FreshBooks Review: How Good Is It Really?

*Prices are in CAD. 

FreshBooks is one of the biggest names in the small business bookkeeping software market. Its relatively low monthly subscription rate, user-friendly interface, and generous free transaction allowances make it a popular recommendation for small teams with limited budgets. Though its lower-tier plans provide the best value for money, the company offers bookkeeping plans for most business sizes, including freelancers, businesses with contractors, and businesses with employees. 

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FreshBooks Interface Overview

The FreshBooks interface is extremely intuitive. All key financial management features are accessible from the sidebar. These include:

1. Dashboard: This tab provides an at-a-glance overview of your account activity. It displays graphs, charts, and other visualizations related to different areas of bookkeeping, including outstanding invoices, bank connections, revenue and expenses, total profit, revenue streams, and unbilled time. You can choose which visuals to display and arrange them to fit the way you work.
2. Clients: The Clients tab is a centralized hub for client information. It lets you store and manage your client contact details, track communications, and view invoices and estimate histories per client.
3. Estimates: The Estimates tab (called the Quotes tab in some versions) lets you create and send client estimates, which outline work, pricing, and scope. Once a client approves an estimate, you can convert it into an invoice with a click, allowing a seamless transition from potential work to billable work.
4. Invoices: Depending on your plan, the Invoices tab will consist of three pages. All users get access to the default Invoices page, which lets you build, send, and track customizable invoice templates, and the Recurring Templates page, which lets you automate regularly occurring invoices. Users with the FreshBooks Plus plan and above also get access to the Retainers page, which lets you manage retainer-based payment structures with clients. 
5. Payments: Like the Invoices Tab, the Payments tab consists of three pages. These are the default Payments page, the Online Payments page, and the Checkout Links page. The default payments page shows your income from invoices, checkout links, and other sources. The Online Payments page lets you accept online payments, such as credit cards and ACH transfers. Finally, the Checkout Links page lets you create and manage online payment gateways for your customers and clients. 
6. Expenses: The Expenses tab includes a default Expenses page, a Bills page, and a Vendors page. However, the latter two pages are only available for subscribers of FreshBooks Premium and above. The default Expenses page lets you upload receipts, categorize expenses for tax purposes, and monitor spending by category. The Bills page lets you manage accounts payable, while the Vendors page lets you manage suppliers and service providers.
7. Projects: The Projects tab lets you manage projects. You can set up projects, assign team members, attach files, track deadlines, and monitor project progress and associated costs. This helps you keep work organized and tie tasks directly to clients and invoices.
8. Time-Tracking: The Time-Tracking tab lets you log billable hours per client or project. You can start and stop timers to log time as you work, then attach hours to invoices. This feature helps you capture and bill your actual work hours accurately.
9. Accounting: If you subscribe to FreshBooks Plus or any higher-tier plan, you get access to the Accounting tab, which provides a full-featured view of your bookkeeping. It provides many useful tools, including bank reconciliation, general ledgers, trial balances, and financial statements. There are also separate pages for your chart of accounts and journal entries. 
10. Reports: The Reports tab provides a range of pre-built reports, helping you analyze business performance, identify trends, and generate insights for planning. The library includes reports like profit & loss, accounts aging, sales tax summaries, expense reports, and more.

Aside from the tabs for core features, the sidebar also links out to multiple types of account configurations. These let you edit details related to your account, such as the apps you use, the team members participating, items and services, bank connections, and other settings. 

1. Apps: The Apps tab lets you connect FreshBooks with third-party integrations, including integrations for scheduling, payments, automation, and more. The tab provides a list of recommended apps and a link to the FreshBooks App Store. 
2. Team Members: The Team Members tab is for managing additional users. You can invite people to your account, assign them roles, and customize their level of access to different account features, including dashboards, invoices, projects, and more.
3. Items and Services: The Items and Services tab is where you set up the products you sell (items) and the services you provide (services). Items help you calculate inventory and sales tax, while services let you track billable time with precision. Both link to your income accounts so you can track revenue by category.
4. Bank Connections: The Bank Connections tab lets you view and manage your bank and credit card connections. With synced accounts, you can import transactions to your system automatically. 
5. Settings: The Settings tab is your general control center. You can update your company profile, adjust invoice templates, choose payment settings, and set preferences for time tracking, users, and notifications.

Outside the sidebar is the header, which provides access to  essential tools and information:

• Search: This helps you quickly find clients, invoices, projects, or other records across your account.
• Notifications: This location lets you view important alerts, such as payment updates, reminders, and system notifications. 
• Help: This provides quick access to FreshBooks’ support resources, including guides, FAQs, and live chat.
• Profile: This is where you can modify your account settings, update your personal or company information, adjust preferences, and sign out.

