Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho Books: Your Accounting Data in Excel and Power BI, With SQL
Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho Books is a Windows ODBC driver ($109.95 a year) that opens a Zoho Books organization to SQL. Invoices, contacts, bank accounts, taxes, time entries, vendor credits and the rest of the ledger appear as tables in Excel, Power BI, Access, Tableau or SQL Server, after a one-time sign-in to Zoho.
Zoho Books has good built-in reports, but accountants and finance teams tend to finish their work in Excel or a BI tool: a cash forecast that mixes bank balances with open invoices, or a margin report that needs data from another system. The driver removes the export-and-paste step in between.
Quick facts
- Version: 1.9.0, released October 16, 2026 (first version December 15, 2021)
- Developer: Devart
- Platform: Windows Vista and later, 32-bit and 64-bit, Terminal Server included, .NET Framework 4.5 or later
- Sign-in: Zoho data center, the Zoho Books Organization ID, and an OAuth refresh token from the "Sign in to Zoho" button
- Data centers: US by default; Japan, Canada and Saudi Arabia support were added in 2023 to 2025 releases
- Price: $109.95 a year for Desktop, $219.95 perpetual
- Trial: 30 days with a Devart trial key
- Refund: full refund within 30 days, but only if a technical problem stops it working and Devart's support can't fix it
- What we checked: the order page asked $109.95 for Desktop for Windows with a 1-year subscription, and the download page offered version 1.9.0 as a 32.33 MB EXE or 36.45 MB MSI, both on November 14, 2026. We didn't connect it to a Zoho Books organization
Before you buy
Books holds your financial records, so decide up front who gets write access. The driver acts as the Zoho user who signed in, and an UPDATE or DELETE changes the books immediately, within whatever that user may do in Zoho. For reporting, sign in with a user whose Zoho Books role is limited to viewing. If your Zoho account lives in the EU, India or Australia data center, confirm during the trial that your region appears in the Data Center list.
Download Free Trial Buy Now
Overview
The Zoho Books driver is built for one Zoho app, not Zoho in general. Its DSN asks for three things: which Zoho data center your account is in, your Organization ID (one Zoho login can own several Books organizations, and the ID picks one), and a refresh token. You don't type the token; you click "Sign in to Zoho", approve access in the browser, and the driver stores it, encrypted since version 1.5.0.
The Zoho Books DSN dialog: US data center (books.zoho.com), Organization ID, the saved refresh token from "Sign in to Zoho", and the "Connection successful" message from Test Connection.
Once connected, every ODBC tool on the computer sees the Books organization as a database. Excel's Navigator, for example, lists tables such as Taxes, TaxExemptions, TimeEntries, Users and three vendor-credit tables (comments, line items and refunds), alongside invoices, contacts and bank accounts.
Excel's Navigator through the Zoho Books DSN: tax, time-entry, user and vendor-credit tables, with the Users table previewed.
Features
The ledger as related tables
Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho Books splits documents into header and detail tables, so you can join vendor credits to their line items and refunds, or invoices to contacts, with standard SQL-92 JOINs, subqueries and GROUP BY.
Multi-currency friendly
Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho Books exposes a Currency table next to BankAccounts. Devart's own sample query lists bank accounts with their currency symbol, account type and whether they are linked to PayPal.
Bulk changes in batches
Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho Books supports INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE and can combine statements into batches, which speeds up large edits such as recoding many items or contacts.
Works in your region
Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho Books lets you choose the Zoho data center in the DSN. Version 1.4.0 added the Japanese data center, 1.6.0 the Canadian one, and 1.7.0 Saudi Arabia.
Benefits
- Month-end without exports. Reconciliations and management packs refresh from Books instead of from last week's CSV.
- Finance data meets operations. Join Books invoices with a CRM or warehouse system in SQL Server or Power BI.
- Billable time in one place. TimeEntries can feed utilisation and billing reports outside Zoho.
- Low cost per seat. $109.95 a year is less than a day of an accountant's manual re-keying.
Real-World Uses
- Cash position sheet. A controller pulls bank account balances by currency into an Excel model every morning.
- Receivables review. A finance team lists unpaid invoices by customer and age in Power BI and shares the dashboard with sales.
- Tax check. An accountant compares tax amounts by tax code against the Taxes table before filing.
- Vendor credit cleanup. A bookkeeper finds vendor credits that were never refunded or applied by joining the credit and refund tables.
Who It's For, and Who Should Skip It
Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho Books is for accountants, controllers, finance analysts and bookkeeping firms on Windows who run Zoho Books and build their reporting in Excel, Access, Power BI or SQL Server.
If Zoho Books' own reports and Zoho Analytics cover you, this adds little. Mac users are out of luck, since it's Windows-only. And if you only want Books data in Excel and never in other tools, look at Devart's Excel Add-in for Zoho Books, which works inside Excel without an ODBC setup.
