For consulting, legal, design and IT services
EFT vendor payments for professional services firms
A monthly run of contractor invoices, a partner who has to approve, and an office manager who does finance on Fridays. Zefty turns approved Zoho Books bills into one EFT 1464 file for your bank and records every payment back in the books.
Payables in a firm that sells time
Contractors and freelancers on monthly cycles
Associates, subcontracted specialists and freelancers invoice monthly and expect to be paid on a fixed day. They notice when it slips, and they talk to each other.
Partner approval
Nothing goes out without a partner or director signing off, but partners are billable and travelling. Approval needs to happen where they already are, in Zoho Books or the bank portal, not in a spreadsheet.
A finance team of one
The office manager or a part-time bookkeeper runs payables alongside everything else. Formatting bank files and double-entering payments is the first thing that slips when the week gets busy.
Billable hours lost to admin
Every hour a partner or consultant spends chasing a payment question is an hour not billed. The payment record needs to be findable without asking.
The month-end contractor run
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Contractor invoices arrive as bills
Contractor and supplier invoices are entered in Zoho Books as usual. Zefty syncs them every night, along with each vendor's banking details, and flags any vendor still missing account information.
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The partner approves in Zoho Books
Bills the partner has approved are placed in a view such as "Approved for payment". Zefty pays only from that view, so only what has been signed off can be selected.
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Generate on payment day
The office manager selects the bills, confirms the total, chooses the payment date and downloads the file for your bank. Partial amounts can be entered where a retainer or dispute applies.
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Upload, approve, done
The file is uploaded in the bank portal and approved by the signing partner. Every bill is already recorded as paid in Zoho Books, and the report is in your payment history if anyone asks.
Features for lean finance teams
Nightly sync plus on demand
Bills and vendors sync automatically every night, and on demand whenever you need the latest before a run. Your dashboard shows when the last sync ran.
Approval by view
Point Zefty at the Zoho Books view that holds approved bills. Approval stays in the tool partners already use, and nothing outside the view can be paid.
Write-back and history
Payments are recorded in Zoho Books the moment the file is generated. Your payment history lists each paid bill with a link to the payment in Zoho Books, for anyone who asks "was this paid?".
Affiliated entities
If the firm operates a holding company, a management company or a second office as separate entities, each becomes an organization with its own bank and Zoho Books connection on the Team plan.
Professional services firms and Zefty: common questions
A monthly run is the most common pattern among services firms. The value is in what a run involves: pulling bills, checking banking details, producing a file your bank accepts and recording payments. Zefty reduces that to a few minutes at $29 per month in CAD, and the report answers most follow-up questions.
Approval in Zoho Books works from the Zoho Books mobile app, and final release in most bank portals works from the bank's app or a browser. Zefty itself works in a browser on any device. The two approval points, Zoho Books and the bank, are where partners usually act.
Enter the amount to pay on the bill before generating the file. The payment file and the payment in Zoho Books both use that amount, and the remaining balance stays open on the bill until you pay it in a later run.
Remove their user; the seat is released and their access ends. Files, reports, history and the Zoho Books connection belong to the organization, not to the person, so a replacement picks up with the full record. Bank and Zoho Books settings remain in place.
Pay contractors on the day you promised
Connect Zoho Books, choose your bank and turn the month-end run into one file and one approval. Plans from $29 per month in CAD.