As you read this, an employee in some part of the world is struggling to submit his expenses in order to get reimbursed. And his manager is having a miserable time going through a stack of expense reports that aren't making her day any better. Finally, an accounting department is waiting on employee expense reports to close the books.
The expense reporting ritual has been the bane of many organizations. The frustration and lost productivity due to expense reporting is draining. Employees come back from business trips tired and tapped with action items from the trip - completing their expense reports is the furthest thing from their minds. After procrastinating for months, inevitably, the envelopes of receipts they saved from the trip are less than comprehensive, and they are unable to fully and accurately complete their reports.
Managers have an equal disdain for expense reports. Managers know they are the gatekeeper for reimbursements and feel the pressure from anxious employees to complete them. Yet, carving out several hours a week to review and approve expense reports is several hours they don't have.
At Zoho, we have always taken pleasure in automating tiresome yet important business functions for our customers, including customer relationship management (CRM), customer support, email, and accounting. Yet, internally, we still struggled with expense reporting. Like many companies, expense reporting at Zoho has been a manual process - a tedious manual process at that. Expense reports are done on paper and collected in boxes. A dedicated team takes several days to cull through, approve, reject, or comment on each expense report. While the team uses a tool, the process has remained largely manual.
Out of our own necessity, and knowing that other companies are also suffering from expense report fatigue, we decided to build an expense management tool that would actually thrill businesses.
Introducing Zoho Expense, our latest accounting and finance application. Zoho Expense automates and simplifies expense reporting by eliminating needless data entry, speeds up report approvals, and seamlessly integrates with other business applications to increase cross-business function productivity.
Take a look at how Zoho Expense can take expense reporting from drudgery to delight in your company:
Absolutely Zero Data Entry
That's right, Zoho Expense guarantees zero data entry when creating expenses. There's no magic, just perfect automation.
1. Turn receipts to data – With auto scan, Zoho Expense automatically creates an expense entry every time you upload a receipt. All major details like receipt amount, vendor, date and other details are captured into the expense eliminating the need for manual data entry.
2. Sync credit card statements – Sync your credit cards with Zoho Expense, and it will collect all your credit card transactions daily. Once in Zoho Expense, each credit card transaction can easily be converted into an expense with a click of a button.
Effortless Expense Reports and Approvals
Select a group of expenses, create an expense report, and click "submit." It's that simple. Approving expense reports is also a cinch thanks to one-click approvals and rejections. Managers can view expense report details in one place, and they can communicate and collaborate directly from Zoho Expense, rather than through drawn-out email threads and phone calls.
Integrated with Zoho Booksand Zoho CRM
Zoho Expense is elegantly integrated with Zoho Books and Zoho CRM. For sales reps using Zoho CRM, a user account is automatically created for them in Zoho Expense. The integration will soon allow reps to create and submit expense reports without leaving their CRM.
Accounting for expenses has never been easier with Zoho Expense. Business expenses created in Zoho Expense are seamlessly imported into Zoho Books, so the accounting team doesn't have to re-key expense data or waste time on related end-of-period adjustments.
Additionally, accounting and finance organizations can set travel and expense policies such as fuel limits and spending limits to ensure employees comply with company policies. With reports on individual expenses and policy violations, Zoho Expense gives accounting and finance teams complete visibility and control over business expenditures.
Plans and Pricing
Zoho Expense offers a monthly plan of US $15 for 10 users per month. That works out to just $1.50 per month per user. You can add more users for $2 per user per month. You get all the features at one price. There is also an annual plan with a two month discount, priced at $150 for 10 users, and $20 every additional user per year. Mobile apps are available on iOS, Android, and Windows platforms for free.
You don't have to start paying from day one. Try it free for 14 days before upgrading. Use Zoho Expense and manage expenses the easy way!
Hello, You Might say quickly major differences between expense and books and coat If it is possible to Manage several companies with different user access ? If so, what would be the cost of the subscription by society ? Regards, CAtherine
I have submitted the expenses and also approved by line manager, but expenses entry already update in our account books under purchases tree, but I am not very comfortable for payment, request you to pls tell me how to book the payment entry on zoho book. pls reply ASAP it's pretty urgent.
