Table of Contents
An overview of the most popular features and pricing plans from FreshBooks, a top-rated cloud accounting service.
FreshBooks is a cloud-based bookkeeping software that helps small businesses manage their finances. It’s easy to use, and has many features and pricing options for users. Read more in detail here: freshbooks pros and cons.
FreshBooks is a cloud-based accounting software that lets you send limitless invoices, manage customers and projects, and take payments online. It includes features like as double-entry bookkeeping, recurring bills, project management, mobile accounting, and more. FreshBooks has four subscription tiers, starting at $15 per month. FreshBooks is offering a 60 percent discount on all subscription packages for the next three months.
FreshBooks is a program that we recommend for a variety of reasons.
FreshBooks was assessed in 11 areas, and we discovered that project accounting, accounts payable (A/P), and accounts receivable (A/R) management are its strongest features. FreshBooks is a terrific solution for every kind of company that needs to organize and monitor projects from start to finish, based on these findings. The program will also assist project-based firms seeking for a simple method to submit invoices. FreshBooks can’t monitor revenue by class like QuickBooks and can’t handle inventory, but it may be a good option for automating company procedures like expenditure management and time tracking.
FreshBooks Is Particularly Beneficial For
- Because of its comprehensive invoicing features, we selected FreshBooks as one of the top invoicing software apps. With its mobile app, you can produce professional invoices in seconds, pick your desired currency, and send bills from anywhere. FreshBooks is also one of the finest time-tracking applications we recommend. FreshBooks makes it simple to monitor staff time and add it to invoices.
- FreshBooks provides time-tracking and collaboration capabilities that make it simple to log the hours spent on a project and communicate with your team members. To assist you better manage your budget and operations, you may compare your budget prices to real time and expenditures.
- FreshBooks, a QuickBooks Online competitor, provides many of the same features as QuickBooks Online at a lesser price, including cost categorization, receipt capture, billable time tracking, and simultaneous users. In this analysis of the finest QuickBooks Alternatives, you can learn about other options.
- Ecommerce businesses: If you sell things online, FreshBooks can assist with connectors for Squarespace, Shopify, eBay, Selz, and other platforms. If you have a lot of inventory, we recommend reading our evaluation of the best e-commerce accounting software for some more options.
FreshBooks Isn’t Right For You
- Companies with inventory: Without an integration, FreshBooks cannot measure the cost of your inventory and the cost of goods sold (COGS). Xero is an excellent inventory management software for small businesses.
- Tracking revenue/expense by class: Unlike QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks does not allow you to run income or expenditure reports by class. QuickBooks Online enables you to create financial statements based on product and service categories as well as geography.
- Companies looking for free bookkeeping services: While FreshBooks has a lot more capabilities, Wave is free and allows you to input bank transactions and compile financial statements.
Are you on the lookout for something unique? Check out our top selections in our guide to the best small company accounting software.
FreshBooks Accounting Pros & Cons
Go to FreshBooks.com.
Case Study on FreshBooks
Our case study compares FreshBooks, Sunrise, and QuickBooks Online side by side to help you determine which is best for your company:
In terms of forecasting accounting, mobile app, and client performance, FreshBooks outperforms Sunrise and QuickBooks Online. In terms of handling A/P and A/R, it outperforms Wave, but it lacks the capability of QuickBooks Online.
Inventory management is FreshBooks’ weakest feature, which is critical for product-based enterprises. If you sell things on a regular basis, QuickBooks Online is the ideal option for inventory management.
Pricing for FreshBooks
FreshBooks has four subscription tiers, starting at $15 per month. The plans differ in terms of the maximum number of billable customers and additional features like automatic recurring bills, double-entry accounting reports, and a personal account manager. By paying yearly, you may save an extra 10%.
Each subscription comes with one user, with extra users costing $10 per month. FreshBooks also works with Gusto to help you manage your payroll.
