FreshBooks Review – Is It a Good Accounting Software?

Why Trust Tech Report

Tech Report is one of the oldest hardware, news, and tech review sites on the internet. We write helpful technology guides, unbiased product reviews, and report on the latest tech and crypto news. We maintain editorial independence and consider content quality and factual accuracy to be non-negotiable.

A good accounting software can make all the difference to your business operations. It helps you stay compliant, keep your books in good order, maintain profitability, and, eventually, scale up. In this FreshBooks review, we look at how this popular cloud-based tool simplifies accounting for small and mid-sized businesses.

FreshBooks is a mobile, web, and desktop software that combines all your financial tasks – invoicing, bookkeeping, tax management, and payroll – into a single platform. It also has project and team management features to maintain visibility into your business processes and grow revenues.

In our hands-on tests with the software, we were impressed by the sheer breadth of features and how easy it is to use. Tools like in-app receipt capturing and tracking billable hours make it a lot easier to raise invoices and balance your books at month’s end.

However, the discounted pricing applies for only four months, then the price jumps up significantly, and there’s no free-forever plan. Read on to learn about our complete experience.

FreshBooks Books Pros and Cons

Before we dive into the app’s key features and what exactly makes it a standout offering in the accounting software segment, here are the top pros and cons of FreshBooks at a glance:

What is FreshBooks?

It first launched in 2004 and has been around for two decades now, making it one of the most trusted platforms in its category. The software uses a mix of PHP, Python, and JavaScript infrastructure that makes it compatible with a variety of environments.

FreshBooks was self-funded for many years. Nearly 10 years after its first launch, it raised $30 million in Series A funding, followed by another round of $43 million investment in 2017. In 2021 FreshBooks announced that it had secured $80.75 million in Series E funding and another $50 million in debt financing – crossing $1 billion in valuation.

The company has constantly adapted and evolved its offerings over the years to keep up with business needs. In 2022, it worked with Barclays to provide small business owners with free FreshBooks accounts. In 2023, it launched a new collaborative accounting feature.

In January 2024, FreshBooks rolled out an integrated payroll solution for US customers. FreshBooks Payroll is built on Gusto’s HR technology infrastructure, benefitting from its powerful and field-tested systems. Today, it supports tax-compliant bookkeeping in 10 countries.

Is FreshBooks a Good Software?

FreshBooks is a good accounting software for businesses in the UK, US, Australia, Canada, Germany, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and the European Union – especially if you have to send your clients invoices as part of your business.

It has been a popular SMB accounting software for many years now, and it’s a good fit for several use cases. Freelancer and service firms can use the software to track and invoice their billable hours. It has project management and collaboration features, not to mention payroll for your entire team.

FreshBooks is also a good software for accountants. Its Accountant Hub is a portal that allows users to manage multiple clients’ books together in one centralized place. The company also runs its own accounting partner program.

If you’re still wondering if FreshBooks is a good software, we tested its certifications and security features as part of our review. The platform is SOC 2 Type 1 compliant, which means that users’ personal assets are protected as per the highest standards laid down by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

The company undergoes an independent audit every year, and its servers are regularly scanned for vulnerabilities by Sikich, a security services provider. Your data is also protected by 256-bit SSL encryption and network firewalls for added security.

Lastly, the FreshBooks software relies on Google Public Cloud (GCP) infrastructure, one of the best cloud vendors in 2024. This allows for system resilience and reliability so you can manage your key financial processes with confidence.

FreshBooks Features & Key Functionalities

FreshBooks is a powerful software for all things finance – offering bookkeeping, time-tracking, tax compliance, and payroll in one platform. We found these features smooth and bug-free in our tests, although users should note that advanced HR capabilities like global payroll or employee information systems are missing.

Here are the key features FreshBooks offers:

1. Invoicing

FreshBooks, first and foremost, is a tool to help you create invoices and get paid. To do this, It offers a free invoice generator you can download on your computer, even without a FreshBooks account. Once you’ve sent the invoice, you can set up automated follow-ups, recurring bills, and payment alerts.

The invoicing module has two handy features to improve cash flow, advance deposits and retainer projects.

You can request a percentage amount of the total invoice beforehand, as a deposit, even before the services are rendered. Retainers are fixed-price invoices that are raised for specific timelines or workloads. You can also generate retainer reports and flag scope creep when your project deliverables change.

2. Payments

FreshBooks lets you accept payments directly via links embedded within the invoice. Clients can pay via bank transfer, card, or Apple Pay. You can also post FreshBooks Checkout Links on your website, social media, or anywhere else online to simply let customers click and pay.

