Tip #4 : Refer and Earn Workflow system for your Subscription Business

Tip #4 : Refer and Earn Workflow system for your Subscription Business

Hello everyone,

We've been coming up with a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which can be implemented for your business. In continuation to the previous post, this week we will be seeing about
how you can implement the Refer and Earn Workflow system to acquire more customers.

Why are Referrals important?


Customer Acquisition is crucial for any business to sustain itself in a constantly evolving

market. It involves persuading new consumers to purchase your products. Customers tend to buy products that are considered to be reliable and trustworthy. Therefore, it can be quite difficult to bring in new customers without proper marketing strategies.
 
Word-of-mouth referral campaigns is a proven strategy to help you acquire lots of customers effectively in a short period of time. 

What is a word-of-mouth referral campaign?

If a customer is satisfied with your product, he will become a regular subscriber to your product. He will eventually spread the word around. This is a free marketing strategy for your product. Once people start hearing positive feedback about your products, they will prefer your brand to your competitors. 

To make this strategy more effective, you can simply provide a referral incentive for your customers who are bringing in new customers through referrals. This will motivate them to spread the word and it will also help in customer retention.

A referral incentive can be anything from a discount (or) amount which you can credit to your customers who are bringing in new customers. Let us now see how we can implement a Refer and Earn workflow system in  Zoho Subscriptions.

Building a Refer and Earn Workflow system:


For this particular scenario, we will be raising a Credit Note (for fixed incentive amount) for a referrer who has referred a new customer. The Credit Note can be later applied during the next billing cycle of the customer. Let us look into a simple scenario to understand this better.


Assume that John is a long term subscriber for your product and he in turn is referring his friend Mark to your product. Here,

John -> Referrer
Mark -> Referred Customer

When Mark subscribes to your product, he will mention that John is the one who has referred Mark. Since John has made a successful referral, you will raise a credit note for John for a fixed incentive amount.

As you can see, the most primary requirement for this workflow is to identify the referrer. In this case, to identify the referrer, we will show a Custom Field of type Email Address in the Hosted Page, where the subscriber can mention his referrer's email address. Later when a new subscription is created, we will be using our Custom Function Workflow to raise a credit note for that referrer. 

The below explained custom function does the same.

Code Explanation:



You can refer to the code in this GitHub link. The code is written in Deluge Script which can be easily understood by non-programmers.

1) Paste your authtoken, Custom Field's label and incentive amount in their corresponding variables.

2) Once a new subscription is created, we can check if a referrer Email id is present. If it is present, we use that Email ID to get the customer (Referrer) details from our database.

3) Once the Referrer is identified, a credit note will be raised for the mentioned incentive amount.

 

4) In case, if the email address is not present in our database, the admin of the organization will be intimated with an Email regarding this.


Getting started with the Custom Functions:  

1. Go to Settings -> Automation -> Custom Functions. 


2. Create a new Custom Function. Provide a name for the function. 


3. Choose the module and event according to your need.


4. Copy the code which was given above. Do the necessary changes that are required.


5. Save the Custom Function and you are good to go.

Found this useful? Try it out and let us know how it works! If you have questions, do not hesitate to ask!


Cheers,

Sasidaran K,
Zoho Subscriptions.

    • Sticky Posts

    • Tip #4 : Refer and Earn Workflow system for your Subscription Business

      Hello everyone, We've been coming up with a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which can be implemented for your business. In continuation to the previous post, this week we will be seeing about how you can implement the Refer and Earn Workflow system to acquire more customers. Why are Referrals important? Customer Acquisition is crucial for any business to sustain itself in a constantly evolving market. It involves persuading new consumers to purchase your products. Customers

    • Tip #2 - Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date

      Hello everyone, As you all know, we are coming up with a custom function workflow every week to address specific business scenarios. In continuation of this previous blog, this week we will be seeing about Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date. Business Scenario: In general, for any business, the customers make payments via online as well as offline. In case of subscription where the automatic collection of charge is enabled (aka online subscription), the customer's

