Customer Portal - Functions

This page gives you an overview of all the features that are available in the Customer Portal.

Home Dashboard

The Home screen is similar to the Dashboard in Zoho Billing and is the first screen that your customers see when they log in to the Customer Portal. It gives them an overview of the transactions that have taken place between you and your customers, and will display the following details:

• Outstanding Invoices: The total number of outstanding invoices along with the total amount that your customer owes you for all their outstanding invoices. A Pay Now link will be displayed as well, which your customer can use to pay the entire outstanding amount in one go.
• Available Credits: The total amount that you owe your customer. This amount is based on a customer’s credit notes and any refunds that you may have initiated.
• Last Payment Made: The amount and date of the most recent payment made by your customer. A link to the corresponding invoice will be present as well.
• My Details: Your customers can view and update their contact, address, and payment information that’s stored in Zoho Billing.
• Pending Approvals: The number of estimates & the number of timesheets that your customer has to approve. Clicking on either of these numbers will open a list of the respective transactions that are pending approval.

Apart from the details above, your customers will also be able to view your organization’s basic contact details, write reviews and send emails directly to your organization’s email address.

Manage Subscriptions

The Customer Portal offers comprehensive subscription management for your customers, thereby putting more control in their hands and saving you time from making their requested changes manually in Zoho Billing.

View Subscriptions

The Subscriptions module from the left sidebar displays a list of all the subscriptions that exist for your customer in Zoho Billing.

Your customer can use the filters at the top of the list to sort through their subscriptions quickly and find the one they’re looking for.

Clicking on any subscription from the list will open an overview screen with additional details of the subscription.

Manage Trials

Your customers can perform the following actions to manage their trial subscriptions from the Customer Portal:

• Convert Trials to Live
• Extend Trials
• Cancel Trials

Convert Trials to Live

Your customers can end their trial at any point during a subscription’s trial period, and immediately convert the subscription to the Live status. They can do this by going to the Subscriptions module, selecting a subscription, and then clicking Activate Subscription.

A summary of the various subscription related charges will be displayed. If your customer chooses to proceed and activate the subscription, their trial period will end and the subscription’s status will become Live. An invoice will be created as well.

Extend Trials

If your customers need more time to evaluate your product or service, they can extend certain trial subscriptions when the trial period ends.

After the trial has expired, a popup will be displayed to your customers, letting them know about the available trial extension. The duration of the extension will depend on the trial period, which you’ve configured for that particular plan.

You can configure how many trial extensions should be allowed from Customer Portal Preferences.

Cancel Trials

Trial subscriptions can be cancelled either immediately, or scheduled to be cancelled at the end of the current term from the Customer Portal. To do this, your customers should:

• Go to the Subscriptions module.
• Select a subscription.
• Click the ellipsis (3-dot) menu in the top right corner.
• Select Cancel Subscription.
• Choose when the subscription has to be cancelled.
  

Now, the subscription will be cancelled either immediately, or at the end of the current term, based on your selection.

Edit Subscriptions

Your customers can perform subscription updates, such as changing plans, addons, and coupons right from the Customer Portal. To do this, they must go to the Subscriptions module, select a subscription, and click Manage Subscription.

Now, they will be able to edit their subscription and apply their changes to reflect immediately, or at the end of the current term.

Change Auto-charge Status

Auto-charge can be enabled or disabled from the Customer Portal for subscriptions that have a payment method associated with them.

A few points to note about toggling Auto-charge:

• When your customers disable Auto-charge for a Dunning subscription, the subscription’s status will change from Dunning to Live, since automatic payment retries will not be possible.
• Enabling auto-charge from the Customer Portal will not collect the pending amount (if any) for invoices that have been generated already. For these invoices, your customers must make the payment manually.

Pause & Resume Subscriptions



Your customers can Pause and Resume their subscriptions from the Customer Portal, similar to how you would configure Pause and Resume schedules from Zoho Billing in Preferences.

To configure a Pause and Resume schedule, your customers should:

• Go to the Subscriptions module.
• Select a subscription.
• Click the ellipsis (3-dot) menu in the top right corner.
• Select Pause Subscription.

  Insight: If a subscription is already paused, then your customers will have to select Resume Subscription here instead.

• Configure their Pause and Resume (optional) schedule as required.

* Click Save.

Now the Pause and Resume schedule, which your customers have configured, will be in effect. They can delete or change the configured pause and resume schedules at any time by repeating the steps above or by clicking Change Schedule from a subscription’s details screen.

Clicking Delete Schedule will remove the currently applied Pause and Resume schedules.

Cancel Subscriptions

Subscriptions can be cancelled either immediately, or scheduled to be cancelled at the end of the current term, from the Customer Portal. To do this, your customers should:

• Go to the Subscriptions module.
• Select a subscription.
• Click the ellipsis (3-dot) menu in the top right corner.
• Select Cancel Subscription.
  
• Choose when the subscription has to be cancelled.

Reactivate Subscriptions

Your customers can reactivate subscriptions that are in the Cancelled or Expired status, from the Customer Portal. They can do this by going to the Subscriptions module, and then selecting an expired or cancelled subscription.

Now, a banner message will be visible at the top, stating that the subscription has either expired or has been cancelled.

