The least expensive accounting applications I test are Xero ($15–$78 per month) and Patriot Software Accounting ($20–$30 per month). While some software vendors provide only minimal customer service, we were impressed that Zoho offers its paying customers multiple support resources. You can contact the company by phone 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday — a rare perk in this sector. Users can also chat with an agent or email the vendor either within the accounting software or via the company’s website. Zoho maintains a score of 4.5 out of 5 for customer service on user-generated review site Trustpilot, which is higher than both QuickBooks and Xero.
The live chat feature is available on the Zoho Books website and within the software itself. The platform’s sales tax features are included in the assessment of the accounts receivable, so there is no separate video available. In our internal case study, we thoroughly evaluated Zoho Books to see how it performs zoho books review based on our scoring rubric. On a scale from zero to five, it is rated across several categories, including pricing, ease of use, and features, such as general accounting, A/P, and accounts receivable (A/R). The table below shows how the plans compare in terms of the most notable accounting features.
Today it connects seamlessly with a wide range of Zoho Books’ own tools and apps, including Zoho CRM, Zoho Inventory and Zoho Campaigns. Third party solutions are represented by the likes of Office 365, Slack and Square. Zoho can also integrate with third party payroll solutions like greytHR and Paybooks, partially overcoming the lack of in-built payroll features.
Zoho shows you the available quantity when you enter an item on an invoice. If you enter a higher number than the amount of stock you have on hand, the number turns red. We also liked that you can set up the system to automatically email you a notification when the inventory drops below a specific number. You can also assign actual labor to a project and record the actual inventory used in the project. If you need dedicated software for project management, explore our list of the best contractor accounting software.
Apart from Texas and California, Zoho doesn’t offer payroll integration in the United States. With Zoho Books, you’ll have to manually enter your payroll data into your accounting software every payday, which works against Zoho Books’ time-saving automation in a big way. So if you manage employees, we recommend you look to a competitor like Xero or Wave instead. The Professional plan starts at $40 a month ($50 when paid month to month) and ups your yearly invoice limit to 10,000 invoices.
Zoho may suffer from a lack of name recognition but in all other ways this comprehensive package is a match for better known rivals. Its limited payroll options make it less attractive for larger businesses, however. Many or all of the products and brands we promote and feature including our ‘Partner Spotlights’ are from our partners who compensate us. However, this does not influence our editorial opinion found in articles, reviews and our ‘Best’ tables.
Zoho Books stands out for offering 24/5 phone and live chat support to users subscribing to paid plans. While some free products, like Wave Accounting, limit users to a self-service help center, Zoho Books’ free plan does come with email support. Despite the fact that Zoho Books has fewer reports than some of its competitors, the software’s invoicing capabilities, inventory management features and mobile app compete with those of QuickBooks Online.
There’s help documentation, FAQs, business guides and forums too, which all add extra weight to the overall support structure. Zoho Books comes complete with its own free support infrastructure, which arrives via numerous avenues. There’s 24-hour unlimited support 5 days a week and this can be accessed via email, or by using the built-in live chat options.
Zoho Books tracks your inventory stock level (taking into account items to be invoiced and billed), displays a list of related transactions, and provides the item’s history. It does not, however, allow you to group multiple items as assemblies. You have to buy an add-on, Zoho Inventory https://personal-accounting.org/ (starting at $29 per month) for that. Invoices and other sales forms, like quotes and retainers, are exceptionally customizable and contain more than enough fields. You can choose from multiple templates and add, edit, and modify their content, including custom fields.
However, the Items, Sales, Purchases, Time Tracking and Accountant tabs all open up further sub-menus rather than an overview screen. Zoho Books is a little difficult to learn how to use, which makes it an unsuitable option for companies that need to get up and running quickly. But if you have the time to learn the full capability of the software, then this shouldn’t be a problem. You can organize your inventory with information like SKU, product image, vendor details, cost, and more. You can also set up to receive alerts before the stock level falls below your minimum. Zoho Books lets you confirm sales before you ship them by creating a sales order.
Zoho Books and QuickBooks both offer bookkeeping capabilities for small businesses. QuickBooks is primarily an accounting software with time tracking and payroll capabilities, while Zoho provides a variety of business modules beyond financial management. Zoho Books is a cloud-based accounting software system used by small businesses to automate many financial management functions, such as invoicing, payments and workflow.
Connecting to financial institutions, which you’ll want to do to bulk up the appeal of your accountancy package, is fast and efficient. Sales orders, purchase orders, VAT and online payments are all in there too, making Zoho Books fully featured by anyone’s standards. Adding additional value is a solid reporting area, the ability to automate your workflow and, finally, enjoy the convenience of having all your documents stored in one place. Vendor records and purchase forms (including purchase orders) are as detailed and flexible as their sales counterparts. It allows you to designate contacts as 1099 vendors and pay them without subscribing to a payroll application. A dashboard is a good jumping-off point for your accounting work, though I wish it didn’t sprawl so much so I could see more data at a time.
You can also click on any of the icons below the video screen to learn more about specific features. One of the best features in Zoho Books is the client portal, which lets you share invoices and estimates with your customers. You can decide if you want to share the portal with a client when you’re entering their details. Some accounting software providers limit you to acceptance payments via Stripe or PayPal only. In contrast, Zoho Books integrates with more than 10 third-party payment gateways, such as Stripe, PayPal, Square, Braintree, Worldpay, Payments Pro, WePay and more. Zoho Books’ customizable invoices contain more fields than other comparable invoicing software.
Zoho Books’ contact management tools also manage to pull of the trick of being both entirely straightforward and extremely detailed, something Zoho Books pulls off again and again. It’s great to look at, packed with information and lets you know as soon as clients have viewed your invoices and paid what they owe. Quickbooks and Zoho Books both offer great accounting software for businesses. However, if you are looking for software that is more payroll-focused, check out our guide to the best payroll services for startups. With that done, you can reconcile your transactions, assigning them to clients, suppliers and expenses and matching them against bills and invoices once you’ve created them.