FreshBooks New & Classic Review
- Date Established
- 2003
- Location
- Canada
Pros
- Easy to use
- Excellent customer service
- Good mobile apps
- Well-designed UI
- Attractive invoice templates
- Numerous integrations
Cons
- Expensive monthly cost
- Limited users
- Limited features
Overview
FreshBooks, one of the biggest names in the invoicing and accounting scene, was created by Mike McDerment after he became frustrated with Word and Excel. Since its inception in 2003, the software has grown to support over 10 million customers.
In 2017, the software was completely redesigned and relaunched as “New FreshBooks.” FreshBooks Classic, the original version, isn’t going anywhere (existing users can still opt to use the FreshBooks they know and love), but the company’s focus is now on improving the new iteration of FreshBooks.
FreshBooks has always had incredible customer service, an easy to use interface, and a lot of positive feedback from customers, but until very recently, it wasn’t true accounting software. Despite branding itself as a “cloud accounting” solution, FreshBooks was always glorified invoicing software with a few bookkeeping tools tossed in. In November 2018, however, the software embraced double-entry accounting techniques and key accounting features like bank reconciliation, journal entries, and reporting.
With these changes, FreshBooks has finally stepped up to the plate and joined the big leagues with other accounting competitors like QuickBooks Online and Wave. Keep reading our full review to learn more about each version of FreshBooks.
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Table of Contents
FreshBooks (New)
In 2017, FreshBooks redesigned their software and released a new version of the software called New FreshBooks. Now that time has passed, New FreshBooks has gradually just become called FreshBooks (the old version of FreshBooks is referred to as FreshBooks Classic).
Initially, the newer version of the software was a bit of a disappointment — it was more difficult to use than Freshbooks Classic, less developed, and didn’t address many of the issues users had with the software to begin with. However, as time has passed, the vision for the newer FreshBooks has come into fruition. The company has been constantly updating the software by adding more features, improving navigational issues, and increasing the number of integrations — and, best of all, they’ve added double-entry accounting and key accounting features. These latest updates have improved the software by leaps and bounds and made it a viable accounting option for small businesses.
While I am incredibly excited to see the software improved so much, there are still several drawbacks to FreshBooks. The app is quite expensive, especially compared to more developed programs like QuickBooks and Xero (which give your far more features at almost the same price level). Plus, each plan only comes with one user and the cost of additional users adds up fast. With no user permissions and no accounts payable, the software still has some improving to do.
Despite these drawbacks, FreshBooks is incredibly easy to use and has some of the best customer support on the market, so it could be a good option for some small businesses.
Read on to see if FreshBooks is right for you.
Pricing
FreshBooks offers three different pricing levels. Only the two largest plans come with double-entry accounting and the subsequent accounting features. You can make monthly payments or purchase a yearly subscription; a yearly subscription will give you a 10% discount. There is a free 30-day trial. No credit card or banking information is required and the service can be canceled at any time.
FreshBooks also offers a generous referral program where you can receive $5 for each referral that ends in a free trial and $55 for referrals that end in a paid subscription. There is also a 30-day money-back guarantee if you change your mind about the software.
The three pricing plans for FreshBooks include:
Lite
- $15/month
- Unlimited invoices
- Unlimited estimates
- Expense tracking
- Contact management
- Project management
- Time tracking
- Reports
- Bill up to 5 clients
- 1 user
Plus
- $25/month
- Unlimited invoices
- Unlimited estimates
- Expense tracking
- Contact management
- Project management
- Time tracking
- Advanced reports
- Proposals
- Live bank feeds
- Bill up to 50 clients
- 1 user
Premium
- $50/month
- Unlimited invoices
- Unlimited estimates
- Expense tracking
- Contact management
- Project management
- Time tracking
- Advanced reports
- Proposals
- Live bank feeds
- Bill up to 500 clients
- 1 user
FreshBooks Select
If you have more than 500 clients, FreshBooks offers a fourth service called FreshBooks Select. FreshBooks Select includes all of the features of FreshBooks Plus but adds more users and more features, such as advanced payments, QuickBooks and Xero integrations, and a dedicated account manager.
Contact FreshBooks directly for a quote for FreshBooks Select.
Extra Costs
Before purchasing FreshBooks, there are a few extra costs you may have to factor in depending on your business’s needs:
- Additional Users: Each of the plans above only supports one user. Additional users cost $10/month per user, and no user permissions are available at this time (by default, all additional users are added as business partners who have access to all of your FreshBooks company data). You can add contractors for no additional cost. (The contractors will have to pay for the software if they invoice to more customers than just your business.)
- FreshBooks Payments: FreshBooks Payments allows you to accept payments from most major credit cards directly from your invoices. Payment processing costs 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for most credit cards.
Cloud-Based Or Locally-Installed
Cloud-based. No downloads or installation required.
Hardware & Software Requirements
As cloud-based software, FreshBooks is compatible with nearly any device so long as you have an internet connection. FreshBooks also offers a mobile app for iOS (10.2+ ) called FreshBooks Cloud Accounting and a mobile app for Androids (4.2+) called FreshBooks — Invoice+Accounting.
Specific Size Of Business
With the recent addition of double-entry accounting, I finally feel confident recommending FreshBooks as an accounting solution. FreshBooks is ideal for freelancers, micro businesses, and small businesses in need of simple accounting and basic features like invoicing, expense tracking, and project management. The software is not ideal for small businesses that require in-depth accounting and more advanced features like budgeting, accounts payable, or tax support.
The software is also unsuited for small businesses needing multiple users. Each of FreshBooks’ pricing plans only supports one user and the software does not support multiple businesses. In addition, there are no user permissions, which could rule it out for many businesses. FreshBooks does not offer native payroll but does integrate with Gusto for businesses in need of payroll services.
