Zoho Books Overview and Magento 2 Integration
In the following article, we continue our exploration of the best accounting software that can be connected to Magento 2. Below, you will find an overview of – a platform aimed at growing businesses. Even the smallest e-commerce enterprises can benefit from using this accounting software after the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration is complete. But before syncing the two systems, we’d like to draw your attention to several crucial aspects of Zoho Books.
Table of contents
Zoho Books Brief Overview
Since you can find a lot of other articles reviewing Zoho Books, we won’t waste your time by diving too deep under the hood of this accounting platform. Since our primary purpose is to describe the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration, we will only explore the critical points of the accounting system. Like other similar solutions, Zoho Books enhances accounting for small business in the following way:
Automated Workflow
By introducing powerful automation for most routine processes related to accounting, Zoho Books reduces data entry. Besides, there are automated reminders that inform you when you should collect invoice payments and pay bills. At the same time, the system lets you create recurring invoices as well as charge recurring transactions automatically.
Advanced Tax Compliance
Of course, Zoho Books is tax compliant. Furthermore, you can customize the system according to your local regulations. As a result, your business stays tax ready while you get additional time for growing your business. Thus, the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration enables you to do the following tasks:
- Compute tax liability,
- Generate tax reports,
- Avoid headaches.
Flexible Interaction
Another vital element of Zoho Books is flexible interaction within the system. You can connect the whole team to the platform, assigning employees to individual roles. As a result, you and your workers can collaborate and work together more efficiently across all departments.
Smart Docs
Zoho Books introduces intelligent documentation for receivables, which enables your customers to find out your bids with clear-cut estimates. Besides, the system lets you convert accepted estimates into invoices. The process is entirely automated and requires minimum intervention. And, as mentioned above, you get the ability to leverage reminders. The Magento 2 Zoho Books no only simplifies chasing payments but also lets you streamline online payments getting paid quickly. For further information, follow this link: .
Online Payments
The aforementioned online payments should be explored separately. The system makes them seamless due to multiple integrations with third-party payment gateways. Everything is safe and fast: you receive payments in minutes while your customers benefit from a safe and familiar payment environment. Besides, the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration lets you leverage recurring transactions, send invoices, and get paid in a fully automated manner. To know more about online payments, follow this link: .
Expense Tracking
Tracking expenses is another vital aspect of every reliable accounting system. And the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration enables the same functionality for your e-commerce business. The platform allows you to categorize expenses so that you can leverage much-simplified expense tracking. You record bills for expenses and keep track of them. Another important aspect is the ability to scan receipts let Zoho Books extract all the necessary data for you. For further information, follow this link: .
Fast Reconciliation
Your banking history is always stored in the most convenient form with the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration. The entire cash flow from the banking dashboard is displayed within the system. At the same time, you can configure automatic feeds into your accounts. The system allows you to reconcile them in minutes being tax ready all the time. There is also an opportunity to set up rules to categorize transactions automatically. Also, note that multiple currencies are supported. You can find more information here: .
Support For Multiple Projects
Since Zoho Books lets you assign tasks to your employees individually, you can easily manage multiple projects within the system. Furthermore, there is the ‘timesheet only’ access which lets employees log time spent on projects. And, of course, it is possible to use timesheets to invoice customers reducing expenditures. Other related features are described here: .
Inventory Control
At the same time, the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration leads to advanced inventory management. Control your stocks by adding items and tracking inventory for your entire range of products. Furthermore, the system enables you to set custom prices for individual clients. Besides, it is possible to set reorder points to ensure that your stock is always full. To learn more on inventory tracking, follow this link: .
Advanced Insights
To provide you with superior insight, Zoho Books offers an opportunity to associate reporting tags with transactions. As a result filtered business overview reports can be generated. Different financial reports enable you to make informed business decisions.
