Skip to main content

Consult JC

Consult JC at Customer Connect Expo: Two Days of Conversations, Zoho and Better Customer Experience

Consult JC at Customer Connect Expo: Two Days of Conversations, Zoho and Better Customer Experience

Consult JC at the Zoho booth at Customer Connect Expo

In September, the Consult JC team headed to the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta to exhibit at Customer Connect Expo, one of the biggest gatherings of people who care about customer experience.

Over two days we did what we enjoy most: talking with business leaders about how their teams work, where things get stuck, and how Zoho can help them serve customers better. We came home with full notebooks, new connections and plenty to think about.

Here is what it was like, what we talked about, and what we are taking away.

Why we were there

Customer experience is rarely just a software problem. It is a people and process problem first. The businesses we work with want their sales, service and back-office teams working from the same information, so customers do not have to repeat themselves and staff do not have to chase answers.

As a Zoho Premium Partner, that is the work we do every day. Customer Connect Expo gave us a chance to hear those challenges first-hand from companies across many industries, and to share how Zoho can bring people, processes and systems together.

What we talked about at the booth

  • One view of the customer. How Zoho CRM puts every ticket, campaign and conversation on one record, so your team is never selling or supporting blind.
  • AI that does real work. Many visitors wanted to know where Zoho AI and Zia fit. The most useful conversations went beyond the technology to what it can actually accomplish, and where a personal touch still matters most.
  • Less manual work. Smarter automation means less time on repetitive tasks and more time building meaningful customer relationships.
  • Using technology well, not just adding more of it. The future of business is not about having more tools. It is about using the right technology in the right way.

Inside the Expo with Jordan Cohen

Our CEO, Jordan Cohen, spent the expo talking with business leaders about common technology use cases, how companies are rolling out new solutions, and where Zoho can make a difference. His advice for any business weighing up its next move was simple: just go for it.

What we are taking away

  • Businesses are thinking about outcomes. The questions were less about features and more about what a system will actually change for customers and staff.
  • AI needs the right foundation. Interest in AI is high, and the businesses that get the most from it take a methodical approach, with the right data, structure and strategy in place first.
  • Conversations beat pitches. The best part of the expo was listening. The right solution always starts with understanding the business behind it.

A big thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth, shared their challenges and helped make this year’s expo a great one. Until next time!

Missed us at the expo?

Whether you are implementing Zoho for the first time, exploring AI or rethinking your business processes, you do not have to figure it out alone. Book a free consultation at consultjc.com or email info@consultjc.com.

People first. Systems that scale.

Zoho Books’ New AI Fields Are a Big Deal for Bookkeeping

Zoho Books' New AI Fields Are a Big Deal for Bookkeeping

Zoho Books’ New AI Fields Are a Big Deal for Bookkeeping

Every finance team has a version of the same month-end story. A pile of receipts nobody coded. A customer comment on an invoice that nobody read. A tax rate someone looked up by hand and hoped was right. None of it is complicated work. All of it eats hours that should go to the numbers that matter.

Zoho Books’ May 2026 update goes straight at that pile. Three changes are worth your attention: AI-powered custom fields, free receipt scanning, and automated sales tax for US and Canadian businesses. Here is what each one does, how to set it up, and where we would keep a person in the loop.

What Actually Changed

  • AI custom fields. Three new field types that read one field on a transaction and write a result into another: Image to Text, Keyword Extraction and Sentiment Analysis.
  • Free receipt scanning. Zoho says receipt scans are now free, so capturing, scanning and managing expense receipts costs nothing extra. Monthly limits depend on your plan.
  • Sales tax automation (US and Canada). Zoho says it “automatically determines and applies the correct tax”, taking into account your business location, your customer’s location, tax registrations, the type of goods or services and customer exemptions.

Setting Up AI Custom Fields, Step by Step

Zoho says AI custom fields are available on Premium plans and above. Its help documentation currently lists them as Early Access, so you may need to ask support to switch them on first.

  1. Check your plan and ask for access. You need Premium or above. If the AI data types are not available in your organisation, email support@zohobooks.com.
  2. Turn on AI features. Go to Settings, then Organisation, then AI Preferences. Switch on the feature, choose an AI provider and model, and save.
  3. Create the custom field. Add a new custom field and choose one of the AI data types.
  4. Point it at an input field. Tell Zoho which field the AI should read. Once a transaction is marked as Sent, the result appears on its details page.
  5. Test on real transactions first. Run it on a handful of live examples and check the output before you roll it out to the team.