    • Tip #3 : Send SMS Reminders for your Subscription Business

      Hello everyone, As you all know, we are coming up with a tip every week to address specific business scenarios. In continuation to the previous blog, this week we will be seeing how you can use SMS reminders for your Subscription Business. Using SMS messages for your Subscription Business: While managing your subscription business, more often than not, you need to keep your customers informed about upcoming renewals, payment reminders and cancellations. By keeping them informed in advance, you can

    • Tips And Tricks - Announcement

      Hello everyone, Every business is unique and each of them follows a specific workflow. While managing your customers' subscriptions with Zoho, you might have some needs unique to your business. Custom Functions helps you address such needs. This is a start to a series of posts, where we will be coming up with a custom function workflow every week that addresses specific business scenarios. Watch this space for further updates! Also, if you have any specific business scenario which needs to be addressed,

    • Tip #6 : Accessing external URLs from Zoho Subscriptions

      Hello everyone, We have been sharing a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which you can implement for your subscription business. Last week, we shared a tip about implementing the Approval Workflow system. This week, let's look at how you can access external URLs with the help of Custom Link. Business Scenario: Every business functions differently and has its unique requirements. At times, businesses might want to access other websites or applications by appending specific information

    • Recent Topics

    • Important update on our transition to the new video platform framework

      As part of our ongoing platform changes, users in select regions, including the United States and other supported data center locations, have been migrated to our new video platform framework. Due to this migration, some participants may notice changes

    • Deleted User Emails

      I need to delete a user as I need to re-use their license, but I'd like to keep all their emails that are attached to various contacts in the CRM. Their emails are hosted externally on an M365 license. Anyone any idea how best to engineer this? TIA

    • #14 Get Paid Without Spending Time on Manual Follow-ups

      It's the end of the month. Payroll is due next week. A software subscription is about to renew. A vendor payment is waiting for approval. On paper, the business is doing great. Projects are getting completed. Customers are happy. Invoices have already

    • Client Script | Update - Client Script Support For Custom Buttons

      Hello everyone! We are excited to announce one of the most requested features - Client Script support for Custom Buttons. This enhancement lets you run custom logic on button actions, giving you greater flexibility and control over your user interactions.

    • Ability to select the attachment of a record when sending an email from FSM

      Hello FSM Team, FSM allows us to add attachments to any record (Estimate, Work Order, etc.). However, when we're sending an email from FSM, it is currently not possible to choose from the attachment in FSM to add to the email. When sending an estimate,

    • Function #11: Apply unused credits automatically to invoices

      Today, we bring you a custom function that automatically applies unused credits from excess payments, credit notes, and retainer payments to an invoice when it is created. Prerequisites: Create a Connection named "zbooks" to successfully execute the function.

    • Add spaces to input format

      In Zoho Inovices, I am trying to do a custom input format for a custom field. I have tried a few variations, but this is my most recent: ^[a-z][A-Z][0-9][,][-][_][:][ ]$ In this field, I will be entering different alphanumeric information, depending on

    • Zoho CRM Deal API returning null pipeline in case of default pipeline

      Hey team, We are writing to report an issue with the Deals module pipeline API behavior that we believe stems from how the default (Standard) pipeline is handled when no custom pipelines have been configured. When the "Manage Pipelines" page under CRM

    • Quebec Canada Tax GST and QST

      Hello Expert, Whenever we I create invoice for Quebec, Canada, it calculating wrong tax amount, can you please validate Attached the screenshot, which is calculating wrong tax amount on QST

    • Function #1: Convert an accepted Estimate to Sales Order automatically in Zoho Books

      As you’re aware, Zoho Books provides a default option to have the estimates automatically converted to invoices once your customer accepts them. Many of you wanted a similar option for sales orders, so here’s a workflow that converts accepted estimates

