Zoho Books: Guide to Cost, Features and More

Zoho Books is cloud-based accounting software that allows bookkeepers, accounting professionals and business owners to manage their company’s finances. It automates business workflows and helps users work collectively across departments to stay on top of receivables and payables, manage inventory, automatically import and match bank feeds, and get real-time tracking of projects for customer invoicing.

Data from other Zoho applications, such as customer relationship management, customer service and inventory management, is available within Books. Companies can generate reports from the consolidated data of all these applications in Zoho Analytics.

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Here are some things to know about the Zoho software that might help with the decision-making process.

How much does Zoho Books cost?

Zoho Books is available under three standard pricing plans that are offered on a monthly or yearly basis (with a discount for annual subscribers). There's also a free version.

Free: Only for businesses that have less than $50,000 in annual revenue.

• Support for one user and one accountant.

Standard: $20 per month per organization, or $180 annually.

• Support for up to three users.

Professional: $50 per month per organization, or $480 annually.

• Support for up to five users.

Premium: $70 per month per organization, or $720 annually.

• Support for up to 10 users.

What features does Zoho Books include?

Among the core features of Zoho Books are:

• Accounts receivable/accounts payable automation, including automated invoice creation and payment reminders.

• The ability to auto-charge customers for recurring payments.

• Automatic bank feeds and transaction matching.

• Auto-generated reports.

Courtesy: Zoho Books

Another feature: automation workflows, which allow a user to program Zoho Books to handle recurring tasks (send emails, update fields in a specific module, execute custom functions, communicate with third-party applications) whenever pre-set criteria are met.

In addition, client and vendor portals provide a dedicated space for users’ customers and vendors to view and manage transactions. Document management and auto-scan features allow users to upload and store documents such as bills or receipts, which can be scanned and attached to invoices.

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Also included is a collaboration tool that provides managers with granular access controls, so users can be assigned to the right tasks; an audit trail that lets users view and track the history of changes made to any transaction; and data backup that allows users to export complete organizational data as a single compressed file.

What security features does Zoho Books have?

Zoho Books accounts are secured via secure sockets layer, or SSL, encryption and two-factor authentication. In addition, Zoho Books is compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation, and the company says it is taking steps to ensure that customers’ data is safe in all Zoho applications.

What customer support options are available?

Customers of Zoho Books have access to free, worldwide support 24 hours a day, five days a week. This is available by email, live chat and phone.

What else does Zoho offer?

Some businesses prefer having vertical-specific accounting platforms to take care of their unique needs, Zoho says. For such cases, Zoho Books offers platform capabilities such as workflow automation and advanced customization functionalities. These include custom modules, functions and fields.

Free trial available

There’s a 14-day free trial of the Professional plan available for all new users, to give them the option to try the product before subscribing.

Related offerings from Zoho

Zoho Books is part of the Zoho Finance suite, which is designed to help businesses manage their finance and operations. Other applications in the suite include:

• Zoho Invoice, for businesses that require simple invoicing software.

• Zoho Expense, online expense reporting software to automate expense report creation, streamline approvals and make swift reimbursements.

• Zoho Inventory, stock management, order fulfillment and inventory control software.

• Zoho Subscription, which helps businesses handle recurring billing and manage subscriptions.

• Zoho Checkout, which enables users to build a custom, branded payment page and accept payments without a website.

All these applications can integrate with Zoho Books.