Zoho Books Features
Below, you will find a full list of Zoho Books features:
- Invoicing. The system lets you customize invoices, automate all related processes, and streamline online payments;
- Estimates. You can also leverage quotes converting them to invoices in a click with the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration;
- Client Portal. With this feature, your customer can monitor their transactions in a single place;
- Expenses. Advanced expense management system lets you upload your receipts and track how the company’s money is spent;
- Bills. Generating bills in a user-friendly manner lets you track payments you owe to vendors;
- Banking. Monitor bank transactions and reconcile your accounts with Magento 2 Zoho Books integration;
- Projects. Manage multiple projects and keep track of every billable minute individually;
- Inventory. Control inventory levels, leverage automated re-orders, and identify fast-moving items to keep your stock full;
- Sales Orders. Leverage sales orders to improve your interactions with customers: confirm each sale before shipping any goods;
- Purchase Orders. Reach a new level of clarity in your communication with vendors;
- Tax. Always be tax liable and compatible with your local legislation;
- Online Payments. The Magento 2 Quick Books integration lets you leverage simple, swift, and secure online payments;
- Reports. Use real-time data to make informed decisions and optimize your workflow;
- Automation. Automate multiple accounting tasks to reduce your daily duties and save tons of time;
- Documents. Manage documents within the system by storing them in one place with the ability to attach to transactions;
- Mobile. Zoho Books support mobile devices by providing apps for iOS, Android, and Windows. Now, you can manage your accounting anytime, anywhere.
Zoho Books Pricing
Before integrating your Magento 2 website with Zoho Books, you need to choose one of the following pricing plans.
The BASIC plan costs $9 per month. It includes up to 50 contacts, 2 users and 5 automated workflows. At the same time, you can leverage bank reconciliation, custom invoices, expense tracking, timesheets, recurring transactions, and sales approval.
The STANDARD plan is a little bit more expensive – $19 per month. It includes up to 500 contacts, 3 users, and 10 automated workflows. In addition to the Basic plan features, you can also leverage bills, vendor credits, reporting tags, purchase approval, and Twilio integration.
As for the PROFESSIONAL plan, it costa $29 per month and offers unlimited contacts, 10 users, and 10 automated workflows. The aforementioned list of features is enhanced by purchase orders, sales orders, inventory management, and custom domain.
If you want to add a new user, it costs $2 per month. As for auto-scans, they cost $5 per month for 50 scans.
Magento 2 Zoho Books Integration
You can connect your Magento 2 website to Zoho Books in a matter of minutes and without a single line of code. It is only necessary to install the Improved Import & Export Magento 2 extension on your digital storefront. The module allows connecting Magento 2.X and Zoho Books in all possible directions.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to integrate the two platforms using the default Magento 2 import and export tools. Therefore, we recommend you to install Improved Import & Export Magento 2 which dramatically simplifies all possible integrations between your e-commerce store and any external systems. It automates data transfers between Magento 2 and Zoho Books creating a bridge between the two platforms on the basis of numerous API connections.
Features
With the Improved Import & Export extension, you can leverage the following features in the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration:
- Automated invoices and revenue tracking;
- Data synchronization for:
- Payment methods;
- Tax methods;
- Magento entities (all product types, orders, customers, and invoices);
- Zoho Books entities;
- Synchronization history;
- Attributes mapping to improve the accuracy of Magento 2 data in Zoho Books;
- Automate data transfers via schedules or triggers.
- Support for multiple stores;
- Support for various currencies.
Product Data
When you add a new product or update an existing one, the Improved Import & Export Magento 2 extension transfers all the corresponding data to Zoho Books. Thus, the accounting platform is always updated.
Order Data and Invoices
When a customer places an order on your Magento 2 website, and it is paid successfully, an invoice is created in Zoho Books. Associated products and payments can be created as well.
Customer Data
When a new customer registers on your Magento 2 website, Improved Import & Export sends the corresponding data to Zoho Books. When a registered customer applies changes to his/her existing account, the module transfers the data to the accounting platform.
Income Tracking
Income tracking is another opportunity related to the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration based on Improved Import & Export. Our extension can quickly transfer income data from your e-commerce website to Zoho Books and back.
Payment Methods Mapping
Another opportunity related to the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration is related to payment methods mapping. To enable free data transfers between the platforms, you can map them within a few clicks.
Tax Rates Mapping
The same is about tax rates: the Improved Import & Export module provides the ability to map tax rates used in Magento 2 orders to Zoho Books ensuring that tax calculations are correct.
Other Features
Besides, the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration based on the Improved Import & Export extension provides the following features:
- Flexible synchronization. You can choose what entities to move between the platforms: products, orders, customers, invoices, credit memos, etc;
- Use schedules or events to enable automated data transfers;
- Synchronize the two systems by mapping Magento 2 attributes to ones used in Zoho Books.
