What’s New in Zoho Expense: August - October 2024

Hello users,

We are thrilled to share some exciting product updates and enhancements in Zoho Expense that will help you streamline and improve your travel and expense management experience. Our latest additions include the ability for users to view their budgets, petty cash management, a feature to track your rides automatically from the mobile apps, a new edition of Zoho Expense, and much more. Let's dive in to explore all the updates!

User Budgets in My View 

Users can now view their budgets from the Budgets tab in My Settings. By default, the current fiscal year's budget will be displayed. However, users can also view their previous years' budgets by selecting the desired year from the Budget Period filter. The Budgets tab will be available to all users with default roles. Users in custom roles can access their budgets when admins configure the necessary permissions for them to view their budgets.

Note: Only the particular user's budget will be displayed here, not the organization's budget.

Petty Cash Management 

Petty cash management, commonly referred to as the imprest system, involves overseeing and controlling a small fund of cash set aside by a business to cover minor, everyday expenses, typically for branch operations. We've added the Petty Cash Accounts module in Zoho Expense to help businesses manage their petty cash.

In the Admin View, users can view all pending funds and unsubmitted expenses. Admins can also perform actions such as creating funds and fund withdrawals, as well as activating or deactivating petty cash accounts. In My View, users can perform actions such as creating expenses, requesting funds, and generating reports.

Note: This feature is currently available for early access. Write to us at support@zohoexpense.com to enable it for your organization.

Audit Trail Backup [India Edition] 

We’ve introduced the Audit Trail Backup feature, allowing users to back up their audit trails. Users can export the data in ZIP format, which they can download on the same page or from an email sent to them once the backup is completed.

To back up your audit trial, go to Admin View > Settings > Data Administration > Backups > Audit Trial Backup > Backup Your Audit Trial.

SBI Bank Integration [India Edition] 

Integrate Zoho Expense with SBI Bank to reimburse your employees' expense reports directly from Zoho Expense. For an employee to receive reimbursements, you need to add their bank account through which they'll receive the reimbursement.

To reimburse your employees' expenses, go to Admin View > Reports > Awaiting Reimbursement > Select the report to be reimbursed > Reimburse > Via SBI.

Note: This feature is currently available for early access. Write to us at support@zohoexpense.com to enable it for your organization.

Traveler Details Under Trips 

We've included the traveler's information on the Details page of trips in Admin View. This allows admins to access all traveler information in one place while booking itineraries, including their travel profile, travel documents, and loyalty programs.

Introducing the South Africa Edition of Zoho Expense 

We're expanding Zoho Expense's presence in the MEA region with the VAT-ready South Africa edition of Zoho Expense.

Businesses in South Africa can use the Zoho Expense South Africa edition to configure VAT, which allows users to associate VAT with expenses recorded in Zoho Expense. Once you record expenses, you can gain insights into your taxable expenses by generating a tax report.

Read the South Africa edition's help documents to learn more.

Automatic Mileage Tracking 

We are thrilled to announce a major update to our mobile apps that will make tracking your rides easier than ever! With our new Automatic Mileage Tracking feature, tracking your rides happens seamlessly in the background, saving you time and effort!

How it works:

• Enable Automatic Mileage Tracking: Turn on Automatic Mileage Tracking in your app under the Mileage Log Preferences in My Settings.
• Permissions: Grant the necessary permissions.
• Set Ride Classification Rules: Set your usual work hours in the app, and your rides during this period will be added as unexpensed rides which you can convert to an expense later. The rides tracked outside your work schedule will be automatically excluded.
• Manage Mileage Logs: Use the Mileage Logs module to view all your mileage logs with the ability to search, filter, and convert them to expenses.
• Track and Review: Drive as usual, and the app will automatically capture and record your rides. You can merge multiple rides to a single expense and exclude rides which do not need to be expensed.

Note:

• This feature is available only in the Zoho Expense iOS and Android apps.
• This feature is currently available for early access. Write to us at support@zohoexpense.com to enable it for your organization.

