Zoho moves into practice management

Business management solutions provider Zoho released Zoho Practice, an end-to-end practice management tool aimed specifically at accounting professionals.

Zoho Practice includes client management, document management, task management, timesheet and billing capabilities. It comes pre-integrated with accounting app Zoho Books and travel expense app Zoho Expense. The application sports AI-driven anomaly detection for client records, built-in chat, voice and video call capacities, and a unified platform to act as a single source for all client services.

The software was developed to meet the needs of a profession that is increasingly moving away from compliance-based services and more into advisory. Clients today, according to the company, expect organization-level insights like how to curb spending or identify additional revenue sources, which often required a more holistic view of the business than one might get from a solely compliance-based relationship.

Zoho Practice is free for accounting firms with up to three users. Additional users can be added by purchasing the add-on, which costs up to $2.50 monthly per user.

The company also announced new additions to its finance suite, including the release of its Zoho Billing solution, designed for growing businesses to experiment with pricing. Further, Zoho announced the release of an enterprise-grade Developer Portal. It allows third-party developers to build solutions that customize specific functions of their finance applications, automate routine processes and publish the extensions in Zoho Marketplace. Businesses can use the portal to build their own extensions for use within their organizations.

Raju Vegesna, chief evangelist at Zoho, said the new solutions and expanded capacities reflect the continued growth of the company's scope.

"Over the last 15 years, our finance platform has grown from a single app to a unified suite, then a comprehensive platform," said Vegesna. "Our continued investments in building a powerful ecosystem have enabled businesses of all sizes to access the best enterprise-grade tech available. The expanded Zoho Finance Platform ecosystem offers full customization, ensuring the software continues to meet their business needs with unparalleled efficiency, even as they evolve. Moreover, accountants, being one of the vital part of our ecosystem, have been going beyond their traditional role by supporting their clients in their path to success. Zoho Practice will serve as an all-in-one solution, helping them manage their firm and their clients, spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time delivering value-added services."