Get Improved Import & Export Magento 2 Extension
Zoho Books API
Now, let’s say a few words about the Zoho Books API – the most convenient way to establish the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration. The API system of the accounting platform allows performing all the operations that you do with the web client, opening endless possibilities for the integration.
Zoho Books API is built on the basis of REST principles. It means you have to deal with predictable URLs that make writing applications easy. By following HTTP rules, the API standard enables a wide range of HTTP clients. In their turn, these clients can be used to interact with the platform’s API.
Also, note that every resource is exposed as a URL which can be obtained by accessing the API Root Endpoint. Doesn’t make any sense? It’s not a problem since we’ve already explored the Zoho Books API and configured the Improved Import & Export Magento 2 extension to do all the work for you.
In the case of the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration, our module relies on REST APIs and can use other standards if necessary. You don’t need to write any line of code to establish the bridge between the two systems.
Improved Import & Export Magento 2 Extension Features
Now, when you are familiar with the main Zoho Books features and know vital aspects of the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration, we’d like to draw your attention to the Improved Import & Export features that simplify the data synchronization between the two platforms. Since our module completely revamps the default import and export functionality of Magento 2, you get an absolutely new way of data transfers which helps you avoid many issues associated with the built-in tools.
The default instruments don’t let you do the following things:
- Establish API connections;
- Automate data transfers;
- Map attributes;
- Import/export all entities.
As a result, it is necessary to repeat numerous processes every time a data transfer between the two systems is required. Usually, you have to recreate changes from Magento 2 in Zoho Books manually. Since the integration requires multiple updates per day, you have to waste lots of time. But we offer a more reliable solution with Improved Import & Export.
Our extension lets you effortlessly transfer all information from Magento 2 to Zoho Books and back. All processes are automated so that you can relax while the plugin transfers data, matches different external attributes and their values from one system to another, leverages multiple API connections in the integration and works with all entities. Thus, the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration becomes a breeze.
Automated Import & Export
The Zoho Books Magento 2 integration is a continuous process that requires advanced automation. And Improved Import & Export provides the ability to avoid daily duties related to data transfers via schedules and event-based triggers which entirely automate them.
Schedules
Schedules are the most intuitive and straightforward way of automation in different data transfers including the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration. The flow of information between the two systems can be established via cron. You specify a time interval and the extension imports/exports updates according to it. Our module lets you create fully independent import and export jobs with several different options:
- custom intervals,
- customizable, predefined update schemes,
- profiles with no schedules (which are suitable for maintaining such tasks as migration to Magento 2),
- and asynchronous data transfers (launch every scheduled profile manually whenever you want).
Events
Event-based triggers are another huge improvement provided by the Improved Import & Export extension. They represent a more flexible approach to the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration since data is exchanged in real time. Use the following algorithm to automate data transfers between the two systems:
- Create a trigger;
- Connect it to an event;
- Link an action to a trigger to launch it automatically.
Thus, transferring data to Zoho Books with the help of a trigger dramatically simplifies the integration. When something happens in Magento 2, the plugin transfers the corresponding data to the accounting platform.
For instance, a customer creates an account on your website; the extension automatically transfers the corresponding data to Zoho Books. The Magento 2 Zoho Books Integration Add-On for Improved Import & Export will help you forget about creating similar schemes manually! Follow the link below for more information regarding triggers: How to Run Magento 2 Import or Export After Specific System Event or Process.
Advanced Mapping Features
Map Zoho Books attributes to ones used in Magento 2 to enable automated data transfers between the two systems. The Improved Import & Export Magento 2 extension radically simplifies the Zoho Books Magento 2 integration in terms of attributes and their values with the help of the following features:
Mapping Presets
Use our module to solve the problem of different attribute standards without headaches and enable the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration in the most intuitive way with mapping presets – predefined mapping schemes that eliminate manual attributes matching.
