We thought we would announce this small but useful enhancement on Zoho Books/Zoho Invoice, not only because it is a useful function but because we like how it demonstrates how Zoho listen to their customers and take valuable feedback on board to improve their software. 

A customer of ours one day asked whether they could - instead of including lengthy terms and conditions in an invoice template - include them as an attachment on the email that send the invoice. 

Different terms and conditions, could be attached to different email templates, rather than trying to remember to attach them when sending the invoice. 

We suggested this to Zoho and within a week, they had introduced this enhancement. 

You are now able to add attachments to the email template itself:

These can be Terms and Conditions, standard contracts, a company introduction pack, or anything else you want to send to your customers in the quotation/invoice process. 

If you have different contracts or Terms and Conditions documents, depending on what you are selling, then you can create different email templates. 

This example is just one way that user feedback has helped to improve a Zoho product and we hope you will like this new function! 

For more information on Zoho Books/Zoho Invoice, please contact us here. 

You may or many not have noticed the new widgets in Zoho Invoice and Zoho Books but we thought we would blog about them just in case as they can be quite useful!

Take a look at the top left of the screen now and you will see a couple of new icons, next to the Zoho logo:

These new icons allow you to... 

Quickly add new records

Rather like the Add button in Zoho CRM, which allows you to click one time then select what it is you want to add, this function also allows you to add a new Quotation, Invoice or whatever, directly from clicking this button. This means you do not need to go into the relevant module to add new data, saving clicks and ... clicks mean time!

Go to your recent items

Again, it looks like the Zoho Invoice/Books team have been collaborating with the Zoho CRM guys and have implemented one of their most useful functions, the 'recent items' clock type icon that in the CRM appears on the firmest left side of the screen and shows the last 10 records you accessed.  The same function is now in Zoho Invoice and so you need not have to search for the record in the relevant module in order to view it.  Simply click the recent items icon, select the one you want!

Although these are pretty basic functions they are just one way Zoho are taking these suggestions on board to try to improve their products based on your feedback.   

Contact Us

For more information or a free trial of Zoho Invoice or Zoho Books, please contact us here.

Zoho Books and Zoho Invoice, the online business accounting solutions from Zoho, now have a new feature to reduce the tedious process of charging recurring invoices to customers on a regular basis.

Zoho Books and Zoho Invoice have long had a recurring invoice function that sends a manually checked or fully automated

The new feature lets you charge your customer's credit card for recurring invoice payments on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.

In the case of failed payments, Zoho Books/Invoice will then try to process the payment again after a few days, before suspending it (dunning).  

The ‘dunning process’ is defined by Wikipedia as:

“... the process of methodically communicating with customers to ensure the collection of accounts receivable. Communications progress from gentle reminders to threatening letters and phone calls and more or less intimidating location visits as accounts become more past due. Laws in each country regulate the form that dunning can take. It is generally unlawful to harass or threaten consumers. It is acceptable to issue firm reminders and to take all allowable collection options.”

Zoho have currently enabled this new function for Stripe, which allows you to accept payments from almost any credit card and debit card, no matter where your customer lives. 

It is important at this stage to note however that in order to accept payments with Stripe, you or your business must be located in one of the countries Stripe supports.

• Australia
  
• Canada
  
• Ireland
  
• United Kingdom
  
• United States
  

Stripe is also available in open beta in:

• Belgium
  
• Finland
  
• France
  
• Germany
  
• Luxembourg
  
• The Netherlands
  
• Spain
  

This function will require basic steps as follows:

Step 1: Set up recurring invoices.

Step 2: Set up recurring invoice preferences.

Step 3: Configure Auto Charge.

Step 4: Configure payment failure retries (Dunning) and more.

We’ll keep you updated as we learn more but this looks like it will be a very useful function for small businesses!

Contact Us

For more information on Zoho Books and Zoho Invoice online accounting software for small businesses please contact us here.

With Zoho Books & Zoho Invoice you can now provide your customers with their own client portal so that they can review their payments, latest transactions and also provide them with the ability to make online payments.

All superb features that will help you to get paid quickly!

Fortunately now (or perhaps 'unfortunately' for clients!), customers will not be able to delay payments of your invoices by using lines like "I did not receive the email" or "please can you send to me by regular mail".  

This is done using the new 'client portal', available in both Zoho Books and Zoho invoice, which allows your clients to login and view what they owe you and make quick online payments, wherever they are.

They can also review estimates that you have made forthem meaning you can more easily discuss open sales potentials online or on the phone, to help close the sale more quickly.

Another nice feature is that you will also be able to see when your customer has viewed an invoice in the portal! So again, excuses like “Sorry, I did not see the last invoice" or "the statement has been lost in the post” are running thin for would be payment procrastinators!

Contact Us

For more details of this new function or for information on how to implement Zoho Books or zoho Invoice in your small business, please contact us here.