Assets and liabilities in Budgets 

We’ve added two new groups, Assets and Liabilities, in the Budgets module of Zoho Expense. This enhancement enables you to create and manage budgets specifically for your assets and liabilities, giving you greater control and visibility over your financial planning.

Note: For organizations integrated with Zoho Books or other accounting software, assets and liability accounts retrieved will be listed under the Categories module.

Real-Time Feeds [Canada Edition] 

We've now introduced Real-Time Feeds for the Canada edition of Zoho Expense. Real-time feeds are card transactions that are received directly from card networks without relying on the bank, as soon as transactions occur. Read our help document on Real-Time Feeds to learn more.

 

Note: Currently, Real-Time Feeds is supported only for users using the Canada edition of Zoho Expense using Mastercards issued in the Canada region.

Other Updates and Enhancements 

• We've added a new filter in the Advanced Search feature for users. Admins can now easily identify users who have added their bank account information and those who have not. This new filter will help admins ensure all users have provided bank account information to receive reimbursements.

• Updates for the Zoho CRM Integration in Zoho Expense:

• We've introduced new preferences for duplicate contact persons in Zoho CRM. You can Overwrite or Skip duplicates.
• We've included a new field, Potential, on the Bulk Add Expenses page and the Bulk Field Update pop-up. Potentials are prospective business opportunities or deals identified with your customers, representing the possibility of converting leads into customers and including details about the estimated deal value and stage of conversion in the sales process.

• We've provided an option to display terms and conditions in the advance creation page. This enables admins to communicate the organization's terms and conditions to all employees, ensuring they are informed when requesting advance requests.

• We now support the option to include car rental loyalty programs in addition to frequent flyer and hotel loyalty programs. To include car rental loyalty program details, go to My View > My Settings > Travel Details > Loyalty Programs > Add New Program > Car Rental Loyalty Program.

• We’ve introduced filters in Notifications to help users easily find specific types of notifications. Unread will be the default filter to help users focus on notifications they haven’t viewed yet. You can also view All and Mentioned notifications.

• Users can now store details of their emergency contacts in case they encounter any emergency during trips. Users can add up to two emergency contacts, which will be synced with online booking tools like GetThere. To add an emergency contact, go to My View > My Settings > Travel Details > Emergency Contacts > + Add Emergency Contact.

 

That's a wrap for now! We hope you found these updates useful. If you have any inquiries or feature requests, please write to us at support@zohoexpense.com.

Until the next update!

Cheers,

The Zoho Expense Team

• Topic Participants

• Jessica Sharon W

  

• Recent Topics

• Zoho Books Sandbox environment

  Hello. Is there a free sandbox environment for the developers using Zoho Books API? I am working on the Zoho Books add-on and currently not ready to buy a premium service - maybe later when my add-on will start to bring money. Right now I just need a

• Form to PDF template

  I am looking to create a Form and when information is inputted, it will merge it into a PDF template we already have. There could be multiple lines in the form and each line inputs information into a new page of a PDF template.

• Using gift vouchers

  We would like to be able to offer a limited number of gift vouchers, of varying values, to our customers, and are looking for the best way to do this. We have looked at Coupons and Gift Certificates, but neither seem to fit the bill perfectly. Coupons:

• Customizable UI components in pages | Theme builder

  Anyone know when these roadmap items are scheduled for release? They were originally scheduled for Q4 2025. https://www.zoho.com/creator/product-roadmap.html

• Feature Request - Set Default Values for Meetings

  Hi Zoho CRM Team, It would be very useful if we could set default values for meeting parameters. For example, if you always wanted Reminder 1 Day before. Currently you need to remember to choose it for every meeting. Also being able to use merge tags

• Please verify my account

  Hi, We have just launched our website and received media coverage in our country. Hundreds of users are signing up for our platform every day. We would like to send them a welcome email, but we are unable to do so because our ZeptoMail account has not

• Subject character limit increase

  We have an occasional user case where subject lines exceed 500 characters which is the ZeptoMail imposed limit. While I understand long subject lines are not "best practice", these are particular notification emails with specific information for client

• Conditional Field Visibility in Bigin CRM

  I would like to request support for conditional field visibility within Bigin CRM. This feature should allow administrators to configure show/hide rules for fields based on predefined criteria (e.g., field values, picklist selections, stage changes,

• Account blocked

  Yesterday I got my Zeptomail account blocked due to too many hard bounces. My account is used exclusively for sending transactional emails (eg. your order has been shipped, a form has been filled, etc) and the sudden blocking impacted hundreds of websites

• Nested notebooks

  Dear Sir/Madam, I would like to know if it is possible to nest notebooks. It would be very helpful when there are too many, as it would improve organization. Thank you for your response. Best regards.

