Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Which is best for your business?

What is Zoho Books?

Zoho Books serves as a comprehensive platform that caters to various accounting needs and extends its functionalities beyond traditional accounting tasks. It’s an end-to-end accounting platform that lets businesses automate their workflow, stay on top of their cash flow, track inventory, reconcile bank accounts, be in the know of their business health, and work together collectively as a team.

What is QuickBooks?

QuickBooks is a user-friendly, simple accounting software package developed and marketed by Intuit that tracks your business income and expenses, and organises your financial information for you, eliminating manual data entry. QuickBooks products were initially introduced in 1992, with a primary focus on catering to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Learn more about Zoho Books and QuickBooks

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Pricing

Zoho Books:

There are six different pricing plans for Zoho Books. Users are not charged individually, but rather as an

Organization. These are the base price plans:

1. Complimentary: Business that make less than $50,000 USD a year don't have to pay anything.

2. Standard: $15 a month for each organization billed once a year, or $20 a month for each organization billed every month.

3. Professionals pay $30 a month per organization billed once a year, or $35 a month per organization billed every month.

4. Premium: $40 per organization per month if paid yearly, or $50 per organization per month if paid yearly. You can try this plan for free for 14 days.

5. Elite: $165 a month for each organization billed yearly, or $200 a month for each organization

billed yearly.

6. The cost for the Ultimate plan is $290 per organization per month when billed yearly or $350 per

organization per month when billed monthly.

You can also get the following add-ons for Zoho Books:

- For every extra user, it costs $3 per month.

- For $12 a month, you can get 50 advanced auto scans.

- Postal mail: $2 per Credit

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QuickBooks:

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Unlike Zoho Books, QuickBooks Online offers only 4 pricing options to choose from, which are:

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Simple start: The monthly fee for one user of QuickBooks Simple Start is $30.

Essentials: QuickBooks Essentials costs $60 a month and lets up to three people use it

Plus: The monthly fee for up to five users to utilize QuickBooks Plus is $90

Advanced: QuickBooks Advanced can be used by 25 users with monthly charge of $200

New clients who have never used QuickBooks before have the option to join up for a 30-day free trial, allowing them to explore QuickBooks without having to commit to a specific plan.   Alternatively, you have the option to forgo the free trial and instead secure a 50% discount for your initial three months. However, it is not possible to select both options simultaneously.

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Features

1. Accounting

Double entry accounting is used by Zoho Books to ensure the accurate calculations and Compliance of tax. It also helps to check receivable and payable

accounts, tax payment records and view 1099 plus sales tax reporting on the platform. You will have to make use of integration for calculation of sales tax. QuickBooks also ensures accuracy with Double entry accounting. It automatically syncs all your transactions for smooth review of receivable and payable accounts. QuickBooks doesn’t need a third-party integration for calculation of sales tax.

2. Estimates and Invoices

Zoho Books allows a ton of customization options catering for more complex invoicing. Conversion of quote to invoice or sales order is an amazing feature offered by the software. You can create 1000 free invoices with free plan annually and 5000 with the standard plan. Cherry on the cake is their inhouse invoicing product “Zoho Invoices” which can be integrated with Zoho Books for free.

QuickBooks unlike Zoho Books is quite generous in terms of invoice generation which is unlimited for all plans. Automatically recurring invoices can be sent once set, also Invoices, estimates and quotes can easily be created and customized.

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3. Expense Tracking

You track expenses and mileage, categorize them and bill them to your customers when necessary with Zoho Books’ Expense management feature. From creation of repeating profiles for recurring expenses to credit notes for a transactions, Zoho Books suits your needs. You can perform 5 free receipt scans, after that you will have to move to paid add ons, which allows 50 auto scans per month.

QuickBooks automatically imports and categorizes transaction and expense information, also reviews them to get accurate financial information. Unlike Zoho Books, QuickBooks includes receipt capture for free on all plans.  

4. Inventory management

Zoho Books helps you with product details, customize rates and keep eye on your stock. Zoho’s inhouse app “Zoho inventory” helps you get more strong inventory management which can be easily integrated with the system. It offers free service, with paid plans ranging from $59 per month.

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QuickBooks provides inventory management for plus and Advanced plans. You can keep a track of goods and products, create orders and vendor management. The software automatically alerts you when the inventory is low and automatically converts purchase orders into bills.

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5. Payment processing and payroll integration

Customers can make a direct payment to you using debit/credit cards or bank accounts in case of Zoho Books. Zoho Books also has connections to various payment gateways like Stripe, Authorize.Net, GoCardless, PayPal Payflow Pro, PayPal Payments Pro, CSG Forte, WorldPay and Square. Clients can access to client portal and manage their transactions, which is exclusively offered only by Zoho Books. You will have to purchase added payroll add-on with single pricing plan that costs $20 a month plus $3 for every employee you pay billed monthly. It is available currently only in 12 states: California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Washington.

QuickBooks also allows payment from debit/credit cards and bank, echecks, Apple Pay, PayPal or Venmo. Gopayment app by QuickBooks and card reader can also be used to receive in person card payments with integrations of payment gateways such as PayPal, Square and Stripe. Like Zoho, You will have to purchase payroll as an add-on which start from $45 a month plus $6 for every employee you pay and go up from there. It is available in all 50 states.  

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Which is the best?

Zoho Books is unquestionably the more cost-effective alternative for startups and small companies. In addition to providing a No-cost, everlasting plan tailored for enterprises with an annual revenue below $50,000, the software also offers several paid pricing tiers that are priced more affordably than their QuickBooks equivalents.

In order for Zoho Books to function identically to QuickBooks, integrations with additional Zoho products and external software are required. Zoho Books is not as extensively utilised as the industry standard, QuickBooks online. Zoho Books may be unfamiliar to your accountant or bookkeeper, which could result in complications.

QuickBooks is comparatively costlier than Zoho Books; however, the structure of QuickBooks's pricing plans eliminates the necessity to configure integrations or acquire receipt capture add-ons in order to access specific features, which is the case with Zoho Books. If your organisation is larger, generates more revenue, and has more intricate accounting requirements, then QuickBooks may be a worthwhile investment.  

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