- Industry: Financial Services
- Area of Expertise: Custom Apps Development
Background
Our client for this project was an accounting firm who uses various pieces of the Zoho One suite, including CRM, Books, Sign and Workdrive. They came to us seeking the development of a portal in order to collect payment from clients, retrieve needed signatures, and return documents. This portal would be a unified place where they could connect all of the most important client-facing actions altogether, providing a seamless experience for their customers.
Solutions
Creator
The portal was made in Zoho Creator, and was created almost entirely in ZML due to the fact that the code had several functions to be executed. The first section of the portal has basic information, including the client’s name and the amount to be paid or refunded.
The second section of the portal is dynamic, with different appearances depending on if there is an open payment, or forms to be signed. If there is a payment that has to be made — determined by the presence of an invoice link — a button is present to take you to a payment. Then, when the invoice is edited to have a status of “Paid,” the CRM is updated with the date of payment, and the ZML snippet displays that the invoice has been paid. In addition to the payment link, there is a Zoho Sign Link to enable end users to sign their Federal 8879 Forms, as well as payment authorization forms. Similarly, this snippet is also updated upon signing, to show that the forms have been signed, providing real-time feedback to end users.
Finally, upon payment, a third section of the portal appears, with an embedded Workdrive snippet. This allows clients to get access to their completed tax returns, and download them as needed.
CRM & Books
In order to create invoices, we created a Mass Action Button in the CRM that connects to Zoho Books. This enabled our client to draft relevant invoices related to jobs in a straightforward manner.
We then use a custom function, wherein we draft an email in order to get access to the payment link and Invoice ID, passing these fields back into the CRM to ensure they’re stored for reference.
Outcomes
- Streamlined mass invoicing process for our client when dealing with multiple customers
- Unified portal for all customer-facing needs, with dynamic updates for payment and sign links
- Simple, effective interface
- Integrated payment and document access
This is a great showcase of how Zoho Creator portals can be used to connect various apps within the Zoho Suite, creating seamless user experiences for end customers, and fulfilling your business needs.