Category: Zoho

At WWDC20, Apple made some significant product announcements and introduced iOS 14 for iPhones and iPadOS 14 for iPads. Both operating systems come with crucial enhancements for user experience and privacy. At Zoho, as always, we have updated our apps with the latest features to ensure you get the same improvements in experience and privacy when you use our apps.

Here’s a rundown of all that’s new in the Zoho Finance iOS and iPadOS apps.

New widgets bring you an all-new experience

Apple has enhanced your experience with a complete redesign of widgets. Now, you can have your favorite widgets on your home screen, and we have added some fun ones to help you find the information you need. Long press on an empty spot on your Apple device’s home screen and tap the plus (+) icon to add any of the following widgets:

Zoho Books and Zoho Invoice

• Timer: Keep track of the time that you’re logging for a project’s tasks without opening the app.

• Invoice List: View the list of overdue or recent invoices right from your home screen so you’ll know what payments to collect.

• Total Receivables: Monitor your receivables and send reminders to your delinquent customers to help them pay on time.

Zoho Expense (Coming soon)

• Mileage Tracker: See the distance traveled with a glance at your home screen and record mileage expenses quickly.

• Zia: View the list of your pending tasks for timely followup actions.

• Pending Approval: View the transactions that are waiting for your approval.

Zoho Inventory

• Sales Activity: Keep an eye on the number of items that are yet to be packed, shipped, and invoiced.

• Low Stock Items: Keep tabs on the items which have fallen below the reorder point and their current quantity.

• Sales Orders: Keep track of sales volume from different channels such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and Shopify. Edit the widget to change the channel or view the data for a different period.

 Zoho Subscriptions

• MRR, ARPU, & LTV: Stay updated with revenue-related Key Performance Indicators for your business.

• Business Summary: Get an overview of your business and its signups, activations, active customers, net cancellations, churn rate, and payment failures.

• Subscriptions Under Risk: Monitor the subscriptions for which customer payments have failed.

Increased privacy with photo picker

The launch of the new photo picker in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 gave an additional layer of privacy to your photos, and we have extended it to all our Zoho Finance apps. Previously, when you uploaded a photo, you needed to give the app access to all the photos in your Photos library. With iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, when you want to upload an image or a receipt, the photo picker opens and only the photos you select will be accessible by the app.

Fresh design, faster selection

Apple has introduced a fresh design for the date picker and we have adopted it in all our Zoho Finance apps. Selecting a date is now simple and quick.

Enhanced user experience with pull-down menus

As part of our commitment to offer you the best user experience, we have implemented iOS 14’s pull-down menus in all our apps. You can now access the options related to a button right below the button itself, instead of moving your thumb to the bottom of the screen. This saves you time and gets your work done faster.

Highlight receipts using Apple Pencil

Are there portions of a receipt that you want to highlight before uploading it to Zoho Expense? You can now annotate the receipt with Apple Pencil before you upload it.

That’s all the major enhancements that we have made to the Zoho Finance apps for now. You can download the latest versions of Zoho Books, Zoho Invoice, Zoho Expense (Coming soon), Zoho Inventory, Zoho Subscriptions, and Zoho Payroll from the App Store and upgrade your iPhone to iOS 14 or your iPad to iPadOS 14 to take these features for a spin.

Did you try the features? Which is your favorite widget? Tell us all about them in the comments below.

This year at the WWDC 2020, Apple announced that they’re redoubling their commitment to Privacy, unifying their UI across their product lineup, and making a big change to their processor. While this is good news for all Apple users, it’s particularly good news for Bigin users.

For the iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, we’ve embraced these changes immediately. The upgrades from Bigin’s end are sure to come in handy when you’re not on your desktop. We have found a way to get the most out of your Apple devices and the Bigin app, making your sales pipeline even easier to manage in the process.

Here are some of Bigin’s major enhancements!

Widgets  

First things first–Apple finally brings Widgets home.
If you aren’t familiar with widgets, they’re small, customizable extensions that can be added to your home screen that keep you updated on important activities and information.

Bigin now comes with its very own widgets in different sizes and form factors that tell you what your day, week or month looks like, listing all your activities like calls, events and tasks.