Another useful feature we found in our FreshBooks review is the ability to set up subscriptions. It lets you automate recurring payments and save card details so your clients can subscribe to an ongoing service.

Besides its own payment system, the software also integrates with Stripe and PayPal – giving you greater flexibility. This feature supports payments in 25 currencies from 202 countries, all seamlessly connected with your books.

Note that online payments cost 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, and bank transfers will incur a 1% fee per transaction.

3. Time Tracking

FreshBooks’ invoicing system comes with its own time-tracking module so you can map and bill your clients for the correct number of hours.

Our FreshBooks review found that the feature is simple and easy to use – simply turn the timer on when you start work and turn it off when you’re done. You can also add notes to your time entries and view daily breakdowns of hours worked.

This automatically generates a time log that you can add to an invoice. The best part about FreshBooks’ time tracker is that it works almost everywhere you are productive. There’s a mobile app, a Chrome extension, and integrations for Asana, Basecamp, Trello, and Teamwork.

If you’ve purchased FreshBooks for your team, then you can monitor your team members’ work hours as well. The team productivity dashboard shows you who’s put in how many hours and which project, along with total time estimates for the entire team.

4. Projects

You can use FreshBooks to collaborate with clients, freelancers, agencies, and other stakeholders on your ongoing projects. The software doubles up as a file-sharing and project-management tool, so you don’t have to switch between multiple apps as you work.

The software also lets you assign specific services (with fixed rates) to a project and balance labor costs by determining the best rates across projects.

Based on this data, FreshBooks generates profitability reports and summaries. We liked that the app has a profitability widget that shows you project earning potential at a glance – so you’re always on top of your business health metrics.

Another standout feature in our FreshBooks review is how the software reduces your project setup efforts. You can duplicate projects in one click, so you don’t have to set up collaborators, services, rates, and workflows from scratch. Or, you could convert approved estimates into a project.

5. Estimates

FreshBooks supports custom proposals and estimates with your unique branding. You can clearly outline a project’s scope, timeline, and deliverables right from within the FreshBooks interface, preview the document, and share it directly with your clients, who can then access it online.

Based on the proposal, FreshBooks helps you generate a detailed estimate, complete with rates, which the client can sign off on in just one click.

Clients have the option to add their feedback to an estimate and you can respond right within FreshBooks. All through the process, you can view your estimate’s status as it progresses from “viewed” to “accepted.” And, once the project ends, you can convert the same estimate into an invoice with ease.

6. Proposals

Like estimates, you can create pitches, sales decks, and proposals using FreshBooks as well. The software comes with professional templates where you can enter custom sections like overview, timeline, and scope.

There’s no need to create a separate document in Word or Google Docs, send it via email, upload it to your project management software, and then manually type in the details in an invoice.

The proposal feature also supports e-signatures. This allows clients to approve the file directly from the FreshBooks workflow and kickstart a project.

7. Client Management

To simplify client management, FreshBooks offers a host of useful tools and reports. We particularly liked the Client Portal feature, which lets your customers view estimates, invoices, billable hours, deliverables, and more.

You can also offer credit notes to meet client needs and then reconcile the data automatically with your books.

The star of the client management feature in FreshBooks is the reporting module. You can generate:

8. Team Management

All FreshBooks plans allow you to add on team members at $11/month/user. This means that someone else, whether they are a full-time employee, a contractor, or an agency, can also contribute to your projects, and it’ll show up in your timekeeping records.

Team members can access nearly every function in FreshBooks, depending on what role you assign to them.

The admin role confers all rights and privileges, managers have fewer rights, and employees can only track time, collaborate, and log their expenses. Contractors have similar privileges as employees but can’t show any expense claims, while the accountant role gets access to your complete books.

In addition to roles, you also define each user’s hourly rate and capacity when adding them to FreshBooks. This ensures that their work is correctly billed.

There’s another team management option that lets you add team data without adding users, which is very useful for accounting purposes.

Let’s say you want to analyze the profitability of your business vs team size, then you can simply add team profiles for free instead of spending an extra $11/month for each team member.

The team management feature syncs seamlessly with the FreshBooks payroll function so you can manage and pay your workers from the same place.

9. Payroll

Payroll is a newly launched feature available only in the US. It lets you integrate employee payment processes right into your financial workflows, so it’s easier to maintain your books and keep track of your biggest expense – labor.

Thanks to the company’s partnership with Gusto, FreshBooks payroll is compliant with state and federal tax laws. The software automates tax calculations and filing so you can claim the deductions applicable to you. We were happy to find that the tool comes with built-in tax forms like W-2s.

You can run unlimited payroll cycles in FreshBooks. The payroll feature syncs with the time tracking system so you know if any of your team members put in overtime hours, which needs to be factored into their wages.

