Billing Management: #10 Solving Common Mistakes in Billing

Over the past few weeks, we have explored different facets of billing, from the simplicity of traditional one-time billing to the evolving landscape of subscriptions, retainers, and usage-based models. We've unpacked how billing isn't just about sending an invoice; it's about how a business communicates value, maintains trust, and keeps its financial rhythm steady.

As businesses grow, so does the complexity of billing. What once worked with a single invoice or payment can quickly become tangled when projects overlap, clients prepay, usage fluctuates, or charges go unbilled. While every business strives for precision in billing, even a small mistake can quietly cost time, money, and reputation.

In this final part of our Billing Management Series, let's step away from theory and get into the reality of businesses that struggle with billing errors, confusion, and missed revenue opportunities.

Missing Items 

Jessica runs a marketing agency. After wrapping up a major campaign, she sat down late into the night, manually typing the invoices. Halfway through, she realized she had missed adding a few minor tasks.

The client called the next morning. "Jessica, why is our invoice missing some items we agreed on?" they asked. Jessica could only apologize and rush to correct the total, feeling frustrated and embarrassed.

Zoho Billing keeps invoice creation error-free and straightforward. An invoice can be created and saved as a draft before it reaches the customer. This allows users like Jessica to double-check whether all the entries or items were added as agreed by the client. Once checked, the invoice can be sent, and through automatic reminders, follow-up can be done on the payment, leaving Jessica to focus on her campaigns instead of keeping it.

Invisible Hours 

Rakesh's firm was in the middle of a multiple-phase project. On Friday, he checked the milestone report and noticed something alarming.

"Wait, we logged 60 hours, right? Where are the extra 15?" he asked the team. They shrugged, looking sheepish. Some work had been done, but was never logged into the manual timesheets. Rakesh realized that the company might lose revenue without even knowing it.

Zoho Billing enables time logging from different devices and avenues to make it more accessible and reliable. It allows time logging in real time through the console, desktop version, mobile app (iOS and Android), and smartwatches. Once the time is logged, it automatically calculates the worked billable hours correctly and gives users confidence that the team's efforts were fully accounted for.

Subscription Chaos 

A fast-growing SaaS company had dozens of clients who upgraded and downgraded their plans each month. One afternoon, the finance team noticed a client's mid-cycle upgrade wasn't reflected correctly.

"Why does this invoice show the old plan?" demanded the client. "We upgraded last week!" yells the customer with frustration. Meanwhile, a failed payment had gone unnoticed, compounding the problem.

Zoho Billing automates subscriptions, handling plan changes, proration, and failed payment retries. Proration ensures that the customer is charged the precise additional amount required whenever they choose to upgrade their plan. Conversely, smart dunning assists the company by making three attempts before flagging it as unsuccessful. This also enables customers and users to receive notifications to ensure the renewal payments are successful.

Retainer Mystery 

At a law firm, partners argued over the amount of a client's retainer during a meeting. "Did we use $2500 or $3000 of this client's retainer?" one of the partners asked exasperatingly. Staff had been manually tracking prepayments, and this uncertainty delayed the issuance of the next invoice. Meanwhile, clients were called to verify balances, creating awkward back-and-forth conversations.

Zoho Billing promptly tracks advance payments under each customer record and applies them automatically to invoices. A comprehensive balance report provides precise information about the remaining retainer, ensuring alignment between partners and clients and minimizing internal misunderstandings.

Advance Invoice Dilemma 

A consulting firm must bill a client for a monthly strategy session. The finance team manually created the invoice, but accidentally issued a duplicate one. "Wait, did we just charge them twice?" someone asked with surprise. The client called, puzzled and frustrated, causing a tense back-and-forth over email before the error was resolved.

Zoho Billing automates advanced invoicing, tracking which invoices have been paid or applied. This ensures no duplicate invoices are sent to the client and keeps the renewal cycle intact. The clients receive clear, accurate bills for upcoming services.

