Customer and vendor portals in Zoho Books: what they are and what they do

Customer and vendor portals in Zoho Books let customers view and pay invoices online and let suppliers upload bills for you to check. To set them up properly, decide plans, visibility and multi-factor sign-in first. Then invite contacts one at a time.

The customer portal is a dedicated space in Zoho Books where customers view and manage their transactions from one place. They can accept quotes, pay invoices and download a statement of account. The vendor portal is the equivalent for suppliers. Zoho uses the word "vendor" throughout, so this guide does too, but it means your suppliers.

Both portals sit at one web address. That address contains your Portal Name, which is a name unique to your organisation. Zoho generates it automatically, and you can edit it. Because the address is shared, some settings you choose for customers also apply to vendors. Multi-factor sign-in is the main example.

The portals read directly from your Zoho Books organisation. There is no separate system to keep in step. That is convenient, but it also means a portal shows what your books show. A careless setting exposes documents you did not mean to share.

Customers can also change data that flows straight back into your records. The rest of this guide covers those decisions in the order you should make them.

Customers pay and accept quotes in their portal, while suppliers upload bills for you to verify. Customer portal / Vendor portal. Who uses it: Your customers / Your suppliers; Main tasks: Accept quotes, pay invoices online / Upload invoices for you t

Plans, email addresses and the shared portal name to check first

Check three things before you invite anyone: your Zoho Books plan, each contact's email address, and the portal name. Each one can stop an invitation or cause confusion later.

Which plans include the portals

Zoho's help page lists the customer portal on the Free, Standard, Professional, Premium, Elite and Ultimate plans. The vendor portal is available only on certain plans. Showing custom modules in either portal is also restricted to certain plans. Confirm your plan covers the vendor features before you promise suppliers a login.

Email addresses and contact persons

The customer portal is available for your organisation by default. You still configure access for each contact person individually. A customer can only have portal access if it has an email address, so clean up contact records first.

Contacts who are both customer and vendor

Some businesses buy from and sell to the same company. To let that company see its purchase transactions with you, you need to enable the vendor portal for it. Zoho's note on contacts who are also vendors adds one rule. The email on the vendor record must be unique and must not already be registered with a customer portal. Ask the company for a second address, such as its accounts payable inbox, before you set it up.

The portal name

Edit the Portal Name before the first invitation goes out. The name is part of the address your customers and vendors will bookmark, so settle it once.

Decisions to make before you invite anyone: a checklist table

The portal settings for Zoho Books fall into eight decisions. Make each one deliberately before the first contact receives an invitation. The table lists the options and the consequence of each, using the behaviour described in Zoho's own help pages.

Decision	Options	Why it matters
Multi-factor sign-in	On or off	Applies to all customers and vendors at once, because both portals share one URL.
Online payment	Payment gateway on the invoice, or none	Customers can only pay online if a gateway is associated with that invoice.
Partial payments	Enabled on the invoice, or full amount only	Without it, customers must pay the whole invoice through the portal.
Extra customer documents	Sales orders, projects and timesheets on or off	Each must be enabled in the customer portal preferences.
Quote signing	Zoho Sign integration, or accept and decline only	Signing in the portal needs the Zoho Sign integration.
Purchase orders for vendors	Accept and decline enabled, or not	Vendors can only respond to purchase orders after an admin enables it.
Autoscan on vendor uploads	On or off	Each scanned upload uses an autoscan from your subscription.
Custom modules	Hidden, view only, or create and edit	Submitted records wait for your approval in the Portal Submitted view.

Write your answers down. The answers become the specification for whoever does the setup. They also give you a record of what each contact can see, which you will want if a customer ever queries it.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) for the Zoho Books portals adds a code from an authenticator app to the usual password. MFA is a security process that asks for two or more verification factors before granting access. Zoho Books lets you enable it for both the customer and vendor portals.

How to switch it on

Go to Settings, then Preferences, and select Customer Portal. Check Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) and click Save. Once enabled there, MFA applies to all your customers and your vendors. The two portals share the same Portal Name and URL, so you cannot switch it on for one group only.

What your contacts do

Customers and vendors scan a QR code with an authenticator app such as OneAuth or Google Authenticator. They can also type the authentication code in manually. After that, they sign in with a Time-based One-Time Password (TOTP). A TOTP is a short code that the app generates and that changes every few seconds.

When someone loses their phone

A contact who loses access to the app and has no backup codes cannot sign in. You can reset MFA for them. Open the customer's or vendor's Details page, click the Gear icon next to their email address, and select Reset Portal MFA. They then configure MFA again at their next sign-in.