10. Accounting

FreshBooks is a full featured double entry accounting software, which means that you can track debit and credit fields simultaneously. It includes a customizable Chart of Accounts so you can meet the unique needs of your business.

The software classifies income and expense into different categories like business expenditure, loans, or income from fixed assets so you can maintain visibility.

Our FreshBooks review found that the tool generates a host of handy metrics – time spent on various tasks, billable hours, project costs, and revenues. This allows you to closely monitor business health and make better decisions.

If you need extra help, FreshBooks lets you invite your accountant (and their team of up to 10 accountants) to the platform at no added cost. External users in the accountant role can view expenses, make journal entries, modify your Chart of Accounts, file taxes for you, and generate reports.

Bear in mind that accountants can’t send invoices or run payroll cycles, even though these are financial tasks.

FreshBooks supports automated bank reconciliation, so you don’t have to manually match bank transactions to your business income and costs. It’ll automatically reconcile your bank statement with the transaction records in FreshBooks and flag any unusual payment that needs more clarification.

You can also export bank data to Excel and generate summaries at the click of a button.

Our tests found that the accounting feature also works as a reliable expense management tool. Using the FreshBooks mobile app and your phone camera, you can import pictures of vendor bills into the platform. This allows you to run reports like cash flow statements, accounts payable aging, outstanding bills, and how much sales tax you’ve paid.

Also, as sales tax can sometimes be quite difficult to navigate, FreshBooks partners with small business accounting firm Bench. This allows you to access live bookkeeping services and taxation support.

You could opt for this service during tax season – an expert from Bench will go through your data on FreshBooks to help file taxes in a timely and compliant manner.

11. Expense Tracking

FreshBooks doesn’t just let you capture and store bills. It has several features to simplify expense tracking, such as the ability to email receipts directly into FreshBooks and automatic data extraction from bills. To do this, you need to use FreshBooks’ mobile app.

Once the image is captured, FreshBooks automatically recommends expense categories like advertising, transportation, and training. You can also make your business expenses billable and add them to your invoice – such as travel costs to meet a client on-site.

You can even monitor how much your team members are spending and store everything in the cloud, just in case of future IRS audits.

12. Mileage Tracking

FreshBooks offers mileage tracking capabilities through the mobile app to help expense work travel. The app automatically logs every trip you take and records your travel history. Then, you can classify your trips as either personal or business travel so you can claim expenses when filing taxes.

During our FreshBooks review, we found the mileage tracker app works without any hiccups. You simply need to swipe right or left to classify a trip, and FreshBooks will automatically send the mileage report to your email. It’ll generate a preview of potential tax deductions, so you know exactly how much you could be saving.

13. Reports and Analytics

Another useful feature in FreshBooks’ arsenal is data analytics. It generates a wide range of reports to help you monitor and measure each and every aspect of your business’s financial performance so you can plan for the future. It’ll put together profit & loss reports, sales tax summaries, invoice details, expense reports, and more.

You could save, export, or print financial reports for your accountant if you haven’t added them to the platform. The time tracking and project profitability reports help with team productivity so you can analyze which projects are the most valuable for you.

To make it easier to find information, FreshBooks provides a color-coded breakdown of spending. It also lets you filter reports by client, team member, or date so you can zoom in on specific parts of the business.

Freshbooks Pricing – Is It Affordable?

FreshBooks follows a transparent pricing model – unlike some of its enterprise-facing competitors like NetSuite, which only discloses pricing when you request a quote.

We found this beneficial for small business budgeting; you can also enjoy savings if you sign up for longer terms. You get special discounts for the first four months and another 10% off on annual subscriptions.

Here are the plans you can choose from:

1. Lite

This plan costs $5.70/month or $152/year and is the absolute entry-level option. You can send unlimited invoices to a maximum of five clients, track unlimited expenses, and log unlimited hours. It gives you basic business health reports and at-a-glance performance metrics but not much else in terms of analytics.

The biggest drawback of this plan is that it doesn’t include automated reconciliation. This means you’ll have to balance your books manually, which is both time-consuming and error-prone.

Also, you can’t add your accountant or set up retainer projects. On the plus side, the Lite plan still lets clients access the project portal, so you can get the job done.

Overall, this is a good, affordable option for freelancers and businesses just starting out when they’re yet to onboard a lot of clients, and your accounting needs are relatively simple.

2. Plus

This plan costs $9.90/month or $264/year. It’s a significant upgrade on Lite, with the ability to add up to 50 clients. You can also send unlimited estimates and proposals, configure retainers, and benefit from more advanced accounting features.

Bear in mind that the payment options are the same in Lite and Plus – checkout links, online card payments, and bank transfers, without the ability to charge client’s credit cards or access preferential rates. You can’t save card details securely, either.

As your business grows, the Plus plan is a useful stepping stone, particularly as you and your accountant can work together to keep your books in order.

3. Premium

The Premium plan costs $18/month or $480/year. The biggest jump with this plan is that it supports unlimited clients. You also get a wider range of reports, including project profitability analysis and accounts payable. The plan makes prepayment and deposits easier with client credits.

While this FreshBooks plan removes most of the usage restrictions, we found that you’ll still see FreshBooks branding on client emails. To remove this, you’ve got to upgrade to Select.

4. Select

The Select plan is custom-priced and unlocks the full potential of FreshBooks. It’s meant for mid-sized businesses that have an in-house finance team and require dedicated support.

This is the only plan without FreshBooks branding in client emails. It also gives you access to lower fees, secure card storage, and the ability to charge client’s credit cards. Two team member accounts are also included and you’ll also receive assistance during data migration and onboarding.

Our FreshBooks review found that the Select plan doesn’t come with a free trial.

Important Details About FreshBooks Pricing

While FreshBooks is affordable and competitively priced, our review revealed a few important details that may influence your decision and budgeting plans. Here are a few of our observations from the thorough review of FreshBooks:

Freshbooks Interface – Is It Easy to Use?

Since FreshBooks is cloud-based, it primarily operates through a web app interface that you can access from any browser. Simply visit auth.freshbooks.com and enter your credentials to sign in. Our tests revealed that you can also log in through your Apple credentials, which is an added convenience.

Once you log in, the app is clean and intuitive. You’ll be greeted by the dashboard, which is an at-a-glance view of business performance.

You have your main menu bar on the left, which has different modules like expensing, invoicing, and time tracking. Depending on your role, you’ll also see options to install new integrations or generate reports.

For advanced settings, you can click on the gear icon next to your profile image. This shows you any active bank connections, email templates you can use, payroll settings, and more.

In addition, there’s a desktop interface you can download for limited offline use, such as uploading your invoices and adding account entries. The software works with Windows PCs as well as Macbooks.

The company’s mobile accounting app is available for both Android and iOS, and we were also impressed by its seamless performance on tablets. It doesn’t have feature parity with the web or desktop app – but you’ll find everything you need to manage your books on the go.

Another key aspect of the FreshBooks user experience is its integration marketplace. The software supports 100+ pre-built integrations, including popular apps like Stripe, Microsoft Outlook, Zendesk, HubSpot, and other customer relationship management (CRM) apps.

The connection process is extremely streamlined and there’s no coding, download, or installation involved.

FreshBooks vs Other Top Accounting Software

While FreshBooks is among the best accounting software apps available in 2024, there are a few other options to consider.

After all, choosing your business’ accounting app is an important decision, and once implemented, it can lead to a degree of vendor lock-in and some difficulty in switching. So, do your research and evaluate alternatives like NetSuite, Zoho, and Xero before making a decision.

For large businesses with an international presence – outside of these 10 regions: the UK, US, Australia, Canada, Germany (where it operates through a local software company it acquired, FastBill), Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and the European Union – NetSuite is the logical choice.

If you’re looking for Shopify accounting apps, Zoho might be a better option.

However, according to our tests, FreshBooks is the best among these tools overall – it strikes the right balance between cost, completeness of features, and ease of use. It’s also suitable for businesses of various sizes, from solopreneurs to mid-sized businesses with sizable teams.

FreshBooks Reviews – What Are Users Saying?

On G2, the FreshBooks accounting software is rated 4.5 out of 5 based on 600+ reviews. Customers say that it helps them save time and makes it easier to manage their organization. On the other hand, some find it too expensive.

Customers on Capterra rate FreshBooks 4.5 out of 5 as well, based on 4,000+ reviews. Ease of use is its most highly rated feature, while the software ranks relatively lower in terms of value for money. Like G2, customers on Capterra would also like the ability to pass on the credit card payment fees to the client instead of paying it out of pocket.

FreshBooks is rated 3.2 out of 5 on Trustpilot, based on 700+ reviews. 74% of users rate it a 4 or 5, while 16% of users give it 1 out of 5. Several users have faced issues with monthly billing, and some have struggled with the company’s customer service.

Why You Can Trust Our FreshBooks Review

TechReport has been at the forefront of technology journalism, product reviews, and tech news reporting since 1999. For over two decades, we’ve been bringing you the latest insights in the software and tech industry, including accounting applications.

Our team has extensive experience testing and reviewing accounting apps for individuals, small businesses, mid-sized companies, as well as large enterprises.

We’ve authored guides on how to choose the right accounting software, the best desktop accounting software, cloud-based accounting, and small business accounting tools, among other topics.

This gives us a broader understanding of accounting software technology and user needs, which informs our FreshBooks review. For this article, we signed up for a 30-day trial of its Lite plan, and we installed its mobile apps on both iOS and Android devices.

We tested its core features – including invoicing, bank statement reconciliation, team management, payments, and expenses. We also added three team members to test the collaboration experience.

We also analyzed verified customer reviews on trusted forums like G2, Capterra, and Trustpilot to understand how the app performs under real-world conditions. This allows us to present our objective and unbiased inferences that’ll help you make an informed decision.

How to Use FreshBooks: Starter Guide

To get started with FreshBooks, sign up for a free trial using your Gmail or Apple credentials; you don’t need to enter your credit card details at this stage.

After 30 days, FreshBooks will prompt you to switch to a paid plan. If you’re happy with the software, choose from the Lite, Plus, or Premium plans. You can also speak with the company’s sales team to negotiate a custom quote for the Select plan.

Once you have the FreshBooks platform up and running (we’d recommend signing into the web app for this), you can start using its key features.

1. Setting Up Your First Client on FreshBooks

When you open FreshBooks, you’ll be greeted by the primary Dashboard. Click on the Create New button and then select Client. Scroll down to the Clients section and click on the New Client button – this opens the following window.

Add the mandatory information (name and company) as well as contact details. Then, move to the left pane to configure your client settings. Here, you can select your preferred currency for the engagement, late payment fees, follow-up rules, and more.

2. Creating Your First FreshBooks Invoice

Just like your first client, you can click on the Create New button on the Dashboard to start your first invoice. The process is quite intuitive and guides you to the following window:

Your business details on top are displayed automatically based on what’s in your Basic Information settings. If you haven’t set it up already, simply select this section on the invoice to edit it.

Next, enter your preferred client in the Billed To section – either choose from your existing client records or type in fresh details.

Add a unique invoice number or retain the one that FreshBooks has assigned by default. Then, scroll down to modify other invoice items like unbilled time or expenses, existing items and services, new items and services, and taxes.

Specify invoice details like discounts, applicable credits, and payment schedules; FreshBooks will calculate the invoice total accordingly. Finally, mention how you’d like the invoice to be paid – bank transfers (US only), credit cards, Barclaycard, PayPal, Stripe, or WePay.

3. Tracking Time on FreshBooks

One of the most useful features we found in our FreshBooks review is the ability to track billable hours in real-time. Before you start, open FreshBooks settings from the profile section on the top left. Under Advanced Preferences, click on Time Tracking.

You can track time entries by duration for hours and minutes, which lets you pause the timer. Or, you could track time entries by manually entering the start and end times.

When you exit, your settings are automatically saved. Then, head to the Time Tracking section from the left navigation menu.

From the Day tab, click on the Start Timer button. This opens a new pop-up window where you can add the client’s details, the specifics of what you’re working on, service information, and notes, if any.

You can also add billable and nonbillable hours per day, week, or month. This lets you maintain complete timesheets and fill in any entry you might have missed. It’s a useful feature that allows employees to adhere to their regular work hours and makes it easier for managers to track productivity.

4. Inviting Team Members to Your FreshBooks Account

To invite team members, first sign up for additional team member accounts by paying the $11/month/user fee. Then, open the Team Members section from the left navigation menu. This opens the following window:

Remember that FreshBooks lets you create team member profiles on the app without inviting them. So, if you have already added their details, select the team member you want to invite. You can also add the details of a new team member from this window.

Next, click on Invite and choose the role you want to assign to them. View/edit the email message you want to attach with the invite and select Save and Close. You’ll be prompted to link your newly invited team member with your ongoing projects, which makes it easier to get started.

FreshBooks Review Verdict – Should You Use It?

Apart from its impressive feature set, FreshBooks also offers a detailed knowledge portal that explains how to get started with the software, use the different tools, and navigate the settings. We found that it takes no training or hand-holding to add a client, start a project, and send an invoice.

On the other hand, it may be slightly expensive for small businesses and startups. Its promos and discounts can be confusing, and $11/month/user for every team member plus another $6/month/user for payroll is a little steep.

However, the 30-day free trial offer makes it possible to try out the software’s many features with zero risk, and thanks to its large integration marketplace, it’s likely to fit nearly every app environment.

The 20-year-old software seller keeps innovating in the accounting technology space and will probably continue to do so for years to come, making FreshBooks a reliable partner for your growth.

FAQs