Usage Puzzle 

A cloud storage company billed customers based on monthly data usage. Staff spent hours consolidating reports, calculating tiered charges, and applying discounts. Despite all this, the customer claimed, "We've double-counted somewhere."  He added, "Your invoice doesn't match my usage. Can you explain?" Hours were wasted checking logs and recalculating charges.

Zoho Billing integrates with your tracking system through APIs, promptly capturing usage data without any manual intervention. The usage is computed automatically according to the pricing configured, and it is visible on the invoices and in the customer portal.

Variable Usage Confusion 

An energy management company billed a commercial client based on electricity consumption. In a particular month, the client's usage spiked unexpectedly.

"I can't believe this is our invoice!  It's way higher than last month," the client exclaimed. Staff struggled to recalculate charges, delaying the invoice, and the frustrated client waited.

Zoho Billing automatically calculates variable usage charges according to the consumption rule. When usage data is added to the system, manually or by importing it, the corresponding charges will be applied and billed accurately with no room for errors while computing.

Compliance Headache 

Rio manages a mid-sized business with clients across multiple states and countries. Every month, he struggles with varying tax rules, be it GST or VAT calculation, and keeping his invoices compliant. "Did we apply the right tax for that international client?" he wonders, realizing a small mistake could result in penalties. The finance team spends hours cross-checking the invoices, often working late to ensure everything is accurate.

Zoho Billing offers edition-specific features that cater to different regions and compliance requirements. The editions starting from the USA, India, Australia, Canada, UAE, UK, and so on keep businesses covered in terms of taxable invoicing and compliance with local tax authorities. It automatically calculates applicable tax rates, applies local and international rules, and generates audit-ready invoices based on the country you choose. Zoho Billing ensures that every transaction is fully compliant, allowing Rio to move on without several hours of manual checks.

Precision in Billing Management 

Billing challenges encompass more than just numbers on a page; they also involve real people, their frustrations, and the risk of lost revenue. From missing line items to complex usage calculations, Zoho Billing automates various processes, ensures accuracy, and provides visibility across different levels.  Every invoice, advance request, or usage report is a professional touchpoint that strengthens clients' trust and allows businesses to focus on growth instead of chasing numbers. 

As we end this series on billing management, we are excited to make one extra post that will definitely excite everyone here. 

Hint: Zoho Billing now covers the Advanced Usage Billing Model. Keep guessing! 

• Topic Participants

• Hari | Zoho Billing

  

• 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

• When using "locations" in zoho books, can you keep the two locations totally separate from each other?

  I am looking to add a location but I don't want to intermingle the banking or other accounts. I want that to be like two separate independent branches that use different banking accounts, accounts payable, and accounts receivable. The people who are in

• [Free Webinar] User Management in Zoho Creator - Creator Tech Connect

  Hello Everyone! We welcome you all to the upcoming free webinar on the Creator Tech Connect Series. The Creator Tech Connect series is a free monthly webinar that runs for around 45 minutes. It comprises technical sessions in which we delve deep into

• A couple of minor enhancements to Workflows

  Last updated on September 17, 2024: These enhancements were initially available for early access, and we've now enabled them for all users. We are elated to announce a couple of enhancements to custom functions in our Workflows! Say hello to: "Source"

• Business Continuity - Disaster Recovery

  I know about the Zoho CRM backup .zip files, however, this doesn't include any of the infrastructure with like custom fields or custom modules. I am curious on what everyone has in place for a true backup or what your plan is if your Zoho instance were

• Free webinar alert on October 16 - Less Complexity, More Security: Workplace + Directory

  Hello Zoho Workplace Community! Security and productivity shouldn't be at odds—and with Zoho, they're not. Discover how Zoho Workplace + Directory delivers seamless collaboration with enterprise-grade security, all in one integrated ecosystem. Join our

• Narrative 11: Are your customers happy?

  Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system: BTS Series Narrative 11: Are your customers happy? Happiness isn't just something you experience; it's something you remember. Hear your customers' voices by enabling customer happiness ratings in Zoho

• Don't understand INVALID_REQUEST_METHOD when I try to post up an attachment

  When I make the POST request (using python requests.post() for files): https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v8/Calls/***************01/Attachments I get this response: r:{ "code": "INVALID_REQUEST_METHOD", "details": {}, "message": "The http request method type

• Signature field is showing black

  Hello, When customer signed the service form, it is showing as below picture Phone model: iPhone 16 Pro We tried delete and install application, but it not solved. This has on phone of a few person. There is any advice to solve this?