Features of FreshBooks
To help you determine whether FreshBooks is the correct software for you, we’ve provided a brief review of it in each area based on our complete case study. We’ve also included videos of our thorough examination of each feature.
FreshBooks is pretty simple to set up. It just takes a few steps to enter your company’s information, which includes the name, address, and phone number. You have access to almost everything as an owner, with the exception of the ability to generate journal entries and set up special accounts in the chart of accounts. You’ll need to enlist the help of an accountant to do these chores, which may be inconvenient for company owners who don’t have access to an accountant or bookkeeper. You can’t input starting balances in FreshBooks unless you utilize the Journal Entry box. Prior-year books cannot be closed to prevent modifications in earlier transactions. You may add extra users to FreshBooks if you require one or more individuals to work alongside you, but you’ll have restricted choices for user roles and permissions.
Video of FreshBooks’ General Features
FreshBooks’ accounts payable function, which can be located under the Expenses tab and is available to Premium and Select customers, contains bill and vendor management tools. Only the Petty Cash account may be used to record transactions entered manually. When the transaction is imported through the bank connection and reconciliation is conducted, such transactions may be allocated to a bank account. As a result, you won’t be able to allocate costs to bank accounts until you give FreshBooks access to your bank account. Connecting your bank account is a terrific time-saving function, but if you’re not comfortable with this, QuickBooks is a better option. QuickBooks permits but does not need a connection.
You may quickly establish a new vendor and build a bill from scratch or upload a receipt. To create a new bill in FreshBooks, go to the Expenses menu, choose Bills from the drop-down menu, and then press the New Bill button. In the New Bill screen, fill in the relevant information and then click Save:
In FreshBooks, create a new bill screen.
FreshBooks also allows you to record a payment and assign it as billable to a project or contractor. You can also set up non-stock and service items within a service order and add a default price for each item, but you can’t use the item to pay independent contractors. A/P is connected to your cash flow statement and profit and loss (P&L) reports, so you can view outstanding bills instantly.
Accounts Payable in FreshBooks
FreshBooks has a number of useful invoicing options. FreshBooks bills are professional-looking, and you can personalize them by changing the design, adding a logo, and adding a personal note. You may add elements like inventory, labor and expenditures, and sales tax to your invoice in addition to personalizing it. Your invoice may also be emailed and printed. Another useful feature is the option to set recurring invoices, which is useful if you’re charging a client on a regular basis for the same amount. You may also see a sorted list of your overdue bills so you can send a pleasant reminder to your consumers.
To create a new invoice in FreshBooks, go to the Invoices area, select the New Invoice button, fill out the form with your information, and save it:
In FreshBooks, create a new invoice screen.
Despite its many advantages, accounts receivable has flaws. A receipt for an instant sale, a refund check to settle a negative accounts receivable, or a sales tax adjustment on a credit note are all not possible.
Accounts Receivable Video in FreshBooks
Cash Management and Banking
FreshBooks doesn’t perform well in terms of Cash Management and Banking. You can’t reconcile bank statements unless you hook up your bank account. If you aren’t comfortable connecting your bank account, then FreshBooks isn’t for you. At the very least, good accounting software should allow you to record a check in the register, but that’s not possible with FreshBooks. With FreshBooks, all transactions are deposited or withdrawn from cash on hand automatically. From there, transactions can be assigned to bank accounts, but only by utilizing the connection to your bank account. This makes FreshBooks nearly unusable if you don’t establish the bank connection. Almost all software allows a bank connection, but FreshBooks is the only one among its major competitors that requires the connection. If you’re looking for software with strong Cash Management and Banking, then we recommend QuickBooks.
