Zoho Expense vs. Shoeboxed: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Continuing on in our receipt tracking apps comparison series, in this article, we break down and compare Zoho Expense vs. Shoeboxed to see which best suits your needs.

What is Zoho Expense?

Zoho Expense is an online expense reporting software that allows businesses to record and report business expenses. With a focus on reimbursements for employees and managing employee expenses, Zoho Expense allows managers to streamline the approval process for expenses and control business expenditures. As an admin, you can set budgets and review your employees’ reports to choose to approve or reject them.

Employee’s receipt tracking dashboard for Zoho Expense

What is Shoeboxed?

Shoeboxed is a receipt scanner, organizer and business expenses management software that allows you to scan, upload, and store receipts in a digital filing system specifically tailored for business receipts. You can send receipts into your Shoeboxed account using any of the following ways:

1. Send receipt scans from your phone.

2. Use a Gmail plugin to auto-import receipts into your Shoeboxed account.

3. Drag and drop receipts into the cloud

4. Email receipts to your Shoeboxed account.

5. Or mail them for free with Shoeboxed’s Magic Envelope service to let them do the scanning.

Shoeboxed’s website receipt tracking dashboard

Zoho Expense vs. Shoeboxed: An overview

Shoeboxed and Zoho Expense both allow you to scan and track your expenses anywhere you are. Both receipt software have receipt-tracking dashboards available via website or apps on Apple and Google Play stores. Their websites provide an overview of your spending and the different categories to sort them out.

Zoho Expense has a specific section where an employee can submit expense reports, which will be sent for approval. 

In Shoeboxed’s dashboard, users can filter by category, vendor, dates, price range, and currency.

How Shoeboxed can digitize your documents

One feature unique to Shoeboxed is the prepaid envelope service for sending in receipts. If you have a pile of receipts you don’t want to scan, you can use Shoeboxed’s Magic Envelope service to outsource your scanning.

Outsource receipt scanning with Shoeboxed’s postage-paid envelopes!

This service makes scanning receipts more convenient than trying to remember and find time to scan them up yourself at the end of the week or month. 

Side-by-side comparison chart: Zoho Expense vs. Shoeboxed

Here is a side-by-side comparison to help you compare the differences between these apps.

Shoeboxed pros and cons

Pros

• Outsource receipt scanning. Enjoy Shoeboxed’s Magic Envelope scanning service, and never bother about scanning receipts again. 

• AI data extraction paired with a human data verification team means 100% accurate expense tracking.

• Every Shoeboxed subscription comes with unlimited file storage and unlimited sub-users—no need to be limited with your subscription. This feature means you can add your bookkeeper or accountant as a sub-user to your account. Or, bookkeepers and accountants can include multiple clients within their account.

• You can add multiple clients to your account if you are a bookkeeper or accountant.

• Easily change your subscription or upgrade your monthly document limit without worrying about being bound by a contract.

Cons

• Shoeboxed does not offer budgeting features within its dashboard.

Zoho Expense pros and cons

Pros

• Zoho Expense allows employees to create purchase requests, streamlining the purchasing and approval process.

• Robust expense reporting features with a focus on reimbursements.

• Admin users on Zoho Expense can set up daily, monthly, or yearly limits on expense amounts or per diems. Employees will get a notification or have their submissions blocked if they exceed their limit.

• Easy integration with Zoho Books and Zoho CRM.

Cons

• Zoho Expense only integrates with some of the most popular accounting and payroll software, such as QuickBooks and Xero. This means that if you need to integrate with other payment systems or third-party applications, you may be unable to do so.

• Zoho Expense does not offer budgeting features within its dashboard.

How does Shoeboxed compare to other receipt scanner apps?

Frequently asked questions

Does Shoeboxed have a free plan?

Shoeboxed’s 100% free plan is called the DIY plan. With the DIY plan, users manually extract and input data into Shoeboxed’s receipt management software. (Automatic data extraction with human verification is not included in the free plan.)

Does Zoho Expense have a free plan?

Zoho Expense has a free plan that allows users to track expenses and record mileage. Some limitations of the free plan include a 5GB storage limit and limitations surrounding trip expensing and itinerary management and expense reports, etc.

What’s a Zoho Expense alternative for receipt and expense tracking? 

Zoho Expense is a great expense management tool for enterprise businesses. Their software streamlines the approval process for employees’ expense reports. As an admin user on Zoho, you can create budgets for your employees to follow.

On the other hand, Shoeboxed provides a 2-for-1 service, combining receipt scanning and receipt management software for smaller businesses, bookkeepers, and accountants with its Magic Envelope service that allows you to outsource receipt scanning and send in receipts for free. Additionally, AI data detection + human verification team ensures increased accuracy of important information from your documents.

Try Shoeboxed for free today!

Tomoko Matsuoka is the managing editor for Shoeboxed, MailMate, and other online resource libraries. She covers small business tips, organization hacks, and productivity tools and software.

About Shoeboxed!

Shoeboxed is a receipt scanning service with receipt management software that supports multiple methods for receipt capture: send, scan, upload, forward, and more!

You can stuff your receipts into one of our Magic Envelopes (prepaid postage within the US). Use our receipt tracker + receipt scanner app (iPhone, iPad and Android) to snap a picture while on the go. Auto-import receipts from Gmail. Or forward a receipt to your designated Shoeboxed email address.

Turn your receipts into data and deductibles with our expense reports that include IRS-accepted receipt images.

Join over 1 million businesses scanning & organizing receipts, creating expense reports and more—with Shoeboxed.

Try Shoeboxed today!