• Zoho CRM Android app updates: record sharing, user image upload, Zoho Survey integration, and more

  Hello everyone, We've made some important improvements to Zoho CRM's Android app, and we'd like to walk you through the latest updates. Here's what's new: Record sharing with org users User image upload Zoho Survey integration support Venue preference

• How to Delete/hide Google adwords section from Layout?

  Hi people, maybe someone can tell me how to remove or hide the Google adwords section from my layout? Im not using it and it takes too much space.

• WIDGET in related record list ZOHO CRM; how to get and put data to subform custom fields?

  he need: Read and write two custom subform line-item fields on Quotes: Segment_wyceny (picklist/text) and W_pakiecie (number). Write works; read does not return these fields via SDK. Environment Zoho CRM Widget Zoho Embedded App SDK v1.2 Module: Quotes

• Introducing Assemblies and Kits in Zoho Inventory

  Hello customers, We’re excited to share a major revamp to Zoho Inventory that brings both clarity and flexibility to your inventory management experience! Presenting Assemblies and Kits We’re thrilled to introduce Assemblies and Kits, which replaces the

• Way to update CRM records in quik view

  I have custom module in zoho crm and that module have 500 records. I want a quick way or UI so that user can easily update the record information in quick view without going to record detail view or edit view. I tried zoho sheet option but in zoho sheet

• Writer sing up problom

  Zoho writer sing up prolom face

• Where to integrate Price Book and Product List Price

  Hello, We sync zoho crm all modules with all data to zoho analytics. In zoho crm, we have "Price Books" and "Products" modules, where each product is assigned to a few price books with different list prices. From zoho crm, I am able to export a dataset

• Form / CRM Integration Not entering into workflow

  I have a simple form setup with company name, first name, last name and lead source. Each of the fields are mapped to CRM Leads module. When the form is submitted, the lead is populated properly. I also have a workflow created that when the lead source

• Automating CRM backup storage?

  Hi there, We've recently set up automatic backups for our Zoho CRM account. We were hoping that the backup functionality would not require any manual work on our end, but it seems that we are always required to download the backups ourselves, store them,

• Zoho Slowness - Workarounds

  Hi all, We've been having intermittent slowness and Zoho just asks for same stuff each time but never fix it. It usually just goes away on it's own after a couple weeks. Given that speed is a very important thing for companies to be able to keep up with

• First day of trying FSM in the field.

  What we found. 1. with out a network connection we were unable to start a service call? 2. if you go to an appointment and then want to add an asset it does not seem possible. 3. disappointed not to be able to actually take a payment from within the app

• Don't understand why Forms Mobile Scan and Fill not working

  I have configure enabled mobile scan and fill, I have enabled QR and Bar code on two fields name and position, I have mapped seq 1 to Name and seq 2 to position, I have created a 2d QR code with the person names and position, seperated by a comma. When

• Recurring Supervisor Rule Reminders for Open/In-Progress Tickets

  Hello Zoho Support Team, I would like to suggest a potential improvement regarding reminders for tickets and activities in Zoho Desk. Currently, it is possible to set reminders only once. In the Supervisor Rules section, it is possible to configure reminders

• Template usage

  Hi, We are using some templates as a response to customer questions. Is it possible to analyze the usage of these templates? We want to know if the use of our templates has increased over time

• How to mute chat notification sound by default in Zoho SalesIQ?

