#11 Zoho Books Digest

#11 Zoho Books Digest

Hello Readers,

We are back with the 11th edition of Zoho Books Digest. Here's what we have in store for the community this month.

Upcoming Events

Solutions Talk series with Zoho Books

Are you a business owner in the Middle East looking to streamline your entire Quote-to-Cash process? We've got you covered! Join us for our free solutions talk in partnership with Alnafitha IT, a Jeddah based IT services leader. We will be discussing some major accounting challenges in the IT services segment, industry-specific insights, and how to balance cost and growth using powerful financial platforms.

Date: 29 March 2022
Time: 12 PM AST

Feature Spotlight

Contextual Chat in Zoho Books

Have trouble coordinating and collaborating with your teammates on transactions? Contextual Chat in Zoho Books is here to help you! With contextual chats, you can initiate discussions with other users about transactions, contacts, items, bank accounts, or projects—all from Zoho Books. This feature is powered by Zoho Cliq, an app that makes collaboration and communication easy for teams.

With contextual chats, you can:
  • Discuss transactions and records with specific participants
  • Get instant notifications every time a user initiates a discussion over contextual chat
  • Share images and documents
  • Initiate audio and video calls with users of your Zoho Books organization
Check out our help document to learn how to set up contextual chat for your organization and collaborate seamlessly.

What's New

Upload Documents from Vendor and Client Portal

Before, customer and vendor related details could only be uploaded through the respective attachment sections in Zoho Books.

Now, you can directly upload and share documents via the vendor and client portal. The uploaded document will appear in the attachment section of the customer or vendor profile in Zoho Books.

To allow your customers and vendors to attach documents through the portal:
1. Log in to Zoho Books.
2. Go to Settings, then Preferences.
3. Select the checkbox next to 'Allow customer to edit their information in the portal.'

Note: Only the primary contact of a client or vendor will be able to upload documents from the Client or Vendor portal.




In case you missed it

This year, April 1st is a day of compliance. But don't worry, we've been updating Zoho Books so that it's ready to help you stay on top of any new mandates and regulations hassle-free.

Audit Trail and E-invoicing (India)

According to the notification issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the deadline for companies to start using an accounting software with audit trails is April 1, 2022. The CBIC has also said that e-invoicing will now be mandatory for businesses with an annual turnover of INR 20 crore and above, starting from April 1, 2022.

Click to learn about how you can get Audit Trail and E-invoicing ready with Zoho Books.

MTD for VAT (UK)

From April 1, 2022, all VAT- registered businesses are required to file their VAT returns digitally through MTD, regardless of their turnover. Businesses are required to use HMRC-authorized and MTD-compatible software to keep digital records and file VAT returns.


Accounting reads

Let's face it, collecting payments from customers is one of the most tedious and time-consuming tasks for business owners. Our experts have your back with a detailed plan on how to recover overdue payments effectively and get your money back in your register.


Customer Stories

In this edition of Digest, we are thrilled to share the success story of Ramakrishna Math and Mission, which is a renowned, spiritual non-government organization that has been doing humanitarian and social service activities for more than a century. Here is what they have to say about their experience with Zoho Books:

"With the increase in non-profit tax laws and compliance regulations, organisations need to move towards user-friendly automated systems that can do all their accounting and tax-related tasks in just a few clicks. This will allow NGOs to focus and work towards their mission. If you are an NGO looking to manage your accounting operations, we believe Zoho Books will be a suitable option. It is an intuitive, tax-compliant, feature-packed solution that can seamlessly integrate with other Zoho Finance apps, and it has an excellent support team."

We're eager to hear and share more stories about businesses using Zoho Books. If you would like to share your story with us, let us know in the comments, and we'll get in touch with you!

P.S.: Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and subscribe to our YouTube Channel. Turn on your notifications to stay up to date on what we're doing.

Until next time!

Cheers,
Diksha Uniyal
Customer Relations | Zoho Books

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