'm importing data from a excel spread sheet that does not have date column and I'd like the date column in the Zoho Database to default to the current date. Any way I can do this?
      • Different Company Name for billing & shipping address

        We are using Zoho Books & Inventory for our Logistics and started to realize soon, that Zoho is not offering a dedicated field for a shipping address company name .. when we are creating carrier shipping labels, the Billing Address company name gets always
      • Make Packages from multiple sales order of a single customer

        Our customers sends orders to us very frequently, some times what customer wants is to ship items from 5 to 6 sales orders in a single shipment. it will be very nice if, zoho can implement this function, in which we can select items from other sales orders of the customer.
      • Show Custom Button in Portal Listview Canvas

        I have created a custom button that shows in a list view of deals (internally I can see it). I have permissions to allow this button on the portal. But it is not displaying in the canvas list? Before I do too much leg work, is this function allowed?
      • Zoho Sites "pages" management page

        I have 80 plus pages on zoho sites. When I go to the "pages" link to view and edit pages, They are not in any kind of order, so I spend lots of time searching for pages when I need to edit or create new. How can I change the view order of all my pages
      • AI feature in Zoho Desk suggesting answers based on past ticket threads

        Hi I would like to suggest something that would be very useful : instead of suggesting answers based on the Knowledge Base, I think it would be great if Zia could analyze the history of all customer and agents threads, to suggest answers in new tickets.
      • Advanced Customization of the Help Center using JavaScript

        Hello everyone, The Help Center in Zoho Desk can be customized by using HTML and CSS to provide structure and enhance the page's appearance—but what if you want to add interactive and dynamic elements? You can add these effects with JavaScript, a programming
      • Introducing Zoho POS for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

        Hey everyone, We are excited to kick-start December with a completely personalized edition of POS for retail businesses in Saudi Arabia to help run your operations with ease. It offers four different subscription plans—Free, Standard, Professional, and
      • Unveiling Zoho Sites 2.0 - A new dimension in website building

        Dear Zoho Sites Users, We are thrilled to announce the launch of Zoho Sites 2.0 today! This refresh represents a significant step forward in the capabilities of Zoho Sites and is crucial for creating a lasting and positive impact on our customers' businesses.
      • Script Editor not an option

        I am trying to apply a script to a sheet and Script Editor is not an option. I don't want to go outside Sheets to do this (like Creator) if it can be done inside Sheets.
      • Not able to link email text.

        Kindly check Zoho Sites. I am unable to turn a text into a email link. The save button does not work. Kindly try yourself to see it not responding to save.
      • Migrate data from old to new account

        Hy, Have one Old Zoho Notebook Account with Data , want to migrate that whole Data to New Zoho Notebook Account which is in Zoho One . Is that possible ? If Yes then how?
      • Zoho Analytics Regex Support

        When can we expect full regex support in Zoho Analytics SQL such as REGEXP_REPLACE? Sometimes I need to clean the data and using regex functions is the easiest way to achieve this.
      • Add Custom Reports To Dashboard or Home Tab

        Hi there, I think it would be great to be able to add our custom reports to the Home Tab or Dashboards. Thanks! Chad
      • landed cost-need help with different currency under the same bill

        I’m having trouble recording landed costs in Zoho Inventory/Books. My purchase order is in CNY, but the landed cost (freight) I pay is in USD. Zoho forces everything under the same bill to use one currency, so I can’t enter the landed cost in its actual
      • Pricing Strategies: #1 Nuances in Pricing

        When Clara first opened her digital printing shop, pricing was simple. She sold handmade greeting cards, planners, business cards, and other physical items at fixed label prices, individually and in bulk. One SKU, one price, one bill, and that's all it
      • [Free Webinar] Learning Table Series – Education Management in Zoho Creator

        Hello Everyone! We’re excited to invite you to another edition of Learning Table Series, where we showcase how Zoho Creator empowers industries with innovative and automated solutions. About the Learning Table Series The Learning Table Series is a free,
      • Move attachments from one module to another with Deluge

        I have created a button that works just like the convert button for my custom modules. I would like this custom function to move any attachments in this record to the new module. I can't seem to find any documentation on how this can be accomplished.
      • Help in function code

        Hi, could someone look at the code below and tell me what 's wrong with it? After a deal creation or edition the code should find the related Account, than all open Deals for that Account and copy the field Total_Open_Deals from the Account record to
      • Automation Series: Auto-update Phase Status

        Hello Folks! You can auto-update your phase's status based on status of underlying tasks using custom functions. In this series, we will showcase how to create and run custom functions, using Deluge, with ease. Follow the steps below and automate your
      • how to add subform over sigma in the CRM

        my new module don't have any subform available any way to add this from sigma or from the crm
      • Zoho Projects - Project Details on the Project Menu

        Hi Project's team, I've helped may businesses setup and use Zoho Project and one thing I see time and time again is confusion on where to find the Project Details information. I would be much more intuitive if Project Details was on the menu before Dashboard.
      • Zoho Projects - Add Feed to Project Tabs

        Hi Projects Team, I'm working on a lightweight communications requirement for one of my customers in relation to communicating with their client users via Zoho Projects. I noticed that the Feed is only available in the Collaboration section, but you can
      • Next Page