  We’ve recently embedded the Zoho SalesIQ chatbot on our website, and we’ve noticed that notification sounds sometimes play even when the visitor hasn’t interacted with the chat widget yet. We’re trying to understand two things: Why do these sounds occur

• Ticket Status Colors

  Can i change the colors of Ticket Status in the admin panel? Or even change the background of the entire cell of a Critical ticket? This way its easy for my agents to see a urgent ticket when it comes in. Right now everything is black text. Here Right

• Sync Lookup Fields from Zoho CRM

  HI Team, I have synced a lookup field from my CRM data to Campaigns. When I view the synced data the field appears to display a Zoho CRM record ID rather than the text value. Is it possible to get the sync to import the text value rather than the CRM

• New From Address cannot verify

  I have created a new From Address, which is the support@ address for my domain, that forwards to the default support mailbox. Presumably then, the verification email that is sent, should turn up as a ticket, but it does not. How can I verify my from address so that I can use my own domain?

• Closing Accounting Periods - Invoice/Posting dates

  Hi, I have seen in another thread but I'm unsure on how the 'transaction locking' works with regards to new and old transactions. When producing monthly accounts if I close December 24 accounts on 8th Jan 25 will transaction locking prevent me from posting

• How to update/remove file in zoho creator widgets using javascript API

  Hi Team, I have developed a widget which allows inserting and updating records I have file upload field with multiple file upload. Now while doing insert form record, I am using uploadFile API to upload files for that record. I am using updateRecord API

• issue with image thumbnails not showing in Image Selector

  We have been using Zoho Campaigns for over a year, maybe close to two years, and this issue just started happening in the last month. I wanted to wait to see if it would resolve on it's own, and it doesn't seem to be. The thumbnail images for all new

• Deluge Script for adding tag

  Trying to create a custom function where a tag is added to a record - but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how. Help please! Moderation Update: Adding the help doc and sample to add Tags to records via deluge here for everyone's benefit. tag1 =

• Unlock your Zoho Vault with OneAuth, Windows Hello, TouchID, YubiKey, and many more!

  Hello everyone, We are thrilled to introduce one of the most highly requested features – the ability to unlock your Zoho Vault using various authenticators. The primary purpose of a password manager is to remember just one master password and securely

• Blueprint or Validation Rules for Invoices in Zoho Books

  Can I implement Blueprint or Validation Rules for Invoices in Zoho Books? Example, use case could be, Agent confirms from client that payment is done, but bank only syncs transactions tomorrow. in this case, Agent can update invoice status to done, and

• Creator roadmap for the rest of 2022

  Hi everyone, Hope you're all good! Thanks for continuing to make this community engaging and informative. Today we'd like to share with you our plans for the near future of Creator. We always strive to strike a good balance of features and enhancements

• How can I get base64 string from filecontent in widget

  Hi, I have a react js widget which has the signature pad. Now, I am saving the signature in signature field in zoho creator form. If I open the edit report record in widget then I want to display the Signature back in signature field. I am using readFile

• Add Setting Values to the Rules

  Hi, It would be great to use the rules to set values in fields for submission, such as if a Type is X then set the Field Y to 10. Thanks Dan

• So we ran with it for the week

  In our company i bit the bullet and ran with FSM for a whole week. Service calls, deliveries and surveys. Covering about 30-120 miles a day to domestic properties. Loved the appointment list and satnav integration. Loved the timer to measure the appointments.

• Is there a way to set Document Owner/Sender via the API

  When sending requests for zoho sign, it would seem zoho uses the id of the person that created the zoho api cred to determine the owner_id, is there a way to set a default for this?

• What's New - September 2025 | Zoho Backstage

  September has been a different month for Zoho Backstage. Instead of rolling out a long list of new features, we focused on something just as important: Performance, reliability, and stability The event season is in full swing, and organizers are running

• Prevent stripping of custom CSS when creating an email template?

  Anyone have a workaround for this? Zoho really needs to hire new designers - templates are terrible. A custom template has been created, but every time we try to use it, it strips out all the CSS from the head.  IE, we'll define the styles right in the <head> (simple example below) and everything gets stripped (initially, it saves fine, but when you browse away and come back to the template, all the custom css is removed). <style type="text/css"> .footerContent a{display:block !important;} </style>

• Stock Quotes/Spreadsheet

  It would be nice if we could download security and mutual fund prices from Yahoo Finance (or?) in order to maintain an up to date investment portfolio on Zoho. Any chance?

• Next Page