Usage Guide
- Find your Organization ID in Zoho Books (it is shown in the organization profile).
- Download the trial with the button on this page; Devart asks you to log in with a free account. Install the EXE or MSI.
- Open the ODBC Data Source Administrator that matches your program's bitness and add a DSN with Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho Books.
- Activate the trial key on the License tab.
- Choose your data center, enter the Organization ID, click "Sign in to Zoho" and approve access in the browser window, then click Test Connection.
- In Excel use Data > Get Data > From Other Sources > From ODBC, or pick ODBC in Power BI, and choose the DSN.
Tip
If your company keeps more than one Books organization, for example one per country, create one DSN per Organization ID and give each a clear name. Reports can then union or compare entities without anyone switching organizations in the browser.
Where It Falls Short
- No Mac or Linux build. The driver is Windows-only.
- Zoho's API pace. Each query is answered by the Zoho Books API, so large invoice histories are slow compared with a database, and calls count toward your Zoho plan's daily API limit.
- Write access is all or nothing per user. The driver has no read-only switch of its own; control it with the Zoho user's role.
- One organization per DSN. Group reporting across several Books organizations means several DSNs and your own union queries.
What Users Say
Zoho Books users haven't reviewed this driver by name on public review sites. The ODBC line it belongs to is reviewed as a whole, so treat the comments below as evidence about Devart's drivers in general.
From Capterra
Devart ODBC Drivers average 4.7 out of 5 across 26 Capterra reviews. One reviewer chose Devart because its driver was the least expensive option they found and came with the best instructions for what they needed. Another described using the drivers to bring cloud data into an on-premise system, which is the typical Zoho Books case.
Beyond cost and documentation, reviewers say little that is specific to cloud apps. For an accounting system, what matters most is that the tables you report on are complete, so check your key reports against Zoho Books' own figures during the trial.
Comparisons
ODBC driver vs. Zoho Analytics
Zoho Analytics is Zoho's own BI service with a native Books connector, sold as a separate subscription. Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho Books ($109.95 a year) suits teams that already use Excel, Power BI, Tableau or SQL Server and want Books data there.
Driver, Excel Add-in, SSIS or dotConnect?
Devart sells four Zoho Books connectors: this ODBC driver for any ODBC tool, an Excel Add-in for editing inside Excel, SSIS components for SQL Server Integration Services packages, and dotConnect for .NET developers. Pick the ODBC driver when several different tools need the same connection.
Editions and Pricing
| Edition | 1-year subscription | Perpetual | Who can use it |
|---|
| Desktop for Windows | $109.95 | $219.95 | One user at a time on one computer |
| Server Standard for Windows | $799.95 | $1,599.95 | Several users on one server with up to 6 cores, one legal entity |
| Server Enterprise, Site, OEM | Quote | Quote | Any core count, a whole company, or shipping the driver in your own app |
The Buy Now button orders every edition through one product: the order page starts at Desktop for Windows with a 1-year subscription, and you can change to Server Standard, 2 or 3 years, or perpetual on the same page. Priority support is optional, and buying 5, 10 or 20 copies cuts the price by 5, 10 or 15 percent.
FAQs
Does Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho Books need my Zoho password?
No. Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho Books uses an OAuth refresh token: you sign in to Zoho in a browser window once, and the driver keeps the token, not your password.
Can the Zoho Books driver connect to several organizations?
One DSN of Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho Books points at one Organization ID. Create a DSN per organization to report on several.
Does the Zoho Books ODBC driver work with the EU data center?
Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho Books has a Data Center setting, and Devart added Japan, Canada and Saudi Arabia in recent versions. Check that your region is in the list during the free trial.
Will Zoho Books API limits affect my reports?
They can. Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho Books reads through the Zoho Books API, so frequent refreshes of large tables use up API calls. Filter queries by date to keep calls down.
Is there a version for Zoho Invoice or Zoho Inventory?
Yes, but separately. Devart sells distinct ODBC drivers for Zoho Invoice, Zoho Inventory, Zoho Desk, Zoho People and other Zoho apps; Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho Books covers Books only.
System Requirements
- Any Windows version from Vista on, 32-bit or 64-bit, Windows Server and Terminal Server included
- .NET Framework 4.5 or later
- 32.33 MB EXE or 36.45 MB MSI installer; only one driver version installed
- A Zoho Books organization (Organization ID) and a Zoho user able to sign in
- Internet access to Zoho over HTTPS, optionally via proxy
Conclusion
Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho Books is a sensible $109.95 a year for finance teams that live in Excel or Power BI but keep their books in Zoho: invoices, bank accounts, taxes and time entries become live tables, and the browser sign-in keeps passwords out of the DSN.
The reasons to pass: it's Windows-only, it runs at Zoho API speed, and its write access needs careful user roles. Try it for 30 days with a view-only Zoho user first.
Download Free Trial Buy Now