Migrate from Zoho Books to TatvaBooks

Is TatvaBooks a good alternative to Zoho Books?

Yes — if you want an India-only product with GSTR-2B reconciliation and built-in payroll, run by CAs. Zoho is stronger on multi-currency, recurring billing and its large app marketplace, and it already files e-invoices live. The switch trades breadth for India-first depth.

Dimension	TatvaBooks	Zoho Books
Cloud & remote access	Cloud-native, India-first — open your books from any browser	Cloud-native, mature — polished web and mobile apps
Multi-user / multi-device	Built in — concurrent users, role-based access	Built in — user roles, with seat limits scaling by plan
GSTR-2B reconciliation	Built into the purchase flow — match 2B, resolve ITC mismatches before filing	Supported — GST reconciliation tools within the platform
e-Invoice (IRN / QR)	Prepared on the invoice (IRN + signed QR), sandbox-tested; live NIC filing on roadmap	Live IRP integration — IRN + QR generated and filed
e-Way bill	On the roadmap	Live — generated through IRP integration
Manufacturing (AS-2)	Single-level BOM with AS-2 periodic costing built in	Light assembly; deeper manufacturing sits in Zoho Inventory
Payroll (PF / ESI / PT / TDS)	Built in — PF, ESI, PT, TDS and full-and-final	Via separate Zoho Payroll (available in select states)
Data residency	India-resident cloud (AWS Mumbai), encrypted at rest, daily backups	India data centres available for Indian accounts
Audit trail	Immutable edit-log on every voucher (Companies Rules-aligned)	Activity / audit history maintained per record
Pricing model	Solo (free) · Business ₹599/mo · Growth ₹1,099/mo · Practice ₹1,999/mo	Subscription tiers (free plan up to a turnover cap), priced per organisation
Data migration	Customer / supplier masters via CSV; openings set with our help	Source system — you export masters to CSV; history stays read-only in Zoho

Honest caveats: TatvaBooks doesn’t yet match Zoho on multi-currency, recurring billing, live bank feeds or the Zoho One ecosystem, and our e-invoice is prepared rather than filed live today. We migrate masters via CSV, not your full history. Zoho is a mature, multi-country product; we’re built for India alone.

Why consider TatvaBooks over Zoho Books

Zoho Books is genuinely good software. If you are happy with it, this page is not trying to talk you out. But three reasons bring teams to us:

India-only product design. Every decision — default chart of accounts, voucher templates, GSTR-2B reconciliation flow, the IRN preparation — is built around Indian compliance first, not as a country-pack on a global platform.
CA-led workflows. Our founders are practicing Chartered Accountants. Things like place-of-supply validation at entry, reverse charge on the voucher, and GSTR-2B reconciliation with ITC tracking are in the product because we deal with them at month-end.
Beta onboarding — no cost. We help you get set up ourselves, with named CAs on WhatsApp during cut-over.

What Zoho Books does well — let’s be fair

Things you may lose, or at least re-evaluate, when you switch away from Zoho:

Global product maturity. A decade of iteration on a polished UI, deep settings, mature mobile apps and a huge integrations marketplace.
Multi-currency depth. Multi-base-currency consolidation and currency-revaluation entries are mature in Zoho. TatvaBooks keeps INR books today; multi-currency is on our roadmap, not in the product.
The Zoho One ecosystem. If you already pay for Zoho One and use CRM, Inventory, Desk and Books together, the switch costs you those tight integrations.
Mature self-service support. Big help centre, well-rehearsed onboarding. Ours is a small team on WhatsApp; some prefer that, some prefer ticketing.

Where TatvaBooks differs

Place-of-supply validation at sale-voucher entry — wrong-state invoices are blocked at save, not surfaced later.
e-invoice prepared inline. The IRN and signed QR are prepared on the invoice and sandbox-tested; live filing to the NIC portal is on our near-term roadmap.
GSTR-2B reconciliation built into the purchase flow — import your 2B, match it against your purchases, and see the ITC mismatches before you file.
Reverse charge on the voucher — RCM is captured at entry, not reconstructed at quarter-end.
Opinionated chart of accounts — Schedule III mapped by default, with CA-reviewed sub-grouping for Balance Sheet presentation.

Data export from Zoho

Zoho Books exports masters to CSV, and that’s what we import — the data you’d least like to re-type. Historical transactions stay in Zoho for the parallel run.

Customers and suppliers (CSV, with addresses, GSTIN, PAN)
Stock items — set up with our help
Chart of accounts (CSV), mapped to Schedule III
Opening balances — set on the cut-over date, with our help

The onboarding process

Day 0 — Kickoff. 20–30-minute call. Number of organisations, what to bring over, cut-over date.
Day 1 — Export masters. Export your customers and suppliers from Zoho to CSV and upload them. We map your chart of accounts to Schedule III.
Day 1 — Opening balances. We help you set opening balances and confirm your Trial Balance, Customer Outstandings and Vendor Outstandings tie out. You sign off.
Day 1 onward — Parallel run. Zoho stays read-only for its history; daily work shifts to TatvaBooks; you reconcile at month-end.
First cycle — Go-live. A walkthrough with your team, then your first GST cycle with us on WhatsApp.

