What is Zoho Books and how it works

Zoho Books is a cloud based accounting application built for small and medium sized UK businesses. This article explains what it is and how it works, before you move on to setting it up.

What Zoho Books is

Zoho Books is double entry accounting software delivered as a web and mobile application, so you can manage your finances from any device without installing anything locally. It covers invoicing, expenses, banking, VAT and financial reporting in one place, and supports HMRC’s Making Tax Digital requirements for UK VAT returns.

How it works

Zoho Books is organised around a few core areas that work together:

• Sales: create quotes and invoices, accept online payments, and track what customers owe you.
• Purchases: record bills and expenses, and track what you owe vendors.
• Banking: connect your bank feeds and reconcile transactions against your books.
• Reports: view profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow and other standard financial reports, built automatically from your transactions.
• Taxes: manage VAT schemes and submit returns to HMRC.

As you record sales, purchases and bank transactions, Zoho Books updates your accounts and reports automatically, so you always have an up to date view of your business finances rather than waiting for a period end reconciliation.

Who uses Zoho Books

Zoho Books suits business owners managing their own books, as well as bookkeepers and accountants working across multiple clients. It also connects with other Zoho applications, such as Zoho CRM, so sales and accounting information can stay aligned.