The best part: you don’t have to open the app to see your activities. The widget takes care of the essentials, keeping you up to speed on the metrics that matter most.

All new UI – Pipeline view for all!

Designed with Apple’s guidelines for Human Interface in mind, Bigin’s new layout makes navigation easier by placing more intuitive menus on all screens, giving you access to all your modules with a single tap. Dark Mode has also been updated and expanded: it’s now available in Auto, Dark, and Light.

The biggest UI/UX change for Bigin is the Pipeline view that we all love on the Web app. Pipeline view has now been standardized across all Apple devices, meaning everything that you could do on your Web app is now possible on your iPhone, iPad and macOS Big Sur too.

 

This new UI lets you easily navigate through your pipeline, select multiple items, and drag-and-drop deals to another stage, just like you would on your Web app.

Siri and Wind Down shortcuts

Good news: Siri doesn’t take up the whole screen anymore!

On iOS 14, Siri’s full screen animation has been shrunk down and placed at the bottom of the screen. The rest of the screen stays wherever you left off so you never lose context. Bigin now appears on Siri’s app suggestions and Search too. You can also get Siri to perform actions in Bigin, such as “call a contact” or “schedule a meeting.”

 

Get a head start on your day with Apple’s powerful new shortcut feature, Wind Down. Now that Bigin appears on Wind Down, you can get an overview of your schedule for the next day right before you hit the hay. Wind Down is available on all Apple platforms including watchOS.

Speaking of the Apple Watch, Bigin is now available as its own watch complication, enabling you to access your sales data and execute Siri command just like you would on your phone .

Scribble for iPad

The iPad also got an update with iPadOS 14. This new operating system comes with a particularly exciting feature called Scribble, Apple’s new handwriting recognition system. Using an Apple Pencil, you can write anything on any text field inside Bigin and it will automatically be converted to text as you write. Not only can you take notes, add events to your calendar, and compose messages to your contacts, but you can also now check off closed deals, delete items by crossing them out, and double tap to undo changes.
 

 

A brand new Bigin app for macOS Big Sur

Apple’s macOS Big Sur arrives this fall, so we designed an entirely new app from scratch for the MacBooks and iMacs.

The Bigin app for macOS Big Sur gets all the benefits of the web app while feeling comfortably native and seamless. We also threw in some much-needed keyboard shortcuts to streamline your work process. From the sidebar to activities, we now cover a wide range of actions—including calls, tasks or events inside the app—with keyboard shortcuts.

 

 

Besides this, the widgets from iOS 14 will also be available for Big Sur. Just like it does on your iPhone, the Bigin widget will always be visible on your home screen, and it will always display the latest updates to your schedule or task list in real time.

Thanks to this refresh, using Bigin is now even more effortless.
Minimal effort, maximum gains and upgraded to be more than just software. Meet the new and improved Bigin, your best sales assistant.

Download Bigin from the App store today!

Hola, iOS 14 and iPadOS 14! Great news for all Apple users as they announced the availability of iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, from today. We welcome this new update from Apple with a set of exciting additions to Notebook like widgets, scribble with Apple Pencil, and more.

Widgets

Widgets help you to view and access the things you do often. Till iOS 13, Notebook offered a today widget where you can view your recent notes and quickly create different types of notes. We’ve taken it up a notch with iOS 14, where you can create different widgets in all sizes, according to your note-taking needs.

Create notes, view notes, and do more with Notebook widgets on iOS 14. You can customize the widgets and choose the size of your choice. Besides choosing a widget from the widgets list, you can also add a note as a widget. Long press a note and tap ‘Add to Widget‘ to add that note as a widget. Notebook widgets are also supported in iPadOS 14.

Scribble with Apple Pencil

 Writing is much easier with Scribble on iPad. Now, unleash your creativity with the combo of iPad, Apple Pencil, and Notebook. Scribble with your Apple Pencil in an empty notebook to create notes. Scribble at the bottom of a Text Card to add content to it. Adding a checklist item is simpler now. Scribble in the add item text box to add an item to your list.

You can now scribble with ease on lengthy notes using the scribble pad in Notebook. You can find the scribble pad in the editor tools in Text Card and Checklist Card. You can also drag and drop to position the scribble pad anywhere in the editor.