 

Three Ways Finance Teams Can Use Them

  • Keyword Extraction pulls the most important words from a transaction description. Zoho’s own examples are categorising transactions and capturing item attributes such as colour or size. It gives you something to filter and report on that you did not have to type.
  • Sentiment Analysis labels customer feedback on a transaction as Positive, Negative or Neutral. Our suggestion: use it to flag which overdue conversations need a softer opening before your collections call.
  • Image to Text extracts printed or handwritten text from an uploaded image, describes it and detects objects. It is a good fit for handwritten delivery notes and supplier paperwork that never arrive as clean PDFs.

One practical limit: Zoho’s US pricing page shows two AI fields on each of Premium, Elite and Ultimate. With only two to use, decide which problems cost you the most time before you create them.

 

Free Receipt Scanning: What “Free” Means

“Free” does not mean unlimited. At the time of writing, Zoho’s US pricing page shows 50 receipt autoscans a month on the Free plan, 200 on Standard and Professional, and 1,000 on Premium, Elite and Ultimate. Limits can differ by region, so check the pricing page for yours.

The bigger win is habit, not software. Make receipt capture something people do on the day, not at month end. Agree who reviews what comes in, because a scan reads the receipt but a person still decides how it is coded.

 

Sales Tax Automation: Before You Switch It On

Treat this as a calculation tool. As we read Zoho’s description, it works out the right tax on your transactions. Filing and remittance stay with you and your accountant. Before you turn it on, we would check:

  • Your organisation address. It sets where the tax starts, so make sure it is right.
  • Your items and customers. Items should carry the right tax category, and exemption certificates should be on file for customers such as resellers, non-profits and government bodies. A certificate alone may not be enough if the item itself does not qualify.
  • Recurring invoices. Do not assume older transactions are recalculated. Test on new ones and review anything already scheduled.
  • Your registrations. Confirm the states or provinces you are registered in, so the system is working from the same list your accountant is.

 

Where We Would Keep a Human in the Loop

  • AI output is a suggestion. Someone should review keyword and sentiment results before they drive a decision about a customer or a ledger.
  • Know where your data goes. When you enable AI features you choose a provider and model. Zoho’s documentation for AI custom fields does not spell out data handling, so check before pointing them at sensitive customer notes.
  • Tax automation is not tax advice. Questions about where you owe tax, and how to file it, still belong with a CPA.
  • Fields nobody trusts get ignored. Explain to your team what each AI field means and what to do with it. Adoption is the real measure of whether this works.

 

Want This Working in Your Zoho Books?

We have actual accountants on our implementation teams, so we can look at your chart of accounts, your tax set-up and your month-end routine, tell you honestly which of these changes are worth switching on, and help your team use them. Book a free consultation at consultjc.com or email info@consultjc.com.

People first. Systems that scale.

Zoholics USA 2026: Our First Year Exhibiting, and a Market Innovation Partner Award

Zoholics USA 2026: Our First Year Exhibiting, and a Market Innovation Partner Award

Consult JC team receiving the Market Innovation Partner Award at Zoholics Houston

 

On 12 and 13 May 2026, the Consult JC team was at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas for Zoholics USA, Zoho’s annual user conference.

We have attended Zoholics before, but this year was different. For the first time, we were on the expo floor as an official exhibitor, at Booth 416. And we came home with something special: Zoho recognised Consult JC with the Market Innovation Partner Award.

Here is a look back at two busy days in Houston.


Market Innovation Partner Award

We are honoured that Zoho recognised Consult JC with the Market Innovation Partner Award at Zoholics Houston.

This award reflects the work our team puts in every day: helping businesses build smarter systems, improve operations and get real value from the Zoho ecosystem. It belongs to the whole Consult JC team, and to the clients and partners who trust us with their businesses. Thank you to Zoho, to our clients, and to everyone who has been part of the journey so far.

Everything is bigger in Texas

They told us everything is bigger in Texas, so we took that literally. After attending Zoholics in previous years, 2026 was our first time exhibiting, and we brought our biggest presence yet to the expo floor. As a Zoho Premium Partner, it was the perfect place to meet business owners, Zoho users and fellow partners from across the country.

Two days at Booth 416

From the moment the doors opened, Booth 416 was busy. Over two days we talked with business owners about all things Zoho, automation and growth, ran live demos, and made plenty of new connections. A big thank you to everyone who stopped by to meet the team.

Catch the highlights from the expo floor below.

Inside the Zoholics Houston Conference Day 1

Day Two at Zoholics in Houston

The Evolution of ERP Systems at Zoholics: Recap

What we took away from Zoholics

  • Operations are becoming connected, intelligent and automated. One of the most exciting topics was the evolution of ERP systems and how AI is changing the way businesses manage information, streamline processes and make decisions.
  • Unified systems beat disconnected tools. Businesses are moving away from scattered tools and manual workflows towards systems that give them visibility across sales, operations, finance and customer service.
  • Strategy comes before features. Our biggest takeaway was not a new feature at all. Before implementing any technology, the first question should be: how does your business actually operate? Map how leads are captured, how work moves through the organisation and where the bottlenecks are, and the right Zoho apps and automations become clear.

