Zoho Subscriptions
by Zoho
by Zoho
Profile Information Last updated on: 1 July 2024
Profile Information Last updated on: 1 July 2024
We help make selecting a software for your business effortless, economical and efficient.
by Zoho
by Zoho
Profile Information Last updated on: 1 July 2024
Profile Information Last updated on: 1 July 2024
1. Setup and Configuration: This initial phase involves setting up the organization's account in Zoho Subscriptions, configuring billing models, setting up plans and add-ons, and customizing invoice, email, and hosted page templates. This step is crucial for tailoring the Zoho Subscriptions environment to meet the specific billing and subscription management needs of the business.
2. Integration with Other Systems: Zoho Subscriptions is designed to work seamlessly with other Zoho apps and third-party apps through APIs, webhooks, and custom functions. This integration capability allows for a streamlined workflow, connecting Zoho Subscriptions with existing upstream systems like Zoho CRM and downstream systems like Zoho Books, as well as with payment gateways and other external applications.
3. Data Migration: For businesses transitioning from another subscription management system or needing to import customer and subscription data, Zoho Subscriptions offers tools and support for data migration. This process may involve using Zoho DataPrep for cleaning and preparing data before importing it into Zoho Subscriptions, ensuring that the data quality is maintained and that the migration is seamless.
4. Training and Support: Zoho provides a comprehensive online training course through Zoho Spark, aimed at enabling businesses to effectively use Zoho Subscriptions. The training covers best practices for using the software and includes modules on subscription workflow, advanced options, and security. Additionally, Zoho offers various support plans, including email support, live chat, and toll-free support, to assist businesses throughout the implementation process and beyond.
5. Going Live: After setup, configuration, integration, and training are complete, the business can go live with Zoho Subscriptions. This involves starting to manage real customer subscriptions and billing processes using the software. Ongoing support from Zoho ensures that any issues encountered after going live can be promptly addressed.
1. Integration with Zoho SalesIQ: Zoho Subscriptions can be integrated with Zoho SalesIQ to enhance customer relationships by providing live chat support directly from the Customer Portal. This integration allows for real-time assistance, sharing of help documents, creation of message templates for faster replies, and the use of a conversational AI assistant (Zobot) for automated responses.
2. Customization and Automation: Zoho Subscriptions offers extensive customization options, including the ability to customize billing cycles with options like calendar and metered billing. It also supports the automation of billing, taxation, and proration processes. Hosted payment pages and widgets for checkout and pricing can be customized to match the brand image, ensuring a seamless customer experience.
3. APIs and Developer Support: Zoho Subscriptions provides open APIs, allowing for complete customization of the software to meet specific business requirements. These APIs can be used to create hosted payment pages integrated with a business's website, ensuring secure collection and storage of sensitive customer information. Zoho offers expert developer support to assist with the setup process and customization.
4. Integration with Zoho CRM and Other Zoho Apps: The software is designed to work seamlessly with Zoho CRM and other Zoho apps, enabling businesses to manage the entire customer lifecycle efficiently. It supports synchronization between Zoho CRM and Subscriptions, allowing for easy management of customer subscriptions, upgrades, downgrades, cancellations, and renewals through an integrated system.
5. Custom Fields and Automation: Zoho Subscriptions allows the addition of custom fields to capture additional information relevant to a business's specific needs. It also offers the capability to automate workflows, send out emails, update fields, and execute custom functions using Deluge scripting language, enabling businesses to automate their processes and workflows.
6. Customizable Templates: The software provides options to customize templates for invoices, credit notes, and other documents. Businesses can customize color, font, font sizes, and include specific information or change text for labels. This feature allows for the creation of branded and personalized communication with customers.
7. Flexible Pricing Plans and Subscription Management: Zoho Subscriptions supports the creation of customized pricing plans, including free trials, add-ons, and coupons. It allows businesses to personalize every aspect of their plans to cater to different customer needs and preferences.
