By Stellamaris Ashinze
Zoho Corporation, a global technology company, has unveiled the Nigeria edition of Zoho Books to boost financial information management.
The cloud-based accounting solution was introduced alongside Nigeria editions of other applications in Zoho’s finance and operations suite.
Prashant Ganti, the Vice President, Global Product Strategy and Alliances, Finance and Operations Business Unit, Zoho, said in a statement on Thursday, that the Books would help businesses manage Value-Added Tax (VAT) and e-invoicing compliance.
Ganti said that compliance and financial visibility were becoming competitive advantages for Nigerian businesses.
The vice president said that the solutions were designed to reduce manual processes associated with VAT and e-invoicing, while providing businesses with real-time financial insights.
He said that the Nigeria edition of Zoho Books automatically applied VAT rates based on item type and customer classification, while supporting reverse-charge transactions.
According to him, the platform also enables businesses to manage withholding tax for residents and non-residents and generate VAT schedules in the format required by the TaxProMax portal.
“Businesses can generate and submit e-invoices to the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) through an approved e-invoicing service provider.
“Beyond compliance, Zoho Books provides invoicing, online payment collection, accounting, bank reconciliation, inventory tracking, budgeting and workflow automation capabilities,” he said.
Ganti said that a recent survey of more than 100 Nigerian small and medium-sized businesses showed limited adoption of AI for financial management.
He said that only 24 per cent of respondents currently used AI tools for financial management, while 65 per cent cited lack of awareness as the major barrier.
Ganti said that 30 per cent of businesses already using AI reported saving between one and three hours weekly.
He said that its AI capabilities could help businesses categorise bank transactions, retrieve financial data, forecast trends and identify anomalies through its Zia platform.
Ganti said that the Nigeria edition would also cover Zoho billing, invoice, commerce, inventory, spend, expense, procurement and practice applications.
He said that integrating the applications on a common platform would allow data to flow between them, reducing repeated data entry and improving financial information management.
Ganti said that Zoho’s finance and operations platform currently provided country-specific editions designed to address local tax and compliance requirements across 16 markets. (NAN)www.nannews.ng
Edited by Florence Onuegbu