All the extras

You can now choose a few Siri Shortcuts offered by Notebook, for Wind Down. We’ve optimized Notebook to stay in tune with the latest iOS 14 UI optimizations like menu and date picker.

We hope you like the latest updates from Notebook for the new iOS 14 and iPadOS 14. We’ve already started working on the next set of features for the iOS 14 such as App Clips, enhancements to PencilKit, and much more. Stay tuned for these in our forthcoming updates. Please let us know what you would like to have in Notebook for iOS 14 in the comments section below or at [email protected]. You can follow us at @zohonotebook on Twitter to get periodic updates about Notebook.

Apple recently announced the latest update to its famous operating systems, iOS 14 and iPad OS 14. The update brings a number of brand-new features and enhancements available for iPhone and iPad users. Keeping pace with iOS 14, we’ve adopted the newer features into the app to offer functionality that continues to simplify your customer service efforts.

The Zoho Desk Widgets   

Arguably the most prominent feature in Apple’s iOS 14 announcement, widgets provide immense value for users who can access an app’s functionality without actually opening it. Customer support agents have a never-ending list of information to stay on top of. More often than not, agents need to keep an eye on this information around the clock, to ensure that they don’t miss any important tickets.

The Zoho Desk Widgets offers a range of widgets to bring vital metrics out of the app and onto the user’s screen. With widgets, agents can keep an eye on the metrics they care about, without having to open the app every time.

 

The small and medium widgets provide important ticket stats and tell you how many tickets are open, overdue, on hold or unassigned. The large widget lets you see which tickets are due today or tomorrow, so you can proactively keep your SLAs intact and pre-emptively avoid escalations.

More context with Siri Shortcuts

We’ve made the best use of the latest updates to Siri, and enriched Siri’s ticket list to provide as much context as possible without even touching your phone. Now, you can see all relevant ticket information, just like your ticket window within the Zoho Desk app. Powered by Siri and their voice, agents can be better informed of the tickets on their list and close tickets faster than ever.

Scribble support for iPad OS 14 

Apple Pencil can now be a part of your productivity toolkit with this update to the Zoho Desk iPad app. These improvements are focused on delivering the full iPad user experience while using the Zoho Desk app. You can now write using Apple Pencil into any text box and have it automatically converted into text. Even when you’re scribbling, Zoho Desk will auto-suggest email addresses when you’re writing email addresses, or mention an agent in a comment, just like when you type it in.

As makers of help desk software that empowers brands to become more customer-centric, it’s our goal to create the best help desk experience possible–for you and your customers. We’re excited to release these features and help you deliver exceptional customer experiences, even when you’re on the move.

 

In our recent webinar we talked about email deliverability and inbox placement. This one singular aspect is the result of many factors within the email marketing circuit. Whether it’s list building, campaign planning, content creation, frequency and timing, email deliverability plays a major role in all these steps.

If you were unable to attend the webinar, worry not. You can watch the webinar recording video here and also go through some of the questions addressed during the session.

Q1) Do we need to complete both the processes, SPK and DKIM before publishing the DMARC policy?

A1) You must complete either SPK or DKIM before publishing the DMARC policy. It is highly recommended that you complete both the domain authentication methods of SPF and DKIM. With Zoho Campaigns you can complete the steps associated to SPF and DKIM then you can publish your DMARC policy.

Q2) What is SPAM? How to evade spam filters?

A2) When an email is considered to come from a malicious source, it is marked as spam. There are many factors that determine if an email can be considered as a spam or not. Apart from the source, the content, engagement pattern, domain and IP validation, all these are determinant factors.

Q3) How do I send emails to only interested contacts?

A3) List management is the ultimate key to knowing your contacts. Firstly aim to create organic lists and avoid purchasing or borrowing lists. Purchased and borrowed lists often contain email addresses which are spam traps which are placed to capture spammers. Sending emails to such email addresses will land you in spam traps which will eventually tarnish your domain reputation.

You can build organic lists by collecting contact information via signup forms, events and etc. Manage these lists by creating segments with common attributes among contacts. Try to employ survey campaigns and polls to gauge the tastes and preferences of your contacts. Send appropriate content to your contacts at appropriate time for increased interactivity.

