Zoho Books

Zoho Books is a comprehensive cloud-based accounting software solution designed for small to medium-sized businesses, including tour and activity operators. The platform provides end-to-end financial management capabilities including invoicing, expense tracking, inventory management, project accounting, and automated bank reconciliation. Zoho Books operates entirely in the cloud, enabling tour operators to manage their finances from any device with internet access, which is particularly valuable for businesses with guides and staff working in the field. The software automates routine accounting tasks such as recurring invoices for season pass holders, payment reminders, late fee calculations, and bank feed reconciliations, saving tour operators significant administrative time. Zoho Books integrates seamlessly with other Zoho applications including Zoho CRM for customer management and Zoho Inventory for equipment tracking, creating a unified business management ecosystem. The platform supports multiple currencies, tax jurisdictions, and languages, making it suitable for tour operators serving international clients or operating in multiple locations. Zoho Books also offers client portals where customers can view invoices, make payments, and access their booking history.

Zoho Books offers a tiered pricing structure that scales with business size and feature needs, starting with a free plan for very small tour operations. The Free plan supports one user and one accountant, allowing up to 1,000 invoices per year, making it suitable for solo tour guides or very small seasonal operations. The Standard plan costs $20 per month when billed annually and includes three users, automated workflows, recurring invoices, and basic reporting, ideal for small established tour companies. The Professional plan is priced at $50 per month annually and adds advanced features like project tracking for individual tours, vendor credits, purchase approvals, and custom domain email for invoices, serving growing tour businesses with multiple staff members. The Premium plan costs $70 per month with annual billing and includes advanced automation, custom functions, workflow approvals, and vendor portal access, designed for larger tour operators with complex approval processes. The Elite plan at $150 per month offers advanced analytics, custom modules, and dedicated account management for enterprise tour operations. All paid plans include unlimited invoices and can add additional users for $3-5 per month each. Zoho Books also provides a 14-day free trial of all premium features.

Zoho Books is designed to serve small to medium-sized tour and activity businesses, particularly those with annual revenues between $50,000 and $5 million. The platform is especially well-suited for tour operators with 1-25 employees who need professional accounting capabilities without the complexity and expense of enterprise systems. Solo tour guides and small adventure companies can start with the free plan and upgrade as their business grows, while established tour operators with multiple guides, diverse tour offerings, and seasonal staff variations benefit from the Standard or Professional plans. Zoho Books handles the accounting requirements of tour businesses managing multiple concurrent tours, tracking seasonal revenue patterns, processing various payment methods, and working with international clients. The platform is particularly valuable for growing tour companies that have outgrown basic bookkeeping tools but don't require the extensive capabilities of enterprise resource planning systems. Tour operators who use other Zoho products like Zoho CRM or Zoho Desk gain additional value from the seamless integration across the Zoho ecosystem. However, very large tour operators with hundreds of employees, complex multi-entity corporate structures, or highly specialized accounting requirements may eventually need more comprehensive enterprise accounting solutions.

Zoho Books offers extensive integration capabilities both within the Zoho ecosystem and with hundreds of third-party applications through the Zoho Marketplace. For tour operators using other Zoho products, the integration is particularly seamless with applications like Zoho CRM for managing customer relationships and tracking tour sales pipelines, Zoho Inventory for managing tour equipment and retail merchandise, and Zoho Projects for complex multi-day tour planning and execution. Payment gateway integrations include Stripe, PayPal, Square, and Authorize.net, enabling tour operators to accept online payments and automatically reconcile them with invoices. Zoho Books connects with major e-commerce platforms, allowing tour operators who sell tickets online to sync revenue data automatically. The platform integrates with numerous banks worldwide through direct bank feeds, automating transaction imports and reconciliation. Time tracking tools help tour operators monitor guide hours and labor costs per tour, while expense management integrations streamline guide expense reimbursement workflows. Third-party booking and reservation systems can connect to Zoho Books through Zapier or custom API integrations, automatically creating invoices when customers book tours. The Zoho Books API enables developers to build custom integrations for specialized tour management software, ensuring data flows seamlessly between operational and financial systems.

