Understanding Coupons
Coupons in Zoho ERP exist as a dedicated, standalone module under Promotions, allowing businesses to create and manage coupons individually. You can create coupons individually and associate them with products, along with its plans and addons; meaning a single coupon can be applied across multiple products, its associated plans and addons, or be targeted to specific ones. Each coupon can be tracked separately with a detailed list view that displays its key information such as coupon code, discount type, redemption limits, status, and validity, making it easier to monitor and control discounts.
How Coupons Work in Zoho ERP?
With Coupons, you can configure how and when a coupon applies, whether it’s a one-time discount, recurring across billing cycles, or valid only for a limited period. You can also set precise parameters such as redemption type, maximum redemption numbers, applicable rules, and expiration dates to ensure discounts are applied exactly as intended, without manual intervention.
With these controls, coupons help you run promotions, support onboarding offers, encourage upgrades, and provide tailored pricing. This ensures you reach the right customers, and promote selected offerings.
Scenario: Zylker, a cloud-based storage company, plans on running a year-end promotion that offers 10% off on all plans and recurring addons of one product during December. With Zoho ERP, Zylker can set the redemption type to Unlimited, configures the maximum redemption count to 1,000, and sets the expiration date as 31 December 2025. This allows the coupon to be applied multiple times across subscriptions until either 1,000 redemptions are reached or the campaign ends, preventing overuse beyond the planned promotional budget.
To set up the Coupons, it’s important to understand the individual fields that define a coupon’s behaviour in Zoho ERP. These fields determine how often a coupon can be redeemed, how long it remains valid, and the rules under which it applies.
Coupon Fields
Coupon Name and Coupon Code
The Coupon Name and Coupon Code fields ensure coupons are easy to manage internally and accurately applied and tracked across subscriptions and invoices.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Coupon Name | Enter a coupon name that helps identify and manage it internally within Zoho ERP. |
| Coupon Code | Set a unique code that customers can enter to redeem the coupon in the checkout pages. |
Discount
You can use coupons to either offer a flat discount or a percentage discount.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Flat | If a flat discount is chosen, the specified amount will be deducted from the invoice line item. Line item cost: $100 Discount: $20 After discount: $80 |
| Percentage | If a percentage discount is chosen, the discount will be deducted from the line item. Line item cost: $100 Discount: 50% After discount: $50 |
How are discounts deducted?
Discounts will be deducted from the cost of each entity the coupon is associated with.
Example
Coupon: Flat10 (Flat discount of $10)
Plans: Plan 1 = $50
Addons: Addon 1 = $20, Addon 2 = $30
Coupon associated with: Plan 1 and Addon 1
Invoice Total = Plan 1 + Addon 1 + Addon 2
On applying Flat10 coupon, $10 will be deducted from Plan 1 and Addon 1.
Invoice Total = (Plan 1 - $10) + (Addon 1 - $10) + Addon 2
Note that the Flat10 coupon does not apply to Addon 2. This is because the coupon was associated only with Plan 1 and Addon 1 at the time of creation. A new coupon can be created and associated with Plan 1, Addon 1 *and* Addon 2 in case the discount has to be applied to Addon 2 as well.
Discount Preference
Choose how the discount should be applied when the coupon is used.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Transaction-Level | Select Transaction-Level to apply the discount to the total invoice amount. The coupon will be applied on the transaction’s total, regardless of the plans or addons included. You should then configure the customers for the discount. |
| Line item-Level | Select Item-Level to apply the discount to specific plans or addons. Choose the plans and addons you want the coupon to apply to, and the discount will be applied and calculated individually for the associated line-item. Note: Applicable Products can be specified only when the Discount Preference is chosen as Item-Level. |
| Buy X Get Y | Select Buy X Get Y to apply the discount when a specific number of addons, plans or items are purchased. |
Redemption Type
In Zoho ERP, Redemption Type is a coupon configuration field that determines how often a coupon can be applied to a subscription.
Coupons have three redemption types.
