Software company Zoho has tied up with private lender ICICI Bank to provide accounting and banking on an integrated platform. Claiming to be the industry-first integration of accounting and any bank, the partnership will deliver a streamlined digital banking experience to customers using Zoho's cloud accounting software, 'Zoho Books'.

This will also help businesses eliminate data entry, automate reconciliation, provide multiple payment options to their customers, request working capital loans, and pay suppliers directly from their accounting platform, a joint statement by both the companies said. It would also allow micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India the contextual banking experience, by connecting their banking and accounting, which was once available only to large companies and corporations with large IT and infrastructure budgets.

Anup Bagchi, Executive Director, ICICI Bank, said, “This integration enables MSMEs to bring in the efficiency of automation by connecting seamless banking transactions and book-keeping on a single platform. Additionally, it also enables them to keep track of all their business expenses on a single platform without having to switch multiple applications. This partnership resonates our effort at bringing in path-breaking solutions, thereby, creating an ecosystem through connected banking. We will continue the model of co-creating to deliver innovative products and services to our customers.”

Sridhar Vembu, CEO, ZohoCorp added, "Corporate ERP to bank connectivity was a luxury that only big companies used to enjoy. Zoho and ICICI Bank have come together to democratise this technology for all businesses, right from a one-person company to larger corporates. This partnership allows businesses to execute bank transactions right where the context is fully present - your accounting system. For example, your accounts payable staff can pay your suppliers right from Zoho Books, where they get to see whom you owe and how much, without switching to your online banking interface. This increases the productivity and also significantly reduces manual errors."

Benefits of the ICICI Bank-Zoho partnership

Zero data entry, real-time visibility, faster decisions: With this integration, business owners can keep track of transactions flowing in and out of their bank accounts in Zoho Books. Businesses can eliminate data entry and manual errors as transactions are directly fetched from the bank. Real-time updates and cash flow visibility help business owners make important decisions instantly.

Automate reconciliation: With the ICICI Bank-Zoho integration, all bank transactions are fetched automatically into Zoho Books. Zoho Books' powerful reconciliation engine automatically reconciles these transactions with the ones already recorded in Zoho Books. It also helps create missing transactions easily. Payments made and received are mapped into their appropriate accounts in Zoho Books, saving time which businesses used to spend on manually entering and reconciling bank transactions.

Provide multiple payment options to customers: Right from credit cards, debit cards, Net banking, NEFT, RTGS, to the latest UPI, businesses that have current accounts with ICICI Bank can now offer multiple payment options to their customers through Zoho Books. In addition to online options, now they can also offer offline payment options to their customers, including cheque and challan. These offline payments can also be seamlessly recorded and reconciled in Zoho Books.

Pay vendors directly from Zoho Books: Users do not have to juggle between their accounting and banking applications to make vendor payments any more. ICICI Bank current account holders can simply log in to Zoho Books, select the appropriate bills, and make payments through their connected ICICI Bank accounts in just a few clicks. Businesses with an approval work-flow can continue to approve their payments in the ICICI Bank's Corporate Internet Banking (CIB) portal and see each payment's status updated automatically in Zoho Books.

Request for working capital loans: ICICI Bank current account holders can now request for working capital loans from within Zoho Books at the click of a button. The account holder can make the request while looking at their cash flow statement or while making payments to vendors in Zoho Books, when they can see that there is a need for such a loan.

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