Collections Management: #7 Common Mistakes during Payment Collection

Collections Management: #7 Common Mistakes during Payment Collection

Payment collection may appear straightforward in most cases. Still, as your customer base expands and transaction volume increases, it becomes clear that even small inefficiencies can lead to delayed payments, increased support load, or even revenue loss. When businesses overlook the finer details of the payment journey, from invoice to checkout to failed payment recovery, the impact shows up immediately in cash flow.

​
Here are some common mistakes businesses make in their payment collection process, and how Zoho Billing helps bridge those gaps with a structured, automated, and predictable workflow.
​
Keeping the Long Payment Process

A common issue occurs when customers receive invoices with no clear path to pay. They often ask, "How do I pay for this invoice?" or "Do you accept UPI or cards?" When the process involves multiple steps, searching for bank details, asking for links or navigating through some confusing pages, payment gets delayed or abandoned.

​
Zoho Billing offers a one-click payment pathway through the hosted pages, a payment link, showing a clickable payment option on the invoice PDF, QR codes, etc. Customers can choose cards, UPI, net banking, PayPal, or direct debit and complete the payment instantly in a much more frictionless way.
​
No Proper Follow-up

Payment failures happen for many reasons. It may be due to an expired card, insufficient funds, or gateway issues. Without automated retries or clear communication, business risk misses revenue opportunities.

​
Zoho Billing addresses this through comprehensive dunning management, including automated retries, custom retry intervals, email notification and on-demand retry options. You can pause or resume dunning and communicate clearly with your customers about the failure.
​
Common Collection Strategy

Every customer behaves differently. High-value customers may need a lenient retry cycle, while smaller plans may require a more assertive approach. Using a universal strategy results in preventable churn.

​
Zoho Billing offers multiple dunning rules that let you tailor retry logic, intervals, and communication templates based on subscription, plan, customer, value, or currency. Each rule is executed according to its priority, ensuring the correct recovery strategy for the appropriate account.
​
Losing Customer During Checkout

Checkout abandonment is common when pages are too long, confusing or require excessive information. Customers might say, "I'll finish this later", which often translates to a lost sale.

​
Zoho Billing improves conversion through self-checkout pages designed for clarity, including single-page checkout, Google-powered address autofill, email validation, captcha support, and a transparent breakdown of recurring and one-time charges. This provides clarity on the purchase and holds precise data, just what the customer needs to know during checkout.
​
Giving No Free Hands for Trials

Requiring customers to enter their payment method during a free trial creates hesitation about purchasing. It increases resistance during onboarding and results in lower trial conversion rates.

​
Zoho Billing lets you skip payment collection entirely during trial signups, gathering only essential details and user verification. This reduces initial friction and helps customers get started without barriers.
​
Recreating Subscription From Scratch

When subscriptions are cancelled due to failed payments, some businesses attempt to recreate them from scratch. This leads to billing date misalignment, duplicate invoices, incorrect proration and inconsistent renewal cycle.

​
Zoho Billing eliminates this complexity using In-Term Reactivation, which restores a cancelled subscription to "Live" without creating a new invoice or altering the billing cycle. The subscription resumes from where it stopped, maintaining revenue accuracy and lifecycle integrity.
​
Late Fee Mismanagement

Manual late fee calculation often leads to inconsistencies. Businesses sometimes forget to apply late charges or add them incorrectly, leading to customer disputes or revenue gaps.

​
Zoho Billing offers automated late fee assessment via a workflow-based custom function and built-in late fee configuration for users. This ensures every overdue invoice is treated consistently without manual intervention.
​
Considering Customers As Anonyms

Incorrect addresses, outdated email addresses, or missing fields cause payment failures and communication issues. Customers are often unable to update their information during checkout.

​
Zoho Billing's multi-page hosted pages allow customers to verify their identity via OTP and update their name, address, phone number and custom fields before subscribing. They can also select from saved addresses, ensuring accurate billing and communication.
​
Payment Collection as a Manual Task

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is treating payment collection as an isolated activity. Without a structured lifecycle, tasks such as follow-ups, retries, corrections, and reporting become fragmented.