The trap when you turn MFA off

Disabling MFA does not release contacts who already configured it. Zoho's MFA help page says they must keep using TOTP until you reset MFA for each of them. Decide on MFA before the first invitation, not after.

Customer payments through the portal: gateways, partial and bulk payments

Customers can pay an invoice online in the Zoho Books customer portal only if a payment gateway is associated with that invoice. Without a gateway, the portal still shows the invoice, but the customer has to pay some other way. Check your invoice templates and defaults so new invoices carry the gateway.

Partial and bulk payments

Partial payments are a per-invoice choice. You enable them on the invoice creation screen. The customer can then enter the amount they wish to pay now. If you leave the option off, they must pay the full invoice amount. Zoho's product page also describes bulk payments, so a customer can settle several invoices together.

Payment details and notifications

Customers can update their own personal and payment details, including bank or card information, in the portal. Zoho Books sends a notification email to your primary email address when a customer pays an invoice. It also notifies you when a customer accepts or declines a quote or adds a comment. Make sure that primary address is a monitored inbox, not one person's mail.

Duplicate card payments

Zoho lists error code CP3005 for a repeat card payment. It appears when a transaction with the same amount and card details follows a previous one within a few minutes. If a customer reports it, check whether the first payment went through before they try again.

If you also charge subscriptions through Zoho Billing, those customers see their plan details and payments in the same customer portal.

Which customer documents show in the portal, and what customers can change

The Zoho Books customer portal shows invoices and quotes as standard, and other documents only when you enable them. Customers can download or print individual transactions. They can also download a consolidated statement of account, which lists all transactions with you over a period and the total they owe.

The portal summary uses two terms your customers will see. Outstanding Invoices is the total the customer owes on unpaid invoices. Available Credits is the total you owe the customer, from refunds or credit notes.

Documents you switch on

Sales orders, which you enable in the customer portal preferences.
Projects and timesheets, also enabled in the preferences, so customers can review and approve timesheet submissions.
Quote signing, through the Zoho Sign integration.

Customers can accept quotes in the portal, and you can automate sending invoices for accepted quotes.

Changes that flow back into your books

Customer edits in the portal do not stay in the portal. Changes customers make to their details update the matching contact in your Zoho Books organisation. When a customer forwards a transaction to a colleague, that colleague becomes a contact person for the customer in your organisation. Documents customers upload appear under the corresponding contact. Reviews they submit appear on the contact's Overview page under Customer Reviews.

The portal can also carry comments on projects, invoices, quotes and sales orders, chats through Zoho SalesIQ, and custom menu items with embedded webpages. Review contact records regularly, because the portal lets customers add people and change details without you.

Vendor portal in Zoho Books: bill uploads, Autoscan and purchase orders

The vendor portal in Zoho Books lets suppliers upload their invoices for you to verify and convert to bills. Suppliers can upload images and PDFs, with a maximum of 5MB per document. Zoho's help page lists three ways to enable vendor portal access.

What vendors see

Vendors see only transactions in the Open state. They can generate a statement of account for any period, showing payments received and the balance due. A vendor sees a payment only after you record it manually in Zoho Books. Record supplier payments promptly, or the vendor's statement will show a balance you have already settled.

Autoscan on uploaded documents

Autoscan is the Zoho Books feature that reads a document and fills in a new transaction for you. With Autoscan enabled, it captures details such as date and amount from vendor uploads. Each vendor upload reduces the number of autoscans left in your subscription. Scans can fail when data is illegible, when an image cannot be interpreted, or when the language is not supported. Someone still needs to check each bill before you approve it.

Purchase orders

A purchase order is a document you create in Zoho Books asking a vendor to supply specific goods at stated prices and quantities. Once an admin enables the option, vendors can accept or decline those purchase orders in the portal. Uploading an invoice directly against a purchase order is part of the Zoho BillPay add-on. Zoho lists that add-on for the Canada, India and US editions only.

The Zoho Books vendor portal help page covers each of these settings in detail.

Supplier uploads stop at 5MB per document, and browsers older than version 100 are unsupported: Maximum size per uploaded document 5 MB, Minimum Chrome, Edge or Firefox version 100 version — Source: zoho.com, help.zoho.com

Custom modules in the portals: lookup fields, criteria and approval

Custom modules in Zoho Books can appear in the customer and vendor portals, so contacts can view and manage records you define. A custom module is a module you create to record information the default Zoho Books modules do not cover. A delivery note log or a returns request are typical examples. Showing custom modules in the portals is available only on certain plans.