Does FreshBooks Have a Mobile App?

FreshBooks also comes in iOS and Android mobile app form. Both versions provide access to the software’s core features, including:

• Invoicing
• Expense tracking
• Mileage tracking
• Time-tracking
• Online payments
• Client management
• Report generation

The app received overwhelmingly positive reviews. It earned a 4.5-star rating on Google Play and a 4.7-star rating on the App Store. 

Key Features

FreshBooks covers most bookkeeping needs, including invoicing, payment acceptance, and reporting. However, more advanced features like accounts payable, bank reconciliation, and receipt capture are limited to higher-tier plans. 

Estimate Generation

The FreshBooks estimate feature simplifies estimate creation. It provides a comprehensive selection of estimate templates, enabling you to generate professional-quality estimates and send them to clients instantaneously. You can customize templates to match your branding and include detailed descriptions, quantities, and pricing. All FreshBooks plans provide unlimited estimates for free. 

When clients approve estimates, FreshBooks automatically converts them to invoices. By converting potential work to billable work automatically, it keeps your workflow seamless. The feature also lets you monitor the estimated status by displaying pending, approved, and declined estimates. 

Invoice Generation

All FreshBooks plans provide unlimited free invoices. Similar to the estimates feature, the FreshBooks invoicing feature lets you generate invoices from pre-designed templates. These templates are customizable,  with options for itemized lists, taxes, discounts, and notes. You can schedule them, attach files, and send reminders automatically.

FreshBooks lets you generate recurring invoices for clients you bill regularly. To use this feature, you simply set the frequency and duration of the invoice, then allow FreshBooks to send them automatically. This feature saves time and ensures consistency in client invoicing. 

FreshBooks also supports retainers, which let clients prepay for work. You track hours or expenses against the retainer balance, then FreshBooks automatically updates invoices as you complete work. This ensures you get paid upfront and simplifies managing ongoing projects.

Payment Acceptance

The FreshBooks Payments feature makes it easy to receive client payments. When you customize invoices, you can choose which payment options to enable. This includes credit cards, bank transfers, and ACH payments. Payments appear automatically in your account, reducing manual entry.

Clients receive a secure link to pay their invoices in just a few clicks. You can also set up automatic reminders for unpaid invoices, helping you receive payments faster. The platform integrates with payment processors, so you can reconcile payments automatically. 

You can also monitor payment status, including paid invoices, partially paid invoices, and overdue invoices. This grants you full visibility over your cash flow.

Projects

The Projects feature helps you organize client work. It centralizes everything related to the project, including messages, files, and invoices. You can create tasks, assign them to team members, set deadlines, and track progress. 

You can also track time and expenses by project, making it easier to manage budgets and ensure profitability. If you choose to share access, you can let clients view project progress,  which keeps communication clear and transparent.

Time-Tracking

FreshBooks lets you track time for both projects and clients. This makes it easier to calculate billable time. You can log hours manually or use a timer while working. FreshBooks will then let you link these time entries to invoices to ensure you never miss billable time. 

This feature also lets you review time by project or client, which makes it easier to monitor productivity and generate accurate billing reports. You can mark entries as billable or non-billable and pull them into invoices with a few clicks. The reports show where your time goes, helping you plan workloads and price projects more accurately.

Expense Categorization

The expense categorization feature helps you keep your spending organized. You record expenses, attach receipts, and assign them to categories that fit your business. Classifying expenses makes it easier to track spending and prepare for tax time.

You can tag expenses as billable and link them to a client or project. FreshBooks adds those costs to invoices automatically, so you recover every billable expense. 

Reports

With reports, tracking your business performance is easier. Using data from your account activity, you can generate instant reports on a variety of bookkeeping areas, including invoices, expenses, taxes, projects, and time-tracking. These present your business activity in a clear and organized format, allowing you to understand where your business stands and make informed decisions.

Accounting

Advanced accounting features are available with FreshBooks Plus plans and above. These tools support double-entry bookkeeping, recording both sides of every transaction automatically, providing a clear view of income, expenses, and equity. You can also create a chart of accounts and journal entries to classify transactions more accurately. 

Bank Reconciliation

With FreshBooks Plus and above, you get access to the platform’s bank reconciliation feature. This compares your bank statement transactions with invoices and expenses to ensure your accounts are accurate and up-to-date. 

Accounts Payable

FreshBooks premium plans and above gain access to accounts payable features. These let you track money you owe to vendors. You can enter bills, attach receipts, and mark transactions as paid to keep your records accurate. You can also manage vendor information, including contact details and payment history. 