Accounting Method
Both accrual and cash-basis accounting.
Ease Of Use
FreshBooks has always been incredibly easy to use and the newly redesigned software is no exception. The software is easy to set up and use and requires little previous bookkeeping experience. The company is listening to users and has addressed previous navigational issues. For example, since our last review, the company added a designated Reports tab to make the software easier to use.
There is still the occasional navigational difficulty, but if you do have any trouble using the software, FreshBooks offers strong customer support and provides plenty of tools to help.
Features
In terms of features, FreshBooks covers all the basics and has a lot of built-in automations to help save time. Here are the most notable FreshBooks features that you can expect to find in the new version of the software:
- Dashboard: FreshBooks has an attractive dashboard where you can quickly view important financial information about your business. The dashboard is organized by graphs for Outstanding Revenue, Total Profit, Revenue Streams, Spending, and Unbilled Time. The side menu offers quick access to key reports. There is also a quick create button in the top right-hand corner of the screen and a help button on the bottom right-hand corner.
- Invoicing: FreshBooks offers two basic invoice templates that are customizable. You can change the colors, font, and logo or header. You can add terms and notes to invoices (which is a nice improvement since our last review). There’s still no way to create default email messages. Plus and Premium users can send reminders, charge late fees, and set recurring invoices. One of the coolest parts about FreshBooks is the built-in chat feature. If you click on the small cloud-bubble icon, you will be taken to a screen that shows any recent action(s) on that invoice, as well as messages from your client.
- Estimates: FreshBooks makes it easy to send estimates. You can create duplicate estimates, quickly convert them to invoices, and view the status of your estimates (sent, viewed, accepted, etc.).
- Client Portal: FreshBooks offers a beautiful client portal where your customers can accept, save, print, or comment on estimates; pay, print, save, or write messages on invoices; or view, comment on, or accept proposals.
- Contact Management: The contact section allows you to add basic client information as well as internal notes. You can also set a default currency and language and create default invoice reminders and late fees for each customer. There is a nice client page that features graphs that show total money overdue, amount outstanding, and amount in draft. Underneath this chart is a list of recently active clients and a full client directory. There is no way to manage vendors.
- Expense Tracking: Expense tracking is made easy with FreshBooks. You can enter expenses manually, import bank statements, or connect to live bank feeds (FreshBooks live bank feed are not automatic like you would expect and are updated once daily). When you enter an expense manually, you can add a receipt image, a vendor, description, total, and a category. Categories are set up to closely resemble IRS tax filing categories, which will come very handy come tax season. There is no way to mark these expenses as deductions, but you can separate business and personal expenses. Note: Like almost all software using live bank feeds, FreshBooks partners with Yodlee, which may violate some banks’ Terms and Conditions. Consult with your bank to see whether live bank feeds are a good choice for you.
- Bank Reconciliation (Plus & Premium Plan Only): With the addition of double-entry accounting, Freshbooks added a much-needed bank reconciliation feature. You can now reconcile your bank accounts in FreshBooks.
- Accounts Payable: FreshBooks does not have an accounts payable feature where you can enter and manage bills. However, on the invoicing screen, you can view the invoices sent to you by other FreshBooks users.
- Chart Of Accounts: FreshBooks offers a basic chart of accounts. There is no way to edit or delete the existing accounts. There is the ability to create custom sub-accounts but only your accountant do so.
- Items: You can add items and services to FreshBooks. While there still isn’t an items tab, having a place to view items is a much-needed improvement from our last review. You can enter basic information such as the item name, description, rate, and any default taxes.
- Project Management: With this feature, users can create hourly or flat-rate projects and assign them to employees or clients. You can set a time budget and due date as well. FreshBooks sets itself apart by offering an internal communications tool called “discuss” where you can discuss the project internally with your team. You can send messages, answer employee questions, and even add attachments and images with this tool. When a project is completed, FreshBooks makes it easy to bill projects as an invoice.
- Time Tracking: You manually log time in FreshBooks or use the built-in timer. You can also easily review the logged time of your employees and contractors. Time can be added to projects and billed as an invoice, or you can choose to record unbillable time as well.
- Reports: FreshBooks offers seven reports and three extra accounting reports for Plus and Premium users. The company has also added a reports tab for easier access. While the new FreshBooks does offer more reports than the last time we reviewed the software, FreshBooks Classic used to offer 22 reports.
- Journal Entries (Plus & Premium Plan Only): Your accountant can create journal entries.
- Proposals (Plus & Premium Plan Only): One of the coolest features of FreshBooks is the proposals feature. It’s well-developed and allows you to showcase your work with plenty of space for writing, images, and attachments. The sections include Overview, Scope of Work, Timeline, Pricing, Notes, and Terms. You can also require an e-Signature on approved proposals and easily convert proposals into invoices.
- Sales Tax: Since there is no settings section, you have to add sales tax manually on each line item of an invoice. FreshBooks does save the sales tax rates that you add, but you still have to manually select them.
- Multi-Currency Support: FreshBooks is compatible with nearly 170 different currencies as well as fourteen different languages, making the software ideal for international invoicing and business.
- Importing & Exporting: You can import clients and expenses via .csv. There’s no way to personally import items or services (which is a bit annoying), but if you send a file to FreshBooks support, they will import the data for you. You can export reports and download estimates and invoices as .pdfs, but that’s about it as far as exporting is concerned.
Customer Service & Support
The one thing that hasn’t changed over the years is FreshBooks’s great customer support. FreshBooks highly values their customer service, so much so that every FreshBooks employee spends their first month in customer support. The company has also won numerous customer service awards. One user put it like this:
No matter the issue, big or small, the FreshBooks Support Team is your own tiny army of helpful humans just waiting to make your day easier.
