What's New in Zoho Expense: August - October 2023

Hello users,

We're back again with our What's New post to inform you about the most exciting feature rollouts over the past three months. An all-new edition, an integration for business travel management, iOS 17 updates, and more are in store for you! Get set to delve into the full details and read everything there is to know about these new features.

New edition - Germany

We're excited to announce the launch of another regional edition—Zoho Expense: Germany. If your organization is operating in Germany, simply select the country as Germany on the sign-up page to get started. You can then enable VAT, and Zoho Expense will preconfigure the applicable tax rates for businesses in Germany. While recording business expenses, users can choose the appropriate VAT treatment and VAT rates from the options provided. You can also access Zoho Expense in Deutsch, if required. Additionally, if mileage is enabled in your organization, the government-suggested mileage rates for the car and motorcycle vehicle types will be automatically fetched to Zoho Expense.

Self-booking through GetThere

If you're an organization that lets your employees book tickets online, then this integration would be a great addition for you! With the GetThere integration, your employees can directly book tickets for their business trips from within Zoho Expense. If you don't want all your employees to self-book, simply select the users who can directly book tickets using GetThere. Additionally, you can easily set up the organization's travel policies in GetThere so employees can book tickets in compliance with the company's policies. Learn more.

Report automation for corporate card expenses

Enable report automation to automatically generate a report that will compile the expenses made using a corporate card. A report will be automatically created on the billing date you've configured and all expenses incurred using your corporate card will be attached to the report. You can set up automatic submission, if required.

To set up report automation for corporate cards: Go to Admin View > Settings > Report Automation. Hover over Corporate Card Expenses and click Configure Now. Set up your preferences and click Save.

Updates in delegate configuration

Now, you can set the start date and the end date by which a delegate should cease having access to your account. This feature will come in handy when you want to assign delegates for future dates. At the same time, you can modify the access given to your account, whenever required. Users can also view the list of previous delegates that were assigned for them in My View and the admins can view the list of all the delegates that have been assigned for a user in the Admin View. The list will have the details of each delegate's Access Type, Duration, and Added By date.

For Admins: Go to Admin View > Settings > Users. Select a user and scroll down to the Delegate Details section to configure the delegate access.

For Submitters and Approvers: Go to My View > My Settings. Scroll down to the My Delegate section to configure the delegate access.

Webhooks revamp

The following changes were made in webhooks:

Query parameters are now supported.
Three types of body types are now supported - Default Payload, x-www-form-urlencoded, and raw JSON.
Secret key support has been added. It will be used to ensure that the API is triggered by Zoho Expense by comparing the hash value in the header (X-Zoho-Webhook-Signature). You need to have the same token on your server in order to compute a hash value.
Placeholders can now be inserted in the URL field, query parameters, form URL encoded parameters, and raw JSON.

To create a webhook: Go to Admin View > Settings > Actions > Webhooks > + New Webhook.

Set up tax-inclusive expense limits

When you configure rules to set up limits for your expenses on the Policies page, you can now mark if the expense amount should be inclusive of tax. If you check the "Limit amount is inclusive of tax" checkbox in Policies, the rule will be executed only if the amount exceeds the sum of the expense amount and tax.

To set up tax inclusive expense limits: Go to Admin View > Settings > Policies. Select a policy and navigate to the Rules tab. Select a rule and check the "Limit is inclusive of tax" option. Click Save.

Force delete custom module

Earlier, if you had records under a custom module, you would not have been able to delete the custom module. However, based on popular customer requests, we're now providing an option to delete a custom module even if there are records in it.

To force delete a custom module: Go to Admin View > Settings > Modules. Click the module you want to delete. Click the Gear icon next to the module name and click Delete. In the pop-up that opens, click Delete. A force delete pop-up will open; click Force Delete.

Revert custom status

If you've created your own custom status for a module and have applied it on a record, you can now revert it back to its corresponding default status in Zoho Expense whenever required.

Help text for custom fields

Introducing help text for custom fields! Whenever you create a custom field, you can now add a note in the Help Text field to help users understand the purpose of the field. If you've added help text for a custom field, users will be able to view this text when they hover over the help icon next to the custom field.

To add a help text for custom fields: Go to Admin View > Settings > Modules. Select the module for which you want to add a custom field with help text. Navigate to the Fields tab. Click + New Field. Enter the Label Name and Data Type. The Help Text field will appear. Enter the help text and click Save.

Per diem preferences for expense types

When you create a new expense type, you can now select if you want to configure per diem for the expense type. Additionally, you can choose if you want to record the expense type as a component or a supplement and select the ways by which you can record per diem expenses for this expense type.

To configure per diem preferences for expense types: Go to Admin View > Settings > Modules > Categories. Navigate to Expense Types. Click + New Expense Type. Enter the name and select a default category. Mark the "Configure per diem for this expense type" option and click Save.

Preferences for chatlets

You can now enable chatlets for reports and trips from the respective Preferences page. If chatlet is enabled, all the admins and approvers can create chatlets by default. However, if you'd like to provide access to all users to create chatlets, you can select that option. This feature is only available for the Premium and Enterprise plans of Zoho Expense.

To configure chatlet preferences: Go to Admin View > Settings > Modules > Reports or Trips. Mark the "Enable Chatlets" option and click Save.

Fetch Canadian tax rates automatically

Zoho Expense can now fetch the Canadian government's tax rates and agencies automatically! If you create a new organization with Canada as the Country and enable "Taxes," all the government-suggested tax rates and agencies will be auto-fetched to allow users to apply them to their expenses. Additionally, if you have custom tax rates, you can create them as well.

Select a delivery address for purchase requests

When you create a purchase request, you can now choose the delivery address. The organization's primary address will be prefilled by default. However, admins will be able to add a new address or edit the existing address.

iOS app updates

Zoho Expense is now iOS17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma ready! Access shortcuts from Spotlight, view real-time updates on the distance covered using GPS, the time left for your flight on your lock screen, Dynamic Island with Live Activities, and view pending tasks by Zia with the interactive widgets.
For VAT-enabled Germany edition organizations, Zoho Expense will automatically fetch the government tax rates so users can apply them to their expenses. Similarly, the government's mileage rates will also be readily available to apply to your mileage expenses.

Android app updates

If you've enabled VAT for your Germany edition organizations, the government tax rates will be automatically available, and users can apply them to their expenses.
Improved accuracy of mileage tracking using GPS.

Explore a more efficient way to manage expenses with these new features. Try them and drop your feedback in the comments. Need assistance? Contact us at support@zohoexpense.com.

Regards,

The Zoho Expense Team