QuickBooks vs Zoho

2023. Intuit launches generative AI–powered digital assistant for small businesses and consumers



Intuit, the prominent U.S. financial and accounting software company, has introduced its inaugural customer-centric generative AI-driven solution known as Intuit Assist. Functioning as a digital assistant, it is seamlessly integrated into Intuit's suite of platforms and products, including TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp. With a consistent user interface, Intuit Assist leverages contextual datasets to deliver personalized recommendations to the company's vast customer base of over 100 million small businesses and consumers worldwide. This innovative offering also facilitates human assistance through Intuit's live platform when necessary. The digital assistant was created using GenOS, Intuit's proprietary operating system based on generative AI, which was launched in June to empower developers in incorporating AI across the company's product portfolio.


2020. New and improved Zoho Workplace adds Dashboard view


Zoho has introduced an enhanced version of Workplace, a comprehensive set of productivity, communication, and collaboration tools. Workplace goes beyond being a mere collection of applications; it serves as a fully integrated and unified workspace that seamlessly integrates with other business applications. This integration ensures that the context is preserved and a continuous workflow is maintained. The latest addition to the integrated Zoho Workplace is the Dashboard view, which organizes and presents recent and crucial work items such as emails, calendar schedules, important documents, reminders, and more. Workplace not only simplifies the process of switching between apps but also ensures that the context is maintained, enabling a seamless transition from one app to another. For instance, an email attachment received in Mail can be edited using Writer and then uploaded to WorkDrive, while the email thread can be continued in Cliq as a group conversation. Additionally, an event can be created from this conversation, and a meeting can be launched directly from the event's calendar entry.


2020. Intuit acquires inventory management software TradeGecko



Intuit, a US-based business and financial software company, has made a deal to purchase TradeGecko, a Singaporean software-as-a-service company specializing in online inventory and order management software for small businesses. The acquisition, valued at $80 million, aims to combine TradeGecko's inventory and order management capabilities with Intuit's QuickBooks accounting platform. This integration will enable QuickBooks Online customers to effectively launch and oversee products across online and offline sales channels. Additionally, they will be able to handle orders and inventory fulfillment from different channels and multiple inventory locations, as stated in the announcement.


2020. All new Zoho Writer adds collaboration analytics and templates flow


Zoho has unveiled the latest version of its online text processor, Zoho Writer 6, which introduces a new collaboration analytics tool called Engagement Insights. This powerful tool provides users with comprehensive and valuable information about how their collaborators interact with their documents. Particularly in the context of legal documents such as proposals, Engagement Insights offers insights into which sections are deemed crucial or confusing by clients. Additionally, Zoho Writer 6 aims to streamline the document creation process, reducing the need for manual editing, copy/pasting, and content duplication when generating contracts, proposals, letters, and customized marketing materials. This enhancement is facilitated through the new Prepare Template flow, enabling users to configure document templates for workflow automation. These templates can then be connected to data sources, such as Zoho CRM or third-party applications, using native Zoho integrations, Deluge Custom Functions, or REST APIs.


2018. Zoho gets virtual assistant and analytics upgrades



Zoho has introduced several enhancements to its all-in-one cloud app suite, Zoho One, including new analytics capabilities and expanded access to its Zia AI assistant. Initially available exclusively in Zoho's CRM tool, Zia provided sales representatives with data-driven suggestions. Now, Zia's functionality has been extended to all Zoho One apps, enabling users to access contextual information from various sources. For example, Zia can extract data from Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk, the service desk tool, to provide users with insights such as the number of customers in the sales pipeline who have an open support ticket. Customers can now ask Zia questions that span multiple apps and receive responses that may involve Zia's collaboration with multiple Zoho One apps behind the scenes to provide the answer.


2018. Zoho opened a platform for developers



Zoho has introduced the Zoho Office Platform, a new solution that enables seamless integration, connectivity, and development of applications using Zoho's high-quality office editors. This platform offers a range of straightforward and easy-to-integrate APIs, allowing developers to incorporate a built-in document editor into their applications. With this capability, users can create, access, and edit documents directly within their web applications. This is particularly advantageous for businesses that require comprehensive office editors for in-app document management while building web applications. By utilizing Zoho's Open APIs, you can connect your applications to the Zoho Office Suite, empowering your users to create, open, edit, convert, publish, and manage Zoho Office documents directly within your app. To get started, refer to our comprehensive Sheet and Writer API documentation.


2017. Intuit acquired time-tracker TSheets



Intuit, the company renowned for products like QuickBooks, has recently made a significant acquisition. They have acquired TSheets, a time-tracking service and employee scheduling app with a customer base exceeding 35,000, for a total of $340 million. Given the substantial overlap in their target markets, primarily catering to small and medium-sized businesses, it's evident that QuickBooks and TSheets complement each other. In fact, Intuit reveals that the two companies already share 12,000 customers, indicating an existing synergy. This acquisition is not primarily aimed at acquiring new customers but rather at enhancing the QuickBooks ecosystem. It's worth noting that TSheets already integrates with QuickBooks. Throughout my discussions with Intuit in recent months, it has become apparent that their current product plans revolve around minimizing friction, particularly in relation to QuickBooks, aligning with their commitment to creating seamless experiences for their users.


2017. Zoho launched Operating System for Business



Zoho has recently unveiled its most extensive market launch to date - Zoho One. This comprehensive offering comprises a wide range of applications that function harmoniously to manage an entire business in the cloud. With over 35 web applications available (including CRM, Books, Mail, Docs, Projects, Invoice, Campaigns, and more) and an equivalent number of mobile apps, Zoho One ensures seamless operation through a single sign-on system, centralized administration, and provisioning. Essentially, it serves as a complete operating system for businesses of all kinds. While each individual application outperforms competing alternatives, their collective impact is even more significant. Zoho One pricing starts at €35 per employee on a month-to-month basis, providing excellent value for businesses.


2017. Zoho offers free online office for 25 users



Zoho, the reigning champion in developing SaaS services tailored for small businesses, has created an extensive range of offerings that can be overwhelming to navigate. To simplify and enhance the user experience, Zoho now presents a bundled package comprising their nine most popular services, collectively known as Zoho Workplace. This comprehensive suite includes Zoho Mail for email management, Zoho Writer as a text editor, Zoho Sheet for spreadsheets, Zoho Show for presentations (complete with the interactive audience engagement tool, Zoho Showtime), Zoho Docs for cloud storage, Zoho Chat as an intranet messenger, Zoho Sites for website building, and Zoho Connect as an internal social network. The most exciting part is that all of these services are available free of charge for up to 25 users. Furthermore, by inviting other companies to join the platform, you can unlock an additional 25 free user accounts. This remarkable offer sets Zoho Workplace apart, particularly when compared to competitors like Office 365 and G Suite, which lack a free version altogether.


2014. Intuit acquired cloud integration service ItDuzzit



Intuit is further expanding its cloud platform for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) through the acquisition of itDuzzit, a startup offering integration tools for connecting various web and mobile apps within enterprises. This can be likened to the functionality of IFTTT but tailored for business needs. Intuit's intention is to incorporate itDuzzit into its QuickBooks platform, which not only provides accounting services but also offers a growing range of additional services for businesses. itDuzzit competes with similar platforms like Zapier and Cloudwork. The platform currently supports integration with numerous apps, including Asana, Box, Coinbase, Freshbooks, PayPal, and Shopify, with the promise of adding more apps in the future. In essence, this acquisition allows Intuit to provide its customers with a seamless way to utilize these integrated apps on its platform, alongside Intuit software, even if Intuit doesn't have a direct hand in each of those services.