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What is Zoho Books?
Zoho Books is a cost-effective, easy-to-use online accounting software for SMBs that want to streamline invoicing, expense tracking, financial reporting, and inventory management. The platform is also flexible and can easily be integrated with other modules in Zoho’s arsenal, as well as with over 850 third-party apps and tools.
In this Zoho Books review, we’ll go over the key features and functionalities of the accounting software, see how it compares to its top competitors, and help you determine whether it’s the right fit for your business.
Zoho Books Plans & Pricing
Zoho Books offers six different pricing plans for you to choose from, including a free forever plan for smaller businesses with less than $50,000 in annual revenue. Additionally, you pay a fixed monthly price for your organization, which makes Zoho Books super cost-effective for SMBs.
The number of users you can have with each pricing plan is limited, but you can always add additional users to your account for $2.5/user/month, meaning that Zoho Books is incredibly easy to scale as you grow and expand your business.
To note, while Zoho Books provides prices per month, they charge on an annual basis and don’t include any local taxes.
Here’s a breakdown of Zoho Books’ pricing plans:
| Plan | Monthly Cost | Users | Manage Expenses | Reporting | Customer Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1 user + 1 accountant | ✅ | Basic reports | |
| Standard | $15/month | Invite 3 users | ✅ | 10 custom reports | Email, Voice, Chat |
| Professional | $40/month | Invite 5 users | ✅ | 25 custom reports | Email, Voice, Chat |
| Premium | $60/month | Invite 10 users | ✅ | 50 custom reports Cash flow forecasting reports |
Email, Voice, Chat |
| Elite | $120/month | Invite 10 users | ✅ | Unlimited custom reports | Email, Voice, Chat |
| Ultimate | $240/month | Invite 15 users | ✅ | Advanced analytics and fully customizable reporting | Email, Voice, Chat |
Zoho Books Review: Key Features
Zoho Books is one of the best accounting software on the market. The platform helps you streamline and automate virtually every aspect of accounting and handling of financial data in your small business. That said, it’s worth keeping in mind that most of the advanced features are only available on higher-priced tiers, so carefully consider which features you need and how different tiers align with your budget.
New Product Update
August 29th, 2024 Update: Zoho introduced setting criteria for custom buttons and configuring accessibility with the team. When testing this new feature, I love its simplicity in helping HRs offer personalized experiences among the teams. For example, you can configure when the button should appear on the module’s details page and determine who or what triggers the button’s visibility.
Zoho also released an advanced search feature that is similar to Ripplings’. I think this is a productivity-focused update that can improve the organization’s efficiency and workflow.
Here’s a breakdown of the key Zoho Books features and functionalities so you can see exactly what the platform offers:
With Zoho Books, you can create customized, professional invoices in seconds – and recurring invoices at that. The platform lets you add your company logo, change the template’s colors, customize fonts, and add descriptions for every line item in the invoice. You can also select the preferred payment method or offer your clients multiple options to ensure you get paid faster.
We found the option to add late payment reminders to invoices helpful as it means that we didn’t have to chase any clients for late payments – the system handles it for you automatically. What’s best, you’ll be able to charge global customers in their local currencies, and the platform will automatically record payments in your currency.
When it comes to quotes, you can choose from a gallery of customizable templates, digitally sign them before sending them to potential customers, and leverage the Customer Portal to send them, collaborate with clients in real-time, and confirm and close deals.
Zoho Books lets you create bills for all recurring purchases, minimizing manual work and saving you precious time. It also lets you approve and verify bills before they’re paid, track landed costs, and associate clients/customers with billable items. You can even convert purchase orders into bills with a single click of a button, streamlining the process and ensuring accuracy.
With Zoho Books, you’ll also be able to easily track vendor credits, apply them to bills, or use them to receive a refund.
During our testing we found the dashboard to be easy to use and we had all the details we needed such as income, business expenses, and purchases. It features graphs, lists, and pie charts, so you’ll have a great overview of the money coming in and out of your business at a glance.
The Customer Portal (also part of Zoho CRM) greatly facilitates client collaboration by letting them easily communicate with your team, leave feedback, review quotes and invoices, digitally sign documents, and make bulk payments to your business.
You’ll also get real-time notifications for every action your client takes — when they view your invoice, accept or decline, leave comments, or make payments.
The Projects functionality lets you track billable hours for every project you’re executing makes it easy to keep track of multiple projects and assess their profitability, and makes it easier for your team members to collaborate, thanks to role-based access and in-app communication.
It also makes it easier to manage expenses for each project, as well as makes it possible to receive advances (retainers) for projects, improving your cash flow.
Inventory management in Zoho Books is straightforward with Zoho Inventory, so it’s easy to capture all key product details (SKUs, images, cost, vendor details), monitor stock levels, and set reorder levels to automate purchase order creation.
