Zoho Corporation, the Chennai-headquartered global technology company, has shared the results of the survey that it conducted to understand how accountants and financial advisors benefit from using cloud accounting software instead of legacy-based applications. While 88% of the accountants said they were able to save up to 10 hours a week, more than 85% reported being able to provide more advisory services because of the time saved on performing crucial accounting tasks. The survey results were announced on the sidelines of the World Congress of Accountants (WCOA), an event organised every four years exclusively for accountancy professionals. The event is being hosted in the country for the first time, in Mumbai.
Besides accountancy professionals, the company surveyed the customers of Zoho Books separately to also understand the benefits accrued by businesses using online accounting software. Not surprisingly, 75% of the businesses were able to collect payments on time, follow up with customers automatically, and improve cash flow with Zoho Books. Zoho Books is the company’s GST-compliant cloud accounting software. With 13 country-specific tax editions, and a global version, Zoho Books has seen 81% annual growth in India in 2021, and is among the top five solutions leading the company’s growth in the country.
“It is vital for businesses and accountants to have a comprehensive solution that will automate many of their key accounting functions, streamline finance processes, and improve efficiency,” said Sivaramakrishnan Iswaran, Global Head – Zoho Finance and Operations Suite. “Zoho Books was built for this exact purpose, enabling businesses and accounting firms to reach their full growth potential. We are seeing excellent mass market adoption of Zoho Books in India and across the globe. Our rapid growth attests to the fact that we are continuing to deliver on our commitment to provide innovative solutions, and high customer value. The increased adoption of our product has helped the accounting platform to mature rapidly with advanced capabilities.”
Survey results showing benefits for Chartered Accountants
Zoho surveyed 150 Chartered Accountants (CA) in November 2022 who had registered for the WCOA. The survey results revealed the following benefits for CAs:
- Enhanced efficiency: 88% of the respondents said that cloud accounting solutions help them save up to 10 hours per week compared to traditional methods of accounting.
- Compliance readiness: 89% of the respondents said cloud accounting solutions solve the challenges in complying with regional tax and regulatory laws for businesses and their own firms.
- Increase in value-added services: More than 85% of the respondents stated that cloud accounting solutions help them in performing essential accounting tasks, which gives them additional time to offer advisory services to their clients.
- Improved collaboration: 85% of the CAs surveyed believe that cloud accounting solutions improved collaboration and help them work with clients and finance teams in real time.
Survey results showing benefits to business owners
Zoho also surveyed 350 businesses in India that used Zoho Books. The survey revealed the following benefits:
- Increase in cash flow: 75% of the businesses were able to collect payments on time, follow up with customers automatically, and improve cash flow with Zoho Books.
- Real-time visibility: 85% of the businesses were able to improve their performance owing to the real-time visibility and business insights offered by Zoho Books.
- Enhanced business performance: 70% of the businesses were able to see a growth of up to 40% in revenue yoy after using Zoho Books.
- Automation and saving time: 85% of the businesses found that they were able to save up to 10 hours per week, while the remaining 15% were able to save more than 10 hours with Zoho Books compared to a traditional alternative like a legacy-based system.
Growth of Zoho Finance Platform
Zoho also revealed that the Zoho Finance Platform has achieved 50% year-over-year (yoy) global growth, supporting more than half a million businesses across 160+ countries. The growth is led by Zoho Books, which supports 180 currencies and 17 languages, including Hindi.
The Platform also includes solutions for inventory management, travel and expense management, billing and subscription management, and payroll management built on the same underlying platform, enabling instant interoperability, seamless data flow, and unification across systems. Typically, businesses start using one of the finance products, and then expand their usage to other applications within the suite. On average, customers using Zoho Books for more than one year adopt at least two other applications within the finance suite.
Zoho Books is exhibiting at booth number 24 at WCOA.
