Tipalti vs. Zoho Books

The invoice processing element is far, far easier than manually inputting invoices are we were doing previously. The OCR is not perfect, but having it scanned in and ready for review saves a lot of time. The approvals process is fast and effective, and approvers can approve directly from the email without having even to log into the system. The audit trail function allows the finance team to see exactly who has done what to each invoice, and when. Payments, however, are where we see the most benefit. Vendor bank details are stored securely and controls can be put in place to ensure that any changes to vendor data must be approved. Once fully approved, invoices can be scheduled for payment either on a particular date or on the invoice due date, which ensures vendors are paid on a 'Just In Time' basis. All invoices and payments sync seamlessly to our ERP each day.

Zoho Books is good for a company or organization that wants to keep track of invoices, payments, and cash flow. If you do not have a full-time accountant in your organization, it can work well as whenever you hire one or have someone check your books, the information they need will be there, provided it has been entered into Zoho Books. It works as a one-man operation or a small team. For larger teams, it would depend on how much information needs to be input on a daily basis.

Incentivized

• Support is phenomenal! Incredibly responsive, always have the answers, super knowledgeable and will assist in bringing resolution to various concerns, as well, providing not just support, but education as well!
• System is almost always working efficiently, very few incidents that slow me down.
• System is incredibly user friendly. I was able to learn it pretty quickly.

• The projects feature is what we use a lot it helps setting up projects as well as tracking expenses and bills for the whole project. The budgeting feature is very developed, allowing you to budget by total project cost, total project hours, hours per task, or hours per staff.
• Customer Estimates and Invoices are very easy to setup and send directly from the app (it also has a very nice and customizable reminder option).
• Stock and pricing listings is very intuitive and easy and makes it a very helpful and time saving feature.
• Bank reconciliation and Financial reporting are very developed and make it easy to share information with bookeepers and accounting specialists.

Incentivized

• In the PO matching queue, there is some clunkiness surrounding updating PO lines. For example, if you need to delete PO lines picked up from the invoice, you currently have to delete each line individually, instead of being able to select multiple and delete.
• Sometimes PO numbers do not properly pick up from the OCR system. For example, the OCR might pick up "PO 18535" instead of "18535". This causes the AP team to have to manually link the PO, creating an extra step.
• For PO-backed Invoices that require you to manually type in the PO amount, there is no option to save your inputs. If there are any changes to the match details (i.e. linking another PO, or unlinking a PO) all inputs are reset to blank.
• If there are non PO line items for an invoice that is in the PO matching queue, there is no option to select a separate department code for that line item.

Incentivized

• Printing checks - they only offer one vendor and they are expensive compared to QuickBook alternatives.
• Their interface for bids - retainers and applying them against income could be improved, but once you know how it's easy.
• Their recurring fees don't seem to always work the way I'd want. But overall they work.

Incentivized

Solid system performance. Suits our needs and solution provider very inclined to accept feedback and involve users in developing the solution to serve both the provider and the ultimate user. Tipalti has streamlined our process that was previously very manual and prone to error. Now there is transparency of information and role.

Incentivized

The system is incredibly easy to use, with most tasks being completed in a small number of clicks. The user interface is very user intuitive and can be navigated very easily. Multiple payments can be made instantaneously and as the vendors manage their payable account we are able to ensure that payments are being sent to the right account. The advanced functionality for duplicate invoices ensures that we are not processing bills twice and we have found that in 100% of cases it has identified a duplicate bill.

Incentivized

Customization is the biggest struggle for us and most of the time we need to involve a tech person. The chat support is a great feature and very helpful. It would be great to be able to customize and create invoices and correspondence (templates) such are reminders in multiple languages within one organization. The currency (USD) would be the same. We have clients in different countries that don't speak English but pay in USD.

Incentivized

Tipalti has always been responsive to our questions and concerns.

No issues here. Generally has been pretty fast.

Since I also work in customer support, I often have to contact Tipalti's team with questions from our users. Tipalti's support team has always been exceptionally helpful and it was a pleasure to communicate with them. I have always received prompt responses to any inquiries and they are excellent at solving our customers' issues within a short time

Incentivized

The support team feels very disjointed. We have filtered through a number of "lead" contacts and are frequently spammed by other Zoho members. Once getting an appropriate support contact on the phone - the team is very helpful, it just takes a lot of hoop jumping to get there. We actually unsubscribed from their support package as we were not getting the value we were looking for.

Incentivized

Tipalti provides great How to online guide

Implementation went smooth as we used and tested everything in the sandbox first

Both of these products have treated us well and have their pros and cons. We do a lot of acquisitions though and they are just not friendly the more and more you go. Tipalti has been very helpful with the more we grow. Its a key part in integrating finances

Incentivized

Cloud vs. desktop, this and the fact that Zoho Books syncs with our other Zoho apps were the most pressing reasons for switching to Zoho Books. As mentioned previously, we consider our accounting software to be an integral part of doing business efficiently, and we can now do that considering our systems are all integrated.

Incentivized

We were given the option of only one integration.

• in my Corporate Controller capacity, I have total visibility of all invoices within the organization
• total staff time spent on the AP process will decrease easily 75% or more
• I have a small staff. Even during PTO of my staff member, I can do necessary AP items, start to finish, in minutes, 100% remotely

Incentivized

• I was able to cut my costs for a more complete and easy to use tool.
• Many transactions, and accounting tasks on 1 platform, reduction in time by a lot.
• Clients can pay without leaving your website (less drop-off, better conversions).

Incentivized