Q4) What is the best way to ensure regular interaction with subscribers and know if they are inactive?

A4) There are two ways of doing this. If you are sending emails to a new set of contacts, then you need to build a rapport with them. For this you need to resort to a good welcome email series. Inform them about your brand and try to create demand for your brand. This will ensure them to make a healthy and well-informed decision regarding your emails.

If you are sending emails to subscribers who have been existing set of contacts, then you need to think clearly. Since they are already aware of the brand, you need to sustain their interests with weekly or monthly newsletters. You can also opt for RSS campaigns and inform them about all the latest developments in your organisation. This will not only continue the flow of information and communication but also help you find out the inactive subscribers.

Q5) How important is the email content in determining the inbox placement of an email?

A5) The content influences continuity, clarity and compatibility of an email. All these factors are taken into account by the recipients’ inbox service provider. Based on these factors they allow an email or reject it.

Q6) What are the best practices regarding content?

A6) While creating a content you need to be aware that even the subject line and pre header will be within your creative purview. Try to avoid using excessive symbols and emojis in this section. Provide a clear and concise subject line and pre header. They should be clearly conveying their purpose so that the reader can decide if the email resonates with the tastes and preferences or not.

Since continuity is a factor in your email template, try to stick to brand colors and web safe fonts. Keep the content simple and use less images, and make sure that you opt more for PNG images as they take less time to load.

Never forget to provide an, ‘unsubscribe’ option in the footer of your email. Make it easy to access and effective in implementation. Finally, provide proper contact information too in the email footer so as to remove any ambiguity.

Q7) What are blacklists and how to stay away from them?

A7) Blacklists are registries published online and they contain the domain names and IP addresses of spammers. This list is based on the complaints received from recipient ISPs. You need to maintain an organic list and manage it. You need to avoid using spammy elements in your content and above all follow the domain authentication methods. One more thing that determines scrutiny from ISPs is irregular email sending patterns. Always maintain a consistent pattern as a sudden spike can cause trouble.

Q8) What should I do if my domain is blacklisted?

A8) You need to check if your domain is blacklisted by any of the major blacklisted publishing platforms like Spamcop, Spamhaus, SURBL etc. All these platforms have different ways to get the domain name de-listed form these lists. Contact the concerned platform and send a de-listing request and follow the requisite methods to get your domain or IP address de listed.

Digital alternatives to paper forms are gaining popularity as Internet access increases and the population goes digital. While someone collecting data using paper may not find the initial data collection hectic, the aftermath where they’re processing large stacks of paper is what’s truly daunting. What digital collection does is transform the time-consuming “collect, stack, and enter” paper forms workflow into the much simpler “capture, store, and process” paperless approach.

Kickstart your digital journey

Businesses obviously need quality data to make informed decisions. The journey towards this data isn’t explicit though—instead, it differs based on audience, geography, available resources, and more. Before anyone embraces digital data collection for their business, it’s essential to understand the basics, planning methods, and data security involved.

Planning your data collection

1. Decide what type of data you want to collect

Before you even create a form, ask yourself the following: What do you want to collect with your form? Images from your construction site, resumes from your job candidates, assurance signatures from your employees, or something else? Answering this will give you an outline of the form and its fields. As you brainstorm further, methods to store the data, extract it, and share it will also become clear.

2. Plan how you’ll analyze responses 

One of the main benefits of collecting information digitally is that you can quickly view and organize data in one cohesive space as reports, which can later be shared and exported to the team for collaborative work. In addition, using smart integration options that automate transferring responses, you can conveniently analyze these responses in your favorite applications—CRM, Sheets, and more. Marketers can also analyze the reach of a campaign, and thereby its success, by tracking leads and measuring goals right from within digital forms software.

3. Figure out how much data you require

How wide and far are your forms going to travel? Think about the number of audiences and the different, multiple ways forms are shared. Based on available resources, your team can decide on which platforms to showcase and host forms and choose a subscription plan accordingly. You also have the power to limit both the number of submissions you receive for a form based on a specific date and the submission of multiple entries from a single IP address.

Choosing a data collection method

Not all data that’s collected is valuable and useful for your team’s growth. Be wise in choosing which specific information you are looking to find. That being said, here are a few ways to build your data collection.

