Zoho Books: Progress Invoicing and the Fixed Asset Register

Two Zoho Books features that remove a lot of manual work — both switched off by default.

Progress invoicing from quotes

Many service businesses invoice in stages: a deposit, then milestones. Previously, tracking how much of a quote had been invoiced meant converting it to a sales order and invoicing from that. Sales orders are designed for product businesses managing fulfilment and shipping, so for services they just added complexity.

Turn it on

Go to Settings → Quotes (called Estimates in some regions) and allow the creation of progress invoices for a quote.

Use it

1. Create and send the quote, and mark it as accepted.
2. Click Convert → Convert to invoice. You can now invoice part of it — either a percentage of the total or a custom amount per line item.
3. Adjust lines and amounts, then save the invoice.

The quote shows as partially invoiced, with each invoice listed against it. When you convert again, Zoho shows only the remaining balances, so you can't over-invoice.

Fixed asset register and depreciation

Recording assets and posting monthly depreciation journals by hand is a long-standing frustration for accountants. The fixed asset register automates it.

Turn it on

Go to Settings → General and tick Fixed asset register. A Fixed Assets section appears under Accountant.

Set up asset types

Create asset types (e.g. Office equipment, Vehicles) and give each a default depreciation method and details.

Add assets

1. Add the asset — e.g. a £2,000 laptop — with its purchase date and asset type. The depreciation settings pull through from the type; you can override them for one asset (for example 20% a year over 48 months).
2. Choose the account it's recorded against and save.

Zoho tracks the current value, shows the depreciation schedule, and posts the journals automatically. You can enter assets bought in the past and it works out today's value. For one client, this replaced a couple of hours of manual journals every month.

Also worth knowing

Zoho Books is a complete finance system in its own right. You can connect it to other accounting packages, but if you're designing from scratch we'd recommend running finance in either Zoho Books or your existing package — not both. For more Books settings worth switching on, see custom approval processes in Zoho Books.

Watch the August 2025 What's New in Zoho webinar.