8. Integration with Third-Party Apps: Through its integration with Zapier, Zoho Subscriptions connects with over 2,000 web applications, enabling businesses to create workflows and automate tasks across a wide range of applications without writing a single line of code.
1. Support Costs: Zoho offers different levels of support depending on the plan. For instance, Zoho Expense outlines support plans that range from basic email support to more comprehensive 24/7 support, which could imply similar structures for Zoho Subscriptions.
2. Customization and Additional Features: While not directly a cost, if a business requires extensive customization or integration, this might incur additional expenses in terms of development and implementation time, especially if external consultants or developers are needed.
3. Upgrade Costs: There are costs associated with upgrading from one plan to another. For example, moving from the Standard to the Professional plan in Zoho Subscriptions involves different pricing, which could be considered an additional cost if a business needs to upgrade due to growth or increased feature requirements.
4. Transactional Costs: Although not mentioned as a fee, businesses should consider the costs associated with transactions, such as payment processing fees through integrated gateways, which might not be included in the subscription fee.
5. Training Costs: If extensive training is required beyond the basic support and onboarding provided, this could also be an additional cost. Zoho offers training resources, but personalized training might incur fees.
6. API Calls and Custom Functions: For businesses that need extensive use of APIs and custom functions, there might be limits based on the subscription plan, potentially leading to additional costs if these limits are exceeded.
1. Online Training Course: Zoho Subscriptions offers a two-day online training program through Zoho Spark. This program is designed to help subscription businesses set up their organization in Zoho Subscriptions and learn best practices for using the software. The training includes modules on various aspects such as subscription billing, configuring billing models, setting up plans and add-ons, customizing invoices, emails, and hosted page templates, integrating with payment gateways, and much more. Each module comprises a concept explanation, demonstration, hands-on exercises, and a Q&A session.
2. Reliable Support: Zoho Subscriptions provides dedicated support available 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday, via phone, email, and chat. This ensures that users can receive assistance at every step of the way, from the onboarding process onwards. The support team is also open to feedback and suggestions, which helps Zoho grow with its users.
3. Support Pricing Plans: For users seeking premium technical support, Zoho Subscriptions offers paid support plans. These plans vary in services, including knowledge base access, community forums, email support, customer portal, live chat, toll-free support, remote assistance, product onboarding, configuration assistance, and varying maximum response times. The plans are designed to suit different user needs, from free basic support to more comprehensive paid options.
4. Integration Support: Zoho Subscriptions supports integrations with major third-party apps such as Slack and Zendesk, as well as with other Zoho apps like Zoho CRM, Zoho Books, and Zoho Creator. This allows for a seamless workflow and collaboration across teams. Users can also access more than 2,000 web applications through integration with Zapier.
5. Customization and API Support: The platform offers open APIs for customization and integration with third-party applications. This allows businesses to tailor Zoho Subscriptions to their specific needs, whether it's creating custom hosted payment pages or integrating with their website. Zoho provides documentation and support to help users with these customizations.
6. Resources and Help Documentation: Zoho Subscriptions provides a comprehensive guide, API documentation, and solutions to commonly asked questions to help users navigate the software. Additionally, step-by-step guides for integrating with payment gateways and collecting payments faster are available. Users can also stay informed about new releases and general business articles through Zoho Subscriptions' resources.
7. Community and Webinars: Users can share, discuss, and interact with fellow Zoho Subscriptions users in the community forums. Zoho also offers webinar sessions to learn more about the software, providing an opportunity for users to register and gain deeper insights into utilizing Zoho Subscriptions effectively.
1. Encryption: Zoho uses strong encryption protocols to safeguard data both during transmission and while it is stored on their servers. This includes Transport Layer Security (TLS 1.2/1.3) encryption with strong ciphers for all connections, and AES-256 encryption for data at rest.
2. Access Controls: Zoho implements robust access control measures, including role-based access controls, which ensure that only authorized personnel can access sensitive data. This is complemented by features like IP restrictions and two-factor authentication to further secure user accounts and prevent unauthorized access.
