The Zoho ecosystem has everything a business might need and from a single sign-on you can have access to 45+ Apps. This includes Zoho Expense, as one of the Apps in the Zoho Finance suite, which includes everything from invoicing to order management and accounting.

In this blog we focus on Zoho Expense and specifically cover a use-case that many businesses will relate to. Whilst we illustrate integration with Xero, similar functionality is offered through integration with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, SAP and of course Zoho Books.

So, what is the use-case? Well, you may have many employees that need to log expenses but you don't wish to give them access to your Accounting system. This could be for several reasons...perhaps an approval process is in play, or you have limited licenses and then there are security concerns.

Zoho Expense integrated with your Accounting system solves this issue and provides a seamless and affordable solution.

Zoho Expense - Overview

Zoho Expense enables the logging of receipts from anywhere making it convenient and saves valuable time. Your employees will love this as it stops a backlog of receipts building up!

There is an advanced Auto-scan feature that can read receipts in ten different languages and create expenses automatically!

Corporate, Debit and Credit Cards can we synchronised daily so transactions are fetched automatically, avoiding the need to re-enter them!

All expenses are organised into a clear report that can be sent at the click of a button and can be accepted or rejected by a click as well.

With built-in Analytics, you can easily see where your business is incurring expenses, as well as track excessive employee spending that violate company policy.

For details on the integration with Xero, please watch this video:

You can subscribe to just Zoho Expense, or the Finance Suite, or the entire ecosystem as it is part of the Zoho One bundle (all 45 Apps from £1 per user per day) at no additional cost.

Zoho Expense Version 2.0 is now in Beta and offers a fresh, revamped user interface with new, powerful features, so watch out for this release.

I hope this has been useful and get in touch for a free consultation.

As a small business we are faced with growth challenges that require us to be astute and optimise our resources. One key department is our Accounting, which needs to focus more on financial intelligence, rather than just compliance.

We can try and hire highly trained experts, or we can outsource! There are many benefits to outsourcing, and although this article features a Zoho Books logo, the points mentioned below are equally relevant to Sage 50, Xero, QuickBooks, Tally, Peachtree, MS Dynamics or any other platform.

TIME & COST SAVINGS

Hiring, training and supervising bookkeeping or accounting staff is a massive overhead, both in terms of time spent and salaries. Even partial Outsourcing can help you save valuable time and minimise recurring costs, thereby growing your business profitability.

FLEXIBILITY

With employee salaries you are committing to fixed costs and all the associated overheads, whereas outsourcing becomes a variable cost, which you can throttle up or down and scale, as required.

EXPERTISE

Small businesses can't attract, let alone afford, expensive, highly trained resources. Outsourcing can empower your existing back office staff by giving them the help they need to move into more productive positions.

MANAGEMENT INTELLIGENCE REPORTING

A powerful advantage of outsourced accounting is that you will get access to timely and accurate information, and most importantly, management intelligence reports that will drive action to improve profits.

LEVELS OF OUTSOURCING

So, what are your options, should you decide to help your existing staff?

Level 1. As a start, ensure that you are using a feature-rich, web-based tool like Zoho Books, Xero or Quickbooks online, which can grow with your business. This usually comes with some basic training to help with the initial set up, and ensure you opt for on-going support.

Level 2. Subscribe to a part-time or full-time BookKeeper, which will also help move any existing staff to more productive roles. Outsourcing this routine task, ensures you don't need to supervise or worry about it becoming a single point of failure.

Level 3. Leverage a full service Accounting service that will help with actionable insights, fraud detection, risk mitigation and strategic decision making to drive profitability. This will be based on real data analytics and answer questions on marketing initiatives, pricing, cost per acquisition and operational processes.

Outsourcing is a fully managed service offered by Mercer Lal, so get in touch and we will help reduce your costs, increase your sales, optimise your efficiencies and improve your bottom line!