Zoho Books

(Accounting Software Case Study)

Group 6

Johny Oco

Rhedeline Lugod

Hershey Joy Navarrosa

Ivy Lorraine Parumog

Girlie Gentiles

3BSA-1

Aemee Joy Carreon, CPA

Instructor
 I. Background of the study

Background of the Study

Zoho Corporation is a multi-national business software development company. Zoho Corp's offerings
focus on web-based business tools and information technology solutions, including an office tools suite,
internet of things management platform, and a suite of IT management software. The company was
founded in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas in Pleasanton, California, and now has offices in six
countries.

They believe that commitment is helped by the fact that they are a private company, and they intend to
stay private. They have no outside investors in the company, which makes it easy for them to make this
commitment. We they private, but they are not small - with nearly 5000 employees, Zoho has the
resources to invest in R&D and customer support, two strong pillars of their organization. Indeed, their
R&D investment now rivals most of the major players in the industry. Their entire organization, across 6
locations world-wide runs on Zoho; the product suite has grown with the company itself.

Zoho company offers different services through different softwares they developed. One of them is Zoho
Books. Zoho Books is a smart accounting system designed for growing businesses. It is also the holder of
our Great User Experience and Useful Free Trial Awards for 2017. Generally, it can be described as an
intuitive accounting solution designed for small businesses to handle their finances and to remain on top
of their cash flow. It is very simple, easy-to-use, and able to help you make intelligent, data-based
decisions. It is also the pioneer accounting product of a reputed software provider, which eliminates all
worries related to uptime, support, or security.

With Zoho Books, you can send professional invoices to customers and begin receiving online payments
from them all from a single platform. It’s fast, powerful, and convenient, and helps regain control over
the company’s finances and save more in future. For the purpose, you can rely on features such as cash
flow statements, P&L, Balance sheets, and many more. As it is small-biz and midmarket-friendly, Zoho
Books is relatively painless to afford

II. Why the case study created

A decade ago, firms had very few options in cloud-based accounting software, and solutions that
addressed the specific needs of their smaller, niche clients were more or less non-existent. Today, there
are a range of software options for firms that serve individuals, large corporations, nonprofits and
everything in between.

While hardly news, more companies are discovering that traditional bookkeeping, on varied offline
products are no longer sufficient enough to meet their clients’ needs. As business and accounting needs
and functions change, more real-team interactions are required. With cloud accounting software, your
business can best serve its clients while also taking care of all of its financial tasks.

Cloud accounting software includes advanced systems like a single ledger design and a multidimensional
charts, that give you real-time visibility to help you shorten period close cycles.

This study explores the effectiveness of using an accounting system in business functions, specifically
Zoho books, and the motovation to implement them.

The Aims of this Case Study are:

To be familiar with the Accounting Systems in the business industry, specifically Zoho Books.

To determine the functions of Zoho Books and how this system works.

To determine the contribution of Zoho Books to an efficient conduct of business.

To distinguish Zoho Booms from other Accounting Systems.

To list down the advantages and disasvatages of using Zoho Books.

This case study is created to provide an understanding in terms of the business-wide usage of accounting
systems. As the businesses continuously growing, technology gives way to a better business
management.

For us students, this case study is created not only as part of our course requirement but for us also to
be familiar with the business industry factors that we might encounter in the near future. For us to be
more knowledgeable with the accounting events and how the accounting system provide service on
proper treatment of these events.

III. Presentation of findings

Bridge the gap between your CRM and accounting systems
Businesses that have a siloed view of their sales and accounting have difficulty with productivity
and scalability. Sales people armed with financial insights, credit history of customers and
access to product pricing information could sell smarter and better. And that is exactly what you
get with the tight integration between Zoho CRM and Zoho Books; you bridge the gap between
both your systems and bring about efficiency in the way you do your business.

Give just the right amount of access with user roles

It’s quite common for business owners to delegate different business functions to different
people. For example, letting staff create invoices for daily transactions. But not every business
owner would want to provide unrestricted access to the entire application for all staff. Limiting
access would also be a hindrance. With this feature, you can create custom roles that are
flexible so that your salesperson need not have access to your finances.

