Zoho Expense Demo & Getting Started: Simplify Expense Management in 2025

Summary

Zoho Expense is a comprehensive expense management solution, trusted by organizations worldwide. It simplifies expense tracking through customizable roles, automated receipt scanning, policy enforcement, and approval workflows. The platform integrates with accounting tools, facilitates mileage and fuel reimbursements, and provides detailed reporting and analytics. Admins can create and manage policies, budgets, and corporate cards, while employees benefit from a streamlined, automated process for submitting expenses and receiving reimbursements. Zoho Expense also integrates with travel booking systems and other Zoho applications to centralize financial management, offering businesses full control over spending and compliance.

Takeaways

• 😀 Zoho Expense is a customizable and automated expense management solution used by thousands of organizations in over 150 countries.
• 😀 Employees in Zoho Expense are assigned three default roles: submitters, approvers, and admins, each with different access levels and responsibilities.
• 😀 Admins can create custom roles with specific permissions and views to make the system more accessible and user-friendly.
• 😀 Strong expense policies are essential for better spend management, and admins can configure policies for spend limits, mileage rates, and per diem allowances.
• 😀 Compliance rules automatically enforce policies by warning or blocking users when they exceed set spending limits.
• 😀 Approvers play a key role in enforcing compliance, and admins can set up multi-level approval flows for better control.
• 😀 Zoho Expense offers an automated receipt scanning feature that reads receipts in over 14 languages and creates expense claims automatically.
• 😀 Employees can manually enter expenses, claim reimbursements, and itemize expenses, with automatic currency conversion using live exchange rates.
• 😀 Corporate card expenses are automatically fetched and reconciled with receipts, simplifying expense reporting and reducing manual effort.
• 😀 Expense reports are automatically generated, with violations flagged upfront, and employees can submit and track reports with ease.
• 😀 Zoho Expense integrates with popular accounting software like Zoho Books, QuickBooks, Xero, and Sage, and also provides custom export templates for other systems.

Q & A

What is Zoho Expense and who can benefit from it?

Zoho Expense is an expense management solution designed to help organizations of all sizes automate and streamline their expense reporting, approvals, and accounting processes. It is customizable and can be used by companies in various industries and regions, offering support in over 150 countries.

What roles can be assigned to employees in Zoho Expense?

There are three main roles in Zoho Expense: Submitters, who submit expense claims; Approvers, who review and approve submitted claims; and Admins, who manage the system and have full access to all features. Admins can also create custom roles with specific access and permissions.

How does Zoho Expense ensure compliance with company policies?

Zoho Expense allows admins to set up policies that define how, what, and where employees can spend. Policies can include limits on spending, mileage rates, and per diem allowances. Compliance is further enforced through automated rules that warn or block users if their expenses exceed the set limits. Approvers act as the last line of defense to ensure adherence to policies.

What is Zoho Expense's Autoscan feature and how does it benefit employees?

Autoscan is a feature that automatically reads receipts in over 14 languages, extracting data at a line-item level to create expense claims. It helps employees by simplifying the process of converting receipts into claims, reducing manual data entry. Employees can upload receipts from various sources, including email, cloud storage, or the mobile app.

Can Zoho Expense handle expenses in multiple currencies?

Yes, Zoho Expense automatically converts expenses in other currencies to the organization's base currency using live exchange rates. This ensures consistency and accuracy in expense reporting, especially for global organizations.

What are the reporting capabilities in Zoho Expense?

Zoho Expense offers over 30 reports, including audit trails and activity logs, to track every aspect of business travel and spend. Admins can use these reports to gain insights into organizational spend, and the system integrates with Zoho Analytics to generate custom reports.

How does Zoho Expense facilitate corporate card integration?

Zoho Expense integrates with corporate cards from Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Card transactions are automatically fetched and converted into expenses. Employees can reconcile card statements with uploaded receipts, simplifying the tracking of corporate card usage.

What is the Trips module in Zoho Expense, and how does it simplify business travel management?

The Trips module helps streamline business travel by allowing employees to create trip itineraries with preferences and submit them for approval. Once approved, travel teams can provide booking options, and employees can directly book tickets and accommodations. Integration with platforms like Sabre and GetThere allows real-time booking within Zoho Expense.

How does Zoho Expense handle reimbursements?

Admins can directly reimburse employees for out-of-pocket expenses from the admin view. Zoho Expense integrates with banks like PH Integration (for US/Canada) and ICICI Business Bank (for India) to process reimbursements efficiently. Employees can also delegate expense-related tasks to others when away from work.

Can Zoho Expense be customized for specific organizational needs?

Yes, Zoho Expense is highly customizable. Admins can create new modules to store and use specific data, create custom buttons and links using Zoho's proprietary scripting language (Deluge), and set up workflows that trigger automatic actions based on criteria. These customizations allow organizations to tailor the system to their unique requirements.