I've submitted this twice to support already but not received an answer.

I think I've found a bug/error in Zoho Books.

I am evaluating Zoho books and a little concerned over the apparent inability to call support or get a response to emailed questions. So here it goes on the public forum. Hopefully some kind reader may be able to help.

I have a CASH based business in USA. This means the TAX point is the date of PAYMENT. Zoho Books incorrectly calculates it on the date of invoice, when it should be the date of payment.

To reproduce this: (Date format mm/dd/yyyy)

Open a business have the start date as 01/01/2012. Record an bill with a bill date of 11/15/2011, assign it to something like "Outside Services" or other valid expense category. Pay it and have the payment date as 02/15/2012. Observe in the Accountant menu the charge of accounts has the bill total incorrectly assigned to previous year (2011) and remains in the wrong category as a result such as a minus figure "retained earnings".

Since you specified a CASH based business for both invoices (money In), expenses and bills (money out) as well as refunds etc the effective date is the payment date NOT the invoice date. So it seems as if Zoho books has a bug/error. The only workaround is to record an inaccurate date on the bill/invoice etc that is equal to the actual payment date. However this means using Zoho Books inaccurately. 

This is a rather a concerning problem. I can imagine customers will be upset should you change things overall. So perhaps have a setting within the organization's profile that allows the user to set the effective accounts/tax date as either the payment date or the invoice date would be the best way forward.

If this "bug" remains at trial expiration I don't see how I can continue without a firm date for a fix. Which is a pity because Zoho Books is a fit for me otherwise.