Update:

Zoho Books Review: Ratings and Features


Zoho

Summary

Founded in 1996, Zoho Books is an online accounting software that allows small businesses to easily manage the money flowing in and going out whilst managing customers and invoices. The following is our review of Zoho Books.

Advantages

  • Clean, user-friendly interface
  • Good pricing plans
  • 24-hour customer service (weekdays)
  • International invoicing

Disadvantages

  • Limited on number of account users
  • No payroll services
Zoho Books logo

Zoho

Zoho Books logo

Zoho

Summary

Founded in 1996, Zoho Books is an online accounting software that allows small businesses to easily manage the money flowing in and going out whilst managing customers and invoices. The following is our review of Zoho Books.

Advantages

  • Clean, user-friendly interface
  • Good pricing plans
  • 24-hour customer service (weekdays)
  • International invoicing

Disadvantages

  • Limited on number of account users
  • No payroll services

Summary

Summary of Zoho
Pricing
Setup Zoho
Use cases
Ease of use
Features
Support
Security
Overall verdict

Summary of our opinion

Pressed for time to read the full review? To assist you decide whether or not Zoho Books is right for you, we’ve compiled a short summary of our findings below.

For those who don’t have time to read our entire Zoho Books review, here’s a summary of our test:

  • If you’re a freelancer or a small company owner looking for an inexpensive accounting solution with simple software processing and a great user interface, consider Zoho Books.
  • The software may also be used to generate invoices and receive payments online. More time may be spent on strategic business decisions and less on data entry because of this feature.
  • Zoho Books, unlike rivals such as QuickBooks Online and Xero does not offer as many payroll software or third-party connectivity options.

In summary, Zoho Books is one of the best accounting platforms for smaller businesses that just need a basic feature set. If you have strong invoicing needs, ZohoBooks will do the trick but other good accounting software competes in this space also. Zoho Books’ free plan is especially attractive to micro-business owners or small-business owners on a tight budget. For a full in-depth review, the following is our opinion of Zoho Books in detail.

Zoho Books pricing

Zoho Books provides users with a total of six different price options, one of which is free. You have the option of signing up for a complimentary trial for one of the paying plans for a period of fourteen days.

There is no need to provide a credit card or other financial information, and the trial period may be terminated at any moment. The payments for the subscription are deducted from your account on a monthly basis.

However, if you subscribe to a plan that lasts for a whole year, you are eligible for a discount.

PlanFreeStandardProfessionalPremiumEliteUltimate
Monthly price (billed annually)$0$15$40$60$120$240
# of users1351010 users & $2.50/month per extra user)15 users & $2.50/month per extra user)
Accounting accessIncludedIncludedIncludedIncludedIncludedIncluded
EstimatesIncludedIncludedIncludedIncludedIncludedIncluded
Manage Invoices YesYesYesYesYesYes
Tax RulesNoNoNoYesYesYes
Schedule Reports5550200200200
Cash Flow Forecasting ReportNoNoNoNoYesYes
Bank ReconciliationYesYesYesYesYesYes
IntegrationsPartialPartialPartialFullFullFull
Tax RulesNoNoNoYesYesYes
Voice supportNoYesYesYesYesYes

You will have access to all of the core features of Zoho Books with the free plan, like estimations, invoicing, online transactions, fee reminders, multi-language invoicing, expenditures, travel tracking, bank reconciliation and 1099 contractors, among other features.

The limitation that you are only allowed one user, in addition to accountant access, is a drawback. This plan does not include any premium integrations or features such as premium inventory tracking, premium integrations, or project profitability.

Additionally, it only accepts two different payment gateways: Stripe and PayPal. You won’t even have the ability to monitor the Sales Tax.

How to access Zoho Books

Zoho Books is a 100% online solution so you won’t have to download and install anything on your computer. In addition to the web version, Zoho Books Online offers a free mobile app, on iOS and Android. These applications are highly rated by users (4.8/5 for iOS and 4.7/5 for Android).  It also has a version for Windows phones. 

With the app, you can create invoices, run reports, capture receipts, record expenses and track billable time no matter where you are.

Required configuration

In order to access Zoho Books, all you need to do is use your internet browser. Zoho subscriptions are fully-fledged web based applications and the application supports the latest version of the following browsers.

  • Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Safari
  • Edge

Who is Zoho Books for?

Thanks to its features and pricing, Zoho Books is an ideal solution for self-employed persons and small business accounting needs as well as helping SMBs to stay on top of their cash flow. 

Business users may automate processes and build up bespoke workflows, and the system provides dashboards and a broad range of reports.