• Whats that

  Price?

• Proactive Alert for Existing Open Tickets per Contact / Account

  Hello Zoho Desk Team, Greetings, and hope you’re doing well. We would like to submit a feature request aimed at improving agent awareness and efficiency when handling tickets in Zoho Desk. Use case When an agent opens a ticket (new or existing), it is

• Shift-Centric View for Assigning and Managing Shifts in Zoho People

  Hello Zoho People Product Team, Greetings and hope you are doing well. This feature request is related to Zoho People - please don't move it to zoho one! We would like to submit a feature request regarding the shift assignment and management view in Zoho

• Bring Zoho Shifts Capabilities into Zoho People Shift Module

  Hello Zoho People Product Team, After a deep review of the Zoho People Shift module and a direct comparison with Zoho Shifts, we would like to raise a feature request and serious concern regarding the current state of shift management in Zoho People.

• Add the ability to Hide Pages in Page Rules

  Hi, We have Field Rules to show and hide fields and we have page Rules, but we can't hide a page in Page Rules so it isn't completed before the previous page (And then have the Deny Rules to prevent submitting without both pages completed), we can only

• Ticket resolution field - can you add links, video, and images?

  Seems like the ticket resolution fields is just a text field. Any plans to add the ability to add links, images...the same functionality in the problem description box? I would like to send the customer a link to a KB article, a link to our Wiki, embed

• Ticket Resolution - Add rich formatting, screenshots and attachments

  The resolution field only allows plain text at the moment. Many of our resolutions involve posting screenshots as evidence, it would be great for us to be able to have rich text formatting, be able to paste screenshots and add attachments in the solution

• Remove the “One Migration Per User” Limitation in Zoho WorkDrive

  Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope you are doing well. We would like to raise a critical feature request regarding the Google Drive → Zoho WorkDrive migration process. Current Limitation: Zoho WorkDrive currently enforces a hard limitation: A Zoho WorkDrive

• Deprecation Notice: OpenAI Assistants API will be shut down on August 26, 2026

  I recieved this email from openAI what does it means for us that are using the integration and what should we do? Earlier this year, we shared our plan to deprecate the Assistants API once the Responses API reached feature parity. With the launch of Conversations,

• CRUD actions for Resources via API

  Hello, is it possible to perform CRUD actions through the API for Resources? We want to create a sync from Zoho CRM Car record to Bookings resources to create availabilities for Car bookings. For Test drives, not only the sales person needs to be available,

• Stop the Workarounds: We Need Native Multi-Step Forms

  After over 17 years of community requests, I'm hoping the Zoho team can finally address the lack of native multi-page form support in Zoho Creator. This has been one of the longest-standing feature requests in the community, with threads spanning nearly

• Feature Request - The Ability to Link A Customer with a Vendor

  Hi Finance Suite Team, Many businesses buy and sell products from the same companies or individuals. For example, a car sales business may buy a car from a member of the public, and that member of the public may also buy a new car from us. This makes

• Kaizen #140 - Integrating Blog feed scraping service into Zoho CRM Dashboard

  Howdy Tech Wizards! Welcome to a fresh week of kaizen. This week, we will look at how to create a dashboard widget that displays the most recent blog post of your preferred products/services, updated daily at a specific time. We will leverage the potential

• Convert Lead Automation Trigger

  Currently, there is only a convert lead action available in workflow rules and blueprints. Also, there is a Convert Lead button available but it doesn't trigger any automations. Once the lead is converted to a Contact/Account the dataset that can be fetched

• Conditional formatting: before/after "today" not available

  When setting conditional formatting, it only allows me to set a specific calendar date when choosing "Before" or "After" conditions. Typing "today" returns the error "Value must be of type date". Is there a workaround? Thanks for any help!

