Keeping track of invoices and expenses is a constant challenge for freelancers. It's easy to let the administrative work pile up when you'd rather be doing billable work.
Fortunately, FreshBooks offers a streamlined solution to simplify invoicing, expense tracking, and more for solopreneurs. With capabilities to automate billing, organize financial data, and integrate with popular platforms, FreshBooks promises to cut administrative workload in half for freelancers and agencies.
In this review, we'll provide an in-depth look at FreshBooks' core features, usage, pricing, ideal users, and how it compares to competitors. By the end, you'll know if FreshBooks is the right fit to meet your business's back office needs.
Introduction to FreshBooks
FreshBooks is a cloud-based accounting and invoicing software designed to help freelancers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs easily track expenses, create professional invoices, manage projects, and gain financial insights into their business.
Overview of FreshBooks
FreshBooks allows users to:
- Create professional-looking invoices in minutes
- Track billable hours and expenses
- Accept online payments from clients
- Generate financial reports on revenue, expenses, profitability, etc.
- Integrate with other business applications through APIs
The software aims to provide an intuitive, user-friendly solution to simplify financial management for solopreneurs and small teams.
Founding and History
FreshBooks was founded in 2003 by Mike McDerment and Joe Sawada as 2ndSite Inc. The Toronto-based company sought to develop online invoicing and accounting software suited for self-employed professionals and small businesses.
Over the years, FreshBooks has grown to serve over 20 million users worldwide. Key milestones include:
- 2007: Launched integrated online payments
- 2010: Rebranded as FreshBooks
- 2016: Launched mobile apps
- 2017: Acquired BillSpring to expand billing capabilities
- 2022: Raised $284 million in funding to accelerate growth
Main Features and Benefits
The main features and benefits of FreshBooks include:
- Invoicing: Create, customize, send, and track invoices and get paid online faster
- Expenses: Track receipts, mileage, billable costs and generate expense reports
- Time Tracking: Track billable hours by project and client via stopwatch timers
- Payments: Securely accept credit cards and ACH payments from clients
- Reporting: Generate financial reports on profit and loss, accounts receivable, expenses and more
- Integrations: Connect to payment processors, project management tools and other business apps.
With its simple, user-friendly interface, FreshBooks aims to save time and simplify financial admin for entrepreneurs and freelance professionals.
Core Capabilities
Invoicing
FreshBooks provides customizable invoice templates that allow users to brand invoices to match their business. Features include the ability to accept online payments, set up recurring invoices, configure late fees, and automate reminders for outstanding invoices. The software integrates with payment processors like Stripe and PayPal to simplify getting paid.
Overall, FreshBooks aims to streamline and automate the invoicing process to save freelancers time while ensuring they get paid quickly and reliably.
Expense Tracking
With FreshBooks, users can snap photos of receipts and submit expense claims directly from their mobile device. Expenses are automatically matched to clients and projects, eliminating manual categorization.
The software provides dynamic reporting on expenses by client, project, user, category, and date range. This makes it easy to analyze spending and make informed budget decisions.
Expenses flow directly into accounting systems, ensuring effortless IRS compliance and reconciliation.
Time Tracking
FreshBooks enables users to track billable hours with either a stopwatch-style timer or manual time entry. Tracked hours automatically populate invoice line items, eliminating double data entry.
Project dashboards provide visibility into budgeted hours versus actuals, making it easy to identify scope creep or inefficient workflows. Users can set project budgets to control costs and ensure profitability.
Overall, FreshBooks takes the hassle out of time tracking so freelancers can focus on client work rather than administrative tasks.
Financial Reporting
FreshBooks generates a variety of reports to provide financial insights, including:
- Profit and loss statements
- Accounts receivable and accounts payable aging reports
- Expense breakdowns
- Tax summaries
The reporting simplifies bookkeeping and ensures users understand the financial health of their freelance business. Custom reports can also be exported to share with an accountant or advisor.
In summary, FreshBooks provides robust yet easy-to-use financial reporting capabilities tailored to freelancers and small business owners. The insights help users make smart financial decisions and grow their business.
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Usage & Implementation
FreshBooks is easy to use right out of the box. Here are some tips for getting set up and making the most of its features:
Sign Up & Onboarding
Signing up for a free FreshBooks trial only takes a couple of minutes. Simply enter your email, name, and password to create an account. You can immediately start adding clients, creating invoices, tracking expenses, and more.
