Unlocking New Horizons: A Year in Review

Unlocking New Horizons: A Year in Review



As we bid farewell to 2024, let's celebrate and revisit the key highlights of the year. From adding a new edition to cross-platform enhancements, here’s a roundup of all the feature updates designed to simplify accounting, optimize financial management, and fuel growth. 



Zoho Books brings you a comprehensive set of new features and updates designed to streamline your financial management. 

Fixed Asset Management 

Zoho Books allows you to monitor your fixed assets, automatically calculate depreciation, and manage their sale or write-off when they are fully depreciated or reach the end of their useful life. 

Progress Invoicing 

With progress invoicing, you can create and manage invoices for long-term projects by billing clients in stages rather than in a single payment.

Invoice Management System [India Edition]

The IMS allows you to review the transactions filed by your suppliers in their GSTR-1, GSTR-1A, or IFF. You can choose to accept, reject, or mark the transactions as pending to accurately claim Input Tax Credit (ITC).

TDS Payments [India Edition] 

You can now easily view all your TDS liabilities, and record challan under the TDS module.

GST TDS [India Edition] 

GST TDS allows you to deduct a portion of payments to suppliers, which is then remitted to the tax authorities.

Early Payment Discount [Global, Germany, & UK Editions]

You can offer discounts to customers who pay their invoices before the due date.

Payment Retention

With this feature, you can set a retention percentage for your invoices, automatically withhold a portion of payments, and track retained amounts easily. Once contract terms are fulfilled, you can release or adjust the retained payments with just a few clicks.

Note: This feature is not available for the India and Kenya editions of Zoho Books.

XML Import or Export [Germany Edition] 

You can import e-invoices in XRechnung and ZUGFeRD formats to ensure compliance with the EN 16931 standard. Additionally, invoices can be exported via email in either PDF or XML format.

XML Manager [Mexico Edition] 

You can now directly fetch and import e-invoices in XML format from the SAT Portal to Zoho Books and add them as transactions.

E-Invoicing via PEPPOL [Germany Edition] 

With Zoho Books, you can create, send, and receive e-invoices via the PEPPOL network.

CIS Filing [UK Edition] 

Zoho Books allows you to file your monthly returns directly with HMRC and record the payments.

BACS payments [UK Edition]

You can now generate and export BACS files for your bills. This feature allows businesses to pay multiple vendors directly via BACS without manual entry.

Profit Margin Scheme [UAE & Saudi Arabia Editions] 

The Profit Margin Scheme allows businesses to calculate VAT only on the profit margin, not the full sale price. It applies to businesses selling second-hand goods, used cars, or certain retail items. 

Push E-Invoices to ZATCA’s Fatoora Platform [Saudi Arabia Edition]

Zoho Books enables businesses in Saudi Arabia to effortlessly comply with the new e-invoicing regulations by pushing e-invoices to ZATCA’s Fatoora platform.

Combined Tax Returns [Canada Edition]

Businesses can now generate combined GST/HST-QST returns, in addition to federal GST/HST returns and provincial tax returns such as British Columbia PST, QST, Manitoba RST, and Saskatchewan PST returns.

Smart BillPay [India, Canada & US Editions] 

The BillPay feature simplifies and streamlines the entire accounts payable process by automating everything from vendor onboarding to setting up approval workflows. It makes paying vendors more efficient and hassle-free.

File T4A & T5018 Slips [Canada Edition] 

Easily generate and file your T4A & T5018 slips directly to CRA with Zoho Books.

Revenue Recognition [US, Canada, Mexico, UAE & Saudi Arabia Editions] 

Revenue recognition ensures that businesses report their revenue accurately, reflecting when it is earned rather than when the payment is made.

Manage 1099 & W9 [US Edition] 

With Zoho Books, you can easily collect W-9 forms from contractors, send 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC forms at year-end, and file them directly with the IRS, ensuring full compliance with IRS regulations. 

Retainer Invoices [Mexico Edition]

We now support the Retainer Invoices module. You can now easily stamp and submit e-invoices to the SAT portal as well as cancel them directly from within Zoho Books.

E-Accounting [Mexico Edition]

You can submit the Chart of Accounts, Trial Balance, and Journal reports in XML format to meet SAT regulatory requirements. The Account Group Code field has been added to the Accountant and Banking modules, which helps you add the unique identifier provided by SAT and categorize account types.






Charge a Late Fee to Your Customers [US &Global Editions]

A late fee is an extra charge for overdue invoices. You can charge a percentage of your customer's invoice total or a fixed amount and choose to exclude loyal customers.

Apply Tax to Your Purchase Transactions [US Edition]

You can now apply use tax and other applicable taxes to your purchase transactions and track them using the Tax Paid Expense account.

