Once the Zoho integration is set up (see the Set up Guide ), most of your day runs on autopilot: student records, invoices, payments, refunds, and credit notes sync automatically. This guide covers what your team actually does day to day — checking sync status and managing payments, credit notes, deposits, and credit balances.
A Single Place to See Everything Synced
The Zoho Integration page gives you one view of every entity connected to Zoho — each with a live count of how many records are synced. It's the starting point for setup and the place to check overall health at a glance.
Entities synced in real time:
Students (Customer records)
Fee Components — Fee Items and Taxes
Invoices
Payments
Refunds
Credit Notes
This keeps billing and accounting aligned without duplicate data entry — you work in illumine, and the accounting side reflects it within a few minutes.
Checking Sync Status
Instead of switching over to Zoho to check whether something went through, illumine shows sync status right on the record itself.
Look under each record for a status indicator: a green dot with Sync means the record is up to date in Zoho.
If the indicator is missing or shows an error, the record likely hasn't synced yet, or isn't mapped to a Zoho contact — see Troubleshooting below.
A green "Sync" indicator confirms a student record is synced with Zoho
On Demand Manual Sync
While sync runs automatically in the background, illumine also gives you direct control. Select any records and trigger Sync Selected Students from the Actions menu to force an immediate update, useful right after fixing a mapping issue or when you need a record reflected in Zoho right away.
Go to the Students list and select one or more students using the checkboxes.
Click Actions in the top-right corner.
Choose Sync Selected Students.
illumine pushes the sync to Zoho immediately — refresh the list after a moment to confirm the status updated.
Triggering a manual sync via Actions → Sync Selected Students
💡 Manual sync is useful when you need a specific record updated before running a report in Zoho — you don't need to use it for routine, everyday syncing.
Managing Invoices
Create invoices manually for one-off charges, or let illumine generate them automatically from a student's fee plan — recurring invoices go out on schedule without any manual work.
Create manual invoices, or auto-generate them from a student's fee plan
Set up Fee Components with their own item code, marked as Recurring, One-Time, or Refundable
Apply discounts and taxes, each with its own discount code or tax code.
Managing Payments
Record payments against any invoice and let illumine handle the rest — from choosing a payment method to keeping Zoho in sync.
Record full or partial payments against any invoice
Choose from any configured payment method, each mapped to its corresponding Zoho account
Payments sync automatically to Zoho, so a payment recorded in illumine is reflected in Zoho within minutes
Void a payment made in error, while illumine keeps balances and reconciliation accurate
Managing Credit Notes
Manage the entire credit note lifecycle directly from illumine — no need to touch Zoho manually. Create credit notes for full or partial invoice amounts, apply them to current or future invoices, and refund unused credit notes as cash or another offline method. Every credit note tracks its Used, Available, and Refunded balance in real time.
Create full or partial credit notes against any invoice
Apply credit notes to current or future invoices
Refund unused credit notes as cash or offline payment
Track Used, Available, and Refunded balances at a glance
💡 Credit Notes are managed independently from Advance Payments — the two don't get mixed together, which keeps your accounting records accurate.
Handling Childcare Deposits
Zoho doesn't natively support refundable childcare deposits — illumine fills that gap. Record deposits through a payment against a Refundable line item, or directly against a child's profile. When it's time to settle, convert the deposit into a Credit Note and apply it against any outstanding invoice.
Managing Credit Balances (Advance Payments)
Advance payments sync with Zoho as Excess Payments, and illumine layers on additional controls: view Used, Available, and Refunded balances for every credit balance entry, refund unused balances directly, review complete refund history, and void a refund transaction if it was made in error — all while keeping reconciliation accurate.
Revenue Mapping by Fee Component
Map each Fee Component — tuition, registration, meals, and any other charge type — to the appropriate Zoho Income Account, so revenue is automatically categorized correctly the moment an invoice syncs.
Mapping a New Center to a Zoho Location
If you open a new branch, add it under Location Mapping so its invoices post to the correct Zoho location going forward.
Searching for and selecting a Zoho location to map to a center
Troubleshooting
A student isn't showing as synced
Check the Unmapped tab under Student Mapping — the record may not be linked to a Zoho contact yet.
Trigger a manual sync from Actions → Sync Selected Students.
Confirm your account and payment method mappings are complete — an incomplete mapping can block sync.
An invoice or payment posted to the wrong account
Check the Payment Account, Line Item Account, and Payment Method mappings on the Zoho Integration page — these are used for all future transactions, but won't retroactively fix ones already synced.
Correct affected records directly in Zoho if they've already synced with the wrong account.
Sync seems delayed
Automatic sync can take a few minutes — wait briefly before assuming something is wrong.
If it's been longer than expected, use Sync Selected Students to force an immediate update.