What's New in Zoho Books - September 2024

Hello users!

We are excited to be back and share our new features and enhancements with you! You can now add criteria to custom buttons, include taxes in purchase transactions, print or download e-Way bills, and much more. Let’s explore this month's updates in Zoho Books designed to elevate your experience.

Introducing the South Africa Edition of Zoho Books

We’re excited to unveil our latest edition of Zoho Books, packed with new features and enhancements tailored to meet your accounting needs.

We have enabled features like VAT, capital goods and services, and HSN codes. You will also be able to access the VAT201 report, a new VAT audit report, and a feature to record any penalties applied to VAT payments.

If you are an existing customer, you can easily migrate from the Global edition to the South Africa edition using our Edition Migration Tool. Start exploring this edition to streamline your financial management.

Demo Account for Kenya Edition

We’ve launched a demo account with VAT functionality enabled, including the configuration of VAT rates and rules. You can also choose One Source as the default ETR device. The account includes sample sales transactions, such as invoices and credit notes, configured according to e-invoice requirements.

Additionally, we’ve enabled VAT returns to be generated for a specific period in the VAT 3 return format and allow you to record payments for such returns.

Tax for Purchases Transactions [US Edition]

You can now create and apply taxes for your purchases transactions and use the Tax Paid Expense account to track them.

Extension Settings in Zoho Books Developer Portal

We're excited to introduce Extension Settings in the Zoho Books Developer Portal, which allows you to configure key options such as the Extension's Secret Key and Redirection Domain.

The extension's secret key is a private key known only to the extension developer and Zoho, providing an additional layer of security. For example, in payment gateway extensions, this key is used to sign payment requests along with the user's password. The same key will be used for other unauthenticated calls where necessary.

The redirection domain allows you to specify a domain to which users will be redirected once the extension is installed. This is particularly useful for maintaining navigation continuity, especially when dealing with external extensions. You must ensure that the redirection domain and the installation_redirect_url's domain match.

Enhance Your Keyboard Navigation

We have introduced a new Navigate-to feature in Zoho Books to improve navigation for users relying on keyboard navigation or accessibility users. Once the app loads, you can activate this feature by pressing the tab key or using the shortcut (Option or Alt) + 0.

This feature allows users to bypass repetitive content and jump directly to the main content of the page. For instance, if you want to navigate to the Total Receivables in the Dashboard section in your Zoho Books organization, you can select Main Content from the Navigate To dropdown and skip the tedious process of navigating all through the headers and sidebar.

Branch Specific Value Differences in Journals

You can now view the differences in the credit and debit values for every branch associated with the line items of a manual journal. The branch-specific value difference will be displayed on the details page of the manual journal after you save it.

Set Criteria for Custom Buttons

You can now set criteria for custom buttons. By adding criteria, you will be able to control their visibility and restrict access based on specific conditions.

To add criteria to a custom button, go to Settings> Select a Module> Custom Buttons> +New> Create a custom button. Under When to show this button?, select Show based on criteria and click +New Criteria.

Print/Download e-Way Bills [India Edition]

We have now introduced the option to print or download e-Way Bills as PDFs in a simplified format. This option is available for generated, cancelled, and expired e-Way Bills.

Bulk Download e-Invoices in JSON Format [India Edition]

You have the option to download invoices in the JSON file, which can then be uploaded to the e-Invoice portal to generate e-invoices directly, without any modifications.

To download invoices in the JSON format, go to Invoices> Select one or multiple invoices> More> and click Export as JSON for E-Invoicing.

Import Vendor Credit Notes [India Edition]

You can now import your vendor credit notes in Zoho Books. The imported files can include details such as GST, TDS, and TCS, along with the vendor details, item details, taxes, and reference bills.

Other Feature Enhancements

You can now filter the advanced search based on specific modules using either default filters or custom views.

We have enhanced PUT API to support updates or upserts using unique custom fields rather than just primary key values. This change will streamline integrations by allowing updates via a custom field that stores the third-party integration's primary key value.
We have aligned the Chart of Accounts module with the Plan Comptable Général (PCG) standard to comply with the common accounting principles in France. [Global Edition]
We have launched TheCourierGuy shipping integration in Zoho Books. You can use this integration to connect customers with various shipping carriers and streamline your shipping. [South Africa Edition]
You can now buy e-invoice stamp add-ons directly from the store admin page for Zoho One and Finance Plus bundle apps. If you are a partner or a store admin, you can conveniently buy these stamps from the store admin page. [South Africa Edition]

We hope you like the new features and enhancements in Zoho Books! Take some time to explore the app and try them out. We’ll be back next month with even more updates, as we continually strive to meet your expectations.

You can also visit the What's New timeline for byte-sized information about our previous feature updates and enhancements. Your experience as a user is important to us. If you need any assistance, feel free to reach out at support@zohobooks.com.

Best regards,

The Zoho Books Team