Hi Amit, We're getting in touch with you through email (amit.chouhan@infiniacs.com) for solving this issue. We would like to learn more about the issue. We will definitely assist you in getting this sorted out. Regards, Harish
FANTASTIC. This is a HUGE pain point for organizations. I should have known ZOHO would generate a solution. And from the comments above, it is being recognized that individuals would benefit from this leap forward. More on individuals: I currently use Quicken to track personal expenses, and would gladly pay for an individual license on ZOHO Expense - and close my Quicken forever. ZOHO excels at multiple platforms, Quicken does not even support that for Canadians. Really? We are a nice polite people. :)
Hi, Yes, you can definitely benefit from Zoho Expense. Please write to us at support@zohoexpense.com regarding this and we'll take it forward. You can refer to our conversation there :) Regards, Harish Zoho Expense team
Can ZOHO EXPENSE sync with ZOHO INVOICE?
Hi Ryan, As of now, we do not have have plans to integrate with Zoho Invoice. I'll keep you posted on any updates in this regard. On a parallel note, Zoho Expense is integrated with Zoho Books, our online invoicing and accounting software. Regards, Harish
Harish, I use Expensify which is $5 per month and works great. I'd try Zoho Expense if there was a single license version and it was priced accordingly just so I could tie things back to CRM. Rob
Hi Rob, We'd love to discuss this with you and help you. Can you write to us at support@zohoexpense.com so that we can understand your needs and work out a plan for you. Regards, Harish
unfortunatly i cant see the use of this product for small business owners, medium to large yes, with a number of creditcards it looks like a product that will be usefull, with this product ,as well as all the other products you have . i have found an annoying problem would be great to split a transaction to personal and also to business expense, i mean how many times do you use a credit-card for fuel and also by a drink that isn't a business expense i have searched everywhere on how to do it but alas no luck so far Darren falls pest control
Hi Darren, Sorry about the late reply.Been keeping busy for a while now. Currently, we are focused on providing solutions for small and medium sized businesses. Serving personal needs is not in the scope of the product for now. And you can split your personal and business expense transactions in Zoho Expense. But you will only be able to track those business expenses. Regards, Harish
Hi Harish, We use Zoho Books as our main accounting software. As of now being a small SME and currently only me is doing the travelling. I usually travel 4-5 times a year and only need to use it 5 on 12 months. I was wondering on whether It's possible pay only on a monthly basis during my travelling ? All entries made will be readily available within Zoho Books right ? Thanks - BM
Hi Bernard, Yes, it can be done. Can you mail us at support@zohoexpense.com for us to take this forward. Not all entries, Bernard. Any expense that is approved in Zoho Expense, will automatically appear in Zoho Books. You don't ever have to import/export again! Regards, Harish Regards, Harish
Hi, It would be awesome if there was more automation in scanning receipts and recording expense in zoho invoice for us freelancers and sole traders - this looks really cool but not suitable for a single user :(
Hi Brad, Thanks for the idea! Yes, it would be nice to have the scanning feature in Zoho Invoice. I have passed it on to our technical team. I'll personally keep you posted on this :) Regards, Harish
Hi Harish, Can entries be made in Multiple currencies ? Since I usually travel to different countries within one business trip. BR - BM
Hi Bernard, Yes, you can record expenses in multiple currencies and add them to a single expense report. The exchange rates for foreign currencies will have to be manually entered for now, but we are working on automating it :) Best Regards, Harish
So I have to go to Zoho Books for mileage tracking and Zoho Expense for other forms of tracking. Yet I already pay $15/month for Zoho Invoice and can do my expenses there. Yes, it's more hassle, but it's not another $15/month more hassle. Can you please look at making these talk to each other more, or have a more coherent set of use cases so we don't have to pick and choose so much? Thanks!
Hi Rob, Mileage tracking will be available directly in Zoho Invoice very soon. It should be ready before the end of the month. And we are planning on integrating Zoho Invoice and Zoho Expense, but it will be available only by the end of this quarter or early Q3. Regards, Harish
I use Zoho books to do all my financial reporting. Today my accountant tells me that I should also be keeping track of milage for my expenses. Can Zoho books or expense do that? Thanks, Pat
Hi Patrick, The mileage tracking feature is readily available in Zoho Expense. But Zoho Expense is primarily for companies with employees who regularly report expenses and get them reimbursed. We are however, planning to introduce mileage tracking in Zoho Books. It should be available before the end of the month. I'll keep you posted :) Regards, Harish