Beta onboarding — included

During private beta the onboarding is on us — kickoff, master import, setting opening balances, training, and a hand through your first GST cycles. We do this ourselves because every Zoho Books configuration is a little different, and the only way to make the product better is to do the onboarding alongside you for a while.

Differences in workflows — what changes for your team

Sale-voucher entry is stricter on place-of-supply. Wrong-state invoices are blocked at save.
Reverse charge is captured on the voucher at entry, so RCM purchases are flagged where they happen rather than reconstructed later.
GSTR-2B reconciliation is interactive: import your 2B, reconcile against purchases, and resolve ITC mismatches before you file on the portal.
Period locking is a hard lock by default — no edit-after-finalisation unless the period is reopened with an audit-logged reason.
e-invoicing is prepared on the invoice itself, not in a separate tab — IRN and QR ready, live NIC link coming soon.

What we don’t yet match

Multi-currency and multi-base-currency consolidation across legal entities.
An integrations marketplace — live bank feeds, payment gateways and e-Way bill aren’t in the product today; we add integrations by request as the beta progresses.
Zoho One ecosystem tightness — if CRM and Books talk to each other today, that bridge has to be replaced.
Recurring billing and customer-facing payment collection.

Timeline expectations

Single Zoho organisation: masters import in minutes; openings and a first parallel cycle take a session or two.
2–5 organisations: a few days, run one at a time so each set of openings is signed off.
CA practice with several client books: a couple of weeks in batches, GST-active clients first.

After go-live

We recommend keeping Zoho Books on a read-only subscription for at least one full GST cycle — usually a quarter — as the historical audit-evidence repository. From the cut-over date, your live books and audit trail are in TatvaBooks, and you file on the portal with the workings ready. Once one clean GST cycle has run from TatvaBooks, most teams downgrade Zoho to its lowest plan and treat it as an archive.

Frequently asked questions

What comes over from Zoho Books, and how long does it take?

Your masters — customers and suppliers — exported from Zoho to CSV and imported into TatvaBooks. You set opening balances as on the cut-over date (we help), and historical transactions stay in Zoho, which you keep read-only and run in parallel. Importing masters takes minutes; most single-org accounts are posting live within a day or two.

Will my invoice numbering continue uninterrupted?

You set your invoice numbering series in TatvaBooks to continue from where Zoho left off, so your customers see no break in the sequence. Historical invoices remain in Zoho during the parallel run.

Do I lose customer data, addresses or GSTINs?

No. Customers and suppliers come over from a CSV with their billing and shipping addresses, GSTIN, PAN and contact details intact — that's exactly the part we don't want you re-typing.

What about Zoho Books integrations — payment gateways, banking feeds, Zoho CRM?

Native Zoho ecosystem integrations (Zoho CRM, Zoho Inventory, Zoho Expense) don't carry over. TatvaBooks does its own bank reconciliation from imported statements; live bank feeds and payment-gateway collection aren't part of the product today. We'll be straight about which of your current integrations have a TatvaBooks equivalent during the kickoff call.

Why move from Zoho Books, if it is already cloud and already supports Indian GST?

Zoho Books is a strong global product with India as one of many markets. TatvaBooks is built for India only, by Indian CAs, with opinionated workflows for GSTR-2B reconciliation, ITC tracking, IRN preparation and reverse charge. If you want a tool whose roadmap is set by what changes in the next GST Council meeting, that is us.

Does TatvaBooks support multi-currency the way Zoho does?

Not today. TatvaBooks keeps INR-denominated books, and multi-currency invoicing is on our roadmap rather than in the product right now. If your books are mostly INR with the occasional export invoice, that's a conversation worth having; if you run consolidated books across base currencies, Zoho is ahead of us here and we'll say so.

What about my recurring invoices and customer portals?

Recurring billing isn't in TatvaBooks today, so recurring schedules don't migrate — you raise each cycle's invoice when it's due. Your master data comes across so setting them up again is quick.

Are Zoho Books attachments (PDFs, expense receipts) brought over?

Not automatically — there's no API pull of historical attachments today. Going forward, you attach bills and receipts to vouchers in TatvaBooks, and they're kept against the entry with a full trail.

What happens to my Zoho Books audit trail?

The Zoho audit history stays in Zoho (keep it read-only as your archive). The TatvaBooks audit trail begins from the cut-over date with a full edit-log on every voucher, in line with the Companies (Accounts) Rules. We recommend keeping your Zoho subscription read-only for six months as historical evidence.

Can a CA firm move several Zoho Books clients at once?

Yes. We onboard client books in batches and prioritise clients with active GST cycles. Tell us how many GSTINs and we'll scope a realistic timeline — masters in, openings set, parallel run for the first cycle.

Is there any difference in how sale vouchers behave?

Yes — TatvaBooks has stricter place-of-supply validation at the time of invoice entry. If the GSTIN state doesn't match the place of supply on the invoice, the system blocks the save until you reconcile. Zoho lets this through and surfaces it later. Most teams say this catches errors faster.

Is the beta onboarding really free?

Yes. We help you get set up at no cost during private beta. Pricing for the public launch is being finalised; if you onboard now, your onboarding stays free.

Migrate from Zoho Books — move to one built for India.