3. Data Center Security: Zoho's data centers are equipped with advanced physical security measures, including biometric access controls, surveillance cameras, and 24/7 monitoring. These measures help protect against physical threats and ensure the integrity and availability of the hosted data.
4. Compliance and Privacy: Zoho adheres to major regulatory and compliance standards, including GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. This compliance is supported by features designed to protect personal and sensitive information, such as data encryption, audit trails, and mechanisms for data protection impact assessments.
5. Operational Security: Zoho's operational security includes continuous monitoring and logging of activities within its network. This includes the use of automated tools to detect and respond to security incidents, as well as regular security audits and vulnerability assessments to identify and mitigate potential risks.
6. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: Zoho ensures high availability and resilience through geographically diverse data centers, which allow for continuous replication of data. This setup provides a robust disaster recovery capability, ensuring minimal service disruption in the event of a data center failure.
7. Vendor Management and Third-Party Risk Assessment: Zoho conducts thorough risk assessments and periodic reviews of third-party services that handle customer data, ensuring that these services meet Zoho's stringent security standards
8. User Education and Support: Zoho provides resources and training to help users understand security best practices and how to protect their data effectively. This includes guidance on creating strong passwords, recognizing phishing attempts, and securely configuring Zoho products.
Zoho Subscriptions releases updates frequently, with new features and enhancements being introduced regularly to improve user experience and functionality. The management of these updates is systematic and user-focused, ensuring that subscribers can benefit from the latest advancements without disruption.
1. Frequency of Updates: Zoho Subscriptions has a history of releasing updates at various times throughout the year. For instance, multiple updates were noted on specific dates such as April 2, 2020, and June 24, 2015, indicating a proactive approach to upgrading the service.
2. Types of Updates: The updates range from new features like the ability to pause, resume, and postpone billing dates for multiple subscriptions, to integrations with other payment gateways and support for additional functionalities. These updates are designed to enhance the flexibility and efficiency of subscription management.
3. Communication and Documentation: Zoho ensures that users are well-informed about new updates through detailed release notes and help documentation. This approach helps users understand the benefits of new features and how to implement them effectively in their subscription management processes.
4. Testing and Implementation: Before implementing updates, Zoho provides resources like the Postman collection to test APIs, ensuring that new features work seamlessly within the existing framework. This helps in minimizing any potential disruptions that could affect the user experience.
1. Data Ownership: Zoho recognizes that the data created or stored by users within its services, including Zoho Subscriptions, is owned by the users. Users retain ownership of their content and data, and Zoho does not claim ownership of any data stored in its services.
2. Data Portability: Zoho supports data portability, which allows users to export their data in a machine-readable format. This feature enables users to transfer their data from Zoho to another system if they choose to do so. The process is designed to be straightforward, ensuring that users can manage their data effectively.
3. Control Over Data: Users have complete control over their service data within Zoho Subscriptions. They can access, manage, share through supported third-party integrations, and request the export or deletion of their service data at any time. This level of control is part of Zoho's commitment to user privacy and data management.
4. Compliance and Standards: Zoho's policies are compliant with major data protection regulations, including the GDPR. This compliance ensures that users' rights to data portability and ownership are upheld according to the highest standards of data privacy.
1. Upgrade or Downgrade Plans: Zoho Subscriptions allows users to easily upgrade to a higher plan or downgrade to a lower plan directly from their account settings. This can be done by clicking on "Change Plan" and selecting either "Downgrade" for a lower plan or "Upgrade" for a higher plan. Users are then required to confirm their choice on the next page.
2. Manage User Add-Ons: Businesses can adjust the number of users or add-ons according to their current needs. This includes adding or removing additional users and portal users. The process involves selecting the desired number of users or add-ons and confirming the changes. For downgrading users or add-ons, users select the number they wish to remove and confirm the downgrade.