And they are right! Phone calls are answered right away, and in my experience, representatives are friendly, informative, and helpful. Emails are also responded to quickly and there’s a well-developed help center, as well as an expansive blog. Here are all of the support options available to FreshBooks users:
- Phone: FreshBooks phone support operates Monday through Friday from 8 AM – 8 PM eastern. Calls are answered quickly, making it a great go-to support option.
- Email: You can contact the FreshBooks support team via email. Emails are generally responded to within a few hours.
- Support Form: FreshBooks also has an online support form.
- In-Software Help: FreshBooks offers an in-software help section where you can search the built-in help center or leave a question for the FreshBooks team. You can also access FreshBooks’ FAQs, email, and phone number from within the program.
- Help Center: The help center features a large number of how-to articles and a list of FAQs. The articles are well-written with step-by-step instructions. There are two separate help centers — one for FreshBooks Classic and on for FreshBooks — so be sure you’re using the correct one.
- Webinar: FreshBooks offers free introductory webinars to help you become acquainted with the software.
- Blog: Much like the help center, FreshBooks’ blog provides a ton of articles with helpful business advice and information on product updates.
- Press Center: There is also a FreshBooks Press Center if you are curious about the company’s business news and coverage.
- Social Media: FreshBooks maintains Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram accounts. Freshbooks also has a well-developed YouTube channel featuring how-to videos, getting started demonstrations, advice for small businesses, and customer testimonials.
Negative Reviews & Complaints
FreshBooks receives predominantly positive reviews from its customers. When New FreshBooks launched, there was an increase in negative reviews; however, these have decreased as FreshBooks has addressed common issues like the lack of double-entry accounting and some navigational difficulties. Here are some of the most common issues users still have with the software.
- Limited Features: Users commonly call out for better reports, a QuickBooks Online integration, more invoice templates, and more supported currencies. While FreshBooks has listened to complaints like the lack of a PayPal integration (which they’ve reinstated), other requests seem overlooked.
- FreshBooks Classic Was Better: Several users like FreshBooks Classic better than the new version of FreshBooks, especially since the new version offers far fewer features. A few users note that they appreciate that FreshBooks allows them to still revert back to the Classic version.
- Too Expensive: Many people find FreshBooks to be far too expensive, particularly when considering free competitors like Wave offer more features and true accounting for $0.
Positive Reviews & Testimonials
Overall, customers seem to like the FreshBooks product. FreshBooks has an A+ rating on BBB and receives 4.5/5 stars on GetApp, 4.6 stars on G2Crowd, and 8.5/10 stars on TrustRadius. FreshBooks also features customer testimonials on their website and YouTube channel.
Some of the aspects customers love most are:
- Ease Of Use: This is by far the most common point of praise. Users like that FreshBooks is simple to use and saves them time on expenses tracking, invoicing, and billing. Users also like that they don’t have to be accountants to learn how to use the software successfully.
- Amazing Customer Service: FreshBooks’ customer service is highly praised. Users particularly appreciate the fast email responses and that they can talk to a representative on the phone right away without waiting.
- Strong Mobile Apps: Despite a few reported glitches, most users find the mobile apps convenient and well-designed. The iTunes app even receives 4.8/5 stars from users. While not capable of all desktop functions, FreshBooks seems to have one of the most developed mobile apps in the cloud accounting world.
- Professional Invoices: Users appreciate that FreshBooks makes their invoices look professional and appealing. Freelancers especially appreciate this aspect of the software.
Here’s what a few customers are saying about the software:
FreshBooks is hands down the simplest and easiest to use billing software for freelancers and small businesses of any size. The part I like the most is their outstanding customer support.
I’ve used Freshbooks for years and it has only gotten better with each update. I couldn’t imagine operating my graphic design business without Freshbooks.It’s simple to create invoices, track time, create projects, send invoices, receive payments…it’s an integral part of my day to day business operations.
The biggest benefit to me about FreshBooks is the transparency it offers my clients. My clients can see when I’ve logged into FreshBooks and I’ve done work for them. I do believe that FreshBooks has helped my business grow in the simple fact that it gives us a more professional look to our business versus me just typing out an invoice and mailing that to my client. I could not imagine doing what we do today without FreshBooks.
I don’t spend hours doing accounting stuff when I’m not an accountant. I can give my clients what they need and work with them on their projects instead of stressing over expenses and invoicing.
Integrations & Add-Ons
One of the big issues I had with the redesign during our last review was the reduction in integrations. The software had gone from 40 integration to 25. Now, FreshBooks offers over 80 integrations to cover just about any need businesses might have.
There are only two payment gateways available, but happily, the company just reinstated their PayPal integration. API is available for developers as well.
Interested in accepting online payments from your customers? Read our comprehensive merchant account reviews to learn the pros and cons of popular providers and see which payment processing option is best for your business.
Security
FreshBooks is secured by 256-bit SSL encryption as well as Cisco-powered firewalls. Data is backed up on two servers in two separate (undisclosed) locations and is also backed up nightly onto a physical tape. FreshBooks has intrusion detection and vulnerability test programs that run frequently.
In addition to cloud-based security measures, FreshBooks servers are housed in Rackspace’s data centers. To learn more about FreshBooks’ security and their partnership with Rackspace, contact the FreshBooks team.
FreshBooks Classic
FreshBooks has always received high praise from its users, and some of those users believe in the phrase “if it ain’t broke why fix it?” While the most recent upgrade to double-entry accounting puts New FreshBooks far ahead of FreshBooks Classic in terms of functionality, some users don’t want accounting tools — they just want the invoicing and basic bookkeeping features they’ve loved for years.
