FreshBooks Accounting Software Review and Pricing

Why We Chose FreshBooks as the Best for Invoicing

During testing, we found that FreshBooks offers all the essential accounting features small businesses need for important financial accounting tasks. However, we were particularly impressed by its invoicing capabilities, which we found to be far superior to those of many competitors we reviewed. Creating and sending professional invoices is straightforward and effortless. You can set up recurring invoices, schedule automatic payment reminders and accept credit and debit card payments online. These features help small businesses head off cash flow problems. 

We like that FreshBooks monitors an invoice’s status after you send it, showing you when customers receive and view it. It tracks billable time and expenses and allows you to add them to an invoice — a feature we didn’t find in many competitors. This capability makes FreshBooks an excellent option for freelancers, self-employed professionals and agencies or firms that provide professional services. All these benefits and more make FreshBooks our top choice for businesses that need robust invoicing capabilities in their accounting solution. 

Ease of Use

Business owners typically aren’t experienced accountants or bookkeepers, so they need a straightforward accounting solution. One of our favorite things about FreshBooks is its user-friendly interface. After testing FreshBooks, we’re confident business owners will have no trouble navigating and learning the software. The user interface is attractive and clearly labeled. A central dashboard displays vital business information and statistics, including unpaid invoices, profit, revenue and expenses. Unlike some competing software we evaluated, the main dashboard widgets are fixed, although the information displayed within them can be customized.

On the left side of the screen, you’ll find the main navigation menu of the program’s primary categories. Each feature’s individual screen is well designed for simplicity and ease of use, with color-coded buttons and text that help direct the user’s attention. 

FreshBooks Features

FreshBooks has several must-have accounting software features to make your accounting tasks easier and faster to complete, along with top-notch invoicing tools. Here’s a rundown of the functions we found the most compelling during our hands-on evaluation.

Custom Invoicing

A professional-looking small business invoice is essential for getting paid. We love that FreshBooks lets you quickly customize invoices to match your company’s branding. You can easily upload your logo and choose a template, font and accent color. We like that you can also customize your payment terms, personalize your thank-you emails and create a payment schedule.

We were also impressed that FreshBooks lets you convert estimates and proposals to invoices in two clicks. Additionally, we found it easy to duplicate and modify past invoices instead of creating new ones from scratch. Based on our research and comparisons, we believe FreshBooks’ invoicing tools are more intuitive than those offered by competitors such as Xero and QuickBooks.

Time Tracking

One of the coolest FreshBooks features we found is its built-in time-tracking tool. With this function, contractors can add billable time to an invoice on the spot, whether they’re using the web platform or the mobile app. This enables them to bill a customer immediately, even while on-site. Additionally, you can easily add billable expenses to invoices instead of using clunky manual methods such as tracking time on a separate sheet of paper or a spreadsheet. 

Payments

We like that the FreshBooks Payments integration is powered by Stripe and supports a wide range of payment methods, including credit cards, ACH transfers, Apple Pay, Google Wallet, PayPal and Venmo. This allows users to track payments through FreshBooks. (Read our review of Stripe to learn more.) You can email invoices and get updates when your clients view and pay them. Your customers can pay the invoice in one click, eliminating the time it would take for paper invoices to arrive in the mail and helping you get paid faster. This is a crucial feature for getting paid quickly, and many rival accounting solutions we evaluated don’t offer it.

Recurring Invoices

We really like that FreshBooks makes it easy to schedule recurring invoices to go out weekly, monthly, annually or as often as needed. You can send automatic payment reminders before or after the due date to encourage customers to pay their bills promptly. We also like that you can configure the software to automatically charge interest and late fees on past-due invoices, either as a percentage or a flat amount. 

Mobile App

We were impressed with the FreshBooks mobile app, which is available for iOS and Android devices. The app assists with time tracking and lets you create invoices on the spot, such as immediately after meeting with a client. You can also use the app to capture receipts, chat with customers and check invoice status. The FreshBooks Accounting app is rated 4.7 out of 5 on the Apple App Store, indicating a high degree of customer satisfaction. We were similarly satisfied with it during our testing.

Accounting and Bookkeeping

Like other popular accounting platforms, FreshBooks connects to your business checking account and credit card accounts and automatically imports expenses daily using Plaid. The Plus, Premium and Select plans use double-entry accounting. This allows you to create a chart of accounts and run reports, such as a general ledger report, a balance sheet and a trial balance. Additional tools accountants will likely appreciate include the ability to close out retained earnings and more options for customizing income mapping.

Project Management

We appreciate FreshBooks’ project management tools, which allow you to manage projects and base your billing on tracked time. A time budget shows how much time remains on a project, how much of your tracked time is unbilled and how many days are left until the due date. You can also monitor how many hours your team members spend on each project, share files and collaborate through project discussions. Unlike competitors QuickBooks and Xero, FreshBooks’ project management tools are available on all plans. 

Reports

During our demo, we tested FreshBooks’ ability to generate various reports, including profit and loss statements, sales tax summaries, accounts receivable aging, expense reports, invoice details, payments collected and time-entry details. The process was simple and smooth, and we like that you can email, print or export reports to Excel. The reporting tools provide small business owners with valuable data analytics and insights into their businesses. 

User Permissions

FreshBooks’ user permission features allow you to control levels of access for specific roles, which is critical for preventing employee accounting fraud. You can invite business partners, employees, contractors and accountants to your account, but they can view only what you allow them to access. For example, employees can access their projects while tracking time and expenses. Contractors can view only the projects you assign to them, and they can track time spent on those projects. Accountants can see your dashboard, reports, expenses and invoices, but they can’t create invoices.

