FreshBooks: Invoicing and Accounting Made Easy for Entrepreneurs

What is Freshbooks?

FreshBooks has been shaping the world for freelancers and small business owners since 2003. He is among the best business accounting software and more than 24 million users in 160 countries trust it.

With FreshBooks, you can automate customer billing and expense tracking. You can also create proposals and negotiate with entrepreneurs on a single platform. In addition, accepting online payments and setting up recurring invoices is much easier with this software.

FreshBooks Target Users

If you are self-employed, FreshBooks was created to provide you with an easy way to track your income and expenses. But today, FreshBooks isn't just for freelancers. It offers four plans, ranging from the Lite plan, which is perfect for sole owners and startups, to the Select plan, which is better suited for larger businesses with more customers.

FreshBooks also added a new accounting partnership program, which provides a more collaborative approach for FreshBooks users and their accountants.

If you're just starting out or have no intention of hiring an employee, FreshBooks is for you. However, if your business is growing, there are more suitable products.

Features

FreshBooks (freshbooks integrations) recently added a ton of features, all designed to make your life easier.

These include the quick expense creation feature (freshbooks expenses tracking), which allows you to create an expense directly from the Expenses tab instead of having to click on another screen.

1. Expense Tracking

FreshBooks has implemented innovative features to make tracking expenses easier and more effective.

• Fast Expense Creation: Allows you to create an expense directly from the “Expenses” tab.
• Invoice and Receipt Scanner: Automatically captures data from any downloaded receipt.

Tracking expenses is made easier, but a budgeting function would be a welcome addition.

2. Time Management and Billing

FreshBooks offers tools for better time management and more efficient billing.

• Retainers option: Ideal for lawyers, accountants or service providers to budget and reserve blocks of time.
• ACH payments: Accelerates the process of receiving payments

The time management and billing tools are robust, but an integrated budgeting function would be helpful.

3. Advanced accounting

FreshBooks is at the level of the major players in online accounting with advanced functionalities.

• Double Entry Accounting: Allows you to compete with products like QuickBooks Online and Xero.
• Reports: Offers basic but useful reporting options.

The addition of double-entry accounting is a plus, but the reporting options could be more comprehensive.

4. Integrations and Compatibility

The platform offers a wide variety of integrations, making your accounting experience more complete.

Application Integrations: Integrates with nearly 100 different applications. Here are some of them:

• Payroll - Gusto
• Payment - Stripe, PayPal
• Team collaboration - Zoom, Slack
• Project Management - Asana, Trello, Basecamp
• CRM - Salesforce, Agile, Hubspot, LiveChat
• Ecommerce - WooCommerce, Shopify, Shopify, eBay, Magento
• Marketing - Mailchimp, Formstack, Campaign Monitor
• Cloud storage - G-Suite, Dropbox
• Website Management - WordPress, Squarespace

Multi-platform compatibility: Available for Android and iOS, compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux.

The versatility of the integrations is an asset, but additional native integrations would be beneficial.

5. Team Collaboration

FreshBooks makes team collaboration easy with dedicated features.

• Team Invitations: Allows you to invite different types of members to your team.
• Automatic authorizations: Set authorization levels automatically.

Team collaboration is easier, but more customizable authorization levels would be a plus.

6. Estimates and Proposals

FreshBooks makes it possible to create estimates and proposals for larger projects.

• Invoice conversion: Approved quotes can be easily converted to invoices.
• Formal proposals: Possibility to create a more formal document that presents the value of the services provided.

Estimation and proposal tools are useful, but could be enriched with predefined models for different types of projects.

In summary, FreshBooks offers a comprehensive range of features that make managing finances and accounting easy for small businesses and freelancers. However, there is still room for improvement, especially when it comes to budgeting and reporting options.

Customer Support

FreshBooks provides a robust help center to support both new users and existing customers.

• Help Center: Detailed explanations and step-by-step guides for each feature.
• Free webinars: Online sessions to help users get the most out of the platform.

While FreshBooks doesn't offer live chat, their phone and email support is effective.

• Phone and Email Support: Available during office hours, Monday to Friday.
• Responsiveness: Fast and personalized responses, with reference tickets for easy follow-up.

FreshBooks customer support has received positive reviews, with the majority of users giving it 5 stars.

In summary, FreshBooks customer support is well-designed to meet the needs of users, despite the lack of live chat. Their responsiveness and the personalized attention they offer make them a reliable choice for entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Pricing

FreshBooks offers a range of pricing plans to meet the varied needs of entrepreneurs and small businesses.

• Lite plan: Costs $15/month, ideal for freelancers and sole proprietors. Promotion at $4.50/month for the first three months.
• Plus plan: Priced at $25/month, offers advanced features like unlimited proposals and late payment reminders. Promotion at $7.50/month for the first three months.
• Premium plan: Costs $50/month and can handle up to 500 customers. Promotion at $15/month for the first three months.
• Custom plan: Customizable according to the specific needs of your business. Rates are available upon request.

FreshBooks offers promotions for the first three months on its Lite, Plus, and Premium plans. So it's a good idea to check their website for the latest offers.

FreshBooks offers flexible pricing options to suit different needs and budgets. However, the lack of an integrated payroll option can be a disadvantage for some businesses.

FAQs

Is Freshbooks good for accounting?

Yes. As we pointed out in our article on FreshBooks, it is a feature-rich online bookkeeping and accounting software.

Is there a free version of Freshbooks?

No There is only one free trial.

Is Freshbooks better than QuickBooks?

Yes, in terms of billing, tracking expenses and time, managing teams and projects.

Final opinion

At the end of our tests, it became clear that FreshBooks is a great cloud accounting software. It's a great tool for keeping track of customers, bills, and expenses. Plus, it has great apps and lots of third-party app integrations. Customer support is also reliable. You can take advantage of all of this at a reasonable price.

Unfortunately, FreshBooks doesn't have unlimited billable customers or inventory management. The reports lack some robust metrics that are available in other online accounting tools. FreshBooks apps lack some portal features.