Zoho Books Review

Pros

• Competitive pricing
• Easy to use
• Strong mobile apps
• International invoicing
• Excellent customer support

Cons

• May be unsuitable for large businesses

What Is Zoho Books?

Zoho Books is cloud-based accounting software designed for freelancers and small businesses. It combines robust invoicing, expense tracking, inventory management, project tracking, and accounting tools in an easy-to-use platform, with optional payroll integration available in supported regions.

With competitive pricing, strong mobile apps, and excellent customer support, Zoho Books is a strong alternative to QuickBooks Online. However, businesses with more complex accounting needs or enterprise-level operations may find it less scalable than some competitors.

Zoho Books Pricing

Zoho Books offers six pricing plans, including a free plan. You can sign up for a free 14-day trial of any of the paid plans. No credit card or banking information is required, and you can cancel the trial period at any time.

Subscription payments are made monthly; however, if you commit to a year-long plan, you can receive a discount. It’s possible to cancel the service at any time, even year-long plans (year-long users can receive a prorated refund).

Zoho Books pricing is as follows:

Zoho Books Free Plan

This plan is best for solopreneurs and microbusinesses. It includes:

• 1,000 invoices per year
• Contact management
• Quotes
• Recurring invoices
• Customer portal
• Payment links
• Expense tracking (up to 1,000 expenses)
• Receipt scanning (up to 50/month)
• Bank reconciliation
• Mileage tracking
• Chart of accounts
• Journal entries
• Reports
• 1099 contractor management
• Email support
• Integrations with Slack, Zapier, Dropbox, and more
• One user, one accountant

Zoho Books Standard Plan

This plan includes everything in the Free plan, plus:

• 5,000 invoices per year
• Up to 5,000 expenses
• Progress invoicing
• No Zoho Books branding on invoices
• Up to 200 receipt scans per month
• Recurring expenses
• Bank and credit card feeds
• Bulk account updates
• Transaction locking
• Journal templates
• 10 custom reports
• 1099 e-Filing
• Sales tax tracking
• Tax rates and groups
• Additional payment gateway integrations
• Chat and voice support
• Up to 3 users

Zoho Books Professional Plan

This plan includes everything from Standard, plus:

• 10,000 invoices per year
• Up to 10,000 expenses and bills
• Retainer invoices
• Sales orders
• Sales approval
• Multicurrency support and adjustments
• Automatic exchange rates
• Recurring bills
• Vendor credits
• Purchase orders
• Purchase approval
• Print checks
• Recurring journals
• Stock tracking
• Set reorder points
• Price lists
• 50 scheduled reports
• 25 custom reports
• Custom user roles and access
• Timesheet approval
• Project management
• Up to 5 users

Zoho Books Premium Plan

This plan includes everything in the Professional plan, plus:

• 25,000 invoices per year
• Up to 25,000 expenses and bills
• 25 custom approval workflows
• Profit margin
• Revenue recognition (2 rules)
• Up to 1,000 receipt scans per month
• Multi-currency transactions for vendors
• Vendor portal
• Budgeting
• Fixed asset management
• 200 scheduled reports
• 50 custom reports
• Cashflow forecasting
• Up to 3 locations
• Up to 10 users

Zoho Books Elite Plan

The Elite plan includes everything in the Premium plan, plus:

• 100,000 invoices per year
• Up to 100,000 expenses and bills
• 70 approval workflows
• Unlimited revenue recognition
• Unlimited custom reports
• Report builder
• Dashboard customization
• Warehouse management
• Barcode generation and scanning
• Serial number tracking
• Batch tracking
• Shipment tracking
• Connect online sales
• Connect Shopify stores
• Up to 8 locations
• Up to 10 users

Zoho Books Ultimate Plan

The Ultimate plan includes everything in the Elite plan, plus:

• Advanced analytics
• Up to 15 users

Zoho Finance Suite

Outgrown Zoho Books? In addition to Zoho Books’ six pricing plans, Zoho also offers a full financial package called Zoho Finance Plus, which includes:

• Zoho Books
• Zoho Invoice
• Zoho Inventory
• Zoho Subscriptions
• Zoho Expense
• Zoho Checkout

If you are planning on purchasing more Zoho products than just Zoho Books, Zoho Finance Plus could be an affordable way to get all the features you need. Zoho Finance Plus starts at $249/month or $199/month if billed annually per organization and includes ten users. Contact Zoho directly for more details.