    • Facturation électronique 2026 - obligation dès le 1er septembre 2026

      Bonjour, Je me permets de réagir à divers posts publiés ici et là concernant le projet de E-Invoicing, dans le cadre de la facturation électronique prévue très prochainement. Dans le cadre du passage à la facturation électronique pour les entreprises,

    • Adding Taxes to paid consultations in Zoho Bookings

      I created a 'paid' consultation under Zoho Booking and integrated it with payment gateways for online/instant payment before a booking is done. How can I add 'taxes' to the price of consultation? I can add taxes to other Zoho apps (liks Books, Checkout,

    • What's New in Zoho Forms

      Hey there, We've been heads-down shipping this quarter. Because every update we ship is about making your forms do more, with less effort from you. This quarter too, we expanded what Zoho Forms can do. Here's everything that shipped. Spotlight Forms Some

    • Zoho Creator and Bluetooth Beacons?

      Hi all, Has anyone developed anything in Zoho Creator that leverages Bluetooth? Specifically to detect bluetooth beacons (iBeacon, Eddystone, etc.)? Thank you, Josh

    • Zoho Books | Product updates | June 2026

      Hello users, Welcome to this month's roundup of what's new in Zoho Books! We have an exciting line-up this time. The highlight is the launch of the all-new France Edition with full ISCA compliance. We're also introducing features such as Layout Rules

    • API to post drafts for social media

      I we want to post draft posts to our zoho social account and then approve and schedule them within Zoho social. is this possible with for example: https://apis.zoho.com/social/v2/post TIA Jon

    • Updating Zoho Books UI when a field is changed

      I have this script to update Quotes Expiry date. estimateID = estimate.get("estimate_id"); numberDaysTobeExtended = 14; estimatedate = estimate.get("date").toDate(); organizationID = organization.get("organization_id"); estDate = estimate.get("date");

    • What's New in Zoho Inventory | April & May 2026

      Hello users, We're excited to roll out the latest Zoho Inventory updates for April and May 2026. These enhancements are designed to make your daily operations smoother and more efficient, from advanced inventory management and flexible pricing to automated

    • Bullet Charts Stuck Loading Without Data

      I have a dashboard with some widgets in bullet chart format, but some of them do not have data. Since there is no data, they keep loading indefinitely instead of displaying “No Data,” as happens with the percentage widget next to them. This issue prevents

    • How to get Monday as 1st day of the week?

      Hi, The first day of the week is Sunday in Zoho Creator calendar.So it is hardly usable as in Europe the 1st of the week is always Monday. How can I get Monday as 1st day of the week? Best regards, Chris

    • Shall we play a game?

      Presenting the very first game created using ZOHO Creator: Tic-Tac-Toe (or noughts and crosses) I made this to challenge myself and employ some of the new features of ZOHO Creator. I must admit that the code is very literal and not too elegant. There are plans to improve on the machine AI and streamline the code over time. Currently the code makes extensive use of functions for the machine "AI" - there are 12 of these.   The machine AI can be tricked, so to counteract that I made it exceedingly arrogant

    • FINALLY! 100% Responsive iFrame for HTML Page Snippet

      For the past two years or so I have been battling with Page Snippets' responsiveness (HTML, Embed, and ZML). Furthermore, if you use the native embedded reports, especially more than one report on a page, you have to set a static height because they're

    • Associate project with timer on iPhone

      When I start the timer without first associating a project (on my iPhone), its starts fine but now when I need to associate a project, and click on the link, I get a list of EVERY project I've ever put into Zoho Books. It used to just show active projects.