Get in-depth insights

Most accounting solutions require an accountant or accounting knowledge to measure, analyze

financial metrics (Balance Sheet, P&L and Cash flow) and clarity on pending activities. But not in
the case of Zoho Books. For a quick and real-time view of the health of your business, a glance
at the dashboard would suffice. Run detailed reports in seconds and get in-depth insights to
scale your business manifold.

IV. How the System Works

Manual Journals

In reality, journals are used by accountants to work directly with the general ledger to create both
debit and credit entries for unique financial transactions. The journal entries are recorded in
chronological order. The specialty journals are Sales Journals, Purchase Journals, Cash
Disbursement Journal and Cash Receipt Journal.

In Zoho Books, manual journals can be used to record these unique financial transactions which
cannot be recorded normally otherwise. E.g: Depreciation rates for a month cannot be recorded
normally, in this case a manual journal for the depreciation rate can be recorded for the particular
month.

Creating a Manual Journal:

In the manual journal section, select the +New Journal button to create a new journal.

 Select the Date on which the adjustment needs to be made by creating a journal.
 Enter a Reference Number with which the journal will be associated.
 Notes are a mandatory field for a journal to be recorded. Mention the reason for creating
a journal as it is always a
unique reason.
 Check the Journal Type as
Cash based Journal if your
account adjustment has
been done by cash
transaction.
 Choose the currency in which
you wish to make the journal
entry.
 Select the Account from which the amount is debited and an account to which the amount
is credited.
 Choose the contact whom you wish to associate to the journal entry.
 Enter the Debit and Credit amount that needs to be recorded.
 Click Save.

Journals created can be edited by selecting the specific journal from the manual journal window.

Manual Journal for Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable

Accounts Receivable:
Manual Journal for Accounts Receivables will be classified under a separate Accounts
Receivable account in Zoho Books.

Let’s assume that you are migrating to Zoho Books from another system that you are currently
using. Considering that you have many unpaid invoices in that system, which need to be brought
in here.

You can aggregate the total of all these receivables, and record them as an opening balance in the
manual journal for Accounts Receivable.

Also, there may be certain cases, where you will need to record some transactions, which are not
a part of your business sales. But these transactions may account to some receivables. For
example, Outsourced services.

This is where the manual journal for AR comes into work. You can post an adjusting journal
entry debiting AR and Crediting your Service account.

Accounts Payable:

These are amounts that a company/organization owe to a supplier, from whom they purchased
goods & services on credit. You can record manual journal entries for accounts payable in the
following cases :

1.When you purchased goods from your supplier, on credit. Or made payment using a credit
card.

2.When a payment is made for a credit purchase made earlier

Also, there may be other scenarios where you cannot directly record a payable and will have to
enter it manually, as a payable.

Note : The transactions made are taken on an Accrual Basis.

 Navigate to Accountant module and go to the Manual Journal section.

 Manual
Journal for Bank Accounts

You can create a manual journal using the bank accounts that you’ve added in the Banking
module. After you create a manual journal, the recorded transaction will be listed as a Manually
Added transaction in the respective bank accounts as a deposit or a withdrawal.

You can match the manually added bank transaction to an uncategorized transaction. To match:

 Go to the Uncategorized Transactions tab of the respective bank account in the Banking
module.
 Select an uncategorized transaction.
  The best and possible matches are listed in the right pane which will contain the manually
added transaction if the amount and date are same.
 Click Match on the respective transaction.

Transaction Locking

As soon as your business accounting period comes to a close, all your sales and purchase
transactions must have been reconciled with your bank account statements. At this time it’s quite
common for business owners to ask for a feature to freeze the previous transactions from editing,
deleting or from adding any new transactions. Transaction Locking comes in handy for such
instances.

To enable transaction locking, navigate to Accountant -> Transaction Locking and select the
checkbox against Enable Transaction Locking.

 Set the date prior to which you want the transactions to be locked.
 Enter a reason for your reference.
 Click on Save.