Extra Zoho Books Costs

These options are available as add-ons for your Zoho Books plan.

Unfortunately, users on Zoho Books’ free plan cannot purchase add-ons, including extra users.

Is Zoho Books Easy To Use?

Zoho Books has a clean, well-organized interface that’s easy to navigate, even for users with little accounting experience. While its extensive feature set can make some tools harder to find initially, the software becomes intuitive once you’re familiar with the layout.

Zoho backs the software with excellent customer support and helpful self-service resources, though live bookkeeping isn’t available. Zoho Books also offers highly rated mobile apps, making it easy to manage your finances on the go.

Zoho Books integrates with 40+ third-party apps, including Square, SurePayroll, Dropbox, Slack, Twilio, and other Zoho products. While that integration library is smaller than some competitors’, it covers many of the tools small businesses use most.

Zoho Books Features

Zoho Books offers a robust set of features that closely rivals QuickBooks Online, with quite a few unique touches thrown in the mix.

Here’s an overview of Zoho Books’ most notable features.

Zoho Books Customer Service

Zoho Books offers excellent customer service. Not only are there plenty of support options available, but customer service representatives are also informative and quick to help. The live chat reps are quick to respond, helpful, and refreshingly knowledgeable about the software.

To make your life even easier, nearly every support option can be accessed directly from within the software. It’s refreshing to see so many support options and such high-quality support — something you don’t always see with accounting software.

You can contact Zoho Books by phone, email, online support form, or live chat. Additional resources include a comprehensive knowledgebase, weekly webinars, and videos on its YouTube channel. There’s also an accountant finder, a feature timeline to show past updates, and social media profiles on X, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Zoho Books Reviews

Zoho Books receives overwhelmingly positive reviews, earning 4.4/5 stars (based on 670+ reviews) on Software Advice, 4.4/5 (based on 325+ reviews) on G2, and 9/10 (based on 195+ reviews) on TrustRadius.

Negative Zoho Books Reviews & Complaints

For the most part, Zoho Books customer reviews are positive. Still, there are a few things Zoho Books customers would like to see improved, including:

• Lack of integrations
• Non-responsive customer service
• Unsuitable for larger businesses
• Expensive monthly cost for more advanced features

Positive Zoho Books Reviews

Here are a few reasons why people like the software so much:

• Easy to learn and use
• Affordable pricing (including the free plan)
• Strong mobile apps
• Good customer support
• Recent feature updates based on customer feedback

Is Zoho Books Secure?

Zoho Books takes strong security measures, including data encryption, two-factor authentication, and regular virus detection and prevention scanning. The company complies with the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework.

Additional physical measures are taken to ensure data security, such as 24/7/365 surveillance, video monitoring, and bullet-resistant walls. Zoho Books backs up data regularly onto multiple servers in undisclosed locations.

How Does Zoho Books Compare To Other Accounting Software?

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 should probably be at or near the top of your list. But there are other options worth comparing.

Zoho Books VS QuickBooks Online

Zoho Books has carved out a niche as an alternative to accounting behemoth QuickBooks. Zoho Books provides more cost-effective accounting software with a great mobile app and good customer support, while QBO has a more advanced feature set — which comes at a price.

Zoho Books VS Wave Accounting

If you’re looking to save even more money on your accounting, Wave may be worth considering. Wave offers free software for its basic plan and has an exceptionally intuitive interface. Zoho stands out with its mobile app and its more advanced feature set.

But if you just want free accounting and don’t need many add-ons, Wave is worth a look.

The Final Verdict: Is Zoho Books Worth It?

Zoho Books is accounting software that is loaded with features at a fraction of the cost of its competitors. Zoho Books is easy to use and includes everything you need to balance your business’s books.

Features such as auto-scheduling invoices, reporting tags, and inventory put Zoho Books on par with QuickBooks Online. Several unique touches are hard to beat, including a client portal and the ability to send invoices in 13 languages. Add in great customer support, and it’s no wonder Zoho Books is such a hit with small businesses.

Give the software a try by signing up for its forever-free plan or try out the free trial to test drive the features of Zoho Books’ paid plans before committing.

While Zoho Books is a solid choice for small to medium businesses, another option may be right for you if you want more affordable software, don’t need as many features, or have a larger business. If you’re still shopping around, check out our picks for best accounting software to find a more suitable option for your business.