Ready to craft your financial success and looking for a game-changer in the bookkeeping for your craft biz?
Enter Zoho Books and Zoho Inventory – the duo that outshines spreadsheets, Wave Accounting, and even QuickBooks for your handmade, creative, or craft business bookkeeping needs.
Why Zoho Books & Inventory? Because it’s Tailored for You:
Empower your craft business with Zoho Books and Zoho Inventory – the ultimate bookkeeping solution. Tailored for micro-businesses, enjoy budget-friendly pricing and seamless integration. Say farewell to costly alternatives and spreadsheet headaches – choose clarity, ease, and financial success for your handmade business.
- Zoho Books: Ideal for micro-businesses with sales under $50,000.00 per year and fewer than 1,000 invoices annually.
- Zoho Inventory: Seamlessly integrates with Zoho Books, offering a FREE inventory module for makers and designers who need to track their inventory and finished items.
Pricing That Fits Your Growth:
- Zoho Books Annual Pricing:
- FREE Version*: Perfect for businesses with sales under $50,000 and up to 1,000 invoices per year.
- Standard*: $15/month or $180/year for up to 5,000 invoices annually.
- Check out all features and plans here.
- Zoho Inventory Annual Pricing:
- FREE Version*: Start out with 50 invoices, 20 purchase orders, and more.
- Standard*: $29/month/$348/year for growing businesses.
- Explore features and plans here.
Stay with the free plan for awhile, then upgrade to the Standard version at just $44/month or $528/year (pricing current as of 1/31/24) when the time is right. It’s a budget-friendly choice for your handmade business.
Oh, let’s not forget:
- It’s available for several countries.
- There’s a desktop app.
- iOS app.
- Android app.
Zoho Books and Zoho Inventory setup and training videos are currently being recorded and uploaded into the Handmade Business Bookkeeping Academy membership platform.
Why Zoho Trumps QuickBooks:
QuickBooks Online: Beware of the fine print and increasing price after the initial free trial or 3-month discounted rate.
- Simple Start: $15/month for the first 3 months, then $30/month. Doesn’t handle inventory and can’t be upgraded.
- Essentials: $30/month for the first 3 months, then $60/month. Again, doesn’t handle inventory.
- Plus: $45/month for the first 3 months, then $90/month. Offers weak inventory.
- Discover all the different plans here.
QuickBooks Desktop: QuickBooks Pro and Premier – once a favorite, now plagued by outrageous pricing and annual subscriptions. You can still purchase new desktop subscriptions until July 31, 2024, but you have to call Intuit. The writing is on the wall that both the Pro and Premier versions are going away.
Wave Goodbye to Complicated Freebies:
Wave Accounting: Free but lacks functionality, leading to more spreadsheet work.
- Perfect for designers without inventory, but a hassle as your business grows.
Setup and training videos for using Wave Accounting are currently a part of the Handmade Business Bookkeeping Academy membership platform.
Coming Soon: The YarnyBookkeeper’s Spreadsheet Solution!
Designed to bridge the gap for simpler record-keeping without sacrificing essential information.
- stay tuned!
In a Nutshell:
- Zoho Books and Zoho Inventory: Can be your craft biz champions, but you’ll need help setting them up correctly.
- QuickBooks Online: Pricey and not suitable for anyone needing inventory.
- QuickBooks Desktop: No longer recommended.
- Wave: Basic, good for designers without inventory.
- Spreadsheets: Functional if they contain the right info.
Craft your own bookkeeping success with clarity, ease, and a touch of YarnyBookkeeper magic. Ready to take your handmade, creative, or craft biz to the next level? Choose wisely!
Thanks! I took a look at it but I saw in your latest email newsletter that you’ll be unveiling your own system next week, so I’ll wait for that before making a decision 🙂
Hi Nancy! I just started a knitwear business online through Shopify in November and have been stressing to get my documents in order for taxes and found your site after waking up in the middle of the night in a panic about inventory. I’m wondering if Zoho is compatible with my Shopify account to track inventory?
Hi Liz!
Oh no, NOT waking up in the middle of the night in a panic over “bookkeeping” is not good!
I just did a quick search (as I don’t have a Shopify account) and I found this article that says you can integrate Shopify with the Zoho Inventory piece of the puzzle – https://www.zoho.com/us/inventory/shopify-inventory-management-software/ and I logged into my “free” Zoho teaching accounts and went into Zoho Inventory and there is an option to integrate Shopify there.
Out of curiosity, I started a chat with a Zoho rep and was told that you can integrate Shopify, even with the free version of Zoho Inventory. So you could import/synch all of your Inventory with Zoho Inventory, BUT you wouldn’t want to sync your orders – because there is a limit of 50 invoices per year on the Zoho side.
But I’m “thinking” you could sync your items, they would come into Zoho Inventory -> which would synch with Zoho Books and your could create your Invoices on the “Books” side as long as you stayed under 1,000 invoices per year.
Bottom line, I think it would be do-able!
Thank you so much for posting this! Just last week I found myself looking for a small biz inventory solution with invoicing integrations. I’m a goldsmith and jeweller, so I’ve been of course looking at services like CraftyBase (targeted toward makers but is missing essential features for me), GemLogic (specific to my industry but a newer platform and not polished yet), among lots of others. Imagine my shock to discover that these inventory accounting services cost DOUBLE what I pay for my entire website hosting, website platform, mailing list manager, CRM, invoicing and online store platform COMBINED! And that double-the-price is with the annual subscription “savings”. I am going to give Zoho another look. I wrote it off last year as too convoluted for my needs, but your advice convinces me to give it a chance. Thank you! Love your emails and articles. Keep up the wonderful work, Nancy! You’re a gem. ☺️????
Hi Julia
So happy you found this post to be helpful (that’s what I’m here for)! The price of software has sky-rocketed, it’s insane – so I’m not surprised that you’ve been finding hefty price tags. Zoho Books & Inventory will take some getting used to, but they are good products and definitely get the job done! If you need setup help – give me a holler as I’m doing training videos on how to set it up and use it in the handmade industry!