Zoho Books | Product Updates | November 2024

Zoho Books | Product Updates | November 2024

Hello users,

We are back with exciting new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From multi-criteria workflows to writing off customer opening balances, discover the new updates designed to make your bookkeeping swift.

Attach XRechnung to Invoices [Germany Edition]

When you create an invoice, you now have the option to attach an XRechnung compliant invoice file to the email sent to your customer. This feature ensures that your invoices meet the legal requirements for transactions with government or public organizations in Germany.



To include an attachment of XRechnung in the invoice sent to your customer, go to Sales > Invoices. Create an invoice and click Save and Send. Check the Attach XRechnung option.

Extend the Validity Period of e-Way Bills [India Edition]

E-way bills are valid only for a specific period of time. This may cause issues during unexpected circumstances such as an accident, which can delay the transportation of goods. We've introduced an option to extend the validity period of an e-way bill.

This option is only available for e-way bills that are in the Generated and Expired statuses. You can extend the validity of an e-way bill 8 hours before or 8 hours after its expiration time. 



To extend the validity period of an e-Way bill, go to e-Way Bills > Select an e-way bill and click Extend e-Way bill at the top.

Validate VAT [Germany Edition]


You can now validate the VAT Registration Number to ensure that a business associated with it is still active. This is required for applying reverse charges on Sales transactions and will also serve as a verification step for e-invoicing.

To validate a VRN, go to Settings > Taxes and Compliance > Taxes > Vat Settings. Enter the Vat Registration Number (VRN) and click Validate.

Manage your Income TDS Rates [India Edition]

With the addition of the newly-introduced  Direct Taxes tab under Settings, you can easily manage your TDS rates. Now, you can select whether to associate TDS at the line-item level or the transaction level from Income TDS Settings.  You can also view the total number of transactions associated with different modules for a TDS rate by clicking View Associated Entities. For recurring transactions, such as recurring bills and invoices, clicking on the total number of transactions will redirect you to the list page.



To manage your TDS Rates, go to Settings > Taxes and Compliance > Direct Taxes > Income TDS Rates. To see the total number of transactions linked to a TDS rate across different modules, hover over the TDS rate, click the dropdown, and select View Associated Entities.



To manage your TDS settings, go to Settings > Taxes and Compliance > Direct Taxes > Income TDS Settings.

Associate Multiple Criteria for Workflows

At times, you might need to create multiple workflow rules to complete a  task. For example, if you want to send an email alert and notify a third-party application via webhook whenever the status of a created invoice changes in Zoho Books, you would have to create multiple workflow rules for the different invoice statuses. This can be time-consuming and may exhaust the number of permitted workflow rules you can create under your organization's plan. 

Now, you can achieve the same outcome with a single workflow rule by associating multiple criteria and linking them to their appropriate actions.



Write Off Customer Opening Balance

If a customer is unlikely to pay their outstanding balance, if there are discrepancies, or if the account has remained outstanding for an extended period, you can write off the customer's opening balance. You can also cancel the write-off.



To write off customer opening balance, go to Sales > Customers. Select a customer and click View Opening Balance. Click the Menu icon and select Write Off.

Auto-Populate Customer or Vendor Details [India Edition]

Creating a customer or vendor can be time-consuming, especially when you are adding multiple entries. If this is a concern, we’ve got you covered. You can now auto-populate the contact details by entering the GSTN of the customer or vendor, which will be fetched from the GSTN portal. You can then select the address from the list of addresses associated with that GSTN. Additionally, you can edit the auto-populated details as needed.



To auto-populate contact details for your customers, go to Sales > Customers > Select a customer and click + New. Click Fetch From GSTN and enter the GSTN. Click Fetch Customer Details. Similarly, you can auto-populate contact details of your vendors.
​

Bulk Export Invoices as a ZIP File

Downloading invoices separately and searching for them can be a hassle, especially when you’re downloading multiple invoices. Now, you can download multiple invoices as a single ZIP file with just the click of a button. A single ZIP file is easier to manage and transfer and keeps all the documents together. 




