Dubai, UAE — Zoho, a global technology company, today announced that its finance and operations suite has achieved 65% growth in recurring revenue last year in the UAE. The company also announced the addition of key product capabilities in its VAT-compliant accounting solution Zoho Books, inventory management solution Zoho Inventory, and practice management app for accountants Zoho Practice. The newly-launched capabilities aim to help businesses and accountants enhance operational efficiency, simplify routine financial tasks, ensure regulatory compliance, and streamline internal processes.

"Zoho's Finance and Operations suite's remarkable revenue growth in the UAE is a testament to the growing need for smart, integrated financial and operational tools that are both powerful and easy to use. Our latest updates to Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory, and Zoho Practice are a direct response to the evolving needs of businesses and accountants in the region," said Prem Anand Velumani, Associate Director, Strategic Growth, Zoho MEA.

"With our latest updates, we aim to simplify critical financial and operational processes including compliance for businesses and accounting firms, helping them operate more efficiently with less effort. Zoho is committed to offering advanced and innovative capabilities that will enable businesses to stay ahead in an ever-evolving market and regulatory landscape," said Prashant Ganti, Head of Product Management, Finance and Operations BU, Zoho.

Major Enhancements to Zoho's Finance and Operations Platform

Many businesses rely on manual processes for performing critical financial tasks, resulting in delays, errors, and inefficiencies that drive up costs and hinder growth. Today's updates to Zoho's finance and operations platform aim to streamline these processes for greater efficiency for businesses and accountants.

For businesses:

Zoho Books is an accounting solution that is FTA-approved, VAT-compliant, corporate-tax-ready, and IFRS compatible. It now includes advanced features like revenue recognition to help businesses automatically recognise revenue based on contractual obligations or when the service is delivered, and fixed asset management, which allows recording of asset details, automatic depreciation calculations, and generate forecast reports, simplifying the bookkeeping process. Progress-based invoicing allows businesses to periodically invoice customers based on completion of project milestones, improving the cash flow.

With the latest version of Zoho Books, businesses in the construction industry can create invoices to reflect the retention amount or the amount withheld based on contract terms until specific conditions are met. Once the retention amount is paid, the invoice and payments are automatically adjusted. If the conditions are not met, businesses can write-off the retained amount. The Profit Margin Scheme feature is also made available, allowing businesses to automatically calculate VAT on profit margins for the sale of second-hand goods, ensuring compliance with VAT requirements.

With the filing deadlines approaching for Corporate Tax, businesses can use Zoho Books to generate Corporate Tax Returns report to simplify their filing process.
Zoho Inventory has introduced advanced warehouse management capabilities such as enhanced location tracking and labelling, stock counting, stock out alerts, and role-based access to the warehouse operations. These updates offer better inventory control, ensure accurate stock levels, and provide faster order processing. Additionally, the solution now supports the moving average inventory valuation method, helping businesses calculate the total asset value for products that have fluctuating prices. Furthermore, the product’s mobile apps empower warehouse employees to perform their tasks on the go, improving productivity.

 For accountants:

Zoho Practice, a practice management application for accounting firms, has introduced  Workpapers to simplify audit and compliance workflows. It allows firms to fetch financial statements of the clients who use Zoho Books, enabling easy comparison, adjustments, document management, and collaboration for reviews and approvals.

The new self-service portal enables accountants to collaborate with clients that use third-party accounting software, facilitating document requests, digital signatures, and communication.

The latest version of Zoho Practice also enables accountants to easily create and manage ledgers for clients who don't have a full accounting system, maintaining a single source of truth. Furthermore, advanced capabilities like workflow automation, custom functions, and scheduling options help customise operational workflows.

Pricing and Availability

All the features announced today for Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory, and Zoho Practice are available for immediate use. For more details on pricing, please visit the following pages for each product: Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory, Zoho Practice.