As we mentioned earlier, existing FreshBooks users have complete access to their FreshBooks Classic accounts and the features that come with it. It is worth noting that the company’s focus has shifted to the newer product, so existing users should expect a decrease (or complete stop) of updates to the classic software. But again, there are no plans to phase out the software at this point.
I have heard mixed responses about whether or not new users can opt for the classic plan or if they have to get the new plan. One representative said the company can only reactivate previous classic accounts, while another said a special request can be made to give new users access to the classic version. If you’re new to Freshbooks and you’d prefer the classic plan over the new plan, be sure to give customer service a call to see what they can do.
If you want to learn more about the details of FreshBooks Classic, read on. Or, if you want the condensed, Sparks Notes version of how each version of FreshBooks compares, check out our FreshBooks VS FreshBooks Classic post.
Pricing
I have been assured that the classic version FreshBooks isn’t going anywhere. At this point in time, there are no plans to eliminate Freshbooks Classic, nor are there plans to force existing users to switch to the new version. That means you get to keep your account and your pricing plan is locked in. Those classic pricing plans are as follows:
Sprout
- $12.95/month
- Unlimited invoices
- Expense tracking
- Time tracking
- Project management
- Contact management
- Inventory
- Mobile apps
- Bill up to 5 clients
- 1 user
Seedling
- $19.95/month
- Unlimited invoices
- Expense tracking
- Time tracking
- Project management
- Contact management
- Inventory
- Mobile apps
- Bill up to 20 clients
- 1 user
Evergreen
- $29.95/month
- Unlimited invoices
- Expense tracking
- Time tracking
- Project management
- Contact management
- Inventory
- Mobile apps
- Bill up to 200 clients
- 1 user
Mighty Oak
- $39.95/month
- Unlimited invoices
- Expense tracking
- Time tracking
- Project management
- Contact management
- Inventory
- Timesheets
- Mobile apps
- Bill unlimited clients
- 2 users
Redwood
- Call for Pricing
Extra Costs
Like New FreshBooks, there can be extra expenses with FreshBooks Classic.
- Additional Users: The Sprout, Seedling, and Evergreen plans only support one user. Additional users cost an extra $10/month each. There are user permission options for these additional users; however, each user must sign in with the same login.
- FreshBooks Payments: FreshBooks Payments allows you to accept payments from most major credit cards directly from your invoices. Payment processing costs 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for most credit cards.
Cloud-Based Or Locally-Installed
Cloud-based. No downloads or installation required.
Hardware & Software Requirements
As cloud-based software, FreshBooks is compatible with nearly any device so long as you have internet access. There are also mobile apps available for iOS (8.0+) and Android (4.2+).
Specific Size Of Business
With five different pricing options, Freshbooks Classic is a good fit for anyone from freelancers to micro-businesses to established small businesses. If you want a software that grows with you, Freshbooks can be a viable choice. One of the main drawbacks is that the cost of additional users can add up quickly.
With FreshBooks Classic it’s important to keep a few things in mind:
- FreshBooks Classic is not accounting software. It does not have the double-entry accounting capabilities of New FreshBooks.
- The software is for people who have used FreshBooks Classic in the past and can re-establish their old account. There is no guarantee that new users can opt for FreshBooks Classic.
- Because the company’s focus is on the new version of the software, updates for FreshBooks Classic may stall or stop completely. As far as I can tell, the company will continue providing its great customer support and has reassured users again and again that they won’t phase out the software; however, that does not mean they will be actively maintaining FreshBooks Classic in terms of updates.
Accounting Method
Both accrual and cash-basis accounting.
Ease Of Use
Overall, Freshbooks is incredibly intuitive and easy to use. The UI is visually appealing and customizable. The software is jargon-free and doesn’t require a background in accounting in order to use it. FreshBooks Classic also has great customer support in case you need help learning the software.
In the past, FreshBooks Classic was far easier to navigate the New FreshBooks, but the company has made improvements to the new software’s navigation, making both versions of FreshBooks easy to use. Several users, however, still prefer the UI of FreshBooks Classic and say the older version is more streamlined and requires fewer clicks to perform tasks.
Features
FreshBooks Classic boasts a clean user interface and a good selection of features. Here are some of the features available with the classic version of FreshBooks:
- Dashboard: The home screen displays gives you a quick view of your business’s activity and financial health with charts for Invoices & Expenses, Outstanding Invoices, Active Projects, Recent Activities, and Reports. There’s a menu along the top of the screen for quick navigation of the interface. There are also settings and help buttons on top for quick access to the FreshBooks Help Center.
- Invoicing: FreshBooks offers two invoicing templates. Each invoice can be customized with notes to clients, discounts, taxes, etc. You can set recurring invoices and a default terms and conditions message. FreshBooks tracks when invoices are received and read.
- Estimates: Estimates are easy to create and turn into invoices.
- Client Portal: FreshBooks has one of the best client portals I’ve seen (even better than the New FreshBooks version). Clients can view their current invoices, estimates, and projects, as well as their past history. They can request changes and make payments directly from the client portal. There is also an auto-billing feature they can enable.
- Contacts Management: You can manage a detailed client list from FreshBooks. This features basic client information and internal notes. You can also add multiple contact names per business, and the contacts screen allows you to quickly view your contact’s basic information, how much they owe you, and how long it typically takes them to pay (a unique touch I wish the new version would have kept).
- Expense Tracking: FreshBooks allows you to use live bank feeds, import bank files via .csv, or enter expenses manually. The latter option is a little annoying because the price shown does not include the taxes you pay, which can be very misleading. You can look at the tax summary report to see your total taxes, but this seems like a lot of time wasted. You can also use mobile apps to take pictures of your expense receipts for quick importing on the go, and any of these expenses may be assigned to specific clients. Note: Like almost all software using live bank feeds, FreshBooks partners with Yodlee, which may violate some banks’ Terms and Conditions. Consult with your bank to see whether live bank feeds are a good choice for you.
