Zoho Enhances Finance Apps with GST and Warehouse Features

Zoho, a leading global technology company headquartered in Chennai, today announced that its finance and operations suite saw a revenue growth of 50% in India in 2023. The company also unveiled key enhancements to its GST-compliant accounting software Zoho Books, inventory management software Zoho Inventory, and practice management app for accountants Zoho Practice. This announcement includes Zoho Books' industry-first integration with the Invoice Management System (IMS) on the GST portal, offering businesses a seamless way to verify and claim Input Tax Credit (ITC) from within the Zoho Books' application.

“We see a high adoption rate of Zoho’s finance and operations applications in India, driven by the increasing demand for tools that ease compliance, streamline financial workflows, and optimise day-to-day operations," said Prashant Ganti, Head of Product Management, Finance and Operations Business Unit, Zoho Corp. “We are strongly committed to providing solutions that reduce complexity in managing financial and operational processes. With the latest updates, our solutions help businesses improve productivity, eliminate manual errors, and provide accurate financial visibility, allowing them to focus on their growth.”

The Zoho Finance and Operations suite's strong growth momentum in India is fuelled by demand from businesses across different industries for a unified solution that offers comprehensive financial management capabilities, solves compliance challenges, and interoperates well with other business solutions. The top three products driving this growth are Zoho Books, Zoho Payroll, and Zoho Expense. The platform supports businesses across 160 countries, and the applications can be used in 17 languages, including Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, and Telugu.

Zoho Books integrates with IMS

The Goods and Services Tax Network launched the Invoice Management System (IMS) on the GST portal, effective from October 14, 2024. The IMS dashboard enhances the invoice validation and reconciliation process, with an aim to reduce disputes and enable faster credit claims.

Zoho Books, a GST and e-invoicing compliant accounting software solution, now provides an industry-first integration with the IMS dashboard, enabling businesses to fetch supplier invoices, compare them with their existing records in the application, make necessary adjustments, accept or reject them, and push the status to the IMS Dashboard–without having to switch between the GST portal and Zoho Books.

Critical financial management capabilities

Zoho Books now includes fixed asset management, which enables the recording of asset details, automatic depreciation calculation based on the chosen percentage, method, and period, as well as the generation of forecast reports, simplifying the bookkeeping process. Progress-based invoicing allows businesses to invoice customers based on completion of project milestones, improving the cash flow.

Enhanced warehouse management functionalities

Zoho Inventory has introduced advanced warehouse management capabilities such as enhanced location tracking and labelling, stock counting, stock out alerts, and role-based access to manage the warehouse operations. This offers better inventory control, ensures accurate stock levels, and provides faster order processing. Additionally, the solution now supports the moving average inventory valuation method, helping businesses calculate the total asset value that has fluctuating prices. Furthermore, the product’s mobile apps empower warehouse employees to perform their tasks faster, improving productivity.

Enriched Zoho Practice to help accountants improve client relations and streamline internal workflows

Zoho Practice, a practice management app built for accounting firms, has introduced Workpapers to simplify audit and compliance workflows. It allows firms to fetch financial statements of the clients who use Zoho Books, enabling easy comparison, adjustments, document management, and collaboration for reviews and approvals.

The new self-service portal enables accountants to collaborate with clients that use third-party accounting software, facilitating document requests, digital signatures, and communication. 

The latest version of Zoho Practice also enables accountants to easily create and manage ledgers for clients who don't have a full accounting system, maintaining a single source of truth. Furthermore, advanced capabilities like workflow automation, custom functions, and scheduling options help customise operational workflows.