Creating, Sending, and Managing Invoices in Zoho One

In this guide, we'll look at how to automate and send invoices in Zoho One using Zoho CRM and the Finance integrations. This guide builds upon the previous guide where we discussed creating, sending, and managing quotes. While Zoho CRM includes a native Invoices module, most businesses benefit from connecting Zoho CRM and Zoho Books to invoice customers. This integration allows you to generate, send, track, and receive payments directly from within CRM without having to switch systems or re-enter data.

Areas Covered

• Why Integrate Your Sales and Finance Systems

• Native Finance Modules in Zoho CRM

• Setting up the Finance Integration

• Using Third-Party Integrations

• Invoice Creation and Send in Zoho CRM

• CRM and Finance Integration

Why Integrate Your Sales and Finance Systems

Integrating your sales and finance systems creates a connected workflow that eliminates manual data entry and keeps your sales and finance teams working from the same information. When CRM and Books are linked, quotes and invoices can be tracked from both systems and payments can be collected online. This speeds up your billing process, reduces errors, and gives your sales team visibility into revenue and payments, all from your CRM.

Zoho Books manages all of the accounting data related to your invoices, including payment reconciliation, taxes, and more. Every invoice created in Zoho CRM feeds directly into Zoho Books, allowing your financial team to generate profit and loss statements, monitor accounts receivable and payable, and reconcile all payments. Meanwhile, your sales team works entirely out of CRM, with relevant invoices attached to CRM contact and deal records.

Before we dive into the integration between CRM and Books, let's first look at the native functionality in Zoho CRM.

Native Finance Modules in Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM includes native Invoices and Products modules that allow you to manually manage billing and product details. These modules are designed for simpler use cases where businesses need to track transactions without integrating other solutions.

The native Invoices module allows you to create and send invoices directly from CRM. Within these invoices, you can add product or service details, pricing, taxes, payment terms, and more, and then associate each invoice with an account, contact, or deal in CRM. These invoices are functional for simple sales processes, but they aren't connected to an accounting system by default, which means that all financial tracking will have to be done in a different application.

Also in CRM is a native Products module. The Product module stores information on the products or services that your company sells. You can record info like product names, SKUs, product descriptions, unit prices, unit quantities, and more. This product information can then be manually added to quotes, sales orders, or invoices created from within CRM. However, stock levels and availability are not tracked in the CRM by default.

These two native modules allow businesses to track certain aspects of their financial process within CRM, but to fully unify sales, billing, and accounting data, integrating Zoho CRM with Books and Inventory is essential. In other words, using the Finance integration means turning off the native Invoice and Product modules in CRM.

Setting up the Finance Integration

To use the Finance integration in Zoho CRM, you first need to integrate Zoho CRM and the Zoho Finance Suite.

If you're using Zoho One, in CRM you'll simply navigate to Marketplace (located on the left side of the screen) -> Integrations -> Zoho. Then scroll to the Zoho Finance Suite Integration and click Manage. From there, you can click Activate and configure how you'd like the data to pass between Zoho CRM and the Zoho Finance Suite. Once the integration is activated, you will see a Finance section in CRM that can display quotes, invoices, sales orders, and more.

When configuring the Finance integration, you can also choose to keep or hide some of Zoho CRM's native finance module. The modules Quotes, Sales Orders, Invoices, and Purchase orders can be kept or hidden. If hidden, all workflows and reports of these modules will also be hidden.

If you're not on Zoho One and are only paying for Zoho CRM, you'll have to purchase licenses for one or all of the applications within the Zoho Finance Suite (Zoho Books, Inventory, Billing) to be able to turn on the integration. Once the licenses are purchased, you'll follow the same process as above to turn on the integration.

Using Third-Party Integrations

While integrating Zoho CRM with the Zoho Finance suite is the most seamless integration, businesses that already use other accounting or billing platforms can still connect them to Zoho CRM. Zoho CRM supports integration with a variety of finance tools like QuickBooks, Xero, Stripe, RazorPay, and many more.

To integrate Zoho CRM with a third-party tool, click on the Marketplace on the left side of the screen. Then, click on All under the Marketplace drop-down and search for the application you'd like to integrate. Once you've found the app you want to integrate, simply follow the integration instructions to start passing data between the two systems.

Creating and Sending Invoices

With the Finance integration enabled and your quoting process in place, invoicing is the next step in your sales cycle. In Zoho CRM, quotes created through the Zoho Finance integration can be converted into invoices with a few clicks. This connection between quoting, invoicing, and payment makes it possible to manage the entire quote-to-cash process without leaving CRM.

To create an invoice from a quote in Zoho CRM, open the quote record and click "Convert to Invoice." CRM will automatically carry over all of the relevant information, like the customer's details, products or services offered, pricing, taxes, and terms. You can make any adjustments as needed, and then save the invoice.

If you don't have a quote, you can also create an invoice directly in CRM. From a contact, account, or deal record, go to the Finance section of the related list and click "New Invoice." An invoice creation window will pop up where you can add all of the relevant information, including product or service info, to the invoice. This manual method is good for businesses that bill customers where a quote may not have been issues.

After the invoice is created, it can be sent to the customer directly from Zoho CRM. You can create an invoice from a template in Zoho Books, and that invoice can be branded with your company colors or logo. You can then email that invoice from the CRM, and it can include a payment links from Zoho Payments. This allows customers to review and pay invoices instantly online.

Syncing Sales and Accounting Data Between Systems

Once invoices are saved in Zoho CRM, they're automatically synced with Zoho Books, where they're recorded with the rest of your financial data. If an invoice includes a Zoho Payments link, any payment made through that link is instantly reflected in both Zoho CRM and Books. This works both for full and for partial payments.

For example, if a customer pays 50% of an invoice upfront through Zoho Payments, that payment will appear in Books and will show up in CRM as "Partially Paid." If they then go back and pay the remaining 50%, the invoice will show up in CRM as "Paid."

Syncing data between CRM and Books allows your sales and finance team to look at the same data to ensure customers are happy and invoices are sent and payments are collected.