Zoho Expensesolar-tuned for crew per diem, fuel, and field receipts.
Controlling per-diem, hotel-for-out-of-town-installs, truck fuel, equipment rental, PPE and customer-dinner expenses across distributed install crews is its own job. We deliver Zoho Expense with IRS mileage auto-applied, GPS-verified site visits, and policy enforcement by job, site and customer, so the controller stops chasing receipts and the crew lead stops losing them.
From the gas pump to a clean GL line.
Every solar field expense, mileage, fuel, hotel, lift rental, customer dinner, moves through the same five phases. We've coded each one into Zoho Expense so the crew lead stops keeping receipts in a glove box and the controller stops chasing them on a Sunday.
Receipt snapped on the rooftop. Mileage caught by GPS.
Your crew lead pumps diesel at a Pilot in Lubbock, snaps the receipt on the iPhone app, and the OCR pulls vendor, amount, date and tax automatically. The mileage from the warehouse to the customer's roof was already recorded by GPS the moment the truck started moving. Nothing handwritten, nothing lost in a glove box.
Receipts auto-code to the right job, project, and GL account.
Every expense is tagged with the job number, customer and crew, so the cost lands in the right project's P&L. Fuel hits 5125-Fleet, lift rental hits 5430-Equipment, customer dinner hits 5611-Sales Meals, without a single accountant retyping a code at month-end.
Foreman approves on his phone. Controller approves anything over $1k.
Daily totals roll up into a single report at end of shift. Under $250 auto-approves. Foreman thumbs-up under $1,000. Controller sees only the >$1k items. No paper, no scanning, no "can you re-send that?" emails on a Sunday night.
ACH the same payroll cycle. No 30-day delays.
Approved reports flow into the next payroll run automatically, Zoho Payroll, Gusto, ADP, Paychex or Rippling. The crew lead sees "Reimbursed Friday" in the app the moment it's queued. No reading "where's my mileage?" texts from your foreman at 7 PM.
Books, QuickBooks, or NetSuite, one push, clean lines.
At the end of the cycle, expenses post to Books / QBO / NetSuite with job, project, class and GL already populated. The CFO sees real-time job profitability that includes labor + materials + actual field cost, not a 30-day-old guess from a spreadsheet.
What the Zoho Expense license actually costs.
Pricing below is Zoho Expense's published U.S. list rate, billed annually, per ACTIVE user per month, in USD. As an Authorized Partner we apply a 15-20% partner discount on your subscription, invisible to Zoho list, real to your invoice.
* Zoho One requires all-employee licensing. We usually recommend it once you cross 12 full-time employees on Zoho, the math flips fast.
Three fixed-price ways to deploy solar Expense.
Zoho licenses are one cost. Getting Zoho Expense actually deployed against your policies, your card feeds, your job codes and your payroll cycle, that's our work. Three productized packages, in USD, with scope defined before we start.
Solar QuickStart
Replace the receipt envelope. Crew on the app in 5 days.
- Development22 hrs
- Project management6 hrs
- Training & user manuals4 hrs
- Hypercare (post go-live)5 hrs
- Meetings & reviews3 hrs
- Zoho Expense org with one policy (residential install)
- Mobile OCR receipt capture + IRS mileage (67¢/mi)
- Single-tier auto-approval workflow
- ACH reimbursement via Zoho Payroll or one payroll connector
- Basic GL post to Zoho Books
- Recorded training videos + 5-day hypercare
Solar LaunchPro
Full T&E engine for a multi-crew installer with corporate cards.
- Development44 hrs
- Project management10 hrs
- Online training sessions5 hrs
- Hypercare (post go-live)7 hrs
- Meetings & reviews4 hrs
- Per diem schedule (GSA-aware) by state and city
- GPS site verification on mileage claims
- Multi-tier approval (foreman → controller)
- Corporate card feeds (Chase Ink / Brex / Ramp)
- Project & job tagging on every expense
- QuickBooks Online or NetSuite connector
- 2 Analytics dashboards (DSO, crew spend)
- 2 online training sessions
- 10-day hypercare
Solar Enterprise Suite
For EPCs, multi-entity, prevailing-wage and fraud-aware controllers.
- Development92 hrs
- Project management16 hrs
- Online training8 hrs
- Hypercare (post go-live)9 hrs
- Meetings & reviews5 hrs
- Multi-entity / multi-office consolidation
- Prevailing-wage per diem rules (Davis-Bacon, IBEW)
- Fraud detection (duplicate receipt, inflated mileage)
- Custom dashboards (job P&L, crew cost variance, fleet fuel)
- Books + Payroll + Zoho People sync
- Custom REST API to legacy ERP
- 4+ Analytics dashboards
- 3 online training sessions
- 21-day hypercare + 3-month AMC (30 hrs support · not development)
Six things you won't get from a generic Zoho rollout.
IRS mileage auto-applied
Federal 2026 rate baked in. Crew leads don't enter a rate, they enter the trip and the system does the math, including round-trip from warehouse to site.
GPS site verification
If the truck never crossed the customer's geofence, the mileage claim flags for review. End of "I drove to the job" claims that never happened.
Card feeds for Chase, Brex, Ramp
Corporate card transactions pull in nightly, match against receipts automatically, and flag unmatched lines for the foreman to fix before payroll.
Per diem by state, by city
GSA-aware schedule auto-applies the right per diem rate for hotel + meals when a crew is overnighting in Bakersfield vs Lubbock vs Buffalo. No more flat "$50/day" guesses.
Fraud detection built in
Duplicate receipts (same vendor / same dollar / same day) flag automatically. Mileage that exceeds shortest-route by >25% routes to controller. Saves real money.
Books, QBO, NetSuite native
Every approved expense posts to your books with job / project / class / GL all populated. CFO sees real-time job profitability, not a 30-day-old guess.
A Zoho partner that ran payroll for a real install crew.
Built for distributed install crews
Most expense partners optimize for a single office. We've shipped 380+ rollouts for installers running 3-12 crews across multiple zip codes. The policy logic isn't an afterthought.
Prevailing-wage aware
If you bid Davis-Bacon work in CA or any federal job, per diem and travel rules change. Our policy templates handle prevailing-wage, IBEW, and non-union side-by-side without rewriting them.
GL coding that an actual CFO will approve
We don't dump everything into 6000-Misc. Default GLs map to fleet, equipment rental, PPE, customer meals, and crew lodging, built on the chart of accounts most U.S. solar CPAs use.
U.S. team. Glendale, CA. Pacific hours.
You'll be talking to people in your timezone who understand a crew lead's expense rhythm. No 4 AM "let me check with my team" emails.
The honest FAQ.
How long does Zoho Expense go-live really take?
Can you migrate us off Expensify, SAP Concur, or Ramp expense?
Does it actually post clean lines to QuickBooks?
How do you handle per diem for out-of-town installs?
What about corporate cards, Chase Ink, Brex, Ramp?
What's the ongoing cost after go-live?
See your solar pipeline on Zoho, in 30 minutes.
Walk through your current sales-to-PTO flow with one of our solar implementation leads. You will leave the call with a fixed-price quote in USD and a defined go-live date.