Beyond angbao: How businesses should really think about spending

Handing out festive angbao for the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year is a simple act. Money is given with trust, intention, and often without tracking.

In business, spending works very differently. Every dollar carries responsibility, visibility, and long-term impact. Yet many organisations still manage expenses with the same informality, relying on trust without structure.

To drive visibility with expense, we're kicking off this new year edition with two major financial announcements that will enhance your day-to-day operations.

First up, Zoho Spend is live! It's a unified platform that covers all business spend categories, like procurement, AP automation, business travel, employee expenses, and payroll, to enable non-siloed visibility, control costs, and boost profitability.

Big news for big businesses: Zoho Billing Enterprise edition is here to handle the complexity of global enterprises. Implement competitive monetisation strategies and advanced governance, and gain deeper revenue visibility with this latest release.

Connected workflows that transform customer expectations into projects delivery

In many organisations, Sales and Marketing take centre stage because of their direct impact on revenue. But, long-term success is defined by how well customer expectations are delivered after the deal is closed. That’s where a well-implemented CRM becomes critical.

On the 16th January, our Singapore users met up to explore how connected business workflow using Zoho CRM and Projects can help businesses accurately capture customer's input and translate that into clear, personalised outcomes.

This means, customer data needs to be structured correctly before any project starts. We've looked into important automations to deploy, the timing and means to do so, including key metrics needed to improve project quality.

If you're looking for similar sessions where you can automate more advanced workflows, or even deploy your newly built custom apps in it? Secure your seats in our upcoming Zoho Creator and Zoho Flow February meet up.

And, to check whether your current CRM set still keeps pace with how your business operates today, don't miss our upcoming CRM Healthcheck this March. See you there!

Zoho on the ground Singapore edition

Helping SMEs take practical steps towards the future of AI in SaaS

(Our Zoho Singapore team engaging SCCCI's SMEs owners through panel discussions and CRM workshops)

AI is shaping how businesses will operate in 2026 and it was at the heart of the recent SCCCI Tech Symposium.

We've just had our first Zoho APAC event and Singapore demo presentation of the year and we explored how both GenAI and agents can move from concept to real business impact, of course when powered by the right data foundation.

In spirit of this, we partnered up with MyRepublic in a combined workshop, demonstrating how SMEs can achieve better management of customer's data and enrichment through rule-based automation, CRM field, module and layout customisation, and deployment of digital agents built with n8n into Zoho CRM environments.

AI that gets you started faster

Simply describe the survey you want, and AI takes care of the rest! Zoho Survey can now instantly generate questions and align their formats. Just add your logic, fine-tune, publish, and share in minutes.

Catalyst has also taken a big step with its built-in AI—with LLM Serving and in-house RAG, instant frontend deployment via Slate, scalable object storage with Stratus, and smart events using Signals, users can now build modern apps from frontend to backend, all under one roof.

Work doesn’t stop when the internet does

Users can now build new spreadsheets and edit existing device files offline on the Zoho Sheet Android app. And with Zoho Show's Mac app, users can create presentations without signing in and enjoy a smooth, native macOS experience that keeps ideas moving, even without a browser!

Clear insights and protected access

With customer conversations, context is everything. That's why Zoho FSM now supports built-in telephony—so teams can make and receive calls in the app and keep each interaction logged for follow-ups.

By integrating Google Analytics (GA4) with Zoho Bookings, users can track booking journeys and conversions, and know which ad, campaign, or channel led customers to book.

And, Zoho SalesIQ now allows creating custom profiles to control access at a feature level, ensuring every team member sees only what they need and keeping sensitive customer data secure.

We're wrapping up this edition with a collection of memories that reminded us how special 2025 has been for us—enjoy this video as we wish the very best of 2026 to reach your doorstep. See you soon! 👋

Until next time,

Nicholas Koh at Zoho