FreshBooks Review: Pricing & Features for 2021

FreshBooks is cloud-based accounting software that allows you to create and send unlimited invoices, manage clients and projects, and accept payments online. It offers a robust set of features, including double-entry accounting, recurring invoices, project management, mobile accounting, and more. FreshBooks offers four plans with monthly fees that start at $15 per month.

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What We Recommend FreshBooks For

FreshBooks is a powerful accounting program. It is popular for automating different business processes, including invoicing, expense management, and time tracking. Its flexible features are offered in pricing plans that are affordable for small and midsize businesses (SMBs). The program is built to support SMBs, freelancers, self-employed professionals, and independent contractors.

FreshBooks offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required for you to explore the program.

FreshBooks Accounting Software Is Especially Good For

• Invoicing customers: We ranked FreshBooks as the best invoicing software because of its powerful invoicing capabilities. You can create professional invoices in seconds, choose your preferred currency, and send invoices from anywhere with its mobile app. FreshBooks is also a great time-tracking app that can automatically add employee time to your invoices.
• Businesses looking for an alternative to QuickBooks: FreshBooks offers many of the same features available in QuickBooks Online for a lower price, including expense categorization, receipt capture, billable time tracking, and simultaneous users. You can explore other alternatives in our review of the best QuickBooks alternatives.
• Freelancers and self-employed: FreshBooks’ mobile app allows you to communicate with your clients, send invoices, and upload expense receipts without confining you to a desk. For other freelancer options, check out our article on the best accounting software for freelancers.
• Businesses engaged in ecommerce: If you are engaged in selling products online, FreshBooks can help with integrations for Squarespace, Shopify, eBay, Selz, and others. Read our review of the best e-commerce accounting software.
• Businesses looking for easy accounting software: FreshBooks stands out as an easy-to-use accounting software because of its intuitive and easy-to-use interface and simple accounting and invoicing system. Check out our guide on the best easy-to-use accounting software.

FreshBooks Accounting Is Not a Good Fit For

• Companies with inventory: FreshBooks cannot track the cost of your inventory and cost of goods sold (COGS) without an integration.
• Tracking income/expense by class: FreshBooks doesn’t let you run income or expense reports by class like QuickBooks Online. It’s not ideal when you want to know which part of your business brings in the most income and which part takes the biggest expenses.

Are you looking for something different? Read our guide to the best small business accounting software and check out our top picks.

FreshBooks Overview

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FreshBooks Pricing

FreshBooks offers four plans with monthly fees that start at $15 per month. The plans vary in terms of the maximum numbers of billable clients and the availability of advanced features, such as automated recurring invoices, double-entry accounting reports, and a dedicated account manager.

All plans include one user with additional users available for $10 per month. FreshBooks also integrates with Gusto to support your payroll needs.

FreshBooks has a fully integrated online payment service that charges 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction on most credit cards to process online payments and 1% for bank transfers.

FreshBooks Features

FreshBooks packs a wide range of features designed to help you automate your invoicing and accounting tasks, allowing you to focus on other important aspects of your business. Its dashboard gives you a snapshot of your outstanding revenue, total profit, revenue streams, spending, and unbilled time:

FreshBooks’ Dashboard.

Your dashboard shows the following graphs:

• Outstanding Revenue: Know which of your invoices are outstanding and which are overdue.
• Total Profit: See how your business is performing based on your revenue and expenses over a specified period.
• Revenue Streams: Gain valuable insights into where your invoice and noninvoice revenue are coming from at a glance.
• Spending: See how your spending is distributed among parent expense categories.
• Unbilled Time: See unbilled hours tracked in the Time Tracking section.

Let’s look at some of FreshBooks’ core features and how they can help you simplify your accounting tasks.

Double-entry Accounting

FreshBooks’ double-entry accounting tools, such as journal entries, a balance sheet, general ledger, and COGS, let you reconcile your expenses and revenue items effectively, minimizing the chance of errors.

Invoicing

Its built-in invoice generator creates personalized invoices in seconds. You may request your clients make a deposit on your invoice, add tracked time and expenses, accept credit cards and automated clearing house (ACH) payments, and more. Choose from a gallery of free and customizable invoice templates in PDF, Word, Google Docs, Excel, and other helpful formats.

To create a new invoice, click on the Invoices section, hit the New Invoice button, add your details and customize your invoice, and then click Save:

Creating a New Invoice.

Expense Tracking

FreshBooks lets you set up auto-categorization of expenses, assign recurring expenses, manage multi-currency expenses, automatically import expenses from your banks, and more. Its mobile app allows you to snap a photo of receipts and store them in the cloud.

To create a new expense, click the Create New button, choose Expense, click on the + New Expense button, enter the required information, and choose Save:

Saving a New Expense on FreshBooks.

Time Tracking

Track the time spent on a specific project with daily breakdowns of your working hours. You may add detailed time entry notes, bill for tracked hours automatically, and track time on the go with its mobile app. You may also track time directly from your favorite project management tools like Trello, Teamwork, Asan, and Basecamp.

Estimates and Proposals

Create customizable proposals that outline your project’s scope, deliverables, and timeline. You may preview estimates before sending, view and respond to client feedback, send estimates in your desired currency, and more.

Project Management

Manage your projects and deliverables better with the ability to assign a rate or hours to a particular client, assign due dates, invite team members to a project, and see a project status quickly. You may also control user access and manage projects wherever you are with its mobile app.

Payments

Accept online payments from your clients through major credit cards, Stripe, or PayPal.

Reports

FreshBooks provides seven reports that cover the basic accounting aspects of your business. These reports include sales tax summaries, profit and loss, invoice details, aging accounts, time entry details, expense details, and payments collected. A balance sheet report is also available in the Premium and Plus plans.

Integrations

FreshBooks integrates with more than 70 software programs, including Zoom, Shopify, Squarespace, Gusto, G Suite, Fundbox, Stripe, Bench, HubSpot, Dropbox, PayPal, QuickBooks Online, Slack, and Mailchimp.

Customer Service and Ease of Use

FreshBooks has an aesthetically pleasing and intuitive interface that is easy to use and navigate. I personally created an account, and it only took me a few minutes to set it up. From the dashboard, you can access all the important features and financial reports you need instantly. It’s a good choice for beginners who are just starting their business.

In terms of customer service, users can talk to a representative via email or over the phone. A support page is available to provide users with helpful resources on how to get the most out of your software.

FreshBooks Alternatives

Bottom Line

FreshBooks may lack some important features like tracking unpaid bills and managing your inventory, which are present in slightly more expensive software like Xero and QuickBooks Online, but its powerful invoicing features, affordability, and ease of use make it worthy of consideration for your business.

Sign up for a free trial to see if FreshBooks is the right software for you.