​
Zoho Billing brings structure to the entire process by managing payment collection before, during and after the transaction. It automates reminders, manages checkout, handles failures through dunning, resumes subscription through reactivation, applies late fee and provides detailed reports such as Payment Failure, Time to Get Paid, Under Risk analytics, etc.
​
This end-to-end lifecycle approach ensures predictable cash flow and scalable operations.

 

    • Sticky Posts

    • Community Learning Series | Digest #5 — September 2020

      Dear customers, We're happy to bring you the September edition of our #CommunityDigest! Keep track of your subscription KPIs right from your smartphone: Last month, we enhanced our Android mobile app to help our customers get daily updates on their business health. We got to know from a lot of customers that this has made their job much more easier because they no longer have to keep a reminder to manually check on the previous day's revenue or activations. If you have not downloaded it yet, here's

    • Community Learning Series | Digest #4 - August 2020

      Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. I'm happy to bring you the fourth edition of our #CommunityDigest with some brand-new updates from us. 1. Daily Business Updates (for Android users) The Zoho Subscriptions Android app has got a cool new update: You can now get a push notification to your smartphone that lets you know how many activations and cancellations have taken place, and what's the net revenue for the previous day. The best part is, you can tell the app when exactly you

    • Community Learning Series | Digest #3 - July 2020

      Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. We're glad to bring you the July edition of our #CommunityDigest. New community members can view our previous newsletters here. This time, we have two major updates and three interesting topics for you: 1. Zoho Subscriptions Developer Community Since the inception of Zoho Subscriptions, our team believed that the recurring billing platform we provide should be able to offer an extensive API library that empowers businesses to automate most

    • Introducing: Community Learning Series | Digest #1 - May 2020

      Dear customers, We hope you are staying safe and healthy. Helping businesses manage their customer subscriptions more efficiently has always been, and always will be, our goal at Zoho Subscriptions. We strongly believe this is possible if we grow together as a community and share what we know with each other. To nurture this shared learning experience, here is our brand-new Community Learning Series! ​ Welcome to the first edition of our digest! Each edition of our community digest includes guides

    • Recent Topics

    • Zoho forms - > Zoho desk multiple agents

      Hi! I would like to use a standard form to be used when we hiring people, so we looked at zoho forms for that. Now we would like to get that info in to Zoho desk and their different users shall take care of this ticket simultaneous . So, what would be

    • Almacenamiento

      Hola, Quisiera saber como podría hacer para bajar el almacenamiento de 5gb a mis usuarios, en otras palabras los quiero ir limitando de la cuota real, y luego ir agregando poco a poco la cantidad hasta llegar a los 5gb que me dan en el plan free. 

    • Will I Get a Refund If I Downgrade Zoho Mail?

      Hello, We upgraded an email account for our new employee. However, the employee left after one month, and now I've reduced the number of Zoho Mail users from 7 to 6. Can we get a refund for the remaining portion of our annual payment?

    • Infinite loop of account verification

      Hi I can't do anything on my zoho account.  I always get this message Hi Sheriffo Ceesay As a security measure, you need to link your phone number with this account and verify it to proceed further. When ever I supply the details, it displays that the number is associated with another account. I don't have any other account on zoho so this is really annoying. 

    • Introducing the revamped What's New page

      Hello everyone! We're happy to announce that Zoho Campaigns' What's New page has undergone a complete revamp. We've bid the old page adieu after a long time and have introduced a new, sleeker-looking page. Without further ado, let's dive into the main

    • 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

    • Name autocomplete

      Hi, During searching emails the web tool does not always propose the auto-completion of the saved emails. As a result I either have to go to contacts and look up the exact email, or the exact full name including the middle name and any dots, which is very annoying. For example I have a contact that I emailed in the past that has "First M. Last" <email@email.com> type of contact. When I start typing 'First' the email may or may not pop up in the autocomplete menu. Then if I start typing "first last"

    • How do i follow up my email campaign in-thread

      Is there a way to follow up the email campaign so that it is in-thread using zoho campaigns? eg customer gets original email with subject line "hello" then 5 days later follow up would be with subject line "RE: hello".