3. Flexible Pricing Plans: Zoho Subscriptions offers flexible pricing plans that cater to businesses of different sizes and needs. This includes options for monthly or annual contracts, with annual contracts often coming with discounts. This flexibility helps businesses manage their expenses more effectively as they scale.
4. Volume Pricing and Price Lists: For businesses that experience significant growth or need to manage a large volume of transactions, Zoho Billing (formerly Zoho Subscriptions) supports volume pricing and the creation of price lists. This allows businesses to set custom rates for different quantity brackets, offering discounts for bulk purchases and effectively managing pricing for a growing customer base.
5. Customization and Integration: As businesses scale, their needs for customization and integration may increase. Zoho Subscriptions supports open APIs for customization and integration with third-party applications, allowing businesses to tailor the software to their specific needs. This includes creating custom hosted payment pages and integrating with existing systems.
6. Subscription Management Tools: Zoho Subscriptions provides a suite of subscription management tools that support scaling. This includes features for handling excess payments, integrating with Zoho Analytics for detailed reporting, and managing subscriptions with custom schedulers. These tools help businesses adapt their subscription management processes as they grow.
7. Support for Global Expansion: For businesses looking to expand globally, Zoho Subscriptions supports multi-currency transactions and offers localized versions for different markets. This ensures that businesses can manage their recurring billing seamlessly as they enter new markets.
Contract Renewal
1. Automatic Renewal: Zoho Subscriptions are automatically renewed at the end of each subscription period unless the user takes action to downgrade to a free plan or informs Zoho of their intention not to renew the subscription. This must be done at least seven days prior to the renewal date.
2. Payment Methods: Payments for subscriptions with a duration of less than a year can only be made by credit card. At the time of automatic renewal, the subscription fee will be charged to the last credit card used by the user. Users have the option to change the payment details if they want the renewal to be made through a different credit card.
3. Price Changes: Zoho may change the price of any service or charge for services that were previously free. Any increase in charges will not apply until the expiry of the current billing cycle.
4. Taxes: If applicable, taxes such as GST, VAT, or sales tax will be charged in addition to the subscription fees. Zoho will provide an invoice to help users avail the applicable input tax credit.
Contract Cancellation
1. Cancellation Options: Users can cancel their subscriptions directly from Zoho Billing’s web application, from the Customer Portal if this feature is enabled, or via Zoho Billing’s REST APIs.
2. Immediate or End-of-Term Cancellation: When cancelling from the web application, users can choose to cancel the subscription immediately or at the end of the current term.
3. Customer Portal Cancellation: If enabled, customers can cancel their subscriptions themselves from the Customer Portal. Settings can be adjusted to allow immediate cancellation or cancellation at the next renewal.
4. Feedback on Cancellation: Zoho allows users to provide a reason for cancellation, which can be made mandatory. This helps Zoho gather feedback and understand why users are cancelling their subscriptions.
5. Refund Policy: If a user decides to downgrade their subscription in the middle of the subscription period, the amount will be refunded on a pro-rata basis.
6. Downgrading to Free Plan: Users can downgrade to a free plan if they do not wish to continue with a paid subscription. This option is available through the service settings, and users can manage this change without restrictions.
1. PCI Compliance: Zoho Subscriptions is PCI compliant, which means it adheres to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). This standard is crucial for companies that accept, process, store, or transmit credit card information, ensuring that this sensitive data is handled securely.
2. GST Compliance: Zoho Subscriptions is compliant with the Goods and Services Tax (GST) standards, making it suitable for managing recurring billing and subscriptions while adhering to relevant tax regulations.
3. ISO/IEC 27001: Zoho, including its Subscriptions service, is certified under ISO/IEC 27001, an internationally recognized standard for managing information security.
4. SOC 2 Type II: Zoho has achieved SOC 2 Type II compliance, which involves a detailed audit of the effectiveness of a company's system based on the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Trust Services Criteria. This compliance covers security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
By Zoho