Sync Zoho Books to Zoho CRM: Add Invoice Dates & Revenue Fields for Smarter Reporting

If you're using Zoho CRM and Zoho Books, you're probably familiar with the default integration. It shows some finance data—total sales, receivables, unused credits—but only one account at a time. And it’s not usable in filters, dashboards, or campaigns.

What’s missing is control.

I needed to know:

• Who got invoiced last.

• And how much service revenue we’ve pulled in from each account this year.

Those numbers live in Zoho Books, but I needed them in Zoho CRM.

What I Wanted (and What Was Missing)

Out of the box, CRM gives you a small finance panel and a related list of transactions. But that info isn't searchable or usable. It won’t show up in list views. You can’t sort by it or use it in workflow rules. And it's not available to Zoho Campaigns either.

That’s a problem if you’re trying to follow up with clients based on activity or revenue.

Building the Sync with Custom Functions

I set up two custom functions inside Zoho Books, each triggered by workflow rules:

1. Last Invoice Date
   This runs anytime an invoice is created or edited. It grabs the CRM Account ID and updates a date field in Zoho CRM.

2. Service Revenue Year-to-Date
   This function totals invoice line items tagged as services (not products) from January 1 to today. It updates a currency field in CRM with that total.

Both run behind the scenes—no middleware, no exports. Just native Zoho automation.

What This Unlocks

Now that those fields live in CRM, here’s what I can do:

• Build list views by invoice activity.

• Sort clients by revenue.

• Create targeted segments in Zoho Campaigns.

• Monitor customer behavior over time.

It also opens the door to retention workflows. If a regular customer stops buying? I’ll know—and I can follow up.

Why This Matters

For service-based businesses, invoices aren’t just paperwork—they’re signals. They show you who’s active, who’s slowing down, and who your top clients really are.

By syncing those signals into CRM, you can take action without guessing or checking Zoho Books manually.

And you don’t need to change your tech stack to get there.

If you want the walkthrough, it's in the YouTube video. But even without it, this approach gives your CRM the visibility it’s missing.