Zoho Books
Connect ChefAdmin to Zoho Books, map branches and tax, run the onboarding wizard, and see what syncs in each direction.
ChefAdmin connects to Zoho Books. Once connected, your purchasing, receiving and stock movements are mirrored in Zoho, and your Zoho sales invoices flow back into ChefAdmin.
Setting it up takes two people: the Company Owner connects and maps, then someone with the Configure & Sync Zoho permission runs the onboarding for each brand.
1. Connect (Company Owner)
Open Integrations
Go to Settings > Brand and click Integrations. Only the Company Owner sees this button.
Connect to Zoho
On the Zoho Books card, click Connect. A Zoho window opens; sign in and approve access. Allow pop-ups for ChefAdmin if your browser blocks it.
You will see "Zoho connected successfully." The card shows Connected, your Zoho organisation and when it connected.
Map branches
Under Map Zoho branches to ChefAdmin brands, choose the ChefAdmin brand and shop for each Zoho branch you use. Every mapped branch needs a shop, so sales can be credited to the right place. Click Save Mapping.
Choose tax records
- Default Tax for Purchase Orders: the Zoho tax record used when a purchase order includes tax.
- Menu Item Sales Tax: the tax record used for menu items.
Pick each from your Zoho tax records and save. If none appear, create them in Zoho Books under Settings > Taxes first.
Give someone the sync permission
The Configure & Sync Zoho permission is off by default. Grant it to the role that will run the sync, in your user access settings.
2. Onboard each brand (Configure & Sync Zoho)
- Select the brand in the header at the top of the screen.
- Go to Inventory Manager > Inventory List, open the cloud menu and choose Zoho Onboarding Wizard.
- Choose how to start:
- Existing Chefadmin (recommended): you already have items in ChefAdmin. It pulls your Zoho suppliers, matches Zoho items to ChefAdmin items by name, pulls matching purchase orders, then pushes everything not yet in Zoho up to it.
- Fresh Chefadmin: ChefAdmin is empty for this brand. It pulls suppliers, items and purchase orders from Zoho.
- Click Run setup. Large catalogues take a couple of minutes. A table shows what was created, updated, skipped and any errors.
What syncs
From ChefAdmin to Zoho, automatically:
| In ChefAdmin | In Zoho |
|---|---|
| A purchase order is raised, edited, approved or declined | The matching purchase order |
| A purchase order is received | A bill, for the received quantity |
| A cash purchase is saved | A purchase order closed straight to a bill |
| A stocktake or waste entry | An inventory adjustment |
| A supplier is added, edited or deactivated | The vendor |
| A new ingredient is added | The item |
When raising a purchase order you can tick Include Tax (Zoho only) to apply your default tax in Zoho. ChefAdmin's own costing is not affected.
From Zoho to ChefAdmin:
- Sales invoices, once a day. Each line is matched to a menu item through its Zoho link, credited to the mapped shop, and the ingredients are taken out of stock. Draft invoices are skipped.
Push and map by hand
On Inventory List, the cloud menu has Push Items to Zoho, Push Suppliers to Zoho and Push Active Recipes to Zoho for anything not yet linked.
On Menu Items, the Sync button (shown once the brand is mapped) offers:
- Map Existing Zoho Items: links menu items to Zoho items with the same name.
- Map Menu Items to Zoho…: link or unlink each menu item to a Zoho composite item by hand.
- Push Active Items to Zoho: sends your active menu items to Zoho.
Each menu item shows Synced or Unsynced. Unsynced means it has changes not yet sent to Zoho.
Sales only count for linked menu items
A Zoho invoice line can only be matched if the menu item is linked to its Zoho item. Use Map Existing Zoho Items or Map Menu Items to Zoho… after adding new dishes.
Reconnect
If the card says Reconnect required, click Reconnect and approve access in Zoho again.