Now transactions prior to the date will be locked.

 V. Conclusion (Advantages and Disadvantages)
ConclusionZoho books is an accounting system that is design for the convenient of many big
businesses. It aimed to make you design and come up with the best solutions possible for the
problem that your business encountered like controlling your cash flows. zoho books design
with extreme attention to detail and a bundle of useful functions arranged in a way that doesn't
disturb the company's operation. It is integrated to other thiirdparty's software that you can
seamlessly exchange data.One of the biggest changes you'll notice when trying zoho books is
the bank reconcillation, typically it is most tedious things to do, and zoho books not only makes
it now simple, but it also does most of the work for you. It automatically categorizes marks the
transactions it finds in your bank's feed so you don't have to.Although zoho books is packed
with features and easy to use, it has some drawbacks. It offers fewer integrations than others.
One way to get around this barriers is to use zoho's own suite of business apps. Zoho offers
customer relationship management software, email marketing and social media marketing
solutions, spreadsheets editor, and other productivity tools. Another disadvantage of using zoho
books is that it doesn't include payroll services. This may not be abig deal for really small
businesses, but its an important consideration if your is growing and you plan to hire employee.

Pros/Advantages:

Zoho has almost everything that you need to run your daily business.

It has 35+ apps & counting.

Most of the apps are integrated with each other & third party software’s so that you can seamlessly
exchange the data.

Pricing is generally on the lower side compared to competitors

Recently, Zoho released its software suite called as Zoho One, which is at just $30/users/month(billed
annually).

API’s are open.

Cons/Disadvantages:

Some of the software’s lack features when compared to peers.

Zoho makes software not solutions, so may not meet requirement of some enterprise.
Zoho provides only on-demand software, unlike other ERP players which have both on-demand & on-
premise version.

Disclaimer: I works at Zoho Corp, views are my independent & have nothing to do with my work at Zoho
Corporation.

VI. Reflection

As technologies totally invade the corporate world, many accounting systems have

aroused. These systems provide ease in doing different accounting processes that every business

encounters. They can be used to automate business processes which can be easily accessed with

minimal effort and time consumed. There are many systems available today that are user friendly

with lesser costs. Today, not only big companies are using accounting systems to handle different

accounting related processes, but also, small businesses can use these systems to have an easy

way of managing finances, cash flows and a lot more. One of these is Zoho Books. It is a user-

friendly, simple, and convenient system which can be used by small growing businesses.

Zoho Books is a Web-based accounting system that is fast, powerful and convenient tool

for a business to make intelligent, data based decisions. It can perform different processes like

sending invoices to customers, receiving online payments, inventory management, automated

banking, purchasing and a lot more. Zoho helps in backing office duties and organize all types of

transactions using a single system.

 There are so many pros and cons of using the system. One of those is that it has an

excellent user interface and Navigation. Its dashboard contains all the necessary information

namely, the current and overdue payables that needs to be settled immediately. There is also a

customizable charts used for income and expenses comparison which determines the status of the

business. Zoho Books has different transaction forms used and reports that can be used by the

users. The system also provides inventory-management capabilities that determine the sales,

purchases, inventory records, reorder points, opening stocks, and preferred suppliers and many

more advantages. It is also affordable for a small business since it offers three pricing plans that a

business can choose from namely, the Basic plan, The Standard plan, and the Professional plan.

It also provides a time saving feature which can make the accounting processes made in a lesser

time consummation. Zoho Books also offers a customer relationship management software,

email marketing and social media marketing solutions. There are also cons and limitations that

Zoho Books contain. It doesn’t provide payroll services. To sum up, there are so many

advantages to use Zoho Books in making business related transactions that will minimize time

and efforts without compromising the quality of work provided by the system. It may not have

strong name recognition, but it performs on top aside from other competitors with regards to its

functionality, capabilities and customization. It is very beneficial mostly for a small growing

business that wishes to integrate in using accounting software. It is easy to use yet effective and

time efficient. Backlogs can be minimized and the processes can be performed smoothly.