Zoho Books provides multi-channel customer support designed to help tour operators quickly resolve accounting questions and technical challenges. All users, including those on the free plan, have access to email support with responses typically provided within 24 hours for standard inquiries. Paid plan subscribers receive priority email support with faster response times and can also access live chat support during business hours for immediate assistance with navigation, features, and troubleshooting. Phone support is available for Professional, Premium, and Elite plan subscribers, providing direct access to support specialists who can walk tour operators through complex accounting scenarios. Zoho maintains an extensive knowledge base with detailed articles, video tutorials, and step-by-step guides covering accounting fundamentals, industry-specific scenarios, and advanced features. The Zoho Books community forum allows users to ask questions, share best practices, and learn from other tour operators using the platform. Zoho regularly conducts webinars covering new features, accounting best practices, and industry-specific topics relevant to service businesses like tour operations. For Elite plan subscribers, Zoho provides dedicated account management with personalized onboarding, training, and ongoing strategic guidance. The platform also includes contextual in-app help and tooltips that guide users through various features and accounting tasks.

Zoho Books operates on a flexible subscription model that does not require long-term contracts or binding commitments. Tour operators can start with the completely free plan, which has no time limit or trial expiration, allowing indefinite use for businesses that stay within the plan's transaction limits. When upgrading to paid plans, users can choose between monthly or annual billing cycles, with annual billing providing a 15-20% discount compared to month-to-month pricing. There are no penalties for canceling a subscription, and tour operators can downgrade to a lower tier or cancel entirely at any time. Monthly subscribers are billed on a rolling monthly basis and can cancel before the next billing cycle without charges. Annual subscribers who cancel mid-term typically receive a pro-rated refund for unused months, though terms should be verified with Zoho. The ability to change plans or cancel without penalties is particularly valuable for seasonal tour operators who may want to adjust their subscription during off-peak periods, though most maintain year-round subscriptions to preserve historical financial data and accounting continuity. Zoho offers a 14-day free trial of all premium features, allowing tour operators to test advanced capabilities before committing to a paid plan. There are no setup fees, implementation charges, or hidden costs beyond the stated subscription prices.

Zoho Books includes robust multi-currency functionality starting with the Standard plan, making it well-suited for tour operators who serve international travelers or work with overseas suppliers and partners. The platform supports over 180 currencies, allowing tour operators to create invoices, record expenses, and track revenue in any supported currency. Zoho Books automatically applies current exchange rates when converting foreign currency transactions to the business's base currency for financial reporting, with exchange rates updated regularly from reliable financial data sources. Tour operators can also manually enter or override exchange rates for specific transactions to match actual bank conversion rates when needed. The system automatically tracks unrealized gains and losses on foreign currency accounts, providing accurate financial statements that comply with accounting standards. When international customers pay invoices in foreign currencies, Zoho Books reconciles these payments and accounts for any currency conversion differences between the invoice date and payment date. The platform maintains separate accounts receivable and payable balances for each currency, giving tour operators clear visibility into what is owed to them and what they owe to suppliers across all currencies. This multi-currency support is essential for tour companies accepting bookings from international travelers, paying foreign guides or suppliers, or operating tours in multiple countries.

Zoho Books provides flexible revenue tracking capabilities through its income categories, custom fields, and project features, enabling tour operators to analyze revenue across different tours, activities, and income sources. Tour operators can create custom income accounts in the chart of accounts to separately track revenue from different tour types, such as kayaking tours, wine tours, historical walks, or adventure packages. The platform's custom fields feature allows operators to tag each invoice with additional dimensions like tour location, guide name, or season, enabling detailed revenue analysis from multiple perspectives. The project tracking feature, available on Professional and higher plans, lets operators create individual projects for specific tours or tour packages, tracking all associated income to understand revenue generation at the tour level. This is particularly valuable for operators offering diverse activities who need to evaluate which tours are most popular and profitable. Zoho Books allows tour operators to create line items on invoices for different revenue components such as base tour fees, equipment rentals, transportation charges, meal packages, and add-on experiences, automatically categorizing each revenue type appropriately. The platform's reporting tools then aggregate and analyze revenue by category, project, custom field, or any combination of dimensions, providing insights into revenue composition, trends, and seasonality patterns specific to the tour industry.

