Zoho Books

What is Zoho Books

Zoho Books is a cloud-based accounting software created by Zoho Corporation. It is designed for small and medium-sized businesses to manage their finances and stay compliant with tax regulations. The software's main purpose is to simplify daily accounting tasks. Its core functions include creating professional invoices, tracking expenses, managing inventory, reconciling bank accounts, and generating detailed financial reports. A key feature for UK businesses is its recognition by HMRC for Making Tax Digital (MTD), allowing direct submission of VAT returns. Zoho Corporation, the parent company, was founded in 1996 and is known for its wide suite of business software applications. It is headquartered in Chennai, India, with offices around the world.

Zoho Books Features

Zoho Books offers a complete set of features to manage business accounting.

• Invoicing and Receivables: Create and send customized, professional invoices. You can set up recurring invoices for regular clients and send automatic payment reminders to reduce late payments.
• Expense Tracking (Payables): Keep track of your bills and expenses. You can scan receipts with the mobile app, set up recurring bills, and manage vendor payments easily.
• Inventory Management: Track stock levels in real-time. The system automatically updates inventory when you buy or sell items and allows you to set reorder points to avoid running out of stock.
• Banking: Connect your bank accounts to automatically import transactions. This makes bank reconciliation simple, as you can match transactions with your invoices and bills in just a few clicks.
• Project Management and Time Tracking: Create projects, add tasks, and track the time spent on them. You can bill clients based on project hours and manage project budgets effectively.
• MTD Compliance: Zoho Books is HMRC-recognized. You can prepare and file your MTD VAT returns directly from the software. It also supports MTD for Income Tax for sole traders.
• Reporting: Access more than 50 business reports. These include Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow statements, giving you a clear view of your business's financial health.
• Client and Vendor Portals: Collaborate with your customers and vendors through secure portals. Clients can view their invoices and make payments, while vendors can track their purchase orders and payments.
• Automation: Automate routine tasks like sending payment reminders, creating recurring invoices, and categorizing transactions to save time.

Zoho Books Pricing Plans

Zoho Books provides several pricing plans to fit different business sizes and needs. The plans are structured in tiers, with each higher tier offering more features and higher limits.

• Free Plan: Designed for very small businesses and sole traders with revenue below a certain threshold. It includes essential accounting features.
• Standard Plan: A good starting point for small businesses. It includes more contacts, users, and automated workflows compared to the free plan.
• Professional Plan: Suited for growing businesses. This plan adds features like purchase orders, sales orders, and inventory management.
• Premium Plan: Offers more advanced features, including a custom domain, a higher number of users and workflows, and a vendor portal.
• Elite Plan: For established businesses that need advanced inventory controls, such as managing stock in multiple warehouses.
• Ultimate Plan: The most comprehensive plan, providing advanced analytics, higher API limits, and the most extensive feature set for large organizations.

Zoho Books Free Plan

Zoho Books offers a completely free plan for businesses with an annual turnover below a specific limit. This is not a trial; it is a free-forever plan. The free plan includes key features needed for a small business or sole trader, such as:

• Creating and sending invoices
• Tracking expenses
• Connecting one bank account for automatic feeds
• MTD for Income Tax compliance
• Generating a Self Assessment summary
• A personalized dashboard to see your finances

How to use Zoho Books

Getting started with Zoho Books is a direct process. Here is a typical workflow for a new user:

1. Sign Up: Create an account and choose a plan. You can start with the 14-day free trial of a paid plan or select the free plan.
2. Set Up Your Organization: Enter your business details, such as company name, address, currency, and financial year start date. Configure your tax information for VAT.
3. Connect Your Bank Account: Link your business bank account to Zoho Books. This will automatically import your bank transactions, making reconciliation easier.
4. Add Customers and Vendors: Import your list of customers and suppliers or add them one by one.
5. Create Invoices: Start creating and sending invoices to your customers. You can customize the invoice templates with your logo and branding.
6. Record Expenses: Enter your bills and expenses. Use the mobile app to scan and upload receipts on the go.
7. Reconcile Transactions: Go to the banking module to match your imported bank transactions with the invoices and bills you have recorded in the system.
8. Run Reports: Regularly check your financial reports to understand your business performance and prepare for tax filing.

Pros and Cons of Zoho Books

Pros:

• Comprehensive Features: Offers a wide range of accounting tools, from basic invoicing to advanced inventory management.
• Generous Free Plan: The free plan is very useful for sole traders and micro-businesses.
• Good Value: The paid plans are competitively priced compared to other accounting software.
• Zoho Ecosystem: Integrates seamlessly with other Zoho applications like Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects, creating a unified business management platform.
• Strong Mobile App: The mobile application is full-featured, allowing you to manage your finances from anywhere.

Cons:

• Learning Curve: The user interface can be overwhelming for new users due to the large number of features.
• Limited Features in Lower Tiers: Some important features, like purchase orders and advanced inventory, are only available in higher-priced plans.
• Customer Support: While support is available, response times can sometimes be slow for users on lower-tier plans.

Zoho Books integrations

Zoho Books integrates with a wide range of applications, both within the Zoho ecosystem and with third-party services.

• Zoho Apps: It connects smoothly with Zoho CRM, Zoho Projects, Zoho Analytics, Zoho Commerce, and many other Zoho products.
• Payment Gateways: Integrates with popular payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, and GoCardless to accept online payments from customers.
• G Suite and Office 365: Connects with Google and Microsoft applications for contact syncing and other productivity tasks.
• Zapier: Through Zapier, you can connect Zoho Books to thousands of other web applications to automate workflows.
• Other Integrations: It also integrates with services like Slack for notifications and various banking platforms for direct feeds.

Zoho Books Alternatives

• QuickBooks Online: A very popular accounting software, especially in the US. It is known for its user-friendly interface and extensive features, but can be more expensive than Zoho Books.
• Xero: A strong competitor with a clean design and robust features. Xero is particularly popular among accountants and bookkeepers and offers strong bank reconciliation and reporting tools.
• FreshBooks: Excellent for freelancers and service-based businesses. Its primary strength is in invoicing and time tracking, making it simpler than Zoho Books but less suitable for businesses that manage inventory.
• Sage Business Cloud Accounting: A well-established name in accounting, Sage offers a reliable cloud solution with strong core accounting features, particularly for UK-based businesses.

Zoho Books API

Yes, Zoho Books provides a comprehensive RESTful API that allows developers to integrate the accounting software with other applications. The API lets you manage modules like invoices, expenses, contacts, and inventory programmatically.

To use the API, you need to obtain an OAuth 2.0 token. You can generate this by registering your application in the Zoho API Console. Access to the API is generally included in all paid plans, with different rate limits depending on the subscription tier.

Here is a simple example API call using cURL to fetch a list of invoices:

curl -X GET \
https://books.zoho.com/api/v3/invoices \
-H 'Authorization: Zoho-oauthtoken YOUR_OAUTH_TOKEN'

For full details, you should visit the official Zoho Books API documentation on the Zoho developer website.

Zoho Books Affiliate program

Zoho has a partner program that includes an affiliate option. As a Zoho Affiliate, you can earn commissions by referring customers to Zoho Books and other Zoho products. The program is designed for bloggers, publishers, and influencers who can promote Zoho software to their audience.

To join, you need to apply through the Zoho Affiliate Program website. Once approved, you will get access to unique referral links and marketing materials. Commissions are typically a percentage of the subscription fee paid by the customers you refer for their first year. Payments are made regularly, usually after a minimum earning threshold is met. For specific commission rates and terms, it is best to check the official Zoho Affiliate Program page.