Zoho Books Automation

Automate Zoho Books accounting workflows -- create and manage invoices, track bills and payments, look up contacts, export PDFs, and handle multi-organization setups -- all through natural language.

Toolkit docs: composio.dev/toolkits/zoho_books

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Setup

1. Add the Rube MCP server to your environment: https://rube.app/mcp
2. Connect your Zoho Books account when prompted (OAuth flow via Composio)
3. Start issuing natural language commands for Zoho Books automation

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Core Workflows

1. Discover Organizations

Retrieve all organizations for the authenticated user. This is a prerequisite since organization_id is required by nearly every other endpoint.

Tool: ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_ORGANIZATIONS

No parameters required. Returns organization IDs, names, and metadata.

Always call this first to obtain the organization_id needed by all other Zoho Books tools.

Example prompt:

"List my Zoho Books organizations"

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2. Create and Manage Invoices

Create invoices with line items, manage existing invoices, and export them as PDFs.

Create: ZOHO_BOOKS_CREATE_INVOICE

Key parameters:

• organization_id -- target organization (required)
• customer_id -- customer to bill (required)
• line_items -- array of line items (required), each with:
  • item_id or name -- reference existing item or create ad-hoc line
  • quantity, rate -- amount details
  • description, tax_id, discount -- optional details
• date / due_date -- dates in YYYY-MM-DD format
• invoice_number -- custom number (set ignore_auto_number_generation=true)
• discount / discount_type -- invoice-level discount (entity_level or item_level)
• notes / terms -- printed on the invoice
• send -- email the invoice immediately after creation
• payment_terms -- number of days for payment

List: ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_INVOICES

Key parameters:

• organization_id (required)
• status -- sent, draft, overdue, paid, void, unpaid, partially_paid, viewed
• customer_id / customer_name -- filter by customer
• date_start / date_end -- date range filter (YYYY-MM-DD)
• search_text -- search invoice number, reference, or customer name
• sort_column / sort_order -- sort by date, due_date, total, balance, etc.
• page / per_page -- pagination (max 200 per page)

Get details: ZOHO_BOOKS_GET_INVOICE -- fetch by invoice_id with accept format: json, pdf, or html

Delete: ZOHO_BOOKS_DELETE_INVOICE -- remove by invoice_id

Bulk export: ZOHO_BOOKS_BULK_EXPORT_INVOICES_PDF -- merge up to 25 invoices into a single PDF

Bulk print: ZOHO_BOOKS_BULK_PRINT_INVOICES -- generate a combined print-ready PDF for up to 25 invoices

Example prompt:

"Create an invoice for customer 1234567890 with 2 line items: 10 units of Widget A at $25 each, and 5 units of Widget B at $50 each, due in 30 days"

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3. Track and Manage Bills

List, view, and update vendor bills with comprehensive filtering.

List: ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_BILLS

Key parameters:

• organization_id (required)
• status -- paid, open, overdue, void, partially_paid
• vendor_id / vendor_name_contains -- filter by vendor
• bill_number / bill_number_contains -- filter by bill number
• date_start / date_end -- date range filter
• total_greater_than / total_less_than -- amount range filters
• sort_column / sort_order -- sort by vendor_name, bill_number, date, due_date, total, etc.
• page / per_page -- pagination (max 200)

Get details: ZOHO_BOOKS_GET_BILL -- fetch full bill by bill_id and organization_id

Update: ZOHO_BOOKS_UPDATE_BILL -- modify existing bill (requires bill_id, organization_id, vendor_id, bill_number)

Example prompt:

"List all overdue bills for my organization, sorted by due date"

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4. Look Up Contacts

Search and filter contacts (customers and vendors) for use in invoices and bills.

Tool: ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_CONTACTS

Key parameters:

• organization_id (required)
• contact_type -- customer or vendor
• contact_name_contains / contact_name_startswith -- name filters
• email_contains / email_startswith -- email filters
• company_name_contains -- company name filter
• filter_by -- status filter: Status.Active, Status.Inactive, Status.Duplicate, etc.
• search_text -- search by contact name or notes (max 100 chars)
• sort_column -- sort by contact_name, email, outstanding_receivable_amount, created_time, etc.
• page / per_page -- pagination (max 200)

Example prompt:

"Find all active customers whose company name contains 'Acme'"

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5. Track Invoice Payments

List all payments recorded against a specific invoice.

Tool: ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_INVOICE_PAYMENTS

Key parameters:

• invoice_id -- the invoice to check (required)
• organization_id -- the organization (required)

Returns all payment transactions applied to the invoice including amounts, dates, and payment methods.

Example prompt:

"Show all payments recorded against invoice 451025000000123045"

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6. Full Invoicing Workflow

Combine tools for end-to-end invoice management:

1. Organization: ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_ORGANIZATIONS -- get organization_id
2. Contacts: ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_CONTACTS -- find or verify customer_id
3. Create: ZOHO_BOOKS_CREATE_INVOICE -- create invoice with line items
4. Review: ZOHO_BOOKS_GET_INVOICE -- fetch invoice details or PDF
5. Track: ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_INVOICE_PAYMENTS -- monitor payment status
6. Export: ZOHO_BOOKS_BULK_EXPORT_INVOICES_PDF -- batch export for records

Example prompt:

"Find the customer ID for 'Acme Corp', create an invoice for them with consulting services, and then get the PDF"

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Known Pitfalls

Pitfall	Details
Organization ID always required	Nearly every endpoint requires organization_id -- always call ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_ORGANIZATIONS first
Line items required for invoices	ZOHO_BOOKS_CREATE_INVOICE requires at least one line item with either item_id or name
Invoice ID format	Use the numeric invoice_id from the invoice object (e.g., 7472322000000264123), not the encoded ID from invoice_url
Bulk limits	Both ZOHO_BOOKS_BULK_EXPORT_INVOICES_PDF and ZOHO_BOOKS_BULK_PRINT_INVOICES accept a maximum of 25 invoice IDs
Pagination max 200	All list endpoints cap at 200 records per page -- iterate pages for complete results
Bill update requires all fields	ZOHO_BOOKS_UPDATE_BILL requires bill_id, organization_id, vendor_id, and bill_number even for partial updates
Date format	All date parameters use YYYY-MM-DD format
response_option undocumented	ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_INVOICES has an undocumented response_option parameter (0=full, 1=full+totals, 2=counts only) that may change without notice

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Quick Reference

Action	Tool Slug	Key Params
List organizations	ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_ORGANIZATIONS	(none)
Create invoice	ZOHO_BOOKS_CREATE_INVOICE	organization_id, customer_id, line_items
List invoices	ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_INVOICES	organization_id, status, date_start
Get invoice	ZOHO_BOOKS_GET_INVOICE	invoice_id, organization_id, accept
Delete invoice	ZOHO_BOOKS_DELETE_INVOICE	invoice_id, organization_id
Bulk export PDF	ZOHO_BOOKS_BULK_EXPORT_INVOICES_PDF	organization_id, invoice_ids
Bulk print	ZOHO_BOOKS_BULK_PRINT_INVOICES	organization_id, invoice_ids
List bills	ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_BILLS	organization_id, status, vendor_id
Get bill	ZOHO_BOOKS_GET_BILL	bill_id, organization_id
Update bill	ZOHO_BOOKS_UPDATE_BILL	bill_id, organization_id, vendor_id
List contacts	ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_CONTACTS	organization_id, contact_type, search_text
List payments	ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_INVOICE_PAYMENTS	invoice_id, organization_id

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