Questionnaires

Questionnaires are a quick way to obtain information using a series of questions that focus on gathering specific answers. They can be used to discover preferences, opinions, intentions, and more. Their versatility means you can ask your audience to enter a few lines, choose from a list of options, accept a policy, and more by using multiple field types. And if your forms go longer than intended, you can label those pages appropriately while creating multiple pages.

Campaigns

As a part of your marketing or online campaign efforts, you will want to gather information from the existing customers to build a relationship with them. You can do this by collecting their feedback, getting their email address for a newsletter subscription, learning the topics they are interested in, and more. For this type of data collection, you can host digital forms on web pages or social media, or send them as emails to land in their inboxes.

 Interviews

Online interview forms are a great tool to help evaluate candidates. Their flexibility means you can define subsequent questions that are tailor-made for respondents to clarify details. Standardizing your company’s interview process this way leads to quicker follow up and easy documentation, which reduces bias as the data is kept transparent across the entire process.

Experiments and observations

Digital checklists are a huge time saver as you perform assessments, inspections, observations, and more in groups small or large. They remove the risk of theft or damage that comes with printed paper while saving your business time and money, as well as improving the accuracy of details captured. In addition, most checklists are conveniently accessible from your mobile device—even offline—enhancing productivity for your workforce.

Responsible data handling

When it comes to using digital forms, one important thing to remember is that you, the one who collects and holds the data, are responsible for ensuring that the forms are compliant with whichever privacy laws are necessary. Securing sensitive information, protecting the privacy of EU customers, maintaining audits of form changes, and spam control are just a few security implementations you must consider. For an example of how to approach form data security measures, check out this overview of Zoho Forms data security.

 Here are some recommendations for data handlers:

 >> Issue the credible certifications stressing ethical data handling

>> Ensure best privacy activities and data protection laws

>> Avoid using personal and sensitive data out of context without consent

>> Present clear and transparent policies in your forms

Now that you have read about different data collection methods and how they help you handle data, hopefully you’ll feel better informed as you decide which data collection type suits your business best. Time to start creating digital forms!

 To learn more about collecting data using mobile applications, check out this article. While you’re at it, let us know your take on data collection practices in the comments below. We’d love to discuss it with you!

For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), employees are everything. Your employees steer the overall growth and development of your SMB, and they can make or break your business. To improve employee efficiency, SMBs require excellent HR management. Employees will go out of their way to grow your organization only when they are valued and nurtured. Having HR software greatly helps SMBs improve their HR operations without additional hassle or manual work. Here’s how each HR software feature simplifies HR operations for SMBs:

This feature allows SMBs to improve their new hire retention rate and prevent the high costs associated with turnover. New hires can complete all onboarding paperwork online and find all the details they need in a single place online.

This feature empowers employees and makes them feel trusted, which is the key to effective employee management. Through the self-service portal, employees can mark their attendance, apply for time off, communicate with their peers, view important notifications and announcements, and do much more.

Using this feature, SMB leaders can improve employee performance by aligning assigned tasks with organizational goals. Through an efficient review system, employees feel more motivated because they’ll know what goals they need to achieve and how their actions fit into the overall vision of the company. These reviews can be conducted monthly or quarterly to provide the continuous feedback that is necessary to help employees adjust their performance.

Automation can be a great boon to SMBs considering their smaller number of employee. Important HR tasks can be automated to avoid work delays and errors. Workflows can be created easily to automate routine tasks like sending email notifications, allowing your workers to focus more on growing the organization.

Offering employee training and development opportunities allows your SMB to be more competitive in its respective industry. A learning management system, or LMS, is a centralized online learning platform. It caters to all of your organization’s learning needs by supporting multiple courses, e-learning, learner discussions, and much more.

The people analytics feature in HR software provides the data to guide important decisions or the direction of new initiatives in your organization.  Workplace issues can be identified before they start damaging multiple areas of your business.

In today’s business world, fewer and fewer people are working from their desks. Therefore, an HR mobile application can really help your organization step up its people management game. Your employees can perform basic HR operations through the mobile app no matter where they are.

With this feature, all the processes associated with offboarding, such as sending experience letters, collecting important credentials, and conducting exit interviews, can be completed from a single location.

