Once invited, a customer logs into the portal using their email and a secure link. They can view all estimates sent for approval (and accept or decline them), see all invoices with their due dates and payment status, download PDFs of any document, view their complete transaction statement, check any credits available against their account, and make online payments if you have a payment gateway enabled in Zoho Books.
In Settings, under Customer Portal, you configure the portal domain (it gets a subdomain under zohobooks.com or your custom domain), the portal name, and which document types are visible (estimates only, invoices only, or both). You then enable portal access per customer from the Contacts page. The customer receives an email invitation with a secure login link. There is no extra cost for the portal; it is included in all Zoho Books plans.
Connecting a payment gateway (Razorpay, PayU, Stripe, or others) to Zoho Books allows the portal to display a Pay Now button on every open invoice. This is particularly effective for reducing collection effort: customers who can pay in one click pay faster than those who have to initiate a bank transfer manually. Zoho Books records the payment and sends an automatic receipt when the transaction completes.
The customer portal in Zoho Books is a self-service online interface where your customers can log in to view their invoices, estimates, statements, and payment history, and make online payments directly.
Go to Settings, then Customer Portal, enable the portal, set your URL, choose which transaction types customers can view, and invite customers by enabling portal access from their contact record.
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