Function #48: Manage fixed installment payments using Zoho Books

Function #48: Manage fixed installment payments using Zoho Books



Hello everyone, and welcome back to our series!

Businesses offer installment payment options to their customers, particularly for expensive purchases, to ease the financial burden on them. By breaking down the total cost into smaller, more manageable payments, businesses can attract a wider audience who may not be able to afford large upfront payments. This approach not only increases the likelihood of making more sales, but also helps to spread revenue over time, improve cash flow, enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty, and provide a competitive advantage in the market.

We receive numerous requests from our users regarding the handling of these installment scenarios. We heard you loud and clear. Today, we are excited to share a solution that utilizes custom functions to manage installment payments in Zoho Books.

Let's take the example of Mr. John Hector, who wants to buy a 75-inch TV from Zylker Electronics, priced at a hefty $2,300. He is finding it difficult to pay the entire amount upfront. Therefore, Zylker Electronics offers him the option to pay in installments. They mutually decide that John will spread the payment over 5 months, committing to monthly installments of $460 until he settles the entire purchase amount. Let's delve into how this process can be efficiently managed within Zoho Books using custom functions.

Firstly, Zylker Electronics should create a sale invoice of $2,300 in their Zoho Books organization. While creating it, they should input the start date of the installment and the number of installments in two custom fields. For instance, if the sale was made on 01.04.2024 and Mr. John agreed to pay in 5 installments starting on 10.05.2024, the start date should be entered as 10.05.2024, and the number of installments as 5.

Two custom functions will come into play: one to generate the retainer invoices to collect the installment payments and another to apply the retainer payments to the sale invoice.

Based on the number of installments entered the function will determine the amount to be charged as monthly installments.
Installment amount = Total Amount Payable / No of installments = $2300 / 5 = $460.

On the specified start date, the first function will create and send the retainer invoice for the first installment. Once the payment for this installment is recorded, the second function will apply it to the sale invoice, reducing the balance accordingly. The process repeats each month, generating and sending retainer invoices for subsequent installments until all 5 are completed. Each retainer invoice will be for $460 and due on the 10th of every month for 5 consecutive months. As each retainer invoice is paid, the second function will automatically apply it to the sale invoice, thereby recognizing the income.

Prerequisites: 

1. Create a Connection named "zbooks" to successfully execute the scheduler. You can watch the GIF attached below to know how to create the connection.




2. Create a Date-type custom field called "Installment Start Date" for the Invoices. This field will be used to input the starting date for installment payments.



3. Create a Decimal-type custom field called "Number of installments" for the Invoices. Here, you'll specify the agreed-upon number of installments. Using this information and the total invoice amount, the function will determine the monthly installment amount.



4. Create a new Retainer Invoice template with the document title "Installment Payment". Then, copy the template ID (You can get the ID from the URL of the webpage) and substitute it into line 26 of the first function. This ensures that all the retainers sent for collecting installment amounts are correctly labeled.



(1) Custom Function to create Retainer Invoices:

Navigate to Settings -> Automation -> Workflow Actions -> Custom Functions -> +New Custom Function -> Module -> Select Invoice -> Add the function code from this GitHub Link -> Save. 



(2) Workflow Rule to create Retainer Invoices:

Go to Settings -> Automation -> Workflow Rules -> +New Workflow Rule and set up the workflow rule as shown below:-




In the final step of this workflow rule, associate the custom function you created and then hit Save.

(3) Custom Function to apply installment payments to the sale invoice:

Navigate to Settings -> Automation -> Workflow Actions -> Custom Functions -> +New Custom Function- > Module -> Select Retainer Invoice -> Add the function code from this GitHub Link -> Save. 



(4) Workflow Rule to apply installment payments:

Go to Settings -> Automation -> Workflow Rules -> +New Workflow Rule and set up the workflow rule as shown below:-






In the final step of this workflow rule, associate the custom function you created and then hit Save.

We really hope that today's functions help you streamline the process of handling installments in Zoho Books. If you need any assistance in customizing the functions to better suit your needs, please do not hesitate to contact us at support[at]zohobooks[dot]com. We are always happy to help you. 

Also, for those looking to collect varying percentages of the invoice total as installments, stay tuned! 