Our extension performs all the necessary stages automatically. It analyzes the input data file transferred from Zoho Books, discovers third-party attributes, and matches them to the ones used in Magento. The same algorithm is applied to export processes. Magento 2 Zoho Books Integration Add-One for Improved Import & Export knows what attributes are required by the accounting system and modifies ones utilized in Magento according to the rules of the external platform. You only need to select a matching scheme suitable for your migration. The process is displayed below:
Matching Interface
Importing/exporting data between Zoho Books and Magento 2 can also be based on manual attributes mapping right in the Magento admin! The Improved Import & Export module provides a unique matching interface which offers full control over the process: you specify external (internal) attributes and link them to the corresponding internal (external) ones in a particular grid enabling the data transfer. Here is how everything works:
Attribute Values Mapping
The Improved Import & Export Magento 2 extension offers a separate interface for attribute values mapping that provides the ability to simplify the Magento 2 Zoho Books synchronization and automate it entirely. With our plugin, third-party designations will no longer interrupt transfers since you can choose an external value from Zoho Books and specify the internal one from Magento 2 as a replacement. Repeat the procedure until all third-party designations are mapped to ones utilized in Magento 2. Note that the created schemes are saved and applied for further updates. For more details, read this article: Attribute Values Mapping.
Attribute Values Editing
If attribute values mapping is not enough, streamline attribute values editing while transferring data from Zoho Books or other systems to Magento 2. It is another feature that makes the integration more merchant-friendly. To modify attribute values in bulk, use the following rules:
- Add a prefix to multiple attribute values;
- Add a suffix to numerous attribute values;
- Split various attribute values;
- Merge numerous attribute values.
Note that you can combine them and create conditions increasing the efficiency of the applied changes. Don’t miss the flexibility of our module! You can find more information here: How to Modify Attribute Values During Import and Export in Magento 2.
Category Mapping
Category mapping is a feature developed for product data transfers from any systems to Magento 2. It lets merchants match external categories to ones used internally reducing the number of difficulties that usually occur when products are transferred from other platforms to Magento 2. The Improved Import & Export module allows mapping external product categories to ones used in your catalog as follows:
To create new categories right in the import job, choose a parent category and specify a new one that will be generated automatically. Thus, the extension will link products to it during the import process. If your Magento 2 website doesn’t include a category from an imported file, it’s no longer a problem. You can find more information about this feature here: Category Mapping.
Attributes On The Fly
And if a data file provided from an external system lacks attributes, the Improved Import & Export Magento 2 extension lets you create them on the fly via the following general form:
Attribute|attribute_property_name:attribute_property_value|…
The feature is described here in more detail: Product attributes import.
Extended Connectivity Options
The fundamental aspect of the Improved Import & Export Magento 2 extension that enables the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration, as well as multiple other connections, is support for additional connectivity options. Designed to improve all data transfers and make the seamless Magento 2 Zoho Books integration possible, they include multiple file formats and two alternative ways of transferring data between your e-commerce store and external systems. As for Zoho Books, the REST API standard is utilized as mentioned above.
Multiple File Standards
The Magento 2 Zoho Books integration cannot be based on data files, but you can leverage them in other integration. The Improved Import & Export extension supports CSV, XML, JSON, ODS, and Excel as well as unpacks file archives automatically while the default tools work with uncompressed CSV files only!
Multiple File Sources
The following file sources can be leveraged to import and export data files between Magento 2 and external systems:
- FTP/SFTP. Transfer data files using a local or remote server.
- Dropbox. Use a Dropbox account to establish a connection between the two systems. Alternatively, you can rely on Box, OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud, and Amazon Drive.
- URL. A direct URL can be used to import a data file as well.
Alternative Ways of Import & Export
As for the alternative ways of import and export, they are not represented in Magento 2 by default. However, direct API connections enable the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration. As we’ve just mentioned, the Improved Import & Export extension provides the ability to leverage REST for the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration as well as other APIs if necessary. In addition to the standard mentioned above, our extension supports SOAP and GraphQL.
Note that all API connections are fully compatible with the extension’s features. As a result, you can leverage mapping, schedules, and attributes on the fly while transferring data from Magento 2 to Zoho Books via REST API.
As for the intermediary services, the extension allows using Google Sheets, Office 365 Excel, and Zoho Sheet. You can even use Zoho Sheets as an additional data source for the Zoho Books Magento 2 integration.
The following image shows how to use Google Sheets to move data to Magento 2:
The video below displays other details of our module:
Final Words
Zoho Books is reliable accounting software designed for small and midsize businesses. Its flexibility enables fast-growing companies to leverage the platform keeping tabs on all numbers. As for the Magento 2 Zoho Books integration, you can enable it without any headaches using the Improved Import & Export extension. For further information, follow the link below and contact our support:
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