2017 Review of Zoho Expense

Zoho Expense is an online expense management software product that is best suited for small to mid-sized businesses. Zoho Expense offers two editions; the Free Plan and the Standard Plan, making it easy for smaller businesses to scale up to a more robust version if necessary.

Zoho users can manage all of the receipts and expenses from the easily navigated dashboard. Users can snap a photo of a receipt, and Zoho will automatically populate important fields. Users can also bulk add expenses if necessary. Receipts can also be forwarded to Zoho directly from a user’s inbox, with the new Email Receipts function automatically scanning the receipt, and then populating fields on an expense report. All receipts can be attached to an expense report, and users can add notes or add additional fields for each expense.

Zoho currently has three levels of user roles; Submitter, Approver, and Admin, ensuring that each user only has access to the features and functionality of their particular role, and also offers multi-currency capability, with the product automatically converting any foreign currency expenses entered on the expense report.

Users can enter mileage expenses by creating a mileage expense in the expenses section of Zoho. The system does not offer automatic mileage tracking, so users will have to calculate the number of miles traveled and enter it into the product in order to create the expense. There is no option for time tracking or timesheet management.

In order to manage credit cards, administrators will need to assign a card to an employee. Once a card has been assigned, users can download up to 90 days of transaction history. Cards can be connected to a variety of popular credit cards including American Express, Wells Fargo, Discover Card, Chase Credit Card, Bank of America Credit Card, Capital One, and Citibank. If a card is not listed, users can connect to the card manually in order to download transactions.

Both Approvers and Admins can approve expenses, with approvers limited to approving, rejecting, or forwarding reports. Admins can perform all those duties, as well as authorize reimbursements and archiving of expense reports.   Both approvers and admins can approve a single expense report, or approve expenses in bulk, if desired. Approvers can also edit reports as needed. Individual expenses can be rejected, enabling the majority of the expense report reimbursement to move forward, with users responsible for resubmitting any rejected expenses. Per Diem rates can also be set in Zoho, with users able to set allowances for different expenses.

The Analytics feature in Zoho provides users with a good look at expenses. The analytics are divided into four categories; Expense, Reports, Tax Reports, and Reimbursements. Activity reports can also be run if desired. All analytic reports can be easily customized if desired, with users able to export al reports to Microsoft Excel or a CSV file. Reports can also be saved as a PDF.

Zoho Expense is part of the Zoho suite of business apps that include Zoho Books (Accounting), Zoho Invoice, and Zoho People. The product also integrates with QuickBooks, G Suite, Microsoft Office 365 and Slack. There are also numerous API partner apps that integrate with Zoho as well. Mobile apps are easily downloaded from Google Play or the App Store, and integration with various document management apps including Dropbox, Box, Evernote, OneDrive, and Google Drive, as well as Zoho Docs is available as well.

Zoho offers a variety of help and support options on the Zoho website, including a Welcome Guide, a comprehensive User Guide, and FAQ’s. Users have access to the product blog as well as a variety of user forums. Zoho also offers a weekly product webinar which users can sign up for directly from the website. Support is available Monday through Friday around the clock, with users able to access support via email as well.

Zoho Expense, part of Zoho’s comprehensive family of apps is best suited for small to mid-sized businesses. Zoho Expense is available in two versions; Free, which includes three users and offers 100 auto scans and 5 GB of storage. The Standard Plan is $15.00 per organization per month, and includes up to ten users, with each additional user $2.00. The Standard Plan offers unlimited auto scan and unlimited receipt storage.   Users can download a free demo to try out prior to purchasing.

2017 Rating – 4.5 Stars