Other Automations

Webhooks

Webhooks facilitate communication with third-party applications by sending instant web notifications every time an event occurs in Zoho Books. With Webhooks, you can configure HTTP & HTTPS URLs and associate them with workflow rules to automate the notification process. Read our help document on webhook examples to know more about when and how you can use webhooks.For general information about webhooks, visit webhooks.org.

Create a Webhook

To set up a webhook:Go to Settings on the top right corner of the page.Select Workflow Actions under Automation.In the Workflow Actions pane, select Webhooks.Click + New Webhook in the top right corner.

On the New Webhook page, enter the following details:

Enter a name for the webhook in the Name field.Select the module for which you want to create the webhook from the dropdown next to the Module field.Add a description about the webhook in the Description field, if required.

In the URL & Parameters field, select the HTTP method and enter the URL of the third-party application. The HTTP methods available in Zoho Books are listed below:Post: Requests that the data sent must be considered as newPut: Requests that the data sent should be considered as a modified version of the one already presentDelete: Requests that the data must be deleted.

Note: If you want to specify a port number in the URL and Parameters field, note that Zoho Books only supports port numbers 80 and 443.

You can also add additional query parameters by clicking Add Parameters and entering the required values in the Key and Value fields. You can add custom parameters like Auth Token, Security Token, API Key, etc.

Check the I want to secure this webhook option if you want to secure your webhook. Enter the secret key in the Secret Token field. This will help to verify whether the webhook was sent from Zoho Books. It should be alphanumeric and range between 12-50 characters.Note: You cannot edit or view the secret token later.Note: The secret token will be used to compute a hash value, so, you will have to ensure that the same token is available on your server to compute a similar hash value.In the Headers section, you can include any additional information that you want to be included in the HTTP request. Click + Add New Headers if you want to add additional headers.In the Authorisation Type section, choose how you want to authorise the webhook.Self-Authorisation: Select this option to set up your webhook by providing the authorisation details manually.Connections: Select this option to set up your webhook using a connection. Read our help document on Connections to learn how to create connections.In the Body section, choose how you want to send the data. You can choose from the following body parameters:Default Payload: In the default payload format, all the parameters associated with the module will be sent to the request body in the application/json format content type.form-data: Send data as text or files. If you select File, the custom fields for the attachment type created in the module for which you are creating this webhook will be listed in the dropdown.x-www-form-urlencoded: In the x-www-urlencoded format, the data will be encoded and sent to the server.Raw: In the raw format, you can choose the parameters sent to the request body. The content type will be application/json.Click Save and Execute to check if the webhook works properly, or click Save if you want to execute it later.Note: When you set up webhooks, all your contacts’ details in your Zoho Books organisation (name, phone number, address, and email address) will be shared with the URL you want to notify.

Delete Webhooks

To delete a webhook:Go to Settings on the top right corner of the page.Select Workflow Actions under Automation.In the Workflow Actions pane, select Webhooks.Hover over the webhook that you want to delete and click the Delete icon.In the pop up that appears, click Yes.The webhook will be deleted. If you’ve used in the webhook in a workflow rule, ensure that you update the workflow rule as the workflow rule might not get triggered.

Filter Webhooks

To filer the webhooks list, follow these steps:Go to Settings on the top right corner of the page.Select Workflow Actions under Automation.In the Workflow Actions pane, select Webhooks.Under Module, select a module from the drop down for which the webhook been created.Based on your selection, the corresponding webhook will be displayed as a list.

Schedules

Zoho Books lets you create and run predefined tasks at the specified time intervals using schedules. You can create your tasks using a deluge script and schedule this task to be executed at a particular time or on a recurring basis.Note: This feature is available only for certain plans of Zoho Books. Visit the pricing page to check if it’s available in your current plan.

Scenarios

Here are a few scenarios where schedules can be created to execute custom actions. However, you can create custom schedules based on your firm’s requirements.Example 1: Peter runs a supermarket. At the end of every month, he wants to give a 10% off on the Next Purchase to customers whose total purchase for the month exceeds a certain amount, let’s say 1000. Peter creates a schedule to email this to selective customers on the last day of the month.Example 2: Peter uses a third party application for maintaining customer and employee database internally. He would like to sync all data from Zoho Books to the other application periodically. To do so, he creates a custom schedule to sync the data at 6 pm every day.Example 3: Peter sets a quarterly sales target for his territorial managers. Every four months, he has to send them their Profit and Loss reports and a congratulatory email when they have achieved their target or a motivating email for them to perform better. He writes a function and schedules it to be sent to his staff once every 4 months.On the New Schedule page:Enter a Name for your schedule.Set the Frequency and recurrence pattern for the schedule to be executed. This can be daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.Select how frequently the task should be executed.Daily: The task will be executed every day (or based on your recurrence pattern). You can choose to exclude the weekends.Weekly: The task will be executed once a week. Select the day of the week on which the task should be executed.Monthly: Task will be executed once a month. This can be a specific date or a day in a month. For example, you can choose to execute it on the 5th of every month or the Second Saturday of every month.Yearly: Task will be executed once a year. You can select the month and specify the date of execution or specify the day. For example, the task can be executed on the first Sunday in January or just January 5.Set the Start Date and Time.Warning: The start date of a schedule cannot be more than one year from the creation date.Select when the schedule should expire. It can expire after a number of executions or on a set date or not expire at all.Drag and drop options to create a Deluge function that will help to create your function.Note: Deluge (Data Enriched Language for the Universal Grid Environment) is an online scripting language integrated with Zoho Services. It enables you to write your own functions that lets you modify the application to suit your needs, incrementally, making it more powerful and robust.Click Save or Save and Execute to run it.

Multiple Choice Question

Summary Table: Other Automations in Zoho Books

Automation Feature	Description	Benefits
Workflow Rules	Trigger actions based on predefined conditions.	Automated tasks, improved efficiency, proactive management.
Custom Functions	Extend Zoho Books functionality with custom Deluge scripts.	Handle complex tasks, integrate with third-party applications.
Report Scheduling	Automate the sending of periodic reports	Helps people outside of Zoho Books be on top of trends.
Connecting Other Zoho Apps	Automated data transfer to and from other Zoho Applications for streamlined tasks.	Automated data entry reduces errors and improve accuracy

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