Zoho Books includes comprehensive tax reporting and compliance capabilities designed to simplify tax obligations for tour operators in various jurisdictions worldwide. The platform automatically calculates and applies sales tax, VAT, GST, or other consumption taxes based on configurable tax rules specific to the operator's location and applicable regulations. Tour operators can set up multiple tax rates for different services, geographic jurisdictions, or customer categories, and Zoho Books applies the correct rate automatically based on invoice parameters. The software generates ready-to-file tax reports including sales tax returns, VAT returns, GST reports, and tax liability summaries that can be submitted to tax authorities. Zoho Books tracks tax collected on sales and tax paid on purchases, calculating net tax liability and ensuring accurate reporting and remittance. For tour operators in regions with electronic tax filing requirements, Zoho Books offers integration with tax authorities in several countries, enabling direct digital submission of tax returns. The platform supports tax compliance in multiple countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, India, and many others, each with region-specific tax features and reporting formats. Year-end tax reporting includes detailed profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and transaction reports that accountants need for preparing income tax returns and responding to tax audits.

Zoho Books offers comprehensive accounts receivable and accounts payable management tools that help tour operators maintain healthy cash flow and strong vendor relationships. For accounts receivable, tour operators can create professional branded invoices and send them directly to customers via email, with Zoho Books automatically tracking the status of each invoice as sent, viewed, partially paid, or fully paid. The platform sends automated payment reminders to customers with outstanding balances based on customizable schedules, reducing collection time and improving cash flow without manual follow-up. Tour operators can accept online payments directly through invoices via integrated payment gateways, and Zoho Books automatically reconciles these payments against open invoices. The aged receivables report shows which customers have overdue balances and for how long, helping tour operators prioritize collection efforts and identify potential bad debt. For accounts payable, Zoho Books allows operators to record supplier bills, attach supporting documents, schedule payments, and track what is owed to guides, equipment suppliers, and other vendors. The platform can automatically capture bill information from email attachments using AI-powered data extraction, reducing manual entry. Tour operators can batch process multiple payments together, schedule future payments to optimize cash flow, and maintain detailed payment history for each vendor. Cash flow forecasting combines receivables and payables data to project future cash positions.

Zoho Books provides robust project tracking capabilities through its Projects feature, available on the Professional plan and above, which allows tour operators to analyze profitability for individual tours, tour packages, or special events. Tour operators can create separate projects for each tour type, seasonal offering, or major event, then assign all related income and expenses to these projects for comprehensive profitability analysis. The platform tracks revenue from tour bookings, equipment rentals, merchandise sales, and add-on services while simultaneously recording expenses like guide payments, transportation costs, permits, insurance, supplies, and marketing costs specific to each project. Zoho Books automatically calculates gross profit, net profit, and profit margins for each project, showing tour operators which activities generate the best returns and which may need pricing adjustments or cost reductions. The project dashboard provides real-time visibility into budgeted versus actual costs, helping operators identify cost overruns early and take corrective action. Time tracking features allow tour operators to record guide and staff hours against specific projects, ensuring labor costs are accurately allocated and factored into profitability calculations. Tour operators can also use the platform's custom fields and tags to create additional dimensions for profitability analysis, such as by location, guide, or customer segment. These detailed profitability insights enable data-driven decisions about tour pricing, resource allocation, marketing focus, and which tours to expand or phase out.

Zoho Books delivers extensive financial reporting capabilities with real-time dashboards, standard financial statements, and customizable reports that provide tour operators with comprehensive visibility into business performance. The platform automatically generates essential financial statements including profit and loss statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, and statements of changes in equity, all updated in real-time as transactions are recorded. Tour operators can view these reports for any date range, compare performance across different periods, and analyze seasonal patterns that characterize the tour industry. The customizable dashboard presents key performance indicators like revenue trends, expense breakdowns, outstanding receivables, upcoming payables, and cash position in visual charts and graphs that make financial data accessible to non-accountants. Zoho Books offers over 50 pre-built reports covering every aspect of business finances, including sales reports by customer or service, expense analysis by category or vendor, accounts receivable aging, inventory valuation, tax reports, and budget versus actual comparisons. Reports can be filtered by date range, customer, project, or custom tags to provide precisely the insights needed for specific business questions. All reports support drill-down capabilities, allowing tour operators to click on summary figures to see the underlying transactions. Reports can be exported to Excel, PDF, or CSV formats for sharing with accountants, investors, or business partners.