    • Check printing alignments always changes

      Hello, We have a frustrating problem with printing checks. We use Quickbooks voucher checks, which works okay for us. The problem is the printing alignment for the check's "Date, Pay to the Order of, Amount, and Amount in Words" changes every time we

    • name change of company in same GSTIN registration . how to retain historical company name for past transactions?

      hello I have recently change my company name from BHANU DIAM to BHANUMATI IMPEX in same GSTIN registration number While i have update the company name in profile name that change all my historic data like sale invoices and purchase bill , i would like

    • iOS Books app shows filtered view after changing to All sales orders

      My boss often checks sales orders on his iPhone. The app is mostly working fine, but there's an ongoing issue: When switching between different filters (also called custom views on the web), going back to All doesn't often work. It typically gets stuck

    • Recurring Invoices

      I'm looking to set up recurring invoices on a monthly basis, using GoCardless as a payment gateway. I've done this successfully, however there's a big problem with the Invoice Date and Due Date. We prefer to provide sufficient notice of collection (10

    • Conditional Drop Downs

      Am I the only one that has a problem when setting up the same project for multiple customers - resulting in a HUGE number of projects (e.g. Project A - customer 1, Project A - customer 2, Project A - customer 3 etc.). OR, am I doing it wrong? What results

    • Layout Rules Don't Apply To Blueprints

      Hi Zoho the conditional layout rules for fields and making fields required don't work well with with Blueprints if those same fields are called DURING a Blueprint. Example. I have field A that is used in layout rule. If value of field A is "1" it is supposed to show and make required field B. If the value to field A is "2" it is supposed to show and make required field C. Now I have a Blueprint that says when last stage moves to "Closed," during the transition, the agent must fill out field A. Now

    • Ability to Use Both AND and OR When Creating Rules (Advanced Conditions)

      I'd like to be able to use more complicated logic when setting up rules. E.g. in Zoho Mail, I can choose "Advanced conditions (AND/OR) to create a rule that can be applied to multiple subject lines from the same sender. But in Zoho TeamInbox, I will have

    • How to record GST amount for Value of Service on Inward remittance charged by bank

      Hi please advice I have a situation.    1. I have HDFC bank account 2. I have a customer who has done inward remittance for purcahses from overseas. 3. HDFC is showing Value of Service say $100 and GST @ 18%. 4. Value of Service is not charged. But  CGST

    • Resources - Sort by rows consumed

      Please add the ability to sort by the total rows consumed in the Resources section of Settings. I would like to see which table is consuming the most rows by sorting from high to low.

    • 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

    • Editing a bundle

      How can I edit a bundle?

    • Approval escalation

      Hi I would like to have an approval escalation if Approver 1 does not approve/reject a request with a certain SLA. Currently I have a status field that changes to "Pending approver 2 approval" after a certain time, however the challenge I am faced with

    • Referral module for our Zoho People employees

      I have been requested to create a user in Zoho Recruit for each Zoho People user to allow them to refer a candidate in Zoho Recruit. Only the interviewer and guest profiles are free. The use of a custom profile is on the paid basis. Any user linked to

    • Conflicts on zoho project Tasks

      Hi We want to use ZOHO Project for scheduling our technicians. We have maintenance contract with our customers. We schedule interventions on customer sites. So we created projects for each contract and task for interventions. So if a technician need to go to customer I create task and schedule them after depending of availibility. When I need to assign a date I use start Date and due date on the task. But I realized there is no conflict management. I called support and they told me it is not developped.

    • Upcoming webinar : Build high-converting sales pipelines with Zoho LandingPage and Bigin

      For small businesses, generating leads is only half the battle. The real challenge is staying organized, following up consistently, and turning those leads into customers. Join us for this webinar to learn how Zoho LandingPage and Bigin can help you create

    • New UX Improvements in the Zoho Expense iOS and Android Apps

      Hello users, We're excited to share the latest updates and enhancements we've made to the iOS and Android apps of Zoho Expense. These updates have been designed to make your day-to-day expense and travel management even simpler. Note: We will be rolling

    • User Permission Log

      Our external auditors are asking for a way to view changes made to user permissions (basically, a user permission change log). Is this feature built into Creator? 

    • Next Page