You’ll be able to monitor inventory changes in real-time and generate in-depth inventory reports, so you’ll have insight into which items and categories are the most popular and which ones are gathering dust in your warehouse.
The Sales Orders functionality enables you to quickly convert quotes into invoices after confirming a sale, facilitates shipping, and gives you valuable insight into your sales.
One interesting aspect of this is that Zoho Books allows you to create partial invoices if a client orders larger quantities of items than you have in stock. It also lets you create purchase orders if you need to restock before fulfilling the full order.
Speaking of Purchase Orders, Zoho Books automatically logs every detail of each purchase, makes it easy to convert purchase orders into bills, and enables you to print, clone, and share orders via email, facilitating collaboration and helping you get things done faster.
Zoho Books Integrations
Zoho, as a platform, relies on Zoho Flow to integrate with over 850 apps and tools, so it’s easy to connect to your existing software stack. The integrations cover everything from popular project management tools like Asana, Trello, and Basecamp to CRMs, communication apps, and marketing and productivity tools.
Additionally, Zoho Books integrates natively with the other tools in Zoho’s arsenal, such as Zoho Payroll. So, while Zoho Books itself doesn’t offer payroll processing, you can integrate the two modules and use Zoho for both your accounting and payroll needs.
What is Zoho Books Good For?
Zoho Books is a top accounting software for small and medium-sized businesses due to its flexible pricing. A small business can benefit from choosing a pricing tier that meets all their needs without paying for unnecessary features. Retail and e-commerce companies will find Zoho Books especially beneficial for inventory management, sales, and purchase orders. However, large enterprises might be better off choosing other accounting software that covers more in-depth accounting needs.
Zoho Books Customer Reviews
The user reviews of Zoho Books are overwhelmingly positive, with the average ratings on popular review sites ranging from 4.0/5 to over 4.5/5 stars. Users almost universally agree that the platform’s strongest suites are its ease of use, flexibility of modules, mobile apps, integration capabilities, and affordability.
As far as drawbacks of the accounting software go, users cite occasional communication issues with customer support, hiccups with bank connections, and limits to the number of users/contacts on all pricing plans.
Zoho Books Alternatives
| Provider | Zoho Books | QuickBooks | Sage | Oracle NetSuite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | SMBs that want to streamline and automate accounting processes | SMBs looking to automate invoicing, payroll, tax filing, and time tracking | Solo entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses looking for a simple accounting solution | Enterprises that need a full-featured cloud-based accounting platform with great customization options |
| Starting Price | Free | From $18/month | From $17.80/month | Custom quote |
| Free Trial | Free forever plan | 30-day free trial | 30-day free trial | ❌ |
| Payroll | No (Integration with Zoho Payroll available) | ✅ | ✅ | Paid add-on |
| Reporting | Custom reports | Custom reports | Smart, customizable financial reports | Customizable financial reports |
| Mobile App | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
How to Use Zoho Books - Quick Guide
To access Zoho Books successfully simply follow our easy step-by-step guide below.
Sign up to Zoho Books
You can sign up to Zoho Books for free or select a pricing plan. The free trial allows you to test out all the functionality available before you choose the plan that best suits your business.Set up Organization/Migrate from previous software
Log in, go to Settings > Profile, and fill in the information to get your company organized. If you’re currently set up with another software, simply import your existing data to Zoho.
Set up your dashboard
Zoho Books will guide you through, in detail, how to customize your dashboard to show your company’s finances. You’ll get an overview of your cash flow, top expenses, projects, and more.
Open balances
For the software to work properly, you need to import the closing balances of your previous financial year. To do this, go to Settings > Organization > Opening Balances > Enter Opening Balance Date.
Ready to use
Your Zoho Books account is now set up and ready to use.
How We Review and Test Accounting Products
To provide our readers with accurate and well-informed recommendations, we test the most popular accounting products on the market to find the best options for you. Our methodology consists of the following criteria:
- Features: We examine the features of each accounting software to determine what capabilities are offered- such as creating, editing, and deleting transactions.
- Compliance: We evaluate accounting software based on whether it offers local compliance when it comes to payroll, taxes, documentation, and more.
- Bank Reconciliation: We test the reconciliation process to ensure transactions match bank statements accurately.
- Multi-Currency Support: We verify the accuracy of currency conversions and transactions in multi-currency environments.
- User Experience: We get hands-on with each product and act as a new user, testing each platform to gain understanding if the platform is easy to use or not.
- Reporting and Documentation: We verify the accuracy of financial reports generated by the software such as balance sheets and income statements.
- Integrations: We evaluate the integrations of each piece of software to determine how well it fits in with other key pieces in a business’s software stack, and whether its functionality can be expanded as required.
- Audit Trails: We ensure the software maintains comprehensive audit trails for tracking changes made to financial data.