To bulk export multiple invoices as a single ZIP file, go to Invoices > select invoices and click the ZIP icon.

Import or Export Custom Modules

We have extended the import and export option to custom modules. The import/export will occur asynchronously, with the first module being imported/exported first, followed by the second module upon the completion of the first import/export.
If your file exceeds 1,000 or your export file exceeds 25,000, the import/export will be scheduled, and a summary will be emailed to you after successful completion.



To import/export custom modules, go to Custom Modules. Select a custom module. Click the More icon and select the required option. 

Other Enhancements

  • If the number of default filters exceeds 10 or if there are any custom views for a module, a search bar will appear, allowing you to search for the desired filter.
  • We have introduced a new label, Bill Amount Without TDS in vendor payments, allowing you to view the bill amount excluding the TDS deduction and the TDS amount separately.
  • You can now enable endorsements for SEZ and overseas customers, indicating whether the supply is made with or without the payment of Integrated Tax (IGST). This feature is only supported in Spreadsheet and Standard templates, and your business must be GST-registered.
  • You can now search all fields in a custom module rather than just the primary field. Previously, we only supported lookups for the primary field of a module, but this feature has now been enhanced to support lookups for all fields in custom modules.


We hope you like the new features and enhancements in Zoho Books! Take some time to explore the latest updates. We’ll be back next month with even more updates, as we continually strive to elevate your accounting experience.

You can also visit the What's New timeline for byte-sized information about our previous feature updates and enhancements. If you need any assistance, feel free to reach out at support@zohobooks.com.

Best regards,
The Zoho Books Team

    • Recent Topics

    • Paid Support Plans with Automated Billing

      We (like many others, I'm sure) are designing or have paid support plans. Our design involves a given number of support hours in each plan. Here are my questions: 1) Are there any plans to add time-based plans in the Zoho Desk Support Plans feature? The

    • How Does Knowledge Base Search and Article Recommendation Work?

      Hello, I would like to understand how the Knowledge Base search engine works. Specifically, does it search based on: The article title only? The full article content? Both, the article and the content? Keywords? Tags? Also, how does the system determine

    • Zoho CRM for Everyone's NextGen UI Gets an Upgrade

      Hello Everyone We've made improvements to Zoho CRM for Everyone's Nextgen UI. These changes are the result of valuable feedback from you where we’ve focused on improving usability, providing wider screen space, and making navigation smoother so everything

    • Can't change form's original name in URL

      Hi all, I have been duplicating + editing forms for jobs regarding the same department to maintain formatting + styling. The issue I've not run into is because I've duplicated it from an existing form, the URL doesn't seem to want to update with the new

    • Calendar report with order options and more quick view templates

      I think many of us regularly work with calendar-style reports. It would be great to be able to customize the quick view with new templates and have options to sort the entries for each day of the calendar by different criteria. I think this is an interesting

    • Shared Views

      Hello, is there a way to prevent an agent from changing a shared table view? I have no issues with agents being able to create and customize their own view, but when I create a view and share it to my team -- the expectation is that they are viewing it

    • Using Zoho answer bot across departments (help center articles from another department)

      Hi Zoho Community, I’ve run into a major issue and hope someone here has experience with this setup. We currently have a Help Center in the department A where all of our knowledge base articles are maintained. However, we would like to use a Zoho Answer

    • Zoho Desk Partners with Microsoft's M365 Copilot for seamless customer service experiences

      Hello Zoho Desk users, We are happy to announce that Zoho Desk has partnered with Microsoft's M365 to empower customer service teams with enhanced capabilities and seamless experiences for agents. Microsoft announced their partnership during their keynote

    • how to avoid duplicate customer

      How can i avoid to create a duplicate customer. I charged a same customer with two different plans and it showed up twice in my customer list and subsequently in Zoho books contacts. It creates confusion to have a same customer appears multiple times in customer or contact list. How can i avoid it.

