Business Management Software With Accounting Built In
Invoicing, receivables, inventory, suppliers and jobs in one system, with the ledger underneath rather than bolted on the side. Enter it once and it is everywhere it needs to be.
Software built for New Zealand businesses since 1989
What is Zinform Accounts?
Zinform Accounts is business management software with accounting built in. It handles invoicing and receivables, inventory, suppliers and job management in one place, with the financial ledger underneath rather than sitting in a separate package that has to be reconciled against it.
That distinction matters more than it sounds. Most businesses run accounting in one system and operations in another, then spend real effort keeping the two honest. Here a job, the stock it consumes, the supplier invoice behind it and the customer invoice in front of it are all the same record.
It is part of the Zinform suite, built and supported by Exodesk. It is designed to be the finance system rather than an addition to one.
Why does the same information get entered three times?
Because most businesses grew into their systems rather than choosing them. Accounting came first, then a stock spreadsheet, then something for jobs, and nothing was ever built to talk to anything else.
So a job is entered where the work is scheduled, the parts are marked off somewhere else, and the invoice is raised in a third place from whatever detail made it that far. Each hop is a chance to lose a charge or transpose a number.
The visible cost is the time. The expensive cost is that no single place shows the truth, so questions like which jobs are actually profitable get answered with a guess or an afternoon of spreadsheet work.
Reporting cannot be better than the data underneath it, and data entered three times is three chances to be wrong.
What can Zinform Accounts do?
Invoicing and receivables
Automated invoicing, real-time payment tracking and overdue reminders that go out without somebody remembering to send them. The practical effect is on cash flow, because most late payment is late chasing.
Inventory management
Real-time stock control with automated reordering and inventory reporting. Stock levels move as jobs consume them rather than at a stocktake, which is what prevents both stockouts and money sitting on a shelf.
Supplier management
Supplier records, automated purchase orders and tracking in one place, so procurement is a process rather than a series of emails somebody has to remember.
Job management
Job tracking, scheduling and task automation, connected to the stock a job uses and the invoice it produces. This is where the job costing actually comes from.
- Dashboards and financial reporting built on live data rather than an export. Where you want to go further, it feeds Power BI.
- Electronic invoicing where your customers or government contracts require it, covered in eInvoicing.
- Workflow automation for the repetitive steps that currently rely on somebody noticing. See workflow automation.
How much data entry does it actually remove?
Most of the routine kind. Supplier invoices are captured automatically rather than keyed, and bank feeds bring transactions in directly.
That covers the two highest-volume, lowest-value tasks in most finance functions. What remains is the work that needs judgement: coding the unusual, chasing the genuinely overdue, and deciding what the numbers mean.
Where data still has to be captured out in the field, it comes in through Transsend on a phone rather than on paper, so it arrives complete and does not need re-typing when the vehicle gets back.
Does Zinform Accounts replace Xero or MYOB?
Yes. It is the finance system rather than something that sits alongside one, which is a bigger decision than adding a tool and deserves to be treated that way.
The businesses this suits are usually the ones who have outgrown a general ledger package. The accounting itself was never the problem. The problem was everything the accounting package could not do, which ended up in spreadsheets and second systems that somebody has to reconcile.
If your operation is straightforward and a ledger plus a good bookkeeper covers it, we will say so. Replacing a finance system that is working is rarely worth the disruption, and we would rather tell you that than sell you a migration.
Where it does make sense, the switch is planned around your reporting periods rather than dropped in the middle of one, and history comes across so you are not running two systems to answer questions about last year.
Will it connect to what we already run?
Usually, and this is the part Exodesk does differently from a vendor selling licences.
The developers who build Zinform are the ones who connect it, so integration with a CRM, a bank, an e-commerce platform or a piece of industry software is development work rather than a support ticket asking whether a connector exists.
Where nothing suitable exists off the shelf, it gets built. See business software integration and custom software development for how that work runs.
If you move freight, Zinform Logistics feeds consignments straight into Accounts for invoicing, which removes the largest single source of billing errors in that industry.
Who uses Zinform Accounts?
Businesses where the accounting is not the complicated part. The operation is.
- Businesses carrying stock, where inventory accuracy affects both what you can sell and what your accounts say you are worth.
- Job and project based businesses that need to know what a job cost, not just what it was invoiced for.
- Wholesale and distribution, where purchase orders, supplier terms and stock movement are the daily work.
- Operations running several disconnected systems and spending time each month making them agree.
It is less suited to service businesses with no stock and simple invoicing, where a standard ledger package genuinely does the job.
What does Zinform Accounts cost?
Licensing is monthly and scales with the number of users and the modules you use. Configuration, integration and data migration are quoted separately once we have seen how the business runs. Both figures are given before anything starts.
Migration is usually the variable that moves the number most, because bringing history across from an existing finance system is real work and doing it badly causes problems for years. It gets scoped properly rather than estimated.
The honest comparison is not against your current subscription. It is against the subscription plus the spreadsheets, the second and third systems, and the time spent every month making them agree with each other.
Questions
Zinform Accounts FAQs
What is Zinform Accounts?
Zinform Accounts is business management software with accounting built in. It covers invoicing and receivables, inventory, supplier management and job management in one system, with the financial ledger underneath rather than in a separate package. It is part of the Zinform suite, built and supported by Exodesk in New Zealand.
Does Zinform Accounts replace Xero or MYOB?
Yes. It is designed to be the finance system rather than an addition to one. It generally suits businesses that have outgrown a general ledger package and are running spreadsheets or second systems to cover what it cannot do. Where a standard ledger genuinely covers the business, replacing it is rarely worth the disruption.
Does it handle inventory?
Yes. Inventory is a core part of the system rather than an add-on, with real-time stock control, automated reordering and inventory reporting. Stock moves as jobs consume it, so levels reflect reality between stocktakes.
Can it manage jobs and job costing?
Yes. Job tracking, scheduling and task automation are included, and because jobs are connected to the stock they consume and the invoices they produce, job costing comes from the records themselves rather than from a separate calculation.
Will it integrate with our CRM, bank or online store?
Usually. Integrations with CRMs, banks and e-commerce platforms are supported, and because the developers who build Zinform also connect it, integration is development work rather than waiting for a connector to exist. Where nothing suitable exists, it can be built.
How much data entry does it remove?
Most of the routine kind. Supplier invoices are captured automatically rather than keyed, and bank feeds bring transactions in directly. Field data can come in through Transsend so it does not need re-typing when the job sheet gets back to the office.
What does Zinform Accounts cost?
Licensing is monthly and scales with the number of users and the modules used, with configuration, integration and data migration quoted separately once the business has been reviewed. Both figures are given before work starts. Migration usually moves the number most.
What happens to our historical data?
History is migrated so questions about prior periods can be answered in the new system rather than by keeping the old one running. How much comes across, and in what detail, is agreed during scoping because it affects both effort and cost.
Does it support eInvoicing?
Yes. Electronic invoicing is supported where customers or government contracts require it, which increasingly they do in New Zealand.
Is it suitable for a small business?
It depends less on size than on complexity. A small business carrying stock or running jobs gets real benefit. A small service business with simple invoicing and no inventory is usually better served by a standard ledger package, and Exodesk would rather say so.
Tell us where the double entry is
Describe how an order becomes a job, a job becomes stock movement and stock becomes an invoice. We will show you which of those steps you are currently doing twice.
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