Receipt Capture

The FreshBooks receipt capture feature allows you to import receipt data automatically by uploading photos of physical receipts. The platform extracts key information, then attaches the details to related transactions. It will also organize all receipts for bookkeeping purposes. 

However, this feature is only available with select plans. The FreshBooks Plus plan allows receipt capture for expenses, while the FreshBooks Premium plan and above allow receipt capture for bills. 

Third-Party Integrations

To expand functionality, you can connect your FreshBooks account with third-party integrations. Possible integrations include payment processors like Square, CRM systems like HubSpot and Zendesk, payroll solutions like Gusto, and more. Integrating with apps you already use streamlines workflows and reduces the risk of duplicate data entry. 

Multi-User Support

You can add team members to your account for a fee of $13 per user. If you upgrade to FreshBooks Select, you get two additional user seats for free. To protect your financial information, you can assign roles and customize permissions per user. 

The table below outlines which features each role gets access to. 

Legend:

✅ The role receives full viewing and editing access. 
⚠️ The role receives limited access. 
❌ The role receives no access. 

FreshBooks Plans

FreshBooks offers tailored subscription plans for businesses of all sizes, except enterprises. Features, transaction allowances, and pricing scale according to your business’ needs. It also provides three types of optional add-ons for additional functionality: advanced payments, additional users, and payroll solutions.

Lite

Of the available FreshBooks plans, FreshBooks Lite offers the best value for money for its target customers. At just $22 per month, it already offers unlimited estimates, custom invoices, and time-tracking. It also comes with basic reports, such as tax time reports, business health reports, and at-a-glance business dashboards. These inclusions adequately cover the bookkeeping needs of freelancers, contractors, solopreneurs, and self-employed individuals. 

However, FreshBooks Lite leaves out several useful features, such as bank reconciliation, accounts payable support, and advanced accounting. It also limits users to five billable clients, so they can store details for only five clients at once. If you manage multiple clients, vendors, and billers, you may need to upgrade to a higher-tier account or find a different provider. 

Plus

While FreshBooks Plus is marginally more expensive than FreshBooks Lite, it also provides decent value for its cost. At $35 per month, FreshBooks Plus comes with 50 billable clients, double-entry accounting reports, advanced accounting tools, and automatic expense receipt capture. These tools enable deeper, faster, and more accurate record-keeping and are suitable for users with a moderate number of clients. 

Although FreshBooks Plus costs $13 more than FreshBooks Lite, it remains more cost-effective than comparable options. Xero’s basic plan, for instance, allows only 20 invoices per month at $25. Its mid-tier plan offers unlimited invoicing but costs $35. QuickBooks EasyStart, priced at $28, excludes time tracking, recurring invoices, and advanced reports.

Premium 

By FreshBooks Premium, returns begin to diminish. This plan charges a monthly fee of $60 and adds accounts payable support, project profitability reports, and bill receipt capture. It also lets users save unlimited billable client details rather than just five or 50. This makes it a serviceable, albeit pricey, option for businesses managing multiple clients and vendors.

If you need accounts payable and receipt capture, other options may offer better value. Xero Standard, for example, includes accounts payable and unlimited invoicing for just $55 per month. It also provides unlimited free user seats with customizable permissions, making it a solid choice for larger financial management teams.

Select

The FreshBooks Select plan is best for businesses that favor FreshBooks’ interface and offerings but seek access to exclusive VIP support services. Unlike other plans, which charge a fixed monthly rate, FreshBooks Select offers custom pricing tailored to your business and its needs. Though more expensive than other plans, it grants you access to lower transaction rates for client payments.

Additional FreshBooks Select privileges include:

• Data migration services: This allows you to import data from other sources with ease. 
• Dedicated phone support: This grants you access to FreshBooks’ priority customer service phone line. 
• Two free user seats: You can add two team member accounts at no extra cost. 
• Credit card acceptance: This allows you to accept client credit card payments via checkout links or invoices. 

FreshBooks Select is worth the investment for businesses that prioritize customer support. If you prefer managing software independently, a lower-tier plan or alternative solution may be a better fit.

Add-Ons

The FreshBooks Advanced Payments add-on feature allows businesses to accept credit card payments more efficiently. At $25 per month, it includes a virtual terminal, which lets businesses charge clients by requesting their payment details rather than sending an invoice. This feature helps service-based businesses or those handling recurring payments process transactions faster and keep records in one place

FreshBooks PaymentEvolution Payroll is an integrated payroll solution designed for Canadian businesses. It allows users to run payroll directly from their FreshBooks accounts while staying compliