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FreshBooks makes doing your freelance business invoicing and billing simple, saving you time to focussing on the freelance work you love and getting paid much faster.
But is Freshbooks any good and should you use it for your freelance work? Take a look at our Freshbooks review.
Freshbooks Review
- 30-day free trial
- From $15/month
- Sign up at freshbooks.com
What is Freshbooks?
FreshBooks is one of the most established freelancing accounting software in the market today, having been founding back in January 2003, by the owner of a design agency who was frustrated that when it came to billing clients, Word and Excel were difficult to use and weren’t built to create professional looking invoices.
Over the past few decades, Freshbooks has grown to a comprehensive freelancing accounting platform that automates tasks like invoicing, organizing expenses, tracking time and following up with clients.
Getting start with Freshbooks is easy. Most people send their first invoice seconds after starting their free trial. The same goes for tracking time, managing expenses, collaborating with contractors and viewing financial reports.
If you need help at any time, their award-winning customer service is a phone call or an email away.
You also get a 30-day money back guarantee, so you don’t have to worry about switching away from FreshBooks if it’s not right for you.
Their mobile app is also worth a mention as it’s one of the more polished apps on the market and event lets you respond to your clients’ questions and feedback right from the app so even when you’re on the go, your conversations are kept in one place.
Freshbooks Features
- Customize invoices and look professional
- Send estimates that help you win jobs
- Accept credit cards online and get paid faster
- Simple time tracking to never miss a billable hour
- Automatically import expenses to track spending
- Project budgets that keep your team on track
- Dashboards that keep your finger on the pulse
- Powerful reports with insights about your business
Freshbooks Pros
- Proposals, invoices, projects, expenses and time tracking all in one – you can run your whole freelance business through Freshbooks
- Professional looking invoices that are quick to create
- Tracking expenses in FreshBooks is straightforward
- Time tracking features mean you can track time using FreshBooks
- Freshbooks claims you can get paid up to 11 days faster when you accept credit cards online in FreshBooks.
- Reports in FreshBooks are simple enough for you to understand but detailed enough for your accountant to use
- With the FreshBooks mobile app you can stay connected with your clients and be able to take care of your accounting on the move.
Freshbooks Cons
- Limits the number of clients you can invoice on the lower paid tiers
- Some freelancers report issues with automated connections to bank accounts or Paypal
- Recent enhancements have made the product less intuitive and more difficult to use
- Setting the time on a task is counter-intuitive and seems to be visual perk that has no value and there is no timer on phone apps
- Can’t create recurring expenses
- Cannot sort invoices by type, or by paid or draft
What freelancers think of Freshbooks
“FreshBooks has allowed me to free up time and focus on growing my business. Thank you!” – Deric
“Freshbooks has been a program I’ve been using for several years now as they’ve made my time tracking and invoicing so much more efficient than my old school manual method of Excel and custom invoices.” – Victor
“FreshBooks should be a great product. It’s easy to use with good workflow, the UI is terrific, our customers love it and it does exactly what we want. ” – David
“It’s a little pricey if you have multiple businesses. Otherwise I love everything about it.”. – Matthew
Our Verdict
There are plenty of invoicing systems and marketplaces for freelancers out there, but what sets Freshbooks freelance tools apart is the element of guidance and the simplified nature of its service.
With today’s digital economy allowing for the career flexibility that freelancers crave, we recommend Freshbooks as a viable choice for freelancers everywhere.
Sign up to a free 30-day trial to Freshbooks at freshbooks.com
Read our roundup of the best online accounting software for freelancers and small business
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