Learn more about the benefits of HR software for SMBs in our HR Knowledge Hive.

Small businesses make up at least a quarter of India’s economy, and a substantial portion of India’s workforce is employed by small business owners. However, many of those business owners are still stuck making manual entries in spreadsheets or ledger books, which is time-consuming, repetitive, and prone to errors. The Indian government has also created initiatives like Atmanirbhar Bharat and Digital India to encourage businesses to go digital and scale up and Zoho Books has been recognised as a winner in the Business category of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge.

Large enterprises have always had the best accounting tools at their disposal, for a hefty price. But small and startup businesses deserve access to advanced digital billing, accounting, and invoicing capabilities too. To help these small enterprises truly transform their financial operations and go digital, we’ve introduced a unique Free Plan in Zoho Books. Businesses with turnover less than 25 lakh, whether they are GST registered or unregistered, will be eligible for this plan. Also, with the pandemic affecting every business, it’s difficult to justify spending money on accounting software. We hope this plan helps you scale your business affordably.

What does the free plan offer?

 To make online accounting accessible to everyone, our free plan offers all the core accounting capabilities that any business would need to manage its finances. Here’s what you’ll be able to do:

Manage receivables and payables

Once you get started, you will be able to send estimates, convert them to GST invoices, send reminders, and keep track of all the money coming in. You can also raise purchase orders, share them with vendors, record the corresponding bills, and manage money going out with ease.

Organise contacts and collaborate with clients 

You will be able to add all your customers and vendors and manage their transactions. Zoho Books also allows you to provide customers access to the client portal so they can view their transactions and statement of accounts.

Monitor stock

The free plan also includes basic inventory tracking that allows you to track and adjust your stock levels, know the reorder points to replenish stock when it gets low, and organize your inventory with vital information like SKU, cost, and stock on hand.

Stay GST compliant 

You can create GST-compliant transactions, generate GST reports, and set up an approval process before you file your returns directly. You will also be able to create delivery challans and generate e-way bills for the goods you transport.

Generate reports and gain business insights

The free plan allows you to generate 25+ business reports to get better insight into your business health. From Profit and Loss statements and Inventory Summary reports to GST reports, Zoho Books offers all the reports required to run your business smoothly. You can also customize your reports and schedule them to be sent to your email address or other users in the organisation at a specific time chosen by you.

Accounting on the go

Manage your finances wherever you go, with the Zoho Books mobile apps for Android and iOS and the Windows app for desktop. You can download them for free from the App Store or Play store and get started with the same account you use for Zoho Books on the web.

Not just these, you will be able to receive online payments, set up integrations, customise templates, and much more. View the complete list of features.

How can I sign up for the free plan?

All you need is an email address to get started. You can view the list of features and sign up for the free plan in a few simple steps.  Got any questions or need a hand with picking the right plan? Write to us at [email protected]. We’re here to help!

Whether you have a separate payroll department or you have tasked your HR department with taking care of your payroll as well, you probably know that they are overwhelmed with tons of employee requests every day.

For example, queries like “How do I update my tax-saving IT declaration?” are frequently asked by employees, as IT declarations can be made throughout the fiscal year.

This is not the only challenge, but your team’s efficiency suffers from the time taken to answer questions like these. Even something as simple as communicating an important announcement to the employees can be a source of inefficiency. Here are some of the most common challenges that eat into the productivity of your HR or payroll department:

1. Communication between employees and employers
2. Collecting, validating, and managing employee reimbursement requests
3. Managing the IT declaration process month by month
Collecting, validating, and approving Proof of Investments

In this blog, we’ll discuss how exactly an employee self-service (or ESS) portal helps you to digitize all these processes so that your payroll department can reach its productivity goals.

Communication between employees and employers

Communicating without friction is essential for HR and payroll departments. Be it changes in organisation policies or important announcements made by the Government, these departments are tasked with distributing essential information to employees.

Emails used to be the most trusted format for sharing all this information, but there is a faster method that’s more suited to modern, fast-paced communication style: self-service portals.

Not all self-service portals can streamline employer-employee communications. Let’s take a look at Zoho Payroll’s employee self-service portal on how you can solve this persistent problem effectively.

