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

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