Zoho Books is a powerful DIY accounting tool — arguably the best in India for self-serve GST invoicing and reconciliation. It does not register your company, handle MCA/ROC annual returns, respond to notices, or assign you a CA. That is the gap we fill. Many of our customers use both.
Why customers switch
Company formation and ROC compliance are not accounting features
Zoho Books handles your P&L and GST returns — but it cannot incorporate your company, file your AOC-4/MGT-7 annual returns, or respond to an MCA notice. These require a licensed CA and are included in every FilingLab plan.
A named CA, not a help-desk ticket
Zoho Books support is software support — billing, feature bugs, API questions. When the Income Tax Department raises a Section 148 notice, you need a CA, not a chatbot. You get a named CA with a direct WhatsApp number on every FilingLab plan from Standard upwards.
All-in pricing, not a per-module SaaS stack
Zoho Books pricing starts competitive but grows quickly once you add Zoho Payroll, Zoho Inventory, Zoho Expense, and Zoho Sign. Our flat fee bundles GST returns, TDS returns, ROC compliance and notice handling — no per-module add-ons.
No accounting tool expertise required
Zoho Books rewards users who understand double-entry bookkeeping and can chart their own accounts. If you would rather email your bank statement and have a CA do the reconciliation, that is exactly our model.
Feature-by-feature
Full GL — best in class
Via CA on Tally / Zoho
Automated, in-app
CA-reviewed + filed
Via Zoho Payroll add-on
Included on Standard+
Included on Standard+
Zoho Payroll (separate plan)
HR module (in-app)
Zoho Inventory (separate plan)
Not in scope
PWA + roadmap
No free tier
Zoho Books offline mode
PWA offline
1,000+ Zoho apps
Webhook + REST API
Comparison reviewed quarterly. Last refresh: April 2026. Sourced from public landing pages, customer-shared invoices, and review aggregators.
Pricing
Zoho Books is free for businesses below ₹25 lakh revenue. Above that, pricing scales by users + add-ons. FilingLab pricing is a flat compliance fee — no per-seat model.
Best-in-class DIY accounting SaaS for India — GST, e-invoice, e-waybill, reconciliation in one console
Free plan for businesses under ₹25 lakh annual revenue — genuinely useful for micro-SMBs
Deep Zoho One ecosystem: CRM, Payroll, Inventory, Expense, Sign, Campaigns — all integrated
Native iOS + Android apps with 4.8-star ratings and offline capability
1,000+ third-party integrations via Zoho Flow + Zapier + REST API
Audit trail + multi-currency + multi-branch support — production-grade for growing businesses
If you have an in-house accountant comfortable with Zoho Books, or you are a self-serve founder who can reconcile your own books, Zoho Books + a standalone CA for annual returns is a perfectly reasonable stack. We are a worse fit for businesses that genuinely need real-time accounting visibility and want to own that data layer in-house.
Free migration · 5-7 working days
Migrating from Zoho Books is straightforward — we export your trial balance, import it into Tally, reconcile with GSTR-2A/2B, and hand you a clean opening balance. We do not try to replace Zoho Books if you love it; we handle the CA-led compliance layer that sits beside it.