- Inventory: Unlike the new version of FreshBooks, FreshBooks Classic offers basic inventory management and will track item quantity. There is no way to track inventory value or set low inventory alerts, but it’s better than nothing.
- Time Tracking: You and your employees can enter time manually or with the built-in timer and apply it to any task or project. You also have the option to allow your clients to view the hours you’ve logged on a project. Timesheets can be generated into invoices easily.
- Reports: FreshBooks offers over 20 reports. All reports can be exported to a .cvs or .xls file or shared with an accountant. In addition, you can choose to receive a weekly overview report via email.
- Credits: You can add credit to a client and apply the credit to future invoices.
- Customer Review: One of the most unique features in FreshBooks Classic is the option to request reviews from your customers after completing business with them.
- Sales Tax: You can add as many sales tax options as you need and can apply different sales taxes within the same invoice if necessary.
- Multi-Currency: FreshBooks supports multiple currencies and multiple languages. If you change the language for a client, your own screen will remain in English. Only their side will be affected by the change.
Customer Service & Support
Despite the differences between each version of the software, the one constant is FreshBooks’ great customer support. There’s a reason FreshBooks has won awards for customer service. All of my test calls went straight through to a real person and I was never put on hold. Emails receive quick, informative responses.
Here are the different support resources available:
- Phone: FreshBooks phone support operates Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 8 PM eastern time.
- Email: You can contact FreshBooks by email.
- Support Form: FreshBooks has an online contact form as well.
- In-Software Help: There is a help tab accessible from inside the software itself.
- Help Center: The help center features a large collection of how-to articles when you need them.
- Social Media: Freshbooks keeps an active Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest accounts. The company also has a YouTube channel with how-to videos, set-up demonstrations, advice for small businesses, and customer testimonials.
Negative Reviews & Complaints
FreshBooks receives predominantly positive reviews from its customers. It seems that most of the recent reviews have been left by customers using the new version of the software; however, there are some classic-specific reviews.
Most of these users are loyal to FreshBooks Classic and complain that the new version is more limited and takes longer to navigate, which is why they prefer the classic version.
Positive Reviews & Testimonials
Users who are loyal to FreshBooks Classic appreciate the software’s ease of use, features, and interface. The FreshBooks Classic mobile apps also receive high praise and earn 4.1/5 stars on the Google Play Store and 4.2/5 stars on iTunes.
Integrations
FreshBooks Classic supports nearly 40 integrations, including five different payment processing options. There is API available for developers as well.
Interested in accepting online payments from your customers? Read our comprehensive merchant account reviews to learn the pros and cons of popular providers and see which payment processing option is best for your business.
Security
As a company, FreshBooks places the same importance on security for both the classic and new versions of the software. FreshBooks security uses 256-bit SSL encryption as well as Cisco-powered firewalls. Data is backed up on two servers in two separate (undisclosed) locations and is also backed up nightly onto a physical tape. FreshBooks has intrusion detection and vulnerability test programs that run frequently.
In addition to cloud-based security measures, FreshBooks servers are housed in Rackspace’s data centers.
Final Verdict
In the past, FreshBooks has not been a viable accounting solution for small businesses, and the fact that it marketed itself as “FreshBooks Cloud Accounting” was deceptive. Now, FreshBooks finally lives up to its name by providing double-entry accounting and key accounting features like bank reconciliation and reporting. Here’s a quick recap of each version of FreshBooks:
- FreshBooks is ideal for small businesses that want a basic, easy to use accounting solution and don’t need complex accounting features or multiple users.
- FreshBooks Classic is ideal for small businesses that don’t need accounting software and simply want an easy invoicing and expense tracking tool for their businesses. (FreshBooks Classic is only guaranteed to individuals who have used FreshBooks Classic in the past.)
Between the two, FreshBooks is a much better option for managing your small business finances. But is it the best accounting option out there? Probably not.
While FreshBooks has made promising strides with their latest updates, the software is incredibly expensive and is missing important features like user permissions and accounts payable. QuickBooks Online and Xero both have an almost identical price range to FreshBooks and offer far better accounting, more features, and more users — and even free companies like Wave have more to offer for $0/month.
That being said, FreshBooks’ ease of use and amazing customer service put both Xero and QuickBooks Online to shame, which may make FreshBooks 100% worth it for your business. Take the free trial for a spin and give the software a try yourself to see if the pros outweigh the cons for your business, or explore all of your options by taking a look at our top accounting picks.