The goal is never to force your business into software. It is to build systems that support the way your business works and help it scale.

Thank you, Zoholics

Thank you to the Zoho team for a fantastic event, and to every Zoho user, partner and business leader who spent time with us in Houston. We are already looking forward to the next one.

Want to see what Zoho can do for your business?

Whether you are new to Zoho or looking to get more from the system you already have, our award-winning team would love to help. Book a free consultation at consultjc.com or email info@consultjc.com.

People first. Systems that scale.

Zia Goes Agentic: What Zoho People’s New AI Means for Your HR Team

Zia Goes Agentic: What Zoho People's New AI Means for Your HR Team

Zia Goes Agentic: What Zoho People’s New AI Means for Your HR Team

If you run HR for a growing company, you already know the shape of a Monday morning. A leave balance to check. A new hire still waiting on their portal invitation. A manager asking where the latest policy lives. None of it is hard. All of it adds up.

Zoho has made a meaningful move on exactly this problem. Over the past few months, Zia, the AI assistant inside Zoho People, has gone from something that answers questions to something that gets tasks done. For a mid-sized business without a large HR department, that is worth paying attention to.

From Answering Questions to Doing the Work

Most workplace chatbots stop at “here’s a link to the policy.” Zoho describes Zia as an assistant that “answers questions, executes tasks, and pulls reports” from a plain-language request, working against your own Zoho People data.

The recent updates show the direction of travel. Zia can now carry out key onboarding steps straight from chat, such as managing candidates, triggering workflows, resending portal invitations and checking onboarding records by status. Employees can ask it to find files that have been shared with them. It can even draft assessment questions for your learning courses from a topic description or an uploaded document.

That is the shift: from an assistant that points, to one that does.

What It Looks Like in a Real Week

Based on what Zoho has published, here is where a growing HR team is likely to feel it first:

  • Routine questions stop landing on HR. Employees can ask Zia about policies, leave and their own data instead of messaging a person, and Zoho says it can summarise policies and help with leave planning.
  • Onboarding moves faster. The admin steps that eat a new-hire week can be triggered from a conversation rather than hunted down across screens.
  • Managers see their team without asking for a report. Zia turns workforce data into charts and highlights trends and recurring patterns.
  • It meets people where they work. Zia works by chat or voice across the web app, the mobile app, Microsoft Teams and Slack.

Why This Matters More for Growing Businesses Than Big Ones

Enterprises have specialists for onboarding, policy and reporting. A 60-person company has one or two people doing all of it, and often one person who simply knows where everything is. When that person is out sick, or resigns, the business feels it.

An assistant that handles the routine questions and routine steps spreads that load across the system instead of across one person’s memory. That is the real value here, and it is why we think this belongs in the conversation for scaling businesses, not just large ones.

It is also within reach. Zia is listed among the features on Zoho People’s plans rather than sold as a separate enterprise product, and you can run it on Zoho’s own language model, hosted in Zoho’s data centres, or bring your own key to connect a third-party model. Which edition includes which Zia capabilities is worth confirming for your plan before you build around it, and we are happy to check that with you.

The Question to Ask First: Who Can See What?

An assistant that can act on HR data needs rules. Zoho says Zia only provides information each user is permitted to access, keeps an audit of every action it performs, and protects data with encryption. Those are the right foundations.

They only protect you if your roles and permissions are right to begin with. If everyone is an admin today, Zia will inherit that. This is the unglamorous work we do first, because we diagnose before we prescribe.

Where We Would Be Careful

  • Patterns are not verdicts. Insights that flag trends in attendance or engagement are a prompt for a good conversation with a manager. They are not a decision about a person.
  • Clean data in, useful answers out. If leave policies are out of date or employee records are patchy, Zia will faithfully repeat the mess.
  • Technology does not create adoption. Your new system will not fail because of the software. It fails if the team is not brought along.

How to Start Without Overcomplicating It

  1. Fix the foundations. Review roles and permissions, and make sure your policies and employee data are current.
  2. Start small. Pick two or three high-volume requests, such as leave questions, onboarding steps and policy lookups, and measure the time you get back.
  3. Bring people along. Show employees and managers what to ask and where to go when something does not work. Keep a human reachable for the “where do I click” moments. That is why every Consult JC launch includes a period of free hypercare.

Thinking About Zia for Your HR Team?

We will look at your current Zoho People setup, tell you honestly what is worth switching on and what to fix first, and help your team actually use it. Book a free consultation at consultjc.com or email info@consultjc.com.

People first. Systems that scale.

Scroll to Top