    • Announcing new features in Trident for Mac (1.29.0)

      Hello everyone! Trident for macOS (v1.29.0) is here with new features and enhancements to enhance your business communication. Let's take a quick look at them. Access shared mailboxes. You can now view and access shared mailboxes in Trident, which are

    • Books is extremely slow again today !

      Everything is running slowly even with 500mb connection speed

    • Cyclic dependencies in many-to-many relationships...

      I have an application which includes a form for companies, and a form for contacts. Each company can be assigned 1 technical and 1 administrative contact. I have this working okay so far, but I want to copy the scripts used so far to a new empty application. When I import the scripts it fails with a message that says: Problem encountered while creating the application Error in resolving form dependency:Cyclic dependency among the forms:[Company, Contact] What can I do to resolve this? After all,

    • Zoho API to create ticket

      I'm developing an integration to create tickets via API, but, locally it works (send and recieve requests). In production it also works sending requests, but, my file don't recieve any response data. My URL is available in Zoho API Console and I have

    • Automate Timesheet Approvals with Multi-level Approval Rules

      Introducing Approval Rules for Timesheets in Zoho Projects. With this automation, teams can manage how timesheets are reviewed and approved by setting up rules with criteria and assigning approvers to handle submissions. Timesheet, when associated to

    • Labels Part 2

       Hey Zoho Mail Team, On the labels window on the left-hand pane, alphabetize label name display, rather than displaying in order created.  This one should be easy. Thanks, Drew

    • Building Toppings #1 - Serving your needs with Bigin Toppings

      Hey Biginners! We're excited to kick off our Developer Community series on building toppings for Bigin, and our goal is to provide an accessible, beginner-friendly, and relevant path for every developer. Imagine creating tiny pieces of software that unlock

    • Can we create Sprint with tasks from Multiple projects?

      Hi Team, We were using Zoho Sprints for quite sometime. Currently we have started the process of Sprint method. We couldnt create the active sprint board with the tasks from multiple projects. I would like to know whether this is possible or Any timeline

    • Tip of the Week #74– Create automated workflows in MS Power Automate

      Zoho TeamInbox now connects directly with Microsoft Power Automate, letting you streamline everyday routines tasks such as from sending emails to managing threads, with automated workflows. About the integration Zoho TeamInbox integrates with Microsoft

    • Account validation

      Hello everyone, I registered my account on ZeptoMail to use the system, but the problem is that the verification period on Zepto's end has already passed and I have limited functionality.

    • Paste issues in ZOHO crm notes

      Hi, since a week or so I have issues with the paste function in ZOHO CRM. I use "notes" to copy paste texts from Outlook emails and since a week or so, the pasting doesnt function as it should: some text just disappears and it gives a lot of empty lines/enters.....

    • Is it possible to add a gradient color to a newsletter im designing?

      From where i sit it looks like you can only choose a single color but not combine 2 colors?

    • New Feature: Audit Log in Zoho Bookings

      Greetings from the Zoho Bookings team! We’re excited to introduce Audit Log, a new feature designed to help you track all key actions related to your appointments. With Audit Log, you can maintain transparency, strengthen security, and ensure accountability.

    • Account disabled

      I have an issue I need help with. Whilst trialing ZOHO CRM I created the following: Account1 (-------------) using m__ame@m__rg___s__i__.___.__ and 2 personal emails Account2 (-------------) using a personal email and 2 users _al__1@______________._o_.__

    • Blocked Email

      We are a Zoho One subscriber and use Yahoo as our MX provider. A few times each year, for the past four years, CRM blocks one or more of my Zoho One users from receiving internal email from CRM. This includes "@mentions" in all modules, and emails from

    • message var is empty in bot mention handler

      Hi, I'm encountering a problem: in my bot's mention handler, I want to retrieve the text the user typed when mentioning the bot. Example: On the #tests-cyril channel, I send this message: “@Donna hello how are you ?” I expect the system variable "message"

    • Remembrance Day to Remember – Recalling Values

      The phrase “at the eleventh hour” refers to the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, when the hostilities of World War I came to an end—but it still holds meaning today. Remembrance Day (Veterans Day in the US) is observed on November

    • Enhancing Zia's service with better contextual responses and article generation

      Hello everyone, We are enhancing Zia's Generative AI service to make your support experience smarter. Here's how: Increased accuracy with Qwen One of the key challenges in AI is delivering responses that are both contextually accurate and empathetic while