Regards,
Shireen Farhana
Zoho Books

    • Sticky Posts

    • Introducing Invoice Consolidation for Offline Subscriptions

      Hello Folks, Glad to announce the feature of Invoice Consolidation for Offline Subscriptions. If you are having multiple subscriptions for your customers, now, you can send a single consolidated invoice for all the Offline Subscriptions that are getting renewed on the same date. Advantage?  Customers will be receiving single invoice instead of multiple invoices upon renewal. Also reduces your efforts in follow-up with your customers for payment collections. For Example: If Customer has Subscription

    • New feature: Create back-dated subscriptions

      Hello from the Zoho Subscriptions team. :)   We’re happy to announce that today marks the launch of a much-awaited feature: creating back-dated subscriptions!   From here on out, whenever you create a new subscription with an activation date that is earlier than the present date, you’ll no longer get an error. Instead, you'll be creating a back-dated subscription. This means that the subscription started at that earlier point in time. The next billing date will be calculated automatically based on

    • Announcement Regarding Notification Emails

      Hello Everyone! This announcement is regarding the admin notification emails which you've been receiving from the email address "support@zohosubscriptions.com". From the 1st of October, 06:00 GMT, the emails with the following subjects will be sent from "no-reply@zohosubscriptions.com". Unable to send invoice for the profile - {profile_name} Unable to process auto payments. If you have set up any filters or workflow in your email account, please add "no-reply@zohosubscriptions.com” and  “support@zohosubscriptions.com”

    • Zoho Subscriptions plugin for WordPress

      Zoho Subscriptions plugin for WordPress allows you to easily embed your plan specific checkout page in an iframe with just a few mouse clicks and without a single line of code. How can WordPress Zoho Subscriptions Plugin boost your productivity? It's now easier to embed Zoho Subscriptions checkout page in your WordPress site. Forget the old method of logging in to Zoho Subscriptions, copying a URL and scripting to make adjustments. All this can be done automatically through this plugin. A great time

    • Indian GST organisation Migration Guide

      With respect to the new GST regime releasing on July 1, 2017in India, Zoho Subscriptions Indian edition is also gearing up to make your business GST Ready. This article focuses on how to get your existing organisation in Zoho Subscriptions to migrate to the new GST regime.    Note:  Any organisation created on or after July 1, 2017 will already be GST ready. You wouldn't have to migrate your organisation. Migrating your existing organisation to support GST To migrate your existing organisation to

    • Recent Topics

    • Tip of the Week #33: Appointment scheduler in Zoho Calendar.

      In Zoho Calendar, you can use the Schedule Appointment option to share your appointment request form with the public, allowing people to fill out the form to request an appointment with you. This form can be embedded on your website or blog. Visitors

    • Tip of the Week #34: Embed Calendars using Zoho Calendar

      You can make your calendars public and visible to the general public by embedding them in your websites/blogs using Zoho Calendar. You can use the embed code to add your own calendars to your website's/ blog's HTML code, and the calendar will appear on

    • Tip of the week #35: Migrate to Zoho Calendar from Google Calendar.

      If you are looking to move your Google Calendar events to Zoho Calendar, never worry about missing out the events from your Google Calendar. You can migrate the events from Google Calendar using the export option and import it to Zoho Calendar and manage

    • Tip of the week #36: Migrate to Zoho Calendar from Outlook Calendar.

      If you've been using Outlook calendar and looking to migrate to Zoho Calendar, you can seamlessly export your calendars from Outlook and import them into Zoho Calendar without losing any events, participants, and the reminders set for each event. To migrate

    • Shared calendar issues and duplications

      Apparently there was a calendar update?  Now when I schedule an event for a team member that has shared his calendar with me, the event makes me the organizer and adds the event to my calendar as well.  Previous to this "update" I would scheduled an event

    • Subscribed Calendar

      Hi i have subscribed to a calendar for Holidays in Canada it shows all the holidays perfectly but every one of them has the word Canada before the rest of the name is there a way to remove that word Canada? It takes up a lot of space in the square on

    • The year that was at Zoho Calendar 2023- Part 1

      Hello, amazing community members! Happy new year from all of us here at Zoho Calendar. As we begin the new year, we'd like to thank each and everyone of our community members for your unwavering support and love that you have shown for Zoho Calendar.