Chelsea Krause
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Organization Name: Thompson Solutions
I would give Freshbooks Classic 5 stars except it can no longer import transactions from American Express. Because of this this I switched to the “New Freshbooks”. I have now lost the ability to filter for unassigned expenses. It now takes 5 clicks per expense to categorize and assign to a client. The invoices no longer have the receipt attached. There are many other issues w/ the “new” application. I am now looking for an alternative solution. I would stay with the Classic application however I need to be able to import American Express transactions.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I’m curious what people think about the new FreshBooks features? I’ve loved how easy Freshbooks has been for invoicing with my services-based biz. But we have grown too much to rely on software that doesn’t have double entry accounting, chart of accounts, bank reconciliation, etc…That said, just as we decided to jump ship to quickbooks or xero, FreshBooks has released these new features. I’d love opinions on whether they’re comprehensive enough, if anyone has been actively using them. I have to admit, I’m not looking forward to the UI or customer experience of xero or quickbook.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Brynhowlett.com, LLC
I love Freshbooks classic. I have 2 businesses. One still on Freshbooks Classic and I can’t convert to the new version. For my other business it wasn’t an option and I was kindof excited to try. It is horrible.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I’ve been a long time Freshbooks user and can say that while the recent major update introduced needed features, they cut out quite a few features I found critical. Two critical features that no longer exist include:1) No auto currency conversion. In the old system, you could apply the current currency conversion rate to an invoice at the time it was sent. Now I have to do those calculations manually and with several non US based clients, each with a dozen or more line items, what used to take seconds is now a huge time suck. I’ve been told by Freshbooks that there are no plans to bring this feature back.2) No more per client credit feature. In the old system you could apply a credit to any client that in turn could be used on any invoice. The client could even apply it where desired for future charges. In the new system you must create an invoice then apply the credit there. It can then only be used for that invoice. I use client credits all the time for referrals and allowing them the ability to apply to invoices as desired in whatever amount they wanted was a huge asset. That’s complete gone as is the dedicated credit dashboard.3) Reporting requires more clicks to filter than the old system and while it isn’t as big of an issue as above, I don’t understand how they could determine that requiring users to click more was a smart move.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Foothills Integrity
Freshbooks is amazing to use. I have been using this for a couple of years now and it works really well. I am a consultant so tracking projects and hours is a big thing. Creating invoices is a dream and my accountant has a login and she gets her data whenever she likes. I am not crazy about moving to the new version as the classic does what I want very easily. I wish they had a way to export and import projects so that you could update large numbers of these whenever you liked.There are small things that are an annoyance, not being able to see my whole project name in the day to day “time tracking” etc…….but other than that it does what you need it to do. Agreed not a full accounting module….but for time tracking and invoicing its amazing.
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Organization Name: Test Lab Automation
The site is great until you need to cancel. The cancel functionality on the site does not function so you are required to contact support in India. They, however, seem to try and prevent anyone from cancelling so you will need to work with your credit card company.
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This is a fantastic review write up! That said, just think about how much time you’ve spent reviewing a product that has split themselves into two halves. You would have saved so much time if they would just have spent time further developing the classic version. I’ve been a customer of Freshbooks Classic for going on 4 years now and I have absolutely NO intention of switching over to their “All New” Freshbooks version. I can’t understand for the life of me why a company would do this to their customers. I’m nervous to hear they may not be further updating the classic version as there’s absolutely no other alternative their newer version can persuade me into joining. It’s absolutely baffling why they did this and introduced a much much more limited version of something they already made successful.
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Can anyone verify whether Freshbooks is still going to offer the Paypal Business Payments flat 50-cent fee for invoices? I’ve searched high and low and can’t find the answer.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Melissa,
Thanks for reaching out! This is going to depend on which version of FreshBooks you are using. FreshBooks Classic sill offers the PayPal Business Payments integration with a flat fee of $0.50. However, New FreshBooks does not. Let us know if we can help with anything else!
Best wishes,
Chelsea Krause
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Housecleaning Business
Hello Chelsea:
Thank you for bringing that issue to my attention – it is very critical to my business invoicing. I have decided to look elsewhere for an accounting app.
AB
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Aileen,
I’m glad to help! I hope our other reviews can assist you in finding the perfect software for your business. If you’re looking for great invoicing features, Zoho Books can’t be beat and Wave has a pretty good selection of templates and invoicing features as well. Both are easy to use like FreshBooks but are true accounting programs. Best of luck!
-Chelsea Krause
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Changes to Freshbooks have (I can hardly believe I have to type this) removed your ability to remove a credit card from your auto-pay profile. That’s right, if you discovered your credit card number is overdrawn there is NO WAY to remove that card from auto pay other than completely canceling your freshbooks account. What’s more their console no longer even shows which credit card they have on file so if you put in a test credit card number like 1234-1234-1234-1234 which used to be a way to prevent auto-charge, it will not only not accept that number but not show that it hasn’t accepted that number and will continue to ding whatever card it successfully charged last. Nothing like having an overdrawn bank account and having no way to remove your card. This is likely not even legal. It’s obviously unethical. Their nice support staff will undoubtedly apologize but it won’t change the fact that their system will screw you. Truly infuriating.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Very disappointed the new version has eliminated customers ability to pay via paypal. A lot of small businesses have small clients who bark at the idea of having only one means of online payment. Paypal was convenient for many of my clients an the $.50 charge per echeck was easy on the pocket. Surprised this article mentioned nothing about that.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
BEWARE. As a small business I was looking for an easy to use invoicing program. Fresh books offered that. However, one very important drawback is that following log-in, the user can actually be thrown off-line for what Freshbooks has explained is “likely” the user’s own server issues. This means that after four hours of solid work today, upon attempting to send an invoice – it didn’t exist and it is not recoverable! Freshbooks has cost me time and money not to mention unnecessary frustration. The solution – save as you go, save, save, save. You will get no warning and no apology from the customer service team. I have used the program for nearly two years – I have lost invoices in the past but was assured that the “new” Freshbooks would address the issue – clearly it has not and clearly I’ve purchased the wrong program.
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My company has used Freshbooks for a long time and do all of our billing via their API. We bill in both US and Canadian dollars and Strip allows that, which Freshbooks supports, however, a few years ago, they got a bug in the API that prevents recurring profile updates in anything except your base currency. As a work around, they suggested I just do item adds and deletes. That worked until recently during the PCI compliance upgrade, they got a new bug that prevents line adds and deletes on some accounts. Now I am trapped between two bugs and having to do a lot of billing by hand. If you call, you can never talk to anyone in the API development team or a supervisor who can put pressure on them. It will be very painful to switch to another company because I don’t store any customers credit card info. But that may be what I have to do. Stripe has an API now, stores customer information for you and will do recurring billing with invoicing. I wish it was not necessary, but nobody at Freshbooks seems to care about a little guy who only bills one million per year.