    • How to display two measures (sales and price) divided by categories on one line chart

      Hi everyone, I’m having trouble figuring out how to display two columns on a line chart with category breakdowns. What I need is a line chart where one line represents Sales and the other represents Price. However, the Price data is divided into around

    • Create custom rollup summary fields in Zoho CRM

      Hello everyone, In Zoho CRM, rollup summary fields have been essential tools for summarizing data across related records and enabling users to gain quick insights without having to jump across modules. Previously, only predefined summary functions were

    • Introducing the locking option for CRM records

      Last modified on 06/04/2023: Record locking option in CRM is now available for all Zoho CRM users in all DCs. Note that it was an early access feature available only upon request. Hello All, Hope you're doing well! We're thrilled to introduce our latest

    • Two new enhancements in Zoho CRM: Introducing new criteria for user fields and displaying group information in users page

      Announcement moderated on 14th June, 2023. Dear All, These enhancements are opened for all users in all DCs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear All, Hope you're well! We are here with two useful

    • Tip #49- Navigating the Remote Support Dashboard in Zoho Assist- 'Insider Insights'

      The Remote Support dashboard in Zoho Assist is designed to help technicians quickly access, manage, and monitor all their support sessions from a single, intuitive interface. Whether you’re starting a new session, managing ongoing connections, or reviewing

    • BMI formula

      I've been trying for hours to calculate BMI using height and weight as my only inputs. It's a simple calculation and I even went to ChatGPT to help me figure this out in Zoho Forms, but it led me down a path of "try this" and "try this". None of my attempts

    • SEO on blogs

      Hello, google is not able to find my blogs. Can you advice me if I need to change some settings or anything else to make it retrievable via SEO many thanks, hans

    • Duplicated Notebooks

      Out of the blue, almost all of my notebooks got duplicated and the different copies contain different information. Some seem like older copies than the others. I use the linux desktop app and sometimes the Android app. I assume that the sync failed at some point and was unable to merge the two versions together. But I'm afraid to add anything else to my notebook because if it can't properly sync 5 notebooks with only a handful of notes each, what will happen when I have hundreds of notes and I lose

    • Mind mapping in Zoho Projects

      Good morning,   I would like to congratulate the Zoho team for building such an inovative and responsive application that fits in the daily challenges of so many work groups. I would like suggest you another functionality that helps a lot in project planning and development: mind mapping. Mind mapping would be of great help for brianstorming, knowledge management and other needs in online collaboration.   Thanks and wish you all the best! George Maha Empresa Júnior Multidisciplinar do Instituto de

    • Retainer invoice in Zoho Finance modlue

      Hello, Is there a way of creating retainer invoices in the Zoho Finance module? If not can I request this is considered for future updates please.

    • Documents don't sync properly

      Hello, My team recently moved to Zoho workDrive, some of my team, work remotely so we believed Zoho would be the best way to share and edit files as well as access files withing the team. However we are experiencing sync issues, when a file is uploaded in the file explorer and shows sync complete, same file can be seen on the Zoho web app but other team members can't see the said file because it is not syncing properly. i figured out that if i were to go to preferences in settings and resync the

    • We are looking for an experienced Zoho Developer

      Hi Everyone! We’re on the lookout for a skilled Zoho Developer with hands-on experience in the Zoho Developer Platform (The Vertical CRM Platform) and if you don't know what that is, then you are not the person we are looking for. You would also need

    • Initiate approval workflow after "on edit --> on success"

      Dear Community,  currently I am working on a initiative tracker which should handle approval workflows based on different initiative status. As far as I understand, an approval workflow can be triggered (only?) when data is entered for the input form to the database.  Example: A new initiative is created and submitted. --> Approval Workflow triggered Here comes my question: Is it also possible to trigger an approval workflow if the form was "simply" updated? (on edit --> on success) Imagine the initiative

    • Tax Deductible Donations to a Charity Organisation

      For Australia, what's the best/proper method for entering an expense that is a tax deductible donation to a charitable organisation. And thus is appears correctly in Accounts and BAS as a GST payable deduction?

    • Next Page