Customer Portal Operations

The Customer Portal in Zoho ERP is a self-service space that lets your customers stay connected with your business and manage their transactions with ease. From viewing quotes, invoices, and subscriptions to making payments, approving timesheets, the portal gives customers visibility and control—while reducing back-and-forth communication for you. This page walks you through everything your customers can access and do once they log in to the Customer Portal.

Accessing the Customer Portal

Once your customers have accepted the invite, they can use the invitation email to log in to the Customer Portal.

The invitation email will contain the following:

• The URL to access the Customer Portal.

• Your customer’s username for the portal.

• Your customer’s password for the portal (if you didn’t configure a password when inviting them, they can accept the invitation and configure a password by themselves).

• An Accept Invitation button, which your customer must click to log in to the portal for the first time.

You can check whether your customers have accepted the invite by going to the Customers module and selecting a customer. The invitation status will be available in the Overview screen.

The Resend Portal Link option can be used to resend the invitation email to your customers. This is useful if your customers have missed or can’t find the email, or if you need to share the Portal URL with them again.

Home Dashboard

The Home screen is similar to the Dashboard in Zoho ERP 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 ERP.

• 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.

Your customers can perform various actions from the portal. Let’s explore them.

Accept Quotes

Customers can negotiate over the value of a product or service when send them a quote. In the customer portal, your customers can view the list of quotes they’ve received from you in the Quotes section. They can click on a quote to view its details. They can also filter the list to display a particular type of quote by clicking the drop-down menu above the list.

If they are satisfied with the price and deal, they can accept the quote.

Here’s how:

• Click Quotes in the left-sidebar.

• Select the quote that needs to be approved.

• Click the Accept button.

Customers can decline a quote if they aren’t okay with it and want a better offer, by clicking the Decline button. They can negotiate with you through the comments. You can then reply to the comments from your Zoho ERP organization, edit the declined quote to make a promising offer, and submit it again for approval.

View Sales Orders

If you have created a sales order for your customer to confirm the items and price of a sale, they can view it in the portal under Sales Orders. To drill down on a particular sales order’s details, they can click on the sales order number. Along with the order’s details, customers can also view the details of the invoice associated with a fulfilled sales order.

Manage Timesheets

Projects

Your customers can view the list of all their active projects in the Projects section of the customer portal.

To check more details of a particular project, they can click on a project name. They can view the following details of the selected project:

• Tasks: All the billable tasks you have created for this project will be listed here along with its corresponding Logged Hours, Billed Hours, and Unbilled Hours.
• Time Entries: All the billable timesheet entries that you have recorded for this project will be listed here along with the logged hours and the billing status.
• Comments: Customers can use this space to collaborate with you regarding this project. The comments added here will be displayed in the Comments section of the project in your Zoho ERP organization.

Timesheet

Your customers can then view all the timesheet approvals you have sent them under the Timesheet section in the customer portal. They can also filter and view the approvals based on the approval status.

Customers can click on a particular approval to view its details. If satisfied with the time entries, they can approve the submitted approval by clicking the Approve button. If not, they can Reject it and provide the reason. They can also communicate with you through the comments.

Manage Subscriptions

The Customer Portal offers comprehensive management for your customers, providing them more control in their hands and saving you time from making their requested changes manually in Zoho ERP.

View Subscriptions

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

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.

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.

• Select a subscription.

• Click the More icon 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 ERP in Preferences.

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

• Go to the Subscriptions.

• Select a subscription.

• Click the More icon in the top right corner.

• Select Pause Subscription.

• 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.

• Select a subscription.

• Click the More icon 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 ERP.

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.

Pay Invoices

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

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.

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.

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

In the Payments Made section in the customer portal, your customers can track all the payments they have made towards your business. This includes both the online payments as well as the offline payments you’ve recorded for them in Zoho ERP. Customers can filter the list to view only invoice payments and also sort the payments by Date or Amount.

They can click on a particular payment to view its payment receipt, and also check the details of the invoice or retainer invoice for which this payment was made. Your customers can click the Download PDF or Print button to keep a copy of the receipt.

Troubleshooting

Your customers might face the following errors when they try to make payments through the customer portal:

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, customers should:

• Go to the Statements in the left sidebar.

• Select the Date Range in the topleft 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

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

To forwards documents, customers should:

• Go to the Invoices in the left sidebar.

• Select an invoice.

• Click Forward.

• 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 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 ERP. 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.

• 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 ERP 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 ERP.

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.

Logout

To logout from the customer portal, customers can click Logout from the left sidebar.