    • The Social Wall: January 2026

      Hello everyone, We’re back with the first edition of The Social Wall of 2026. There’s a lot planned for the year ahead, and we’re starting with a few useful features and improvements released in January to help you get started. Create a GBP in Social

    • Pipeline: Copying rulesets from one data source to another

      When creating and editing data pipelines, it would be really helpful to be able to copy the ruleset from one data source and 'paste' it to another. This would save time and reduce manual mistakes.

    • Doubt about maximum email reach

      Good morning, greetings. This is Bramdon García from EDULABS S.A.S ESP, located in Colombia. I'm writing to inquire about the possibility of sending an email to 35,000 people simultaneously. Our company has a Zoho account, but we'd like to know if there's

    • Zoho calendar not working in browser

      Hello, I am new to Zoho. I have two accounts for two separate businesses. In one of them, calendar loads in a browser no problem. However, if I use this account (sairfeetmusic.co.uk) calendar does not load. I also cannot add it to my Thunderbird Lightening

    • Authentication Failure when adding POP3 accounts

      Hi everyone, I am a new user currently migrating from Gmail to Zoho Mail. I decided to make the switch following Google's decision to discontinue POP3 fetching. I previously used Gmail as my primary mail hub, and Zoho seems like the perfect alternative

    • Trident Application Folder

      Hi, How to choose installation folder for Trident, by default it gets installed in C drive. How to change drive?

    • How exactly does "Reply assistance" work in Zoho Desk? What context is sent to the LLM?

      Hi, Im trying to better understand the technical behavior of the feature "Reply assistance" in Zoho Desk, and I couldn’t find detailed information in the current documentation. Specifically, I have questions about what data is actually being sent to the

    • Email disappeared to specific contact

      Good afternoon, this morning I emailed somebody. This email isn’t showing up in my sent folder. They sent me a response which I clicked on and it disappeared immediately. Why could this be?

    • Deletion Workflows

      Hello, Unless I missed it, we can't create deletion workflows. My usecase is to auto-delete junk leads. We have field called lead status, and an agent qualify all our new leads. When it's a junk lead she chose the correspondant value in the picklist. My goal is that the system delete them automatically. Is that possible? Planed ?

    • How Do Mutliple Sales People Prospect in the "LEADS" module without calling the same leads?

      We have 4 sales reps and the Leads module does not have real time intuitive knowlodge to make the sales rteps dont call the same people at the same time. How can we crate a fluent prospecting sytem where the salres reps can go out bound without calling

    • How to Invoice Based on Timesheet Hours Logged on a Zoho FSM Work Order

      Hi everyone, We’re working on optimizing our invoicing process in Zoho FSM, and we’ve run into a bit of a roadblock. Here’s our goal: We want to invoice based on the actual number of hours logged by our technicians on a job, specifically using the timesheets

    • Create an Eye-Catching Announcement Widget for Your Help Center

      Hello Everyone! In this week’s edition, let’s explore how to keep your customers updated with exciting news in the Help Center. See how ZylkerMobile wowed their customers by bringing updates right to their portal. ZylkerMobile, the renowned brand for

    • Enable Free External Collaboration on Notecards in Zoho Notebook

      Hi Zoho Notebook Team, I would like to suggest a feature enhancement regarding external collaboration in Zoho Notebook. Currently, we can share notes with external users, and they are able to view the content without any issue. However, when these external

    • Updating records through Zoho Sheets View doesn't update timeline or trigger workflow rules

      I have noticed that when i update a series of record with the zoho sheets view (see here http://d.pr/i/ahnR) it doesn't update timeline history or trigger workflow rules. I am using it in the Deals module. Looking forward for some more info. Denis

    • How do I change the account bank charges are charged to?

      I want bank charges charged to my Credit Card Fees account. Is there a way to do this?