Assign a Company ID to your Customers and Vendors [Global Edition] 

We’ve introduced the Company ID field on the Customers and Vendors creation page to enter your company’s unique identification number.

Apply Transaction Posting Date to Your Transactions [Global, US & Canada Editions] 

The Transaction Posting Date is the date when journal entries for transactions like invoices, bills, payments, receipts, credit notes, and vendor credits are recorded. 



Manage Tax Exemptions and Out-of-Scope Transactions [UK Edition] 

We have introduced the Tax Exemption and Out of Scope options to manage transactions that are either exempt from tax or fall outside the scope of VAT.

Apply TDS Surcharge and Cess to Your Bills [India Edition]

You can now create and apply TDS surcharge and cess to your bills. A surcharge is an additional tax applied to the existing tax, while cess is a tax imposed by the government for a specific purpose.

Apply Tax on Shipping Charge [US Edition] 

You can now associate tax or tax exemption with shipping charges, and the tax will be tracked in the Tax Payable liability account.



Associate TDS at Line-item Level [India Edition] 

You can now associate TDS at the line-item level. We have also introduced Direct Taxes under Settings, where you can select the TDS preference.

Minimized View for Web Tabs

This feature lets you access web tabs from anywhere within the app. In the minimized view, you can navigate between modules while keeping web tabs compact. 

Multi-criteria Workflow 

With this feature, you can now define multiple criteria and associate actions with a single workflow rule.



Alipay Payment Method 

You can now collect payments in CNY globally with Alipay as the payment method. You can also receive payments in various other currencies based on your Stripe account's location.

Klarna Payment Method 

Klarna offers the option to pay immediately, later, or in installments. Even if your customers choose installments or pay later options, Stripe transfers the full payment amount to the recipient right away.





Create Purchase Receives for Service Items

You can create a Purchase Receive for service items and verify if all your services have been fulfilled.

Set Opening Stock for Multiple Warehouses

You can set opening stock for multiple warehouses across different branches when creating or editing item groups with multiple products.

Select Items by Category in Bulk

You can now filter and select items from one or more specific categories when adding items in bulk to sales and purchase transactions.



Form 1099 Vendor Payment Report [US Edition]

Form 1099 is a report used to track payments made to non-employees like freelancers and vendors.

TDS Receivables Summary Report [India Edition]

You can view the total TDS deductions made on invoices, bills of supply, customer debit notes, and credit notes with this report.

Zoho Marketplace Extensions

Must-Have Zoho Books Extensions for 2024: The Best in Every Category!







Introducing the new South Africa edition of Zoho Books. This edition allows you to send and receive VAT-compliant transactions at SARS-approved rates, generate VAT201 and VAT Audit reports for returns, mark items as capital assets, and set standard rates for items and tax treatments for customers and vendors. 




iOS

  • We've redesigned the app with a sleek design and simplified interactions, making your accounting experience smoother than ever! 
  • You can now connect your bank account using Plaid. [US & Canada Editions]
  • Personalize transaction PDFs by customizing color themes, adding bank details, and including your signature for a professional touch.
  • We support adding reporting tags to transactions, customers, and items.
  • You can correct and make adjustments to an invoice that is in the Sent status. [Germany Edition]
  • You can now auto-generate customer or vendor numbers when creating customers or vendors.

Android

  • Collect a percentage of the invoice amount or a fixed fee as a late charge when the payment is not made by the due date.
  • You can now cancel or make corrections to sent invoices.
  • We have launched the new South Africa Edition.
  • You can now manually create bank accounts or automatically sync accounts with Zoho Books using Plaid and Yodlee. [US & Canada Editions]
  • Provide discounts to customers who pay their invoices a certain number of days before the due date.

Windows

  • We have now supported the Documents module.
  • You can split and make payments on your invoices.
  • You can now select French and Hindi as your language at the organization level in the app.
  • We have launched the new South Africa and Germany editions.
  • Configure your sender email preferences under settings.
  • You can now format text (bold, italics) within the comments section.


  • We conducted over 50 online webinars in 6 regional languages such as Marathi, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada, covering a wide range of topics and highlighting key features to help users navigate and make the most of Zoho Books.
  • We organized 21 community meetups across 21 cities in India, where users learned about the new updates and features of Zoho Books, along with useful tips and tricks for better usage.





Rochelle Spence

Business Manager, Communications Consulting Group

For nearly a decade, Zoho Books has been an integral part of our business. The integration with our CRM has greatly streamlined our financial processes, providing us with enhanced visibility and efficiency. The customizable features, especially late fee invoicing, have significantly improved our bookkeeping. Zoho Books has truly made managing our finances easier and more effective. 

Naveedh V.V

Make Your Own Perfume

Running a business requires smart accounts management. Zoho Books simplifies everything from invoicing to inventory in one easy, cloud-based platform. Access your data anytime, anywhere!