If you are a solopreneur, the Free version may be sufficient. If however you have a lot of expenses, invoices and estimates, you can consider the paid Standard or Professional plans.

Zoho Books also manages customer and supplier interactions through the client portal where customers can securely store their payment information for recurring transactions.  

In our opinion, Zoho Books is suitable for all types of solopreneurs, smaller businesses and indeed larger firms can avail of the paid Ultimate plan. 

Simple and easy interface

The user interface of Zoho is kept as clean and simple as possible. The primary functions are located on a toolbar that runs down the left side of the screen; each function has its own submenu that contains additional tools.

The primary dashboard is visually appealing and shows crucial company information such as cash flow, receivables, and payables.

Users won’t have any problem browsing Zoho’s user interface since it was designed with their ease of use in mind, and they won’t have any trouble finding out how to do critical activities.

Features

For a 100% online solution, Zoho Books provides a very wide range of features. This topic covers the main features, of which we will review the main elements. 

You may create company profiles, import and amend a chart of accounts, input starting amounts for banking, bank cards and other sorts of account holders, and secure your books when you’re ready to shut the books for the year with Zoho Books, among other common features and advantages.

You can add more members and give them just the permissions they need for an extra charge.

Zoho Dashboard

The dashboard provided by Zoho Books is not only aesthetically pleasing but also makes it simple to examine your current financial situation.

Charts for Total Payables, Total Receivables, Cash Flow, Revenue and Expense, Main Expenses, Bank and Credit Cards and Projects are included on the dashboard. It’s also possible to modify the overall color scheme of your dashboard as well as the primary menu, which is a neat feature.

Web Tabs is a feature that is exclusive to web tabs and allows you to integrate URLs that are often used by your organization within the program so that you can access them quickly from your Zoho dashboard.

Estimates

There is a cool tool in Zoho Books called Estimates that allows you to make estimates for customers and then transform those estimates into invoices as when the customer approves the estimate.

For the purpose of producing estimates that are congruent with your company’s identity, you have access to a few different editable templates.

Importing estimates from your system into Zoho Books as CSV, TSV, or XLS files is yet another method for adding estimates in Zoho Books.

You can submit reocurring invoices or auto-post bills to be sent in advance using Zoho Books’ excellent invoicing function, which comes with 16 templates and a ton of different customization options for the invoices itself.

In addition, businesses have the option to include a salesperson field, custom fields, and retainer invoices on each individual invoice. Discounts, shipping costs, and attachments may also be included to an invoice at the business’s discretion.

Accounts Payable 

You can record, manage, and keep track of purchasing transactions with the help of Zoho Books. This includes things like invoices, charges, estimations, or even supplier credits for returned items.

The application gives you the ability to quickly track your company’s expenditures by providing you with purchase requisitions that can be simply repurposed as invoices.

Setting up regular payments and adding payment reminders allows you to conveniently keep track of bills that need to be paid on a monthly basis, such as utility bills and telephone service bills. If you have regular payments in the future, such as utility bills, you may set up recurring payments.

Your ability to quickly and effectively classify your financial dealings is made possible by the workflow automation for cost management.

Through the use of the Items menu, which can be found in the sidebar on the left of your dashboard, Zoho Books makes it simple to add new product or service items.

Banking and Cash Management

There is a sophisticated banking module available in Zoho Books, which can be used to reconcile bank transactions. You may import transactions from your bank account into Zoho Books using one of these two methods:

  • Establishing a connection between your checking account via a feed
  • Manually importing bank statements into the system

However, you are allowed to upload files in plenty of other useful formats such as Excel and CSV. Unfortunately, it does not accept QuickBooks Online or Wave.

When balancing your bank account, you have the option of manually entering a statement balance. This is significant since it allows you to execute a settlement even if you do not integrate your bank activity.

Following the completion of the bank reconciliation process, you will be able to see your comprehensive reconciliation status reports, which will include both matched and mismatched transactions. You have the option to save your reconciling before it is completely finished and then return to it at a later time.

You will be required to submit the monthly service costs as a separate action before you can proceed with the reconciliation process since there is no opportunity to enter the payments as part of the reconciliation process.

Reporting

Zoho Books has an excellent selection of financial and accounting reports, including a general business overview, P&L statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, general ledger, trial balance, A/P and A/R, sales and payment received, inventory, taxes, and project and timesheets. 

Auto Report Output

The option to arrange reports to be auto created on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis and then delivered to you in the version of your choosing is a useful tool. You may choose to have these reports emailed to you (PDF, CSV or XLS).