For sharing important updates, there’s a personalized space to put up a banner message. Simply type the message that needs to be communicated, and it is automatically broadcast to all the employees. Your payroll admins can control how long the message needs to be displayed to reach everyone without becoming a distraction. You can visualize how much time your payroll or HR department would save by not worrying about unread emails and follow-up messages.

If communication is your biggest obstacle in realizing your productivity goals, consider using a self-service portal to boost your efficiency and time savings.

Collecting, validating, and managing employees’ reimbursement requests

Reimbursement benefits associated with CTC are commonplace for a lot of organisations, as employers or business owners are increasingly focused on looking after their employees.

From the standpoint of your payroll or HR department, though, this is not exciting news. It can mean mountains of bills or receipts on their desk, each month.

We’ve discussed the volume of requests, but the validation details are just as much of a problem. Are the bills submitted within the allowed reimbursement limit? Are the bills matched to the right employee? Are all reimbursement bills accounted for, and has the payroll team captured the right reimbursement amount? These are some of the basic validations, yet they are incredibly time-consuming tasks because of the amount of manual work involved.

What part does a self-service portal play in this? Imagine that your payroll department can move all of that paperwork online, and have the validation done automatically. No more mountains of unprocessed receipts, no more mismatches, or wrong reimbursements.

Your payroll team can do their work with complete control from the admin end, while the self-service side of the portal will guide your employees to complete all the tasks you need them to.

Payroll admin workflow inside Zoho Payroll

• Open up the reimbursement receipt submission

• Choose the deadline date before which the bills have to be submitted

• Notify all the employees about the deadline in a single broadcast

Employee workflow inside Zoho Payroll

Here comes the interesting part. Even if your current system allows all this proof submission and collection online, the real bottleneck would be the follow-up communication process in cases of insufficient or incorrect proofs. In most cases, follow-up happens through emails, which can quickly get inefficient.

We’ve taken that extra step to allow the follow-up communication to happen in real-time. The comments you add to a reimbursement request are instantly synced to the individual employees’ self-service profiles automatically. Back-and-forth communication is just like text messaging now: fast, to the point, and convenient.

Managing the IT declaration process month by month

We’ve already discussed the importance of statutory compliance. A core part of maintaining compliance is getting TDS right, and it all starts with the routine month-by-month IT declaration.

Traditionally, your payroll department might collect this information over email. It’s not an efficient approach, as your payroll staff has to update all this information for every employee on your payroll manually. Besides creating a lot of manual work, it also leaves plenty of scope for mistakes.

Self-service portals allow you to delegate this task back to your employees. You can open up the option for submitting tax-saving declarations, set a deadline for submission, notify your employees, and relax.

Collecting, validating, and approving Proof of Investments (POI)

Tax true-up time is one of the busiest times in the life of a payroll employee. Endless hours are spent in collecting POI from all your employees, validating it, and approving it.

It’s a similar situation to the reimbursement bills. There are tons of proof documents to handle, like the House Rent Allowance proof (HRA), Educational loans proof, and many other proofs submitted under all the legally applicable categories allowed by the Government.

ESS lets employees do the bulk of these tasks, by allowing them to submit all the necessary proofs for their declared IT investments. As an admin, you can give your payroll staff complete control over when to do the tax true-up, and inform all your employees about the deadline automatically.

As you can see in the screenshots below, all the different stages of proof collection are handled online: tax true-up, validation, approval, and communication. It makes the proof collection process stress-free and takes collaboration to the next level within your organisation.

For your employees, the ESS portal can act as a secure and personalized online space. Employees can get a quick overview of their payslips, tax worksheets, and payroll forms, as well as a summary of their annual tax liabilities, outstanding loan amounts, and historic salary revision. They can access all this information without having to talk to anyone in payroll or HR, right from their web browser or smartphone. And employee self-service is still evolving. ESS portals are an important cog in personalizing the employee experience, and going where your employees are.

ESS portals are not just another feature of your payroll software. The right employee self-service portal will prove to be a difference-maker for your organization’s efficiency and productivity goals. It transforms time-consuming tasks like follow-up communication, reimbursements, IT declarations, POI, and information distribution. With ESS, your payroll or HR department can get things done faster, with more accuracy and less stress.