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On Nov 16 I did instal FreshBooks and did download all information from that time .Since about 20 days that passed already , I did try to refresh my page but the bank informations is still from Nov 16 ! I tried couple times to countact the FreshBooks customer service and everybody just puted note To follow up this problem but I have this issue!!
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I’ve been a long time Freshbooks customer. Overall, it’s been a good experience. Freshbook support has been excellent, the product itself has been easy to use and reliable. I have no regrets.That said here are my biggest critiques:Expenses – It’s easy to miss but % discounts put on an invoice apply to EVERYTHING including expenses that have receipts. This makes no sense and was obviously an oversight on their part. It will make your accountant furious to deal with expenses with receipts that were only partially reimbursed. The Expense feature has been out a long while, this should have been fixed by now, but last I checked it still wasn’t. It cost me a significant amount of reimbursements before I caught the design flaw. The workaround is to always put expenses into an invoice that doesn’t have a discount applied to it. So if you routinely discount a customer’s invoice, then you’ll have to make a separate invoice for Expenses reimbursements. Not elegant but it works.No longer has a public forum — Freshbooks used to have a public forum, but somewhere along the way it disappeared. I immediately lose a degree of trust for any software service company that doesn’t have a public forum. To me it means they’re the bad kind of control freak, and more importantly it means I will have a difficult time finding out if other users are having problems or what pitfalls to watch out for. I get there’s an overhead and PR risk to having a public forum but trust doesn’t come for free…No weekend or night time support — Work doesn’t always happen during the 9-5. Invoicing means getting paid…staying in business. It’s time sensitive. On the otherhand it would cost Freshbooks more to have off hours support, so we customers would have to pay more. Do I want to pay more? Maybe a compromise is possible here: What about an option to purchase add-on weekend support?Wepay partnership — Freshbooks partnering with WePay to start doing their own credit card processing is worrisome to me. WePay rates seem to be slightly lower than the equivalent Paypal service, but those lower rates come at the cost of some important features. In my experience WePay is slooow to post money back to my bank. They also have no option for a debit card. With Paypal money is in my (Paypal) account and available for me to use via debit card the same day, even on weekends. With WePay you have to wait until it posts to your bank account, which takes 2 – 5 business day. That means you often won’t see the money for a full week. With local customers picking up and manually depositing a check often posts to my bank faster than WePay. This feels like a big step back techwise. But my real worry here is that by monetizing off their credit card processing partnership with WePay, Freshbooks is going to be incentivized to limit or drop their Paypal payment gateway integration. If that happens I’ll unsubscribe the same month. Rumor from another review here states that Freshbooks already plans to drop the Paypal Business integration later this month. (Paypal Business integration is a low flat rate fee for transactions through Paypal that don’t use credit cards.)—————————————————————————————————-Regarding the critic that Freshbooks is not real full fledged accounting software: It’s a mistake to see this as a Con. Whether this is a Pro or Con really depends on your use case. Pros:Simpler more efficient at invoicing, not needing costly user licenses for full fledged accounting software for users who only need invoicing, automatically creates a some separate from accounting or booking features that you might not want certain staff to access.Cons: You’ll need another solution for your accounting needs. You’ll need to integrate or feed Freshbooks into your accounting solution.Freshbooks seems to be on a slow path towards becoming a full fledged accounting platform. They already have ton more accounting features than when I first started using them. This means smaller businesses or consultants might now be able to get away with just Freshbooks and not use a full fledged accounting solution. But overall I feel like this in between space is undesirable and a mistake. Accounting feature creep has reduced some of the elegance of the invoicing features, but the lack of full fledged account features means you’ll likely still want accounting software. Essentially, I see this middle ground as the worst of both worlds.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Todd,
Thanks for your detailed and insightful review! I wasn’t aware of the expense reimbursement problem–and that’s a significant issue, one we’ll want to keep an eye on in our next review update. Your insights on WePay are also likely to be helpful to prospective users, so thanks for taking the time to write all of that up! I agree with you that invoicing software serves a different purpose than accounting software, and FreshBooks is well-suited to some businesses looking for the former. (My objection on that count is that FreshBooks advertises itself as accounting software, and as a result, I’ve heard complaints from a number of people who assumed it was full accounting software when they signed up.)
As cloud-based accounting solutions continue to expand their invoicing features (along the lines of what Zoho Books and FreeAgent have done), I think we’re likely to see more companies opting for a combined invoicing and accounting solution. Most good accounting software allows for invoice-only access permissions, and the user license issue you raise is becoming less of an issue with the emergence of plans that offer unlimited user licenses with a single subscription (Xero and Zoho Pro, for instance). For that matter, even QuickBooks Online offers more users at a lower rate than FreshBooks.
FreshBooks could definitely become an important player in that space–if they can expand to cover full accounting. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.
Best,
Katherine
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Freshbooks decision to drop Paypal pro payment gateway as of July 31 2016 has me looking for another invoicing system.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Thomas I know!!! So disappointed the new version does not have the paypal option. I’m staying on the old version but my fear is that EVENTUALLY they will notify us we must move over to new version.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
If they do this, they’ll lose more than half their user base because they promised us time and time again, they would never remove the classic version.
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I like accwing online invoicing. it have different invoice field, multiple payment, statement individually or in batches. and 60 days free try.
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I am so thankful to have found this company. I tried it free for 20 days and found it was perfect for my small business. All I needed was to create invoices and input my expenses. That’s it. Customer service responded to my questions very quickly and helped me with the sprout sign-up procedure for $9.95/month. Well worth every penny.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Excellent! I’m glad it’s working out so well for you.
