How to maintain steady cash flow during the COVID-19 crisis using Zoho Invoice

Dear customers,

I hope this finds you and your loved ones in good health.

As we are witnessing, the COVID-19 pandemic has started taking a toll on businesses of all types. Here are some useful tips that could help you streamline your invoicing and AR processes to keep your business healthy.

1. Communicate clearly with your customers:

During this period, transparent communication with customers is a necessity. A lot of businesses have started displaying messages on their home pages, explaining their BCP (Business Continuity Process) and other important announcements they want to convey to their customers.

As an additional means of communication, you can use the banner message in the customer portal of Zoho Invoice. The banner message is visible in the home page of the portal, so it can help get the customer's attention quickly. You can set up this message under Settings > Preferences > Portal.

2. Relax the deadlines for estimates and invoices:

Your customers' priority at this moment will be keeping their family and loved ones safe, which might mean your estimates get accepted a little later than usual. Same goes for your invoice payments. Instead of bombarding the customer with multiple reminder emails, you can relax your policy and push back the expiration dates and due dates of your estimates and invoices. 

To push back the dates on individual transactions, you can simply edit and make the changes. However, you can also perform this action in bulk (for up to 25 transactions in one go). Here's a screenshot that explains the steps:

You can follow the same steps in the Estimates section to update expiration dates in bulk.

 3. Be approachable:

As a standard business practice, you might have set up automatic payment reminders in Zoho Invoice to go out on specific days before or after the invoice due date. However, given the current circumstances, you can definitely expect delays in payment.

Since you have control over the content that goes out in these reminder emails, think about rephrasing it to let your customers know that if they need any assistance, they can reach out to you by phone or email. This way, your finance team doesn't have to wait and wonder whether the customer will make their payment or not, or spend time sending extra emails. You can tweak your reminder email content under Settings > Reminders.

By making it easy for your customers to approach you and treating them on a case-by-case basis, you can actually bring down the number of unpaid transactions.

Let's say you have done this and have clearly stated how your customers can contact you. Now, what responses can you expect from them?

a) "I might not be able to pay the full invoice amount on time."

b) "I might not be able to pay the full invoice amount at all."

c) 'If you can offer me a discount, I can pay now."

Tips 4, 5, and 6 can help you handle these cases efficiently.

4. Enable partial payments for invoices:

Rather than waiting for your customers to be able to make a full invoice payment, you can encourage them to make partial payments for invoices so that you can have a steady cash flow. If you are collecting payments online, you can enable this option while creating or editing an invoice.

If you collect payments offline, you can convey this information through the 'Terms and Conditions' field on the invoice.

5. Offer discounts:

By offering discounts on your outstanding invoices, you are proving that you care about your customers enough to give them a bit of a break. If you don't see the option to apply discounts to existing invoices, please enable it under Settings > Preferences > General.

6. Write off invoices in special cases:

If you've extended the deadline for a payment, but your customer has really run out of funds and won't be able to make the payment any time soon, you can waive the invoice so you can move ahead with your accounting. 

Since written-off invoices turn into bad debt, use the Bad Debt report in the Reports section of Zoho Invoice to make sure you're not accumulating too much. 

7. Increase the credit limit for loyal customers:

If a customer has been with you for a long time and is sticking with you during this period, an increased credit limit is a good way to thank them for their business. By increasing their credit limit, you are letting them know that you continue to want their business. The option to set a credit limit is available when you create or edit a customer profile.

Though some of these tips might have a negative effect on your finances temporarily, they can gain you long-term benefits like customer loyalty and customer retention, which will help your business recover more easily. 

Did you find these tips useful? Can you think of some other best practices that businesses can use to get through difficult times? Let us know in the comments. 

Note from Zoho: If you need any assistance regarding Zoho Invoice, our support team is available 24 hours a day, Monday-Friday. You can also reach out to us through email (support@zohoinvoice.com), live chat, or phone.

Because Zoho recognizes that our own customers may be facing difficult times right now, we have rolled out an Emergency Subscription Assistance Program (ESAP) to help small businesses through this crisis. Learn more about this program.

