Zoho Books setup guide

Agents read payments, invoices and accounts. Anything that moves money is tier 4: a person always approves it.

Ways to connect

Company admins connect apps, on the Integrations page in Everdeck: open Zoho Books, choose one of the ways below, follow its steps and fill in its fields. Everdeck checks what you enter before it saves anything, and asks you to confirm it’s you (your second factor) before you type any secret. How connecting works.

Your Zoho API Console client

Your OAuth app.

This way signs in with an OAuth app you create for Zoho Books, as its steps describe: Everdeck never uses an app of its own. Register this redirect URI with your app:

https://everdeck.io/api/oauth/callback

Then save the app’s client ID and secret in Everdeck, on the connect page or under OAuth apps, and sign in.

1. Sign in to Zoho and open the API Console for your data centre, for example https://api-console.zoho.com (zoho.eu, zoho.in, zoho.com.au, zoho.jp, zohocloud.ca, zoho.sa, zoho.ae or zoho.com.cn for other regions).
2. Click Add Client (or GET STARTED) and choose Server-based Applications.
3. Enter a client name, your website as the homepage URL and https://everdeck.io/api/oauth/callback as the authorized redirect URI. Click Create.
4. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret into the form and pick the same data centre. To check it, look at the Zoho Books web address: books.zoho.com is United States, books.zoho.eu Europe, and so on.
5. Click Connect, sign in as a Zoho Books admin (or a user with the permissions the agent needs) and accept the listed scopes. If you belong to several organizations, choose which one.

Field	What to enter
Zoho data centre (where you sign in)	Choice: United States (zoho.com), Europe (zoho.eu), India (zoho.in), Australia (zoho.com.au), Japan (zoho.jp), Canada (zohocloud.ca), Saudi Arabia (zoho.sa), United Arab Emirates (zoho.ae), China (zoho.com.cn).
Organization ID (filled in for you) (optional)	Text.

The scopes Everdeck asks for:

• ZohoBooks.contacts.READ
• ZohoBooks.contacts.CREATE
• ZohoBooks.invoices.READ
• ZohoBooks.invoices.CREATE
• ZohoBooks.customerpayments.READ
• ZohoBooks.customerpayments.CREATE
• ZohoBooks.bills.READ
• ZohoBooks.bills.CREATE
• ZohoBooks.settings.READ
• ZohoBooks.accountants.READ

When you disconnect, Everdeck asks Zoho Books to revoke the sign-in, then deletes the tokens it saved.

What agents can do

An agent uses an action only when its charter grants it, on the agent’s Tools tab, where you choose whether each one runs by itself (Auto), asks first or never runs. Each action has a risk tier: tier 3 actions, which customers or the public see, ask first unless you choose otherwise, and tier 4 actions (money, deleting things, access) always need a person. How tools and tiers work.

Actions marked Reads outside content return things people outside your company may have written. Agents treat what they read as information, never as instructions, and their riskier actions later in the same session need approval.

• Search customers and vendorsTier 0 · ReadReads outside contentzoho_books_search_contacts

  Find customers or vendors by name, email, general text (name or notes) or a status filter such as Invoice.OverDue. Returns ids, primary email and phone, currency and outstanding amounts.

• Create a customer or vendorTier 2 · ReversibleReads outside contentzoho_books_create_contact

  Add a customer or vendor. contact_name is the display name and must be unique; search first. Put the person's email and phone on a primary contact person so invoices can be emailed.

• List invoicesTier 0 · ReadReads outside contentzoho_books_list_invoices

  List invoices filtered by status (draft, sent, overdue, paid, void, unpaid, partially_paid, viewed), customer, invoice date range, text (number, PO or customer) or changes since a time. Up to 200 per page.

• Read an invoiceTier 0 · ReadReads outside contentzoho_books_get_invoice

  Read one invoice with line items, taxes, totals, payments made, balance, reminders sent and the customer's view link (invoice_url).

• Draft an invoiceTier 2 · ReversibleReads outside contentzoho_books_create_invoice

  Create an invoice for a customer as a draft (it is not emailed). Numbers follow the organization's auto-numbering. Line items reference saved items (item_id) and can override name, description, rate and quantity.

• Email an invoiceTier 4 · Money or irreversibleReads outside contentzoho_books_email_invoice

  Email an invoice with its PDF to the given addresses; a draft is marked as sent. Without subject and body the organization's email template is used.

• Send a payment reminderTier 3 · ExternalReads outside contentzoho_books_send_payment_reminder

  Email the customer a reminder about an open or overdue invoice. Without subject and body the organization's reminder template is used.

• Comment on an invoiceTier 2 · ReversibleReads outside contentzoho_books_add_invoice_comment

  Add an internal comment to an invoice's history, for example a customer's promise to pay, with an optional expected payment date. Comments are not shown to the customer.

• Record a customer paymentTier 4 · Money or irreversibleReads outside contentzoho_books_record_payment

  Record money received from a customer and apply it to one invoice, into a bank or cash account. This updates the books; it does not charge anyone.

• List billsTier 0 · ReadReads outside contentzoho_books_list_bills

  List vendor bills by status (open, overdue, paid, partially_paid or void), vendor, text (bill number, reference, vendor) or changes since a time. Up to 200 per page.

• Enter a billTier 2 · ReversibleReads outside contentzoho_books_create_bill

  Enter a bill received from a vendor, with expense lines against accounts. The bill number is the vendor's invoice number and must be unique for the organization.

• List accountsTier 0 · ReadReads outside contentzoho_books_list_accounts

  List the chart of accounts (id, name, code, type, active). Use expense account ids on bill lines, and bank or cash accounts (account_type bank or cash, under AccountType.Asset) as the deposit account for payments.

What can start work

These events from Zoho Books can become tasks for your agents through Intake. How Intake works.

An invoice was created or changed (sent, viewed, paid, voided and so on).

Connect Zoho Books first. Then, on the Intake page, open Webhooks and sources, find it under Connector triggers and select Start watching. Then, on the Rules tab, select New rule to say which requests become tasks and who gets them.

A vendor bill was created or changed.

Connect Zoho Books first. Then, on the Intake page, open Webhooks and sources, find it under Connector triggers and select Start watching. Then, on the Rules tab, select New rule to say which requests become tasks and who gets them.

Testing, problems and disconnecting

Everdeck checks the connection when you save it. On the connection’s page in Integrations, Test checks it again at any time.

If Zoho Books later refuses the connection, for example because a key was deleted or a sign-in expired, the connection shows Needs attention on the Integrations page and the people who manage connections are told. Agents can’t use it until a company admin fixes it with Edit or Reconnect.

To stop agents using Zoho Books, open the connection and select Disconnect. Agents stop using it at once and its saved credentials are deleted. What else happens depends on how it was connected: each way above says.