Bank Reconciliation

Building on its core accounting tools, the FreshBooks Plus and Premium plans include bank reconciliation tools, so you won’t have to manually reconcile your business bank account. Transactions feed in automatically, meaning FreshBooks offers ongoing reconciliation instead of only end-of-month reconciling — a feature not offered by some other competitors we reviewed. You can also manually add transactions through a CSV file and search for unreconciled transactions.

FreshBooks Pricing

FreshBooks is on the higher end of the price spectrum compared with other accounting software solutions we reviewed. However, the vendor regularly offers discounts, such as 90 percent off for the first four months, so be sure to ask about introductory offers before you purchase any of the packages.

FreshBooks currently has four plans based on a business’s number of clients, with the lowest tier ideal for basic invoicing to a few clients. Here is a breakdown of the plans and their monthly rates before discounts:

Here are some additional fees and payment notes to be aware of:

• If you pay annually instead of monthly, you can save 10 percent. 
• Each additional user costs $11 per month. This applies to business partners, contractors and employees you add to your account. 
• FreshBooks Payments, which allows you to accept credit cards online, costs 2.9 percent plus $0.30 per transaction. Alternatively, you can connect your Stripe account. 
• Advanced Payments, an add-on service that gives you a virtual terminal that lets you accept payments by phone and in person, costs $20 per month plus 3.5 percent plus $0.30 per transaction. Your clients can authorize recurring payments with this add-on.
• FreshBooks Payroll, which offers automatic filing and submitting for state and federal payroll taxes, costs $40 per month plus $6 per user per month.

We love that FreshBooks provides a generous 30-day free trial, which allows you to sample all the program’s features before subscribing to a paid plan. Not all accounting software companies have a free trial, so we found this impressive.

Implementation and Onboarding

We tested FreshBooks’ onboarding process and found it extremely easy to set up the software. As mentioned, there’s a generous 30-day free trial period, and, impressively, no credit card is required to open a trial account. You simply enter your email address, create a password and confirm your account via email to get started. After the free trial ends, you can select a paid plan to continue using the software. Your data from the free trial is stored until you decide to upgrade.

Like other accounting software we reviewed, FreshBooks is 100 percent cloud-based, so there’s no desktop software to install. You can also access FreshBooks from a mobile app. However, this also means an internet connection is necessary to use the software. As noted above, the Select plan includes additional onboarding support from a specialized team, covering challenges, onboarding services and data migration.

Customer Support

We were impressed that FreshBooks offers multiple support resources, since some cloud-based software companies tend to skimp on customer service. Prospective customers with further questions can contact a sales representative by email or phone.

• Channels: We like that you can contact the company for help by phone (with a dedicated customer support number for Select subscribers), email or live chat.
• Online resources: You can also search the online resource hub for self-help and access webinars, blog posts and free e-books that go into more depth about using the software. 
• Automated chatbot: The FreshBooks website features an automated chatbot that can assist with basic questions. During our test run, we found that the bot competently answered inquiries about pricing but struggled with more nuanced questions. 

FreshBooks earns 3.9 out of five stars on Trustpilot, with 59 percent of users rating the customer service five stars.

Limitations

We found FreshBooks lacking in several areas during our testing, even though it excels at time tracking, general invoicing and project management: 

• Inventory tracking and vendor management: The software lacks the robust inventory tracking and vendor management features offered by similarly priced alternatives, such as those found in our review of QuickBooks Online. If your business has complex inventory needs, check out the best POS systems, which typically include extensive inventory management tools.
• Batch invoicing: Another missing feature is batch invoicing shortcuts, which are useful if you need to bill multiple customers for the same service at the same rate. This is an odd oversight for a solution that otherwise excels at invoicing.
• Mobile reports: The FreshBooks mobile app is excellent for invoicing. However, it doesn’t run reports, and we found generating reports on the go via a mobile browser to be rather clunky.
• Accounts payable: FreshBooks lacks the comprehensive vendor network that would make the software an effective accounts payable player. Processing accounts payable is a vital part of running a business, so small business owners may want to investigate one of the best credit card processing solutions to supplement FreshBooks.

Methodology

We researched and analyzed dozens of accounting and invoicing software solutions to help small businesses choose the right accounting software for their needs. We reviewed each product’s software features (such as payment and invoicing capabilities), integrations, mobile apps, report generation, supported user count and customer service options. We also assessed pricing and the availability of free trials.

We relied on vendors’ websites and personal demos when conducting our analysis and tested each solution directly. Additionally, we studied user reviews to get independent opinions on the software’s pros and cons. When looking for the best accounting software for invoicing specifically, we focused on factors like billing ease of use, invoice customization, and the ability to send an invoice on the spot and on a recurring basis. You can read more about our editorial process here.

Bottom Line

We recommend FreshBooks for …

• Business owners who want a simple alternative to old-fashioned, manual methods of tracking billable hours. 
• Businesses that frequently send branded, customized or recurring invoices. 
• Businesses that focus on services instead of physical goods. 

We don’t recommend FreshBooks for …

• Businesses that carry a lot of inventory or have complex inventory needs.
• Business owners who want accounts payable and bookkeeping combined in one software package.
• Business owners who need to run reports on their mobile devices. 

Amanda Hoffman contributed to this review.