Take care and stay safe! We'll get through this storm together.

Regards,

Harikrishna

Customer Relations | Zoho Finance

• Topic Participants

• Harikrishna

• Buyers

• garyhorsman

  

• Sticky Posts

• Zoho Finance Workshop 2023 is coming to the USA. Get exclusive training on Zoho Finance apps, one-on-ones, and more.

  Hello all, We'd like to invite you to our biggest Zoho Finance workshop in the United States. After a brief break, we are excited to be back. This year, we're bringing together our customers and community members for two days of curated hands-on sessions,

• How to maintain steady cash flow during the COVID-19 crisis using Zoho Invoice

  Dear customers, I hope this finds you and your loved ones in good health. As we are witnessing, the COVID-19 pandemic has started taking a toll on businesses of all types. Here are some useful tips that could help you streamline your invoicing and AR processes to keep your business healthy. 1. Communicate clearly with your customers: During this period, transparent communication with customers is a necessity. A lot of businesses have started displaying messages on their home pages, explaining their

• Introducing: Digital signature for estimates and invoices

  Dear customers, We are pleased to announce that the much awaited Zoho Invoice - Zoho Sign integration is live! You can now sign your estimates and invoices before emailing it to your customers. Also, you can have them sign your estimates while accepting it. Here is our help document to help you get started: https://www.zoho.com/invoice/help/integrations/sign-integration.html Note: This feature is available across all editions of Zoho Invoice except the Indian edition. Out of all the feature requests

• Webinar: Introduction to the Client Portal

  Business owners know there is never enough time in the day. Not only do you have to beat the competition and make the sale, you then have to make sure you get paid. In fact, the sales process starts way before the sale, and never really ends. Preparing and getting estimates approved, collecting payments, and fielding customer requests for information related to past transactions are all part of the day in the life of a business owner. Well, Zoho Invoice can offer some relief to weary business owners.

• Recent Topics

• Canvas View - Print

  What is the best way to accomplish a print to PDF of the canvas view?

• What's New in Zoho Analytics - October 2025

  Hello Users! We're are back with a fresh set of updates and enhancements to make data analysis faster and more insightful. Take a quick look at what’s new and see how these updates can power up your reports and dashboards. Explore What's New! Extreme

• Respond faster and smarter with Zia in your IM Inbox

  You’re in the middle of a busy chat queue. New messages keep popping up. One customer sounds upset. Another is asking a long list of questions. You need context. You need speed. You need help. That’s exactly when Zia Insghts jumps into action. It shows

• Meeting impossible to use when sharing screen

  he Meeting tool in Brazil is practically unusable when sharing anything, whether it’s a presentation or simple navigation. When accessed via Cliq, the situation gets even worse: even basic calls fail to work properly, constantly freezing. And as you are

• Let's Talk Recruit: Meet Zia, your all-in-one AI assistant (Part-2)

  Welcome back to Let’s Talk Recruit series. In Part 1, we introduced Zia and how AI is reshaping the way recruiters work. This time, we’re taking a closer look at how far Zia has come and how each update continues to simplify your everyday tasks. When

• WARNING : Smart list automatically unsubscribes your contacts.

  I created a smart list of my team members based on the criterion that their email domain was @_____. The list refreshed as expected — but it ended up unsubscribing almost all members of my team. I contacted support, but it took two months to get a reply,

• Export Purchase orders as Excel

  Is it possible to export purchase orders as excel rather than PDF? Our suppliers don't want orders made in PDF, they need it to be excel

• 5名限定 課題解決型ワークショップイベント Zoho ワークアウト開催のお知らせ (10/31)

  ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。Zoho ユーザーコミュニティチームの中野です。 10月開催のZoho ワークアウトについてお知らせします。 今回はZoomにて、オンライン開催します。 参加登録はこちら（無料）：https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/BGYTysOnSqa9LA9eY2IKww ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Zoho ワークアウトとは？ Zoho ユーザー同士で交流しながら、サービスに関する疑問や不明点の解消を目的とした

• Subforms in Stateless Forms

  Stateless Forms are very useful, but we can't build complex data entry pages without Subforms. Can this be implemented? This would make Stateless Forms truly powerful.