As we close out this year, we hope you've enjoyed the updates that have enhanced your accounting experience. Thank you for being a part of our journey, and here's to reaching new heights in the year ahead. 




    • Recent Topics

    • PDF Template have QTY as first column

      I want to have the QTY of an item on the sales orders and invoices to be the first column, then description, then pricing. Is there a way to change the order? I went to the Items tab in settings but don't see how to change the order of the columns on

    • RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) Type Q+A Environment with Zoho Learn

      Hi All, Given the ability of Zoho Learn to function as a knowledge base / document repository type solution and given the rapid advancements that Zoho is making with Zia LLM, agentic capabilities etc. (not to mention the rapid progress in the broader

    • Welcome to the Zoho ERP Community Forum

      Hello everyone, We are thrilled to launch Zoho ERP (India edition), a software to manage your business operations from end to end. We’ve created this community forum as a space for you to ask questions, comment answers, provide feedback, and share your

    • In App Auto Refresh/Update Features

      Hi,    I am trying to use Zoho Creator for Restaurant management. While using the android apps, I reliased the apps would not auto refresh if there is new entries i.e new kitchen order ticket (KOT) from other users.   The apps does received notification but would not auto refresh, users required to refresh the apps manually in order to see the new KOT in the apps.    I am wondering why this features is not implemented? Or is this feature being considered to be implemented in the future? With the

    • Consolidated report for multi-organisation

      I'm hoping to see this feature to be available but couldn't locate in anywhere in the trial version. Is this supported? The main aim to go to ERP is to have visibility of the multi-organisation in once place. I'm hopeful for this.

    • IMAP mail after specify date

      Hi My customer's mail server is on premise and mail storage is very huge. So It never finish sync. and finally stop sync. Cloud CRM have a option like zoho mail sync mail after some date.

    • Claude + MCP Server + Zoho CRM Integration – AI-Powered Sales Automation

      Hello Zoho Community 👋 I’m excited to share a recent integration we’ve worked on at OfficehubTech: ✅ Claude + MCP Server + Zoho CRM This integration connects Zoho CRM with Claude AI through our custom MCP Server, enabling intelligent AI-driven responses

    • Notes badge as a quick action in the list view

      Hello all, We are introducing the Notes badge in the list view of all modules as a quick action you can perform for each record, in addition to the existing Activity badge. With this enhancement, users will have quick visibility into the notes associated

    • Search Bar positioning

      Why is the Search bar on the far right when everything is oriented towards the left?

    • Basic Mass Update deluge schedule not working

      I'm trying to create a schedule that will 'reset' a single field to 0 every morning - so that another schedule can repopulate with the day's calculation. I thought this would be fairly simple but I can't work out why this is failing : 1) I'm based in

    • The Social Playbook - January edition: Getting started with content creation

      Social media isn’t just about posting some random content. It’s about why certain content works, how brands stand out, and what makes people pause mid-scroll. The Social Playbook is a monthly community series where we break all of that down. Through real

    • Import Error: Empty values for mandatory fields - Closing Date

      Hello, I've tried multiple times to import a CVS Potential list from another Zoho account. But the error message I get is: Empty values for mandatory fields - Closing Date There are valid dates in this field, so I don't understand why this error messages

    • 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,

    • 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,

    • Feature Requests - Contact Coloured Picklist Visibility & Field Visibility During Ticket Creation

      Hi Desk Team, I have 2 feature requests for you. Since Coloured Picklists are now available in Desk, It would be great if the colours were visible on the Related Details (Contact Information) when creating a ticket. In the screenshot below, I have 2 fields

    • How to integrate XML with Zoho CRM

      Hi, I have an eCom service provider that gives me a dynamic XML that contains order information, clients, shipments... The XML link is the only thing I have. No Oath or key, No API get... I want to integrate it into Zoho CRM. I am not a developer nor

    • Feature Request - Ability to Customise Contact Info Card on Ticket Details View

      Hi Desk Team, I've added a "Contact Priority" and "Account Prioirty" field and it would be very useful to agents if they could see that information in the Contact Info card on the Ticket Details view. It would be great if we could choose some fields to

    • Tax in Quote

      Each row item in a quote has a tax value. At the total numbers at the bottom, there is also a Tax entry. If you select tax in both of the (line item, and the total), the tax doubles. My assumption is that the Tax total should be totalling the tax from

    • Zoho Flow integration with Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp

      Hi there,  any plans of adding integrations with Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp into Zoho Flow? Seems that more and more business are delivering automated updates such as "your order is received",  "your order has been shipped" and so on via these two platforms. Not sure if Whatsapp has the API access needed i am pretty sure that Facebook Messenger has... Kind regards Bo Thygesen 

    • Really want the field "Company" in the activities module!