To make onboarding smooth, begin by setting up the core elements of your business in FreshBooks:
- Clients - Add key details like name, email, physical address, etc. You can categorize clients as well.
- Projects - Outline the services you offer clients and capture associated expenses.
- Products & Services - Define offerings with a name, description, rate/price, and any variants.
Once these pieces are in place, you'll be ready to start invoicing clients and managing finances.
Integration Options
FreshBooks seamlessly integrates with many popular business apps through Zapier including:
- QuickBooks - Sync accounting data between the two platforms automatically.
- TSheets - Import tracked work hours from TSheets into FreshBooks timesheets.
- PayPal - Easily accept PayPal payments from clients by linking your PayPal and FreshBooks account.
Review the FreshBooks app integrations to explore more options.
Migrating Data
If you are switching from another accounting platform like QuickBooks or Wave, FreshBooks offers an import tool to transfer:
- Client details
- Invoices and payments
- Expenses and deposits
- Time entry records
To access it, go to Accounting > Import Data within your FreshBooks account. The import wizard will walk you through the process of bringing your existing financial data into FreshBooks.
Optimization Best Practices
Here are some tips for customizing FreshBooks and creating efficient processes:
- Set up invoice templates - Design professional templates aligned to your brand and services. Apply them to all new invoices in one click.
- Establish workflows - Use rules and reminders to automate sending invoices, paying contractors, collecting payments and more.
- Track KPIs - Follow key metrics like profits, accounts receivable, and project budget vs. actual to gain financial insights. Customize reports as needed.
Taking time to personalize and streamline FreshBooks workflows will help you manage finances more effectively.
Pricing & Plans
FreshBooks offers three pricing plans to meet the needs of freelancers and small businesses at various stages. Each plan includes core invoicing, expense tracking, and time tracking features, with additional capabilities unlocked at higher tiers.
Lite Plan
The FreshBooks Lite plan is free and provides basic accounting features for early-stage solopreneurs. It allows users to:
- Create and send professional invoices
- Track expenses
- Capture billable hours
- Access income and expense reports
- Invoice up to 5 clients
While functionality is limited, the Lite plan enables freelancers and solopreneurs to handle basic accounting needs for free.
Plus Plan
With the Plus plan, freelancers gain more advanced features starting at $15 per month. Additional capabilities include:
- Multi-currency invoicing
- Recurring invoices
- Multiple user logins
- Time tracking with project budgets
- Double entry accounting
- Invoice up to 50 clients
For freelancers ready to scale up operations, the Plus plan automates more critical financial workflows while still keeping costs low.
Premium Plan
At $25 per month, the Premium plan adds high-volume invoicing and customization for established freelance businesses:
- Invoice up to 500 clients
- Customizable invoices
- Automated payment reminders
- Integrations with other apps
- Priority email + phone support
For freelancers managing bigger workloads and multiple large clients, the Premium tier facilitates seamless financial management at scale.
With three flexible plans, FreshBooks aims to provide an affordable, scalable solution for freelancers to track invoices and expenses as their business grows over time. The higher-tier offerings unlock more robust accounting functionality needed for mature operations.
Conclusion & Summary
FreshBooks is a leading cloud-based accounting and invoicing software designed to help freelancers, small businesses, and accounting professionals streamline their financial workflows.
Key Takeaways
- Intuitive interface makes creating professional invoices fast and easy
- Robust expense tracking and reporting features
- Seamless integration with major banks and payment processors
- Affordable pricing tiers for solopreneurs and small teams
- Award-winning customer support
Ideal Users
FreshBooks is best suited for solopreneurs, freelancers, and small business owners who need to track hours and expenses, create professional invoices, accept online payments, manage clients, and have access to financial reporting. It's an ideal solution for consultants, creative agencies, accountants, lawyers, contractors, and field service businesses.
Competing Alternatives
Leading competitors in the online accounting software space include Wave, QuickBooks Online, and Zoho Invoice. Wave offers free basic invoicing but charges extra for payment processing and advanced features. QuickBooks Online has robust accounting capabilities but lacks some client management and reporting features. Zoho Invoice integrates with other Zoho apps but has a less user-friendly interface. Overall, FreshBooks balances ease of use, features, and affordability making it a top choice for streamlining financial workflows.