• Custom Function not getting package details when triggered from Workflow Rules.

  I have a custom function for Packages that submits a form in our Creator app that we use to generate custom shipping labels (internal staff complete deliveries so we cannot generate shipping labels straight from Inventory). When the function is executed

• Billing Preferences per Account

  Hello, We are trying to setup Billing Preferences in Zoho Desk to set up a different pricing per account. We charge different pricing per hour per customer/account. Account A = 100 per hour Account B = 125 per hour In the Billing Preferences in Time Entry

• Time entry preview for custom time entry templates.

  Our company needed time entries in a specific format to document our client interactions. Since we are using a custom time entry layout, we have lost the "preview" on the time entry tab. Using the default time entry layout, you get a small preview of

• 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

• Implementing a Self-Invoicing/Vendor Portal in Zoho Creator

  Hello Zoho Community / Creator Experts, We would like to build a Self-Invoicing Portal (Vendor Portal) in Zoho Creator for our external contractors. Our goal is to allow approved contractors to log in, submit their invoice details (hours worked, project

• 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

• Able to change project on timelog entries

  Ability to move the timesheet entry from one project to another. When a user adds a wrong entry a manager can change/update the timesheet entry to the correct project.

• What formula to use in computing total hrs and decimal hrss

  So , my data includes log im column , 2 breaks with 2 columns that says back and lunch and 1 column that says back and logged out. What formula should i use to be able to automatically have my total hours as I input time in each column? Thankyou

• i cannot use <b></b> to bold the message in Creator C6!!!!???What?

  Dear experts and friends, Now Creator 6 blocking us from using <b></b> Anyone facing this issue? I faced it on Creator C6 Previously, it used to work. Now failed to work. Faint~ Seek guidance from everyone on how to bold the message. The super simple

• Knowledge base: The nitty-gritty of SEO tags

  A well-optimized knowledge base with great SEO can benefit your company by allowing customers to find help articles and support resources using search engines. This enables customers to quickly and efficiently find the information they need without direct

• Introducing swipe actions in the Zoho CRM Android app

  Hello everyone, How much time do you spend each day on your list view? Probably quite a lot. Since it's such an important part of your work, wouldn't it be easier if you could take action directly from your list view instead of opening each record one

• Content Security Policy

  Is there a place in ZOHO CRM to add a Content Security Policy to allow for a call to a google.com map, from inside our current app? Or, how do I resolve the issue below?? jquery.js:1 Refused to load the script 'https://maps.google.com/maps/api/js?v=3.41&libraries=places&sensor=true&key=AIzaSyAyQzKeKSbLci4LwZhn9oXvtCkbUo1Ae4g&callback=map_loader'

• Option to select location?

  As a business coach, I meet with clients at various public locations. I have two or three pre-determined locations that I meet at. I would like the client to choose the location when booking an appointment. Is there a way to do that with a single service, or is the best way to accomplish this by creating one service for each location offered?

• Unified WhatsApp Number Management in Zoho Desk and SalesIQ

  Dear Zoho Desk Support Team, We are currently utilizing both Zoho Desk and Zoho SalesIQ for our customer support operations. While both platforms offer WhatsApp integration, we are facing challenges due to the requirement of separate WhatsApp numbers

• Provide a standard structure to your content using article templates

  Hello everyone, When multiple writers work on different documents, maintaining a standard structure can be challenging as each of the writer follows a different writing style. However, when the structure, tone, and format of every document is different,

• How to update custom multi-user field in Zoho Projects?

  I'm trying to update custom multi-user fields in Zoho Projects via a Deluge function in CRM. The code I have so far is below. It works for updating standard project fields and single-line custom fields, but it does not work to update multi-user fields.