    • Zoho Calendar 2024: A Year in Review

      Hello, community members! Happy new year from all of us here at Zoho Calendar. As we turn the page to a new year, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to every member of our Zoho Calendar community for your continued support and enthusiasm. Your feedback

    • Zoho Calendar not syncing correctly with personal Google Calendar

      Coming to this forum as Zoho Calendar support team is not responding, any more. For the past 8 weeks, I have been having an issue with Zoho Calendar not syncing with my personal Google Calendar correctly. I subscribed to Zoho Calendar iCal in my personal

    • Zeptomail API error 500 internal server error

      Hi Everyone, getting this eror continuously! Can anyone please guide around the same! Zeptomail API error 500 internal server error Best Regards

    • Waiting multiple days to buy credits, causing my website to suffer

      So I own a fairly large website that gets a lot of registered users. I use transmail send activation emails, and also forgot password emails. I sent an email to zoho's presales team when I was only at 4K/10K emails sent, hoping to buy more credits before

    • Follow up

      Hello, I sent a message 2 days ago but I don't receive any response and I cannot find my ticket here. this is the ticket: Your ticket has been created with the ticket ID 68925465 and subject "Fwd: Fishing-alert" looking forward to seeing your response.

    • What's new in TransMail!

      Note: TransMail is now ZeptoMail. Click here to know more. Hello again, everyone! We've recently crossed the 6 months mark of TransMail's launch. In this time post our launch, we have been constantly working on updating our platform and adding new features

    • June 2021 in TransMail!

      Note: TransMail is now ZeptoMail. Click here to know more. Hello again, everyone! Hope you and your loved ones are doing well. If you're doing less than fine, we truly hope that things only get better for you.  We've had a few updates in the past month

    • TransMail has a new name—ZeptoMail!

      Tried navigating to TransMail's community forum but see a different name now? That's because TransMail has a new name. TransMail is now ZeptoMail! As we’ve grown from an internal service used mainly by other Zoho products to an up-and-coming competitor

    • July 2021 in ZeptoMail!

      Note: TransMail is now ZeptoMail. Click here to know more. Hello again, everyone! Hope you and your loved ones are doing well.  We've had a few updates in the past month in ZeptoMail—some new features and some important announcements. Take look at what

    • Send Email From the ZeptoMail BY API

      What is Zeptomail:- Transactional email service with reliable and fast delivery How we can Create a Connection for Zeptomail in Zoho CRM Go to the Setup Click on Connection Enter Connection Details:- Generate Consumer Key & Consumer Secret Using Zoho

    • Customer email on Opencart 3

      When I place an order, 2 emails are sent: 1) administrator 2) to the user The administrator receives a beautiful letter, but the user receives a damaged letter (see screenshot). What could be the problem?

    • [Announcement] Insert image from URL changes in Zoho Writer

      Hi Zoho Writer users! We'd like to let you know that we've changed the behavior of the Insert image from URL option in Zoho Writer for security reasons. Earlier behavior Once you inserted an image URL in a Writer document, the image would be fetched from

    • Dynamic Signature - Record owner

      Hi everyone, I’m using Zoho Writer merge templates from Zoho CRM and have two questions: Owner signature: How can I automatically insert the CRM record owner’s signature in the merged document? I’m not sure where this signature is stored or how to reference

    • Writer sing up problom

      Zoho writer sing up prolom face

    • Unable to copy into a new document

      Whe I create a new Writer doc and attemp to copy and past I get this message. The only way to copy into a document is I duplicate an existing document, erase the text and save it under a different name and then paste the information. Not ideal. Can you

    • [Webinar] Live demos and user Q&A with Zoho Writer product experts

      Join us on June 12, 2025 for live demos based on your use cases and real-world scenarios raised via form. This is also an opportunity to get your questions answered directly by product experts from the Zoho Writer team. Webinar agenda Live demos based

    • Zoho Writer's built-in citation and bibliography generator

      Hey researchers and writers! Do you manually format citations and bibliographies, spending hours jumping between apps and tabs? If so, then check out Zoho Writer's built-in "Citations and Bibliography" feature. Imagine you're writing a thesis on the future

