What is Zoho Books?
Zoho Books is a user-friendly online accounting system with a clean interface and solid reporting. It is a fully-functional accounting software offering standard accounting requirements such as invoicing, banking interfaces, inventory tracking, sales tax tracking, and financial statements. But Zoho goes above these must-haves and includes features such as client portals, document storage, estimates, and project financial management tools.
Zoho Books was built with the international community in mind. You can easily send invoices and receive payments in multiple currencies. Zoho makes international payment tracking painless by automatically converting international payments into your currency. The system allows you to determine which currency you want your reporting displayed in.
For companies that regularly send out estimates and invoices, Zoho Books has simplified the process of converting estimates into invoices which can be accomplished by a click of a button. Project expenses can be tracked through the integrated time and billing modules. Zoho has taken much of the manual work out of managing your books. The application integrates with Zoho’s complete suite of software, but also integrates with third-party software such as Office 365, G-Suite, and Stripe.
Zoho Books’ reporting module gives you up-to-date insight into the financial health of your organization. The user-friendly interface gives you relevant information through a well-designed dashboard. Additionally, Zoho Books allows you to add users with report-only access, meaning you can share your finances with your team without giving them access to every detail. The Zoho Books’ mobile app provides access to your books even when you’re not at your computer.
Zoho Books
What popular features do you get with Zoho Books?
- Accessible worldwide
- Simple to learn
- Solid reporting options
- Multi-state sales tax tracking
- Client portal
- Intuitive inventory tracking
- Financial document storage
- Secure online system
- Bank integration
- Mobile app
- Third-party software integration
- Timesheets
- Recurring journal entries
Customer Support is available at Zoho Books
Zoho Books is a good fit for small- to medium-sized companies. Zoho Books’ free subscription for microbusinesses with under $50,000 in revenue makes it the ideal choice for budget continuous businesses just starting out. Though the price point is lower than other accounting software, such as QuickBooks Online, the savings may not be enough to justify moving an existing company to new software.
The system also works well for companies operating across several states or countries. For multi-state companies, the sales tax tracking and multi-state payroll options minimize the headaches of processing tax returns. For companies making sales in various currencies, automatic currency conversions allow you to grasp your company’s bottom line (without having to do all the conversions yourself).
Pros and Cons
- Zoho Books allows you to work with multiple payment partners and has real-time integration for payment tracking.
- Zoho Books’ payroll module (available at an additional fee) can handle tricky multi-state returns.
- The reporting dashboard provides a professional display of valuable insight into your company’s finances.
- Zoho Books has a very reasonable price point for the number of features available.
- Zoho Books has not reached mainstream adoption, and you may struggle to find a bookkeeper or accountant familiar with the software.
- Zoho Books limits the number of transactions per month, so larger companies will likely exceed the limit.
People like you also researched
Here are some products we think might be a good fit based on what people like you viewed.
Intuit Quickbooks
- Over 650+ different business app integrations
- Extensive record-keeping
- Real-time, accessible accounting and bookkeeping solution
- Powerful business insights dashboard
Oracle Netsuite
- All-in-one solution
- Streamlines several business workflows
- Helps with paying taxes and maintaining financial compliance
- Extremely customizable
Freshbooks
- User friendly interface
- Regular updates on glitches and software improvement
- Affordable
- Financial reporting
How much does Zoho Books cost?
*based on information provided by the vendor. Actual cost may vary.
Zoho Books’ pricing is based on the annual revenue of your company. A free plan is available to companies with less than $50,000 in gross receipts. Once you cross the $50,000 revenue threshold, plans start at $20/month. The free version includes most modules needed to run a small business, including accounts payable, accounts receivable, recurring invoicing, bank reconciliation, and reporting.
The Professional plan expands on the standard plan by adding retainer invoices, recurring bills, currency adjustments, project profitability tracking, and customer user rules. The Professional plan is available at $50/month.
Zoho Books’ Premium plan includes all the features in its lower tiers and adds additional features. The Premium plan has custom domain names, budgeting features, customized reporting, and a vendor portal. Though most companies won’t need the additional features under the Premium Plan, you can always upgrade at a later date and it’s nice to know the features are available. The Premium plan costs $70/month.
Zoho Books has discounts of up to 25% for annual purchases making the accounting software an even better deal if you have the funds available to secure the discount.
Along with their standard plans, Zoho Books offers add-on features for an additional fee. You can add additional users for $3/month. Advanced auto-scans can be purchased for $10/month, and snail mails runs $2/credit. To take advantage of these add-on features, you must have a paid subscription (not the free plan).
Final thoughts...
Zoho Books was built from the ground up as cloud accounting software.
With it’s reasonable price point and myriad of features, Zoho Books is a solid option for businesses looking for budget-friendly accounting software. Though the base plan is free on Zoho Books, you can try all the advanced features free for 14-days through their free trial offering.