• Accessibility Spotlight Series - 1

  Every user interacts with products differently, what feels intuitive to one may be challenging for another. Addressing this, accessibility is built into Zoho Project's design philosophy. This helps users navigate and perform actions with ease irrespective

• Projects Tasks Not Showing Dependencies

  I'm clicking on tasks and the popup to add dependencies isn't showing. I can't disconnect the nodes either. For some reason when I slide a task backwards it says it cannot go before a predecessor, even though there is not predecessor. Double clicking

• Deprecation of C4 endpoint URLs

  Note: This post is only for users who are still using the C4 endpoints. Hello everyone, At Zoho Creator, we're committed to continuously enhancing the security, performance, and capabilities of our platform. As part of this ongoing effort, we'll be deprecating

• Introducing AWS authentication for connections in Deluge

  Hello everyone, We're incredibly excited to announce the all-new AWS authentication for connections in Deluge! This highly anticipated feature simplifies connecting to Amazon Web Services, opening up a world of possibilities and allowing you to seamlessly

• Timeline Tracking Support for records updates via module import and bulk write api

  Note: This update is currently available in Early Access and will soon be rolled out across all data centers (DCs) and for all editions of Zoho CRM. The update will be available to all users within your organization, regardless of their profiles or roles.

• Customize User Invites with Invitation Templates

  Invitation Templates help streamline the invitation process by allowing users to create customized email formats instead of sending a one-size-fits-all email. Different invitation templates can be created for portal users and client users to align with

• ListObjects is recognized by VBA

  Sub addNewRow() Dim ws As Worksheet ' Set your worksheet name Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Invoice") ' Set your table name (change "Table1" to your actual table name) ws.ListObjects("InvItems").ListRows.Add End Sub I am getting Unknown function: Li

• KPI Widget dashboard select periods

  I have a problem with selecting periods as a user filter. In the beste scenario I would like to have to have a period filter like Google Analytics has of Datastudio (see attachment). In the KPI widget I "Group by "inquiry_date" on week&Year". It selects

• Need a way to secure Prefill URLs in Zoho Forms (hide or encrypt prefilled values)

  Hi everyone, I often use Zoho Forms with prefilled URLs to simplify the user experience — for example: https://forms.zohopublic.com/.../form?Name=David&Amount=300 However, the problem is that all prefilled values are visible and editable in the link.

• Can’t send emails from Zoho CRM after adding a new user — verification codes not received

  Hi everyone, We recently added a new user to our Zoho CRM account and purchased an additional license. Since then, we haven’t been able to send any emails from Zoho CRM. Our Zoho Mail accounts are working perfectly, we can send and receive emails directly

• CRM for email in Outlook: how to ignore addresses?

  We’re using the "Zoho CRM for email" add-in for Outlook. When opening an email, the add-in displays all email addresses from the message and allows me to add them to the CRM or shows if they’re already contacts. However, sometimes people listed in To

• Scheduling Calls in CommandCenter / Blueprints

  I would love it if you could add a function to schedule a call in the lead's record for a future date. I know you can add a Task by going to Instant Actions > Task and completing the form: These tasks go into the lead's record under Open Actions. But

• Quickly send emails and sync conversations with custom email addresses in CRM

  Editions: All editions DCs: All DCs Release plan: This enhancement has been released for customers in all DCs except IN and US. We will be enabling it for IN and US DC customers soon. [Update on 22 May 2024] This enhancement has been released for all

• Zoho製品と生成AIツールの活用について

  いつもありがとうございます。 弊社では、Zoho Oneを契約し、CRMを軸として、見込み客の管理から商談、その後の受注や請求の管理、サポート業務（Desk）、業務データのレポーティング（Analytics）などを行っております。 Zohoサービス自体には、Ziaというツールが搭載されているかと存じますが、それ以外の外部の生成AIツールと連携した活用などもできるのでしょうか？具体的には、CopilotなどがZohoに登録されているデータや情報を見て、対話型で必要なデータを提示してくれたり、商談や蓄積されたメモなどを分析してユーザが知見を得られるような活用ができないか、と考えております。

• Work with Contacts who use multiple Emails / Manage obsolete Email addresses without loosing Emails in Context

  Hello List Work with Contacts who use multiple Emails Only after 1 week in using Zoho CRM productively we have contacts which randomly use 2 different email addresses. From the concept I've understood that Zoho CRM offers two email fields which are recognized

• Next Page