    • Single and group checkboxes in Zoho Writer's fillable forms

      Hey Writer Fam, Are you making the most out of single and group checkboxes in fillable forms in Zoho Writer? Here is a handy tip to optimize your use of checkboxes, both single and group, and enhance your data collection process. Single checkboxes: Single

    • Collaborate efficiently with Zoho Writer's track changes feature

      Hi Zoho Writer Community, Zoho Writer's track changes feature is a simple, built-in solution that helps you and your team work together efficiently. Instead of juggling multiple versions of a document or building up a long email chain of comments, each

    • Zoho Writer's WordPress extensions

      Hey Zoho Writer users! Say goodbye to all your WordPress content publishing woes with Zoho Writer's WordPress extensions. Publish content with all your formatting and images, republish content when you update a document, and more—from a single window

    • Time-saving table hacks

      Hey Zoho Writer Community, Do you find yourself using a lot of tables in your documents? We're here to share some of our time-saving hacks that will help you work more efficiently, organize your data, and make your documents look neat and professional.

    • Automating document approval and signing with Zoho Writer and Zoho Sign

      Hey Zoho Writer Community! Here's another automation tip to make your processes more efficient! Question: Can I send a document for client approval first, then automatically send it for signing with Zoho Sign if they approve? Since it's the same person

    • Customization hacks in Zoho Writer - Part 2

      Hey community, We're back with some more tricks to personalize your documents, save time, and get in the zone when you work in Writer. Check out part 1 of this post if you haven't already. Let's dive right in! Document ruler units Imagine you're creating

    • Simplify your tax calculations with Zoho Writer

      Hello Zoho Writer Community! Tax season can be stressful, but with Zoho Writer, managing your income tax calculations becomes straightforward and efficient. Here’s an example of how you can use the tables and formulae of Zoho Writer to calculate income

    • Enhance document navigation with headings and TOC

      Hey Zoho Writer Community! We're back with some useful features in Zoho Writer that can simplify your document creation and navigation process. Let's dive right in! Check out our video on how to make the most of Zoho Writer's heading and table of contents

    • Use and download in PDF format of Zoho wirter Merge template using deluge

      Hello Zoho Developers. Here is some information about Zoho Writer. Writer is not just another online word processor, it's a powerful tool for editing, collaboration, and publishing. Even with its wide range of features, Writer's pared-down user interface

    • Customization hacks in Zoho Writer - Part 3

      Hello everyone, Welcome back to Part 3 of our customization tips in Zoho Writer! In this third installment, we'll be diving into some essential customization settings that can enhance your document creation experience. Sender email address in mail merge

    • Daytime saving timezones messing up writer pdf

      Hi, I need help for something I can't figure out. I created a Form to collect data and it is set up with my current Daylight Saving Time (GMT-3). This form is used to generate a contract (pdf Writer) with dates from an event that is being held in 4 months

    • Issue with locked content in Writer

      Hi, I have seen the documentation which outlines how to lock specific content within a Writer document so that it can't be modified by collaborators, but I have come across an issue. When the editor locks a paragraph for example, then a collaborator can't

    • Deprecation of certain URL patterns for published Zoho Writer documents

      Hi Zoho Writer users! We'd like to let you know that we have deprecated certain URL patterns for published and embedded documents in Zoho Writer due to security reasons. If the published or embedded documents are in any of these URL patterns, then their

    • Using Mail Merge Template to Print Documents with One Subform Record's Fields per Document

      Hello, We have a Mail Merge template created in Zoho Writer which is not able to perform the functionality which is currently required to automate the documentation task portion of our process. The CRM module we are primarily using is based on a "Loans"

    • Problem with Writer and Workdrive

      Hi team, I’m the super admin for our Zoho One org. WorkDrive is active, and Zoho Docs is deprecated for our org. However, Zoho Writer cannot connect to WorkDrive at all — we’ve cleared cache, tried incognito, and restarted several times. I was able to

    • Set to Review for all

      We are testing the use of Writer as part of an internal review process for statement of work documents and have found that when the document is changed from Compose to Review by one person, that is not reflected for all others who view the document. Is

    • Next Page