Katherine
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
A LENGTHY REVIEW FROM A DAILY FRESHBOOKS USER:
I’ve been using Freshbooks for the last couple of years, and at first it was a breath of fresh air after getting away from Quickbooks (both online and desktop version prior to that). If you don’t have a proficiency for accounting, systems like Freshbooks are great, so I enjoyed the simplicity of it. The problem is – it’s just way too simple and there are some major gaps in functionality. Additionally, it’s a stagnant system. Very little improvements or features were tweaked or added in the system during the entire time I used it which is pretty unsual for a web based service.
Freshbooks shouldn’t even call themselves accounting, because their forte really is in time tracking and invoicing. I now use Freeagent and wish I’d switched sooner.
If you don’t care about tracking profit margins on projects or really tracking expenses accurately at all, then Freshbooks might work for you.
Freshbooks gets plenty right. Tracking billable time against customers or customer projects is a breeze, and their invoicing and methods for collecting payments is really hard to beat. Plus, they integrate with so many other services, it makes it really easy to get addicted to.
The things I love most – and the main reasons I’m glad that I left Quickbooks for Freshbooks years ago is:
Automated invoice reminders, which are totally flexible. This alone saved me a lot of time chasing down late payers.
Your customers get a really nice interface for viewing all their invoices online – although I will say I think I only have one or two clients who ever even used the client portal for doing that. Most of them just go to their email to retrieve the links for invoices or statements, but it is still a really nice feature.
No connections to your banking / credit card accounts. You can do this with expenses to some extent, but it’s just awful to work with, when compared to Quickbooks, Xero, FreeAgent – pretty much anyone else. In order to use Freshbooks, you have to have some other software or service for managing the accounting aspects of your business. This ended up being a bad thing for me. I like having it all connected, and there are plenty of great alternatives for that, and some even charge less than Freshbooks.
My reasons for leaving Freshbooks? Freshbooks is downright awful at expenses…
You can’t record non-billable expenses against a customer or project. If you want to record the expense without billing the customer for it, you cannot assign it to the customer or project. No easy way around that without messing up your accounting records.
And with expenses that you DO want to rebill the customer for, there’s no easy, intuitive way to handle marking up those expenses for goods or services to make a profit on. In order to do that, you must first add the expenses to the customer invoice, and then modify each line item expense amount up to the amount you want the customer to pay.
You cannot record bills as you receive them your vendors. Say for example, you get an invoice from a programmer who did work for you on 4 different projects in a given time period. Most vendors will just send you an itemized invoice with all the billable time across the various projects. Well, you can’t record it that way in Freshbooks. Each line item on your bill must be entered into freshbooks one line item at a time, and you cannot correlate them easily to know that they are all part of one bill/invoice. Freshbooks also can’t help you with managing when your bills are due. That’s accounting, which Freshbooks doesn’t do.
Freshbooks solutions to their shortcomings with expenses is all handled with hacks and workarounds for how their system is currently built. They are not easy or intuitive and they also throw things off with your accounting reports.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for your review. You’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head with my major gripe with Freshbooks: It’s not accounting software. Why the company has chosen to market itself that way is beyond me. Freshbooks is excellent invoicing software, for many of the reasons you mentioned. But as for accounting . . . the software simply doesn’t support it, at least not yet.
Glad to hear that FreeAgent is working out for you so far!
Best,
Katherine
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Here is answer from FreshBooks:
—-
Sorry about the confusion on this! We actually run price tests all the time and in this case, that review is referring to one. That said, I’ve moved your account over to the test group so you should be able to see it now.
—-
So it looks like they could have different pricing pages. Since they applied the change to my account, now I can see the Sprout plan on the “upgrade” page of my account (using Safari on Mac – yesterday the first upgrade plan available was Seedling at $19.95). When I access the public pricing plans page, I still see the Free plan and the first plan starts at $19.95. I tried with Firefox, and yesterday I was able to see the Sprout plan but today there is no more Sprout plan even when I clear my cache. There is no more Free plan with Firefox, but there is a Free plan with Safari. Anyway… if someone is confused, the best thing will be to contact FreshBooks. They answer very quickly.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Thanks for posting this info, Tommy! That’s very good to know.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Katherine,
Thanks for the quick follow-up. I tested the link with Firefox (Mac) and I was able to see the same page (with Sprout plan for $9.95 – no free plan). With Safari, even when I cleared the cache, I was unable to see the page with the Sprout plan. There was a free plan, and other plans starting at $19.95/month. With Chrome (Mac), there was no free plan anymore (except for 30 days), and no Sprout plan. Even with a complete clear of the cache, impossible to see this plan. Plans started at $19.95. So, three different browsers, three different results. I wrote to FreshBooks to ask for the real information and to let them know that their pricing pages were displayed with random content and different information.
I’ll keep you updated…
Tommy
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Interesting. The prices are displaying consistently across all 3 PC browsers I tested (Firefox, Chrome, IE), so perhaps this is a Mac issue. Very odd. I’ll look forward to hearing what you find out.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
The Sprout plan at $9.95/month doesn’t seem to exist. There is no information about it on the FreshBooks website. Plans starts at $19.95/month (Seedling). That’s a bad thing, as the Sprout plan would have been perfect for my current needs.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Tommy,
Good news for you! The Sprout Plan does exist. It’s fairly new. Check the FreshBooks pricing page here and click the link on the right side of the screen that says “Pricing Packages start at $9.95/month.” That will pull up a pop-up box with the information. Only reason I can think of that you wouldn’t see it is if you have an old version of the page cached. If you don’t see it when you follow the link above, clear your cache and cookies and try again.
Let me know if you run into any problems. Also, if you only have 5 clients, you might want to check out Zoho Invoice – they have a free subscription that might be appealing, depending exactly what you need.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.