FreshBooks Review

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  • Award-winning customer service team
  • Complete on-the-go access with mobile app
  • Track time & projects and easily create reports
  • Easily integrates with popular business tools
Support
9 /10
Good for
Small business
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  • author: Gerald Stein
  • 02.12.18
  • Comments

Rating

  • "Price"
    10 /10
  • "Features"
    10 /10
  • "Ease of Use"
    9 /10
  • "Help and Support"
    9 /10

Overview

FreshBooks is the first name that comes to mind when talking about online invoicing software. It has won many awards and is being used by over 5 million businesses of varying sizes for efficient invoicing, time tracking and payment processing.

Plans & Pricing

FreshBooks is known for its flexible pricing policy. It comes with a 30-day-free trial and the following packages:

Lite

The lite package costs $15 per month if you want to subscribe to a monthly plan and $13.50 if you want to go for an annual plan. You get to create unlimited invoices for 5 clients, accept credit card payments and do invoice customization among other features.

Plus

The plus package costs $25 per month if you choose a monthly plan and $22.50 if you choose an annual plan. You can bill up to 50 clients with it. Along with all the lite package features, you get features to send automated payment reminders, schedule recurring invoices and add late fees for invoices that are overdue.

Premium

The premium package is priced at $50 per month if you want to pay every month and $45 if you want to subscribe to an annual payment plan. You can bill 500 clients with this package and all the plus package features are present as well.

After taking the rich set of features that FreshBooks provides into consideration, it can be safely stated that FreshBooks’ pricing policy is indeed very reasonable.

Lite
$15
Plus
$25
Premium
$50

Features & Functionality

Here are some of FreshBooks’ best features:

Invoice Customization

Even though many online invoicing software provide invoice customization features, none are as easy and rich as FreshBooks’. You can add your own logos, choose from different themes and set up personalized thank-you emails to give your invoice as professional a look as it can get.

Efficient Invoicing

With a simple click on the sidebar, you are taken to the invoicing menu where you are shown real-time stats regarding how much payment is overdue, how much is outstanding and how much is in overdraft. All your invoices are also easily accessible from the “all invoices” section and creating a new invoice is as simple as making a few clicks.

Auto-Pilot

The marvels of technology have allowed us to automate so many aspects of our life, and with FreshBooks, you can even put your business on auto-pilot. You can send reminders at customizable intervals, charge late fees (based on percentages or a fixed fee), can automate sending invoices for recurring clients and can categorically secure credit card payments.

Deposits

FreshBooks also allows you to request clients to pay you deposits. This way you can receive a percentage of the total budget or a flat amount up-front and will not have to wait till the end of the project to receive a payment.

Bill For All The Put-In Effort

FreshBooks has a “mark as billable” checkbox in the expenses section that lets you track all of the expenses you incurred for a client. This ensures that you bill for all the effort you put in and nothing remains off the books. You can attach specific clients to expenses and you will get reminded about the expense at the time of invoice creation, for the said client.

Other Features

Aforementioned were only some of the excellent features that FreshBooks provides. It also offers the ability to offer discounts, customize the payment terms for invoices, create invoices via mobile apps and automatically calculates taxes for you too.

Add-Ons and Integrations

FreshBooks integrates with PayPal, VISA, MasterCard and American Express among many other payment gateways. It also integrates with many third-party applications including Zapier, Braintree, Capsule, Stripe, Basecamp, HubSpot and EazyBI etc. The FreshBooks platform makes it simple to find and add integrations to the software, and with many options available, users will be able to link their invoicing software with a number of other helpful business tools.

Ease of use

Saying that FreshBooks is extremely easy to use will be an understatement. Its design is not only very simplified, it’s also very beautiful. Switching between sections is very simple and seamless. The dashboard is colorful, extremely intuitive and provides all the information that you would want to see when you start the application. Invoice creation, customization and searching is user-friendly as well. Even if you are a newbie, you shouldn’t face any real learning curve with FreshBooks.

Pros & Cons

  • Incredibly easy to use
  • Efficient invoice customization
  • Flexible expense management
  • Reporting features can be improved

Customer support

FreshBooks has a fairly responsive and professional customer team that can be reached via phone, email or a ticketing service. Information can also be obtained via a FAQ section, a blog present on the company website and the video tutorials present on the company’s YouTube channel.

  • Phone Support
    Phone support is available to their clients.
  • Email
    The company’s agents can be reached via email.
  • Video Tutorials
    A few videos are available on the company’s YouTube channel.
  • FAQ
    A fairly detailed FAQ section is present on the website.
  • Blog
    There is a regularly updated blog on various topics.

Final Word

FreshBooks is arguably the market leader when it comes to online invoicing software. It has a brilliant design and is very user-friendly and intuitive. Its invoice creation and customization is very efficient and it also comes with flexible expense management which makes sure that you get billed for all that you are worth and all the effort that you put in. Whether you want to secure your online payments or run your business on auto-pilot, there aren’t many better online invoicing software out there than FreshBooks.

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gerald
Gerald Stein
author

Gerald holds an honors degree in finance and with many years of experience helping small businesses gain capital for their start-ups makes for the perfect contributing writer to the Top 5 Accounting Software.

This review is based on the writer's personal opinion.

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Questions & Answers

Guest
Todd Nash

Do you have a plan for online invoicing approx 12000 customers up to 12 times each per year?

answer
FreshBooks offers a custom plan, where you can bill over 500 customers a month, depending on your needs.
Guest
Steven Jay

Can payroll be handled and payroll returns be files?is there a bank reconciliation? Can balance sheet and income statement be prepared?

answer
Hi Steve, thank you for your question. Yes, Freshbooks has all of these capabilities and more to help you run your business as smoothly as possible.
Guest
Erin Baker

Do Fresh Books have a payroll capability?

answer
Freshbooks integrates with many popular business tools. For payroll specifically you can use the Gusto add-on.
Guest
Jordan Ross

Cloud based means my information is saved on the internet. What kind of cyber security does Freshbooks have?

answer
Freshbooks take their customer’s safety very seriously. Customer’s private data is protected by 256-bit SSL encryption — the gold standard in Internet security. FreshBooks is cloud based and uses industry – leading secure servers.
Guest
Aaron Lopez

Can my traveling sales team invoice customers on the road?

answer
Yes, Freshbooks offers both iOS and Android mobile apps.

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