- One Time
- Unlimited
- Limited Cycles
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| One Time | You can select One Time if a coupon should be applied only once per subscription. The discount is applied to the first invoice, and the coupon is not used again for subsequent billing cycles. |
| Unlimited | You can select Unlimited when a coupon must be applied to every invoice generated for a subscription. This redemption type is ideal for discounts that should continue for the entire lifetime of the subscription. |
| Limited Cycles | You can select Limited Cycles when a coupon should be redeemed for a fixed number of billing cycles per subscription. Then, Enter the Number of Cycles the coupon must be redeemed. Once the coupon is redeemed the specified number, it will be automatically removed from the subscription. |
Scenario: Zylker, a cloud-based storage company, uses different coupon redemption types for the same product based on its promotional goals.
- To attract new customers, Zylker offers a one-time signup discount and sets the coupon’s redemption type to
One Time , this ensures that the discount is applied only on the first invoice of the subscription. - To provide loyalty discounts to some customers, Zylker provides a percentage discount and configures a coupon with the
Unlimited redemption type, allowing the discount to be applied to every invoice generated for the subscription. - For a seasonal promotion, Zylker offers a discount valid for the first three billing cycles and uses the
Limited Cycles redemption type.
The coupon is automatically removed after the specified number of cycles, and the regular pricing of the subscription resumes.
This allows Zylker to run a variety of offers while maintaining full control over discount usage.
Applicability
Associating Coupons with Products, Plans and Addons
A coupon can be applied to one or more Products, and its associated plans and addons or specific plans and addons of your choice.
Note: Coupons are associated with plans and addons at the time of creation of a coupon. You cannot change this association once a coupon is created. However, you can create a new coupon and associate it with the plans and addons of your choice.
Use the Associate Plans and Associate Addons dropdown to configure the plans and addons the Coupon must be applied to. Here’s how:
Applicable Products
You must select the products to which the coupon must be applied from the Applicable Products dropdown. You can then associate the coupon with the required plans and addons of the selected product. Here’s how:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| All Products | Choose All Products option if you want the coupon to apply across all products in your organization. The coupon will automatically be available for all existing and future products along with the associated plans and addons. |
| Selected Products | Choose Select Products option if you want the coupon to apply only to specific products. After selecting the product, you can associate the coupon with the required plans and addons of that product. |
Associated Plans
Based on your requirement, you can associate the plans the coupon must be applied to.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| All Plans | You can select All Plans when a coupon should be applicable to every plan under the selected product. |
| None | You can select None when the coupon should not be applied to any plans. |
| Selected Plans | You can select Selected Plans when a coupon should apply only to specific plans. Choose the required plans from the Select Plans dropdown. |
Associated Addons
Based on your requirement, you can associate the addons the coupon must be applied to.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| All Recurring Addons | You can select All Recurring Addons when a coupon should apply to all recurring addons associated with the product. |
| All Addons | You can select All Addons when a coupon should be applicable to both recurring and one-time addons. |
| All One-Time Addons | You can select All One-Time Addons when a coupon should apply only to addons that are charged once. |
| None | You can select None when the coupon should not be applied to any addons. |
| Selected Addons | You can select Selected Addons when a coupon should apply only to specific addons. Choose the required addons from the Select Addons dropdown. |
Validity
Expiry Date
A coupon cannot be applied to new as well as existing subscriptions beyond this date. However, coupons that have Unlimited as the redemption type applied to subscriptions will be redeemed until they are manually removed.
Maximum Redemption
This refers to the maximum number of subscriptions a coupon can be used for.
If Maximum Redemption is set to 2, the coupon cannot be applied to more than 2 subscriptions.
If there isn’t a value set for Maximum Redemption, the coupon can be used for any number of subscriptions.
Maximum Redemptions Per Customer
This refers to the maximum number of times a customer can use a coupon.
If the Maximum Redemption Per Customer is set to 3, the coupon cannot be applied to more than 3 transactions associated with the customer.
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