What's New in Zoho Books this May '19

We're back this month with a set of new features and enhancements lined up for you. We are always looking for ways to provide you with the best accounting experience. So without further ado, let's dive in and take a look at the features and updates we've worked on in the past month.

Set Validation Rules for Estimates

You can now set certain restrictions for the values allowed for different fields in an estimate. Just choose the field for which you want to set the restriction, select the required condition and customize the alert message that should be thrown when the validation is not met. Once you save the validation rule, you can view its detailed flow chart.

To do this: Go to Settings > Preferences > Estimates > Validation Rules > + New Validation Rule.

Exclusive Inbox for Expense Receipts

You can now streamline and store all your expense receipts in one place. You can upload, auto-scan your expense receipts or have your expenses mailed to your Zoho Books account. Once your expense receipts are available in the inbox, you can convert the auto-scanned receipts into expense transactions.

To do this: Go to Purchases > Expenses > Click the inbox icon next to Upload Expense.

Choose Multiple Values for a Custom Field

When creating a custom field, you can now select its data type as multi-select. With a multi-select data type, you can choose more than one value for a custom field. You can create up to 2 multi-select custom fields for each module and choose a maximum of 5 values for each of them.

To do this: Go to Settings > Preferences > Select the particular module > Field Customization > + New Custom Field > Choose Data Type as Multi-select.

Pause the Timer While Logging

It's okay if you face unexpected interruptions while performing a task. Just pause the timer running for your project whenever you meet with any interruptions and resume logging time once you're back.

To do this: Go to Time tracking > Projects > Pause/Start the timer.

Note: Along with this update, you can also start a timer without associating it to a task or a project.

Auto foward Your Bank Statements (for India, UAE, KSA & Bahrain Editions)

You can now skip a few steps and auto forward your bank statements from your email directly to Zoho Books. These bank statements will be stored in the dedicated inbox for bank statements in Documents. After your bank statements have been forwarded, you can associate these auto forwarded bank statements to your bank account in Zoho Books.

To do this: Go to Documents > Bank Statements under Inboxes.

Run Your TDS Reports Based on the TDS Section (for India Edition)

Run your TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) summary report section-wise for more meticulous reporting. Earlier, the TDS reports were listed based on the vendor. Now, you can choose to run your TDS report either based on the TDS section or the vendor.

To do this: Go to Reports > TDS summary > Customize Report > Select the TDS section in the Group By dropdown.

e-Way Bill Enhancements (For India edition)

While creating the e-Way bill, there will be some cases wherein the Dispatch-from address might vary from the Bill-from address. To address such cases, we now provide you with the ability to change the Dispatch from address while creating an e-Way Bill.

We have also completely revamped to ease the process of creating an e-Way Bill. We've provided the users with the option to select the customers and invoices that are going to associated to the e-Way bill along with a few other minor enhancements.

Generate and Send PDFs in Thai characters

You can now generate and send PDFs in Thai characters by selecting the Maitree font for your PDF templates.

To do this: Go to Settings > Templates > Choose the preferred module > Edit or create a new template > Select Maitree as PDF font.

More Countries Supported for Gocardless

The GoCardless integration in Zoho Books now lets you collect debit payments from Canada, Australia and Switzerland. Learn how you can set up the GoCardless integration with Zoho Books.

Import Taxes (For US edition only)

Save your time and effort by importing multiple taxes at once into Zoho Books. You can import the taxes into Zoho Books from a CSV, TSV or XLS file.

Note: The tax groups will not be imported. You can create tax groups manually after importing the taxes.

Match HMRC Payments to Returns (for UK Edition)

You can now match the payments made to HMRC with the corresponding returns. Hence, you don’t have to record payments for the returns. That's not all! We have also enhanced the VAT payments section. You can now associate a return to a payments made to the HMRC.

Associate Projects to Line Items

Avoid manual errors and save time by associating projects with the line items in invoices, sales orders, credit notes and retainer invoices.

To do this: Go to any of the above module > Click Add Additional Information next to the line item > Select the project from the dropdown.

Pay via Ideal Payment Mode Using the Stripe Gateway

We have introduced the iDEAL payment mode for users having the Zoho Books - Stripe integration. Stripe users across the globe can now accept iDEAL payments from customers in Netherlands. Moreover, you can choose the payment modes (supported by Stripe) to be shown in the Client Portal by enabling them in the Advanced Settings of the Stripe integration.