Settings to choose

Lookup Field: links each record to the right customer or vendor, so contacts see only their own records.
Display records: show all records, or only records that meet criteria you set.
Create and Edit Records: lets contacts add and change records from the portal.
Save as Draft: appears only once Create and Edit Records is on.
Comments: lets contacts comment on records.

For contacts to fill in a custom field, enable Display in Portal on that field. Zoho does not support that option for Attachment, Lookup and External Lookup fields. Managing or hiding custom modules from the portal Preferences page currently works for the customer portal only.

Approving what contacts submit

Records that contacts submit wait in the module under the Portal Submitted view. You accept or reject each one. An accepted record joins the custom module. Deleting a submitted record removes it from your module and from the contact's portal.

If your process needs screens or logic beyond these options, read what to plan before building a customer portal in Zoho Creator.

Worked example: a UK wholesaler opening both Zoho Books portals

This worked example follows an illustrative trade wholesaler, Hartley Supplies, as it opens both Zoho Books portals. It wants customers to pay online and its main supplier to upload bills. The settings are the real ones from Zoho's help pages.

Edit the Portal Name to hartleysupplies before inviting anyone.
Go to Settings, Preferences, Customer Portal. Check Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) and click Save. Customers and vendors are now both covered.
Associate the payment gateway with outgoing invoices. Enable partial payments on the invoice creation screen for large orders only.
In the customer portal preferences, enable sales orders. Leave projects and timesheets off, because Hartley does not bill time.
Give portal access to the accounts contact at one customer. That person scans the QR code with Google Authenticator and signs in with a TOTP.
Enable the vendor portal for the main supplier. That supplier also buys from Hartley, so it uses a different email from its customer portal login.
Turn on purchase order acceptance and Autoscan. The supplier uploads a PDF invoice under 5MB. Hartley checks the scanned fields and converts it to a bill.
Pay the supplier and record the payment manually, so it appears on the supplier's statement.
When the customer contact loses a phone, open their Details page, click the Gear icon and choose Reset Portal MFA.

When Svennis opens portals for a client, we invite a handful of friendly customers and a regular supplier first. We widen access only after sign-in, payment and bill upload have each worked end to end.

What the Zoho Books portals mean for a UK business on the UK edition

A UK business on the UK edition of Zoho Books gets the customer portal on every listed plan, including Free. Online payment, MFA and statements work as described above. The differences sit on the supplier side.

Supplier invoices against purchase orders

Zoho lists invoice upload against purchase orders as part of the Zoho BillPay add-on for Canada, India and the US. Plan your UK process around document upload instead. Suppliers upload their invoice as an image or PDF. Your team verifies it and converts it to a bill. Purchase order acceptance in the portal is described separately from BillPay, so suppliers can still confirm orders.

Supplier statements and reconciliation

Many UK finance teams spend time matching supplier statements to their own ledger. The vendor portal lets suppliers generate their own statement of account for any period. That helps only if you record payments promptly, because vendors see a payment only once you record it.

Autoscan capacity

Autoscan uses your subscription allowance for every vendor upload it scans. A business with many small supplier invoices should check that allowance before telling every supplier to use the portal.

Customer data in your records

Customers can change their own contact and payment details in the portal, and those changes update your Zoho Books records. Decide who in your team reviews contact changes. This matters most before a payment run or a statement mailing.

Next steps for setting up your Zoho Books portals

Set up the Zoho Books customer and vendor portals in this order, and you will avoid most of the problems described in this guide.

Confirm your plan covers the vendor portal and any custom modules you want to show.
Clean up contact records so every portal contact has a correct, unique email address.
Settle the Portal Name.
Work through the decisions table and write down your answers.
Decide on MFA and switch it on before any invitation goes out.
Attach a payment gateway to invoices and choose where partial payments apply.
Invite a small group of customers and one supplier, and test payment, bill upload and an MFA reset.
Open access to everyone else once the test group has no open issues.

For the wider picture of the accounting system, see the Zoho Books overview for UK businesses. If you want help after the initial setup, read what Zoho Books partner services cover beyond the initial setup.

Sources

Looking for a Zoho partner in the UK? Svennis has been a Zoho Premium Partner since 2011, with more than 200 implementations delivered. See how we work as a UK Zoho Partner.

Customer and vendor portals in Zoho Books: how to set them up properly