• Text snippet

  There is a nice feature in Zoho Desk called Text Snippet. It allows you to insert a bit of text anywhere in a reply that you are typing. That would be nice to have that option in Zoho CRM as well when we compose an email. Moderation Update: We agree that

• Analytics <-> Invoice Connection DELETED by Zoho

  Hi All, I am reaching out today because of a big issue we have at the moment with Zoho Analytics and Zoho Invoice. Our organization relies on Zoho Analytics for most of our reporting (operationnal teams). A few days ago we observed a sync issue with the

• I'm getting this error when I try to link an email to a deal inside the Zohomail Zoho CRM extension.

  When I click "Yes, associate," the system displays an "Oops!! Something went wrong" error message. I have attached a screenshot of the issue for reference.

• CRM gets location smart with the all new Map View: visualize records, locate records within any radius, and more

  Hello all, We've introduced a new way to work with location data in Zoho CRM: the Map View. Instead of scrolling through endless lists, your records now appear as pins on a map. Built on top of the all-new address field and powered by Mappls (MapMyIndia),

• Adding custom "lookup" fields in Zoho Customization

  How can I add a second “lookup” field in Zoho? I’m trying to create another lookup that pulls from my Contacts, but the option doesn’t appear in the module customization sidebar. In many cases, a single work order involves multiple contacts. Ideally,

• Zoho Sheet - Desktop App or Offline

  Since Zoho Docs is now available as a desktop app and offline, when is a realistic ETA for Sheet to have the same functionality?I am surprised this was not laucned at the same time as Docs.

• ZOHO add-in issue

  I cannot connect ZOHO from my Outlook. I am getting this error.

• Issues with Actions By Zoho Flow

  Hi, I have a workflow that fires when a deal reaches a stage. This then sends out a contract for the client to sign. I have connected this up through Actions by Zoho Flow. Unfortunately this fails to send out. I have tracked it down to the date fields.

• Special characters (like â, â, æ) breaking when input in a field (encoding issue)

  Hey everyone, We are currently dealing with a probably encoding issue when we populate a field (mostly but not exclusively, 'Last Name' for Leads and Contracts). If the user manually inputs special characters (like ä, â, á etc.) from Scandinavian languages,

• Set Custom Icon for Custom Modules in new Zoho CRM UI

• Which WhatsApp API works seamlessly with Zoho CRM?

  I’m exploring WhatsApp API solutions that integrate seamlessly with Zoho CRM for customer communication, lead nurturing, and automation. I would love to hear insights from those who have successfully implemented WhatsApp within Zoho CRM. My Requirements:

• Marketing Automation

  L.S. Marketing Automation is and has always been part of the Zoho One bundle - according to the information provided on the Zoho Website. Why when I open Marketing Automation do I get the following message?: "Your trial has expired. We hope you enjoyed

• What's New in Zoho Analytics - January 2026

  Hello Users! We are starting the year with a strong lineup of updates, marking the beginning of many improvements planned to enhance your analytics experience. Explore the latest improvements built to boost performance, simplify analysis, and help you

• Can I convert multiple OLM files to Thunderbird at once?

  Yes, you can convert multiple OLM files to Thunderbird at once using the Aryson OLM file Converter. The tool supports bulk OLM file conversion, allowing users to select multiple OLM files in a single process. It preserves the original folder structure,

• Translation from Chinese (Simplified) to Chinese (Traditional) is not working. It randomly translated. Google Translate accurately but zoho translate is not working at all

  Hi friends, The newly added language for translation. https://www.zoho.com/deluge/help/ai-tasks/translate.html "zh" - Chinese "zh-CN" - Chinese (Simplified) "zh-TW" - Chinese (Traditional) my original text: 郑这钻 (and it is zh-CN) translated traditional

• Next Page