FreshBooks Cash Management and Banking Video
FreshBooks’ major flaw, as shown by its 0 score in our case study, is fixed asset management. We attempted to register a work trailer purchase as a fixed asset, however you can’t attach a bill or payment to an asset account, and you can’t create a journal entry when signed in as the owner. FreshBooks does not include a built-in fixed asset manager, however most accounting applications do enable you to record the purchase, which FreshBooks does not. If fixed assets are a significant component of your organization, Xero, a decent general accounting application with a great fixed asset manager to compute depreciation and monitor assets, should be considered.
Video of FreshBooks Fixed Assets
Unless you require inventory accounting, FreshBooks is an excellent alternative for project accounting. It has project management tools that integrate with its invoicing application to help you keep track of deadlines and streamline project operations. You may include things like labor, inventory, and sales taxes to your estimate. You may convert an estimate to a project and assign real labor cost information after it’s been authorized. You may also do a cost comparison between projected and actual expenditures, which is useful for budgeting. Check out our selection of the finest contractor accounting software products if you require specialist accounting software for project management.
Project Accounting using FreshBooks (Video)
Sales tax items may be added to bills, costs, invoices, credit notes, and other revenue and vendor transactions in FreshBooks. While you can monitor sales taxes, you must manually set up each jurisdiction where you’ll be collecting tax. You may run a tax summary report to discover how much sales tax was collected and how much sales tax you owe. FreshBooks, on the other hand, cannot be used to pay or submit taxes.
There is no separate video available since we analyzed the sales and income tax aspects with the other categories.
If your company deals with inventory, you’ll want to seek for a FreshBooks alternative. While you can simply add inventory descriptions to invoices, there’s no way to keep track of how many goods you have on hand, how much stock you have accessible, or how much your inventory costs to sell. Keeping track of inventory expenses by hand using a spreadsheet is inefficient and unnecessary with the correct tools. If your company sells a lot of things, we suggest investing in more robust software like Xero to prevent a spreadsheet headache.
FreshBooks’ inventory management, like sales and income tax, is evaluated across all categories, thus we don’t have a separate video.
FreshBooks offers a variety of reports, but they aren’t as comprehensive as QuickBooks Online’s. For example, balance sheets only display key categories, so you can’t dig down into reports for more precise levels of data like classes or location. A/R aging, A/P aging, revenue or loss by month or by client, trial balance, and general ledgers are among the other reports provided. FreshBooks should suffice if you simply want basic financial reports.
FreshBooks Reporting Demonstration
FreshBooks is known for providing award-winning customer support. It provides a wide range of customer service options, including phone and email help. Customer support representatives are available over the phone, which is unusual among accounting service suppliers. You may also go through the site’s extensive self-help resources, which include how-to articles and answers to often asked problems.
Customer Service Video from FreshBooks
FreshBooks provides a mobile app that you may use to submit invoices while you’re on the road. It can do practically all of the desktop interface’s features. You can create and pay invoices, collect payments, attach receipts, track time worked, and allocate it to a customer. FreshBooks’ mobile app will not let you down if you often do business on the move.
Video of the FreshBooks Mobile App
Options for Assisted Bookkeeping
FreshBooks does not provide aided accounting services, but it does collaborate with Bench, an online bookkeeping service, to provide bookkeeping, tax preparation, and tax advising services to users. You’ll be given a virtual bookkeeper who will handle all of your accounting chores, from account reconciliation to report generation.
Integrations
Zoom, Shopify, Squarespace, Gusto, G Suite, Fundbox, Stripe, Bench, HubSpot, Dropbox, PayPal, QuickBooks Online, Slack, and Mailchimp are among the more than 70 software packages that FreshBooks interfaces with.
Alternatives
Conclusion
FreshBooks may lack some key features found in slightly more expensive software like Xero and QuickBooks Online, such as inventory management and income tracking by class, but its powerful invoicing and project management features, as well as excellent customer service, make it worth considering for your business.
FreshBooks is a cloud-based accounting software that can be used by freelancers, small businesses, and professionals. FreshBooks offers a free trial period of 30 days. The pricing for the service starts at $19/month. Reference: freshbooks accounting software.
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