Zoho Books
Bookkeeping, invoicing and VAT configured so the month closes on a checklist rather than on somebody’s memory.
Get your books straight ↗
Built on Zoho’s own platform, not a workaroundWhat does setting up Zoho Books properly look like?
Zoho Books is straightforward to sign up for and easy to configure badly. The setup that matters is unglamorous: a chart of accounts that matches how you want to read the numbers, correct opening balances as at a real date, bank feeds with reconciliation rules that catch the recurring lines, and tax settings that produce a VAT return you can file without adjusting it by hand.
We treat your accountant as a stakeholder, not an afterthought. Before we configure anything, we ask how they want the trial balance to look and what they normally have to fix at year end — then build so those fixes stop being necessary. If they prefer a different chart of accounts to the one you’ve been using, that conversation happens in week one, not in March.
What the Books setup covers
Chart of accounts
Built with your accountant so the P&L and balance sheet read the way you both want, with tracking categories for the splits you care about.
Opening balances
Trial balance, open invoices, open bills and unreconciled bank lines brought in as at an agreed cut-off date, then tied back to your last set of accounts.
Bank feeds and rules
Live feeds connected, with categorisation rules for the recurring transactions that make up most of the volume. The exceptions are what you review each week.
Invoicing and payments
Branded templates, recurring invoices, payment links and automated reminders — so chasing is a scheduled job rather than an awkward email you keep postponing.
VAT and tax
Rates, reverse charge, place-of-supply rules and return periods configured and tested against a live return before you rely on it.
Month-end pack
A documented close checklist and a standard set of reports your accountant receives on the same day each month, in the same format.
How the Books setup runs
Talk to the accountant
We start with whoever signs off your accounts: how they want the chart structured, and what they currently spend year-end fixing.
Set the cut-off
One date for opening balances, agreed with everyone. Migrating a half-finished period is where most Books setups go wrong.
Load and reconcile
Balances, customers, suppliers and open items in, then reconciled against your last accounts line by line before anyone issues an invoice.
Automate the routine
Bank rules, recurring invoices and reminders switched on, so the daily bookkeeping load drops before we start talking about reporting.
Close one month with you
We run the first close alongside your bookkeeper, file the first VAT return together, and correct anything the checklist didn’t catch.
Zoho Books FAQ
A single-entity setup with clean opening balances is typically $3k to $8k. Multi-currency, multiple entities or migrating a part-finished year pushes it towards $15k, mostly because reconciliation takes longer than configuration.
The tools we build with
Configure for the person doing the daily entry and the accountant reviewing it — anything that only makes sense to a consultant will quietly stop being used.
Accounting
Zoho BooksZoho OneZoho AnalyticsMoney in
StripeZoho InventoryZoho CRMAutomation
Zoho FlowDeluge
ZapierData & compliance
Python
PostgreSQLGDPRRelated work
Related reading
Still closing the month in a spreadsheet?
Tell us what you’re on now and when your year end falls. We’ll propose a cut-off date and a fixed price to get Books live before it.