    • ZOHO.CRM.UI.Record.open not working properly

      I have a Zoho CRM Widget and in it I have a block where it will open the blocks Meeting like below block.addEventListener("click", () => { ZOHO.CRM.UI.Record.open({ Entity: "Events", RecordID: meeting.id }).catch(err => { console.error("Open record failed:",

    • Mail Search should allow grouping by conversation like Gmail.

      Having switched from gmail I have found the search function hard to use. Mostly because mail is not grouped by conversation in search. If I search for a word when looking for a conversation had with someone then sometimes 10 emails will come up from the

    • Ability to CC on a mass email

      Ability to CC someone on a mass email.

    • Updation of Old Browsers Versions for Zoho CRM

      We have upgraded the default browser version for CRM to facilitate features like widgets and scripts that are often implemented aside from advanced functionalities for various business requirements. The latest version is aimed to provide better performance

    • Project-Based Inventory Consumption and Proforma Invoice in Zoho ERP

      While working with customers across different industries, we have identified a few functional questions and gaps that commonly arise—especially for project-based and service-oriented businesses. Many organizations, such as those in shipping, construction,

    • Zoho Desk domain Mapping not Working Showing CNAME Error

      I have created the subdomain and created the Cname as well as its instracted on the Zoho website  but when i try add the domain on help desk its showing error msg : Make sure you've mapped the CNAME entry and linked it to desk.cs.zohohost.com.au on your

    • Founders using Zoho — are you leveraging Zoho Campaigns + Zoho Social for thought leadership… or just sending emails?

      I’ve noticed something interesting in the Zoho ecosystem. Many founders use Zoho Campaigns and Zoho Social for basic marketing—newsletters, scheduled posts, and announcements. But very few are using these tools strategically to: • Position themselves

    • I have the item field and Quantity field in the sub form , on the submit of the form if the quantity is grater than inventory means show alert on submit validation only for item type goods ,

      I have the item field and Quantity field in the sub form , on the submit of the form if the quantity is grater than inventory means show alert on submit validation . Stock Check Validation only for item type goods , not for item type service . For the

    • IMAP stopped working after enabling 2 factor authentication

      IMAP stopped working after enabling 2 factor authentication. Is there any solution for this?

    • Rename Service Report

      Some of our customers are requesting the name of the service report PDF to be in a specific format, for example, instead of REP-001.PDF some are requesting to include their name like customername.pdf. is that possible?

    • Approvals in Zoho Creator

      Hi, This is Surya, in one of  my creator application I have a form called job posting, and I created an approval process for that form. When a user submits that form the record directly adding to that form's report, even it is in the review for approval.

    • Outgoing emails rejected due to SpamCop RBL listing (IP 136.143.188.12)

      Hi All, I am writing to report a deliverability issue affecting outgoing emails from my Zoho Mail account. Recently, several messages sent from my domain (example.com) to external recipients have been rejected with the following error message (redacted

    • Introducing Workqueue: your all-in-one view to manage daily work

      Hello all, We’re excited to introduce a major productivity boost to your CRM experience: Workqueue, a dynamic, all-in-one workspace that brings every important sales activity, approval, and follow-up right to your fingertips. What is Workqueue? Sales

    • Inclusion is the new engagement

      When in a very challenging situation, you may have peers or friends around you saying, “Everything will be okay.” They speak to you in a way that they are connected or in a language or tone that feels close. But your inner voice comes to you in a truly

    • What's new in Zoho Sheet: Simplify data entry and collaboration

      Hello, Zoho Sheet community! Last year, our team was focused on research and development so we could deliver updates that enhance your spreadsheet experience. This year, we’re excited to deliver those enhancements—but we'll be rolling them out incrementally

    • Windows Desktop App - request to add minimization/startup options

      Support Team, Can you submit the following request to your development team? Here is what would be optimal in my opinion from UX perspective: 1) In the "Application Menu", add a menu item to Exit the app, as well as an alt-key shortcut for these menus

    • Next Page