FreshBooks is a cloud accounting program that lets you create and send unlimited invoices, manage clients and projects, and accept payments online. It offers a robust set of features, including double-entry bookkeeping, recurring invoicing, project management, and mobile accounting.
It has four plans, with monthly costs starting at $19 per user per month, and you can pay for more seats as needed ($11 per user per month).
Here are the summarized feedback from users and our experts’ opinions:
Excellent Invoicing Features: Users love FreshBooks’ invoicing features. They mentioned that the time tracking tool is perfect when it comes to invoicing clients. We back this up because in our FreshBooks demo, its invoicing features definitely stood out — the invoicing interface is easy to understand and use, and you can choose from different templates and designs.
User-Friendly Interface: Some users love FreshBooks’ simple interface. However, larger businesses find it too basic and simple to meet their needs. In our experts’ opinion, FreshBooks’ design is not intimidating and overwhelming. Users with little to no accounting experience can easily learn FreshBooks.
Fit Small Business Case Study
FreshBooks doesn’t disappoint in terms of accounting features, except for inventory. Overall, it focuses more on simplicity and usability. Its core functionality is to make accounting functions easy for users – which is why it’s best suited for freelancers, sole proprietors, and small businesses.
When it comes to project accounting, it’s ahead of QuickBooks. FreshBooks scored the highest for ease of use, which makes sense since it’s billed as an easy-to-use and user-friendly accounting software.
FreshBooks Pricing
FreshBooks’ pricing hurt in our evaluation, as the platform’s Premium plan costs $104 per month for five users, $14 more than QuickBooks Online Plus ($90 per month), which also includes five seats and better features such as inventory. While FreshBooks is affordable for one user, we considered that some small businesses might need to add more seats.
FreshBooks offers four plans, with monthly costs starting at $19. The plans differ in the maximum number of billable customers and available advanced features, such as automatic recurring invoices, double-entry reporting, and support access. You can save an additional 10% by paying annually.
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Lite
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Plus
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Premium
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Select
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|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Monthly Price
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$19
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$33
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$60
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Custom
|
|
Seats Included
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1
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1
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1
|
|
|
Additional Seats
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$11 per user, per month
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|||
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Billable Clients
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5
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50
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Unlimited
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Unlimited
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Unlimited Customized Invoices
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✓
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✓
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✓
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✓
|
|
Double-entry Accounting Reports
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✕
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✓
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✓
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✓
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|
A/P
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✕
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✕
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✓
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✓
|
|
Access to Exclusive Support Teams
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✕
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✕
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✕
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✓
|
FreshBooks 2024
Timestamps are now included in invoice, proposal, and estimate history.
Advanced search is now available to find specific invoices using different filters or tags
Dashboards are now customizable, which allows you to rearrange dashboards and hide unwanted information
A dedicated Journal Entry section is now available.
General
Setting up FreshBooks is relatively simple, but it takes a while. You can enter your company name, address, and phone number. You can also add a fiscal year if you follow a different fiscal period. Its general functionality took a hit in our rating criteria because it lacks basic features, such as setting entity types and modifying the chart of accounts.
However, we still praise FreshBooks for its simplicity. As accounting and bookkeeping experts at Fit Small Business, we’ve seen firsthand that the platform can be very handy for those who want to keep their business in order because accounting is made simple, even though the platform sacrifices some functionality.
Ease of Use
FreshBooks is generally easy to use when navigating the software. The design is clean and intuitive, making it easy to learn and understand. However, FreshBooks lacks certain features, such as onboarding support and a customizable dashboard – features that would improve the overall experience of the software, especially onboarding support.
Users with little to no accounting experience may need onboarding support from FreshBooks to make their transition smoother. In lieu of onboarding support, self-guided onboarding could also improve overall ease of use.
Customer Support
FreshBooks has earned a reputation for its award-winning customer service. It offers nearly every type of customer support, including phone and email support. You can speak to a customer service representative by phone at 866-303-6061, Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST, which is unusual among accounting software providers.
You can also browse its extensive self-help resources, which include how-to articles and FAQs. Despite FreshBooks’ limitations in scalability, we still praise the software for providing a simple accounting solution for users with no accounting knowledge.
Bottom Line
Yes, but not in all aspects. FreshBooks is good for freelancers and project-based businesses. It’s also easy to use, making it easy for DIY business owners.