In this banner, your customers can click Proceed to Reactivate to start reactivating their subscription. A summary of the reactivation charges will be shown to your customer, along with a Reactivate Subscription button, which your customers can click to confirm the reactivation.

View & Pay Invoices

Your customers can view invoices and make payments for them from the Customer Portal.

Viewing Invoices

The Invoices module from the left sidebar displays a list of all the invoices that exist for your customer in Zoho Billing.

Your customer can use the filters at the top of the list to sort through their invoices quickly and find the one they’re looking for.

Clicking on any invoice from the list will show additional details of the invoice.

Making Invoice Payments

Your customers can proceed to make invoice payments from 3 places in the Customer Portal:

1. Subscriptions Module

Making payments from the Subscriptions module is an easy way for your customers to quickly find a particular subscription’s invoices. To do this, your customers should:

• Go to the Subscriptions module.
• Select a subscription and click View Invoices.
• Click the Pay Now link present near unpaid invoices.

2. Invoices Module

The Invoices module lets your customers initiate invoice payments either from the list view or from an invoice’s details screen. Your customers should:

• Go to the Invoices module from the left sidebar.

• Click Pay Now next to an unpaid invoice. Your customers can also click on a particular invoice from the list to open its details screen. Here, your customers can click Make Payment.

  Pro Tip: The Outstanding Invoices filter at the top of the list can make it easy for your customers to view all of their unpaid invoices quickly.

3. Home Dashboard

If your customers have multiple unpaid invoices, they can pay the total outstanding amount for all of these invoices in one go. To do this, they must:

• Go to the Home dashboard.
• Click Pay Now in the Outstanding Invoices section.

No matter which of these 3 ways your customers choose to make payments, the process will be the same. After clicking the Pay Now button, your customers will be able to select their payment method of choice. If they already have a payment method associated with them, they can select it and click Make Payment to complete the payment with a single click.

They can also add new payment information, such as card details to complete the payment. When adding new payment information, your customers will have the option to allow that payment method to be used for future transactions. If enabled, this payment method will be the associated payment method for that subscription, and will be used for Auto-charge in the future.

Once your customers have completed their payment, you will be notified about it and the status of the invoice will turn to Paid.

Track Payments Made

The Payments Made module from the left side bar displays a list of all the invoice payments that your customers have made. Your customers can use the view filters at the top of the list to sort through invoices.

Clicking any payment in the list will display the payment’s receipt. Your customers can download or print this receipt for their reference.

Generate Statement of Accounts

The statement of accounts is a document that lists out all the transactions that have taken place between you and your customer over a particular period. It lets your customer know the total amount that they owe you for the sales that took place during that period.

To generate a statement of accounts from the Customer Portal, your customers should:

• Go to the Statements module from the left sidebar.
• Select the Date Range in the top-left corner.
• Click Go to generate the statement.

Now, the statement will be generated based on the date range that was selected.

Your customers can also download or print the statement for their reference.

Forward Documents

Your customers can share invoices and quotes with their contact persons via the Customer Portal.

To forwards documents, your customers should:

• Go to the Invoices module from the left sidebar.
• Select an invoice.

• Click Forward.

  Insight: Only the Primary Contact of a customer will be able to forward documents from the Customer Portal.

• Select the contact persons with whom you want to share the invoice.

• Edit the subject and body of the email if required.

• Click Send.

Now an email, which contains an attachment of the invoice PDF, will be sent to your contact persons.

View & Update Payment Information

Your customers can view and update their existing payment information from the Customer Portal. To do this, they should:

• Go to the Home dashboard.
• Click View More near the My Details section.
  
• Click the edit (Pencil) icon next to the payment information that they want to update.
• Enter the details of the new payment method.
• Click Save.

If the old payment method was associated with any subscriptions for Auto-charge, now the updated payment method will be used instead.

View & Update Customer Details

Your customers can update some of their basic contact information that’s stored in Zoho Billing. To do this, they should:

• Go to the Home dashboard.
• Click View More near the My Details section.
  

• Click the edit (Pencil) icon that’s next to either the Customer Details, Billing Address or Shipping Address section.

  Insight: If you’ve enabled the Show in portal option for any Customer custom fields, those fields will be available to view and update from here as well.

• Update the necessary details.

• Click Save.

Other Actions

There are a few other actions that your customers can perform from the Customer Portal.

Send Emails

Your customers can send emails to you directly from the Customer Portal. To do this, they should:

• Go to the Home dashboard.
• Click Send Email at the bottom of the dashboard.
  
• Enter a Subject and Message.
• Click Send.

Now, the email will be sent to your organization’s Primary Contact.

Share Reviews

Your customers can review your business from the Customer Portal, which can give you an idea of what customers think of your business, as well as a space to hear constructive criticism and improve customer relations.

To write reviews, your customers should:

• Go to the Home dashboard.
• Click Review at the bottom of the dashboard.
  
• Select 1-5 stars and write a Comment.
• Click Submit Review.

Now, you will receive a notification in Zoho Billing about the review, which can be clicked to view it. You can also view all of a customer’s reviews from the Overview screen in the Customers module of Zoho Billing.

Change Password

To change the password used for the Customer Portal, your customers should:

• Click Change Password in the left sidebar.
• Enter their existing and new passwords.
• Click Confirm.

Now, your customers can use the new password to log in to the Customer Portal.

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