In addition, businesses have the option of configuring the software to send a weekly report to the user’s email address automatically.

This report provides an overview of the performance of the business, including summaries of the user’s income and expenditure, working capital, leading expenditure, and projects.

The program comes with more than forty different basic reports, some of which include a general ledger, revenue and loss, revenues by item, data about timesheets, and details regarding payables and receivables.

Contact Management

Zoho allows businesses to manage not just their clients but also their suppliers. You have the ability to add custom fields, reporting labels, and internal comments in addition to the standard contact information and numerous contact individuals.

Once you select a contact, you will be led to an nice user interface where you will be able to obtain an overview of the data, sales, notes, and statements associated with that contact.

Even better, inside Zoho Books you have the ability to send requests for reviews and testimonials to your customers directly.

Payment Reminders

It is easy to automate payment email reminders and create multiple messages that go out at different times. Businesses can create a payment reminder email and send it a week before the invoice is due, send a second email on the due date, and then send a third email if you haven’t received a payment a week after the due date.

Stock Management

Even though inventory-tracking capabilities are only accessible with Zoho’s Professional plan, they are quite helpful since the program displays the available amount when you put the item on an invoice. This makes it possible for you to make more informed business decisions.

If you input a number that is more than what you currently have available, the number will become red. You have the option of configuring the system so that it will send you an email alert if the inventory falls below a certain threshold.

If you have more extensive inventory requirements, such as the need to bundle things together, for example, you may include the Zoho Inventory software to the accounting system for an extra fee. This will allow you to better manage your inventory.

Client Portal

Zoho’s client portal makes it easy for your clients to view their invoices and pay their bills online. You can use it to send estimates and chat within the program too. Zoho even alerts you when your customer views an estimate or invoice, accepts or declines an estimate, or makes a payment.

Bills

With the Bills feature in Zoho Books, you can easily create bills and import bills from your system. Bills can be associated with a vendor, contain a list of items, have notes and comments, and more. Bills can be saved, customized, downloaded, and printed. 

The system lets you create recurring bills for purchases that happen at regular intervals. You can manually record payment for a bill or pay via check or ACH. 

Customer Service & Support

Zoho Books has exceptional customer service, and its support staff are both knowledgeable and fast to assist users. The representatives that staff the live chat functions are efficient, kind, and well-informed.

You may send an email to support@zohobooks.com or give them a call at +1-844-316-5544 to speak with a member of the Support staff.

The following is a rundown of the primary customer care options that are available via Zoho Books:

  • Phone: If you have any questions about Zoho Books, you may call them, and the response times are typically quite good.
  • Contact: If you need assistance, you could also email Zoho Books.
  • You may also file an online support request by visiting the Zoho website and using the Contact Form there.
  • Live Chat: Both on the Zoho website and directly inside the program itself, users may use a live chat facility to get prompt replies.
  • Knowledgebase: There is a complete hub that includes a community forum, help articles, frequently asked questions, blogs, videos, business guidelines, and migration guides. In addition, there is a welcome guide. This information may be accessed from inside the program itself, and there is a search bar that has been thoughtfully crafted.

Integrations & Extensions offered by Zoho Books

Zoho Books is compatible with the other applications in the Zoho Suite including Inventory, CRM or Subscriptions.

Your Zoho Books account may be integrated with various services and programs, including but not limited to Square POS, Evernote, Slack, Zapier, Stripe, PayPal, and many more.

Security

Data is encrypted, two-factor authentication is used, and Zoho Books performs frequent malware detection and prevention screening. These are just some of the robust security precautions used by Zoho Books. The firm ensures that it abides with the guidelines established by the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework.

Additional precautions in the form of physical safeguards, such as round-the-clock monitoring, video monitoring, and bulletproof walls, are taken to protect the confidentiality of the data.

Data is periodically backed up by Zoho Books onto various servers, the locations of which are kept secret.

Zoho Books: Overall verdict

The sleek and uncluttered interface in Zoho Books is only one of the many reasons why it’s so popular among small businesses.

Using widgets for things like top spending, projects, and billable hours, you may receive an instant snapshot of your company’s financial health at a look.

To top it all off, it comes with everything you require to keep your records in order at a price that’s reasonable for sole proprietors and small enterprises. Businesses may submit bills in 13 different languages, and other useful features include invoice auto-scheduling, reporting tags, and inventory.

Zoho Books’ popularity amongst enterprises of all sizes may be attributed to its user-friendly interface, robust set of features, and helpful customer service.

Summary

Summary of Zoho
Pricing
Setup Zoho
Use cases
Ease of use
Features
Support
Security
Overall verdict

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