      Hi team! Something we are really missing is able to see the field Company when working in the activities module. We have a lot of tasks and need to see what company it's related to. It's really annoying to not be able to see it.🙈 Thx!

    • Multi-currency and Products

      One of the main reasons I have gone down the Zoho route is because I need multi-currency support.  However, I find that products can only be priced in the home currency, We sell to the US and UK.  However, we maintain different price lists for each. 

    • Campaigns unsubscribe/manage preferences links

      Hi, Where can I edit the unscubscribe and manage preferences link in the footer of the email. I would like it so that when you click 'manage preferences' an form opens up that allows the person to choose what type of emails they do and don't wish to

    • email address somehow still not verified (?!)

      L.S. After creating a new email template in CRM I was about to send a group email to my clients, then Zoho CRM announced that they would change the sender address to some kind of Zoho-e-ddress because my email address "has not been verified". Not only

    • Marketing Tip #17: Add credibility to your online store with Review Widgets

      One of the fastest ways to build trust in an online store is to show real customer feedback right where people are deciding to buy. Third-party widgets let you embed things like Google Reviews, Instagram feeds, or even a WhatsApp chat button. These add

    • adding several team members to an Opportunity

      How can we add several team members to one opportunity for collaboration? I have researched and only found something called Deal Team which I cannot find in my CRM to configure.

    • PDF Annotation is here - Mark Up PDFs Your Way!

      Reviewing PDFs just got a whole lot easier. You can now annotate PDFs directly in Zoho Notebook. Highlight important sections, add text, insert images, apply watermarks, and mark up documents in detail without leaving your notes. No app switching. No

    • Bulk update Profile Permissions

      Dears, What should we do if we add new forms or reports and need to update more than 20 permissions? Updating them one by one feels pretty harsh, doesn’t it?

    • From Zoho CRM to Paper : Design & Print Data Directly using Canvas Print View

      Hello Everyone, We are excited to announce a new addition to your Canvas in Zoho CRM - Print View. Canvas print view helps you transform your custom CRM layouts into print-ready documents, so you can bring your digital data to the physical world with

    • Filter in fields from Jira extension

      We have installed the Jira extension so we can maken Jira issues from Zoho desk. In Zoho desk I can also see the Jira issue status for example but I can not filter on this field. I would like to setup an filter showing me the closed Jira issues. How can

    • text length in list report mobile/tablet

      Is there a way to make the full text of a text field appear in the list report on mobile and tablet? With custom layouts, the text is always truncated after a certain number of characters.

    • Zoho Creator customer portal limitation | Zoho One

      I'm asking you all for any feedback as to the logic or reasoning behind drastically limiting portal users when Zoho already meters based on number of records. I'm a single-seat, Zoho One Enterprise license holder. If my portal users are going to add records, wouldn't that increase revenue for Zoho as that is how Creator is monetized? Why limit my customer portal to only THREE external users when more users would equate to more records being entered into the database?!? (See help ticket reply below.)

    • Link Contacts to Billed Accounts

      Hello, I want to do a survey on all my customers of 2025. For that I want to select all contacts linked to accounts who where billed in 2025. How to I create this link to I can then use Zoho Survey with this database of contacts?

    • Export all of our manuals from Zoho Learn in one go

      Hi, I know there's a way to export manuals in Zoho Learn, but I want to export everything in one go so it won't take so long. I can't see a way to do this, can I get some assistance or is this a feature in the pipeline? Thanks, Hannah

    • 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.

    • Historical Sales Info - Blend with Finance Invoice Line Items, Access in CRM and Desk

      My company has been using Zoho One since 2021, with sales data going back through 2020. However, we have been in business much longer, and we have historical sales information that we want to have at our fingertips when talking with customers (usually

    • Pre-Zoho Sales Info - Best Way to Add to Desk / CRM

      My company has been using Zoho One since 2021, with sales data going back through 2020. However, we have been in business much longer, and we have historical sales information that we want to have at our fingertips when talking with customers (usually

    • 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

    • CRM function REST API response format

      Is there a way to control the JSON response returned by the CRM function REST API? If I call a function using either OAuth or an API key it returns a 200 OK response with a string in the format shown below. I am using a particular feature of an external

    • Add Employee Availability Functionality to Zoho People Shift Module

      Hello Zoho People Product Team, Greetings and hope you are doing well. We would like to submit a feature request to enhance the Zoho People Shift module by adding employee availability management, similar to the functionality available in Zoho Shifts.

    • Using MPN across multiple SKUs and inventory tracking

      I have several different SKU's that share a common MPN and would like to track inventory by MPN. SKU1 has MPN1 assigned SKU2 has MPN1 assigned Here is an example If I start with 5 of MPN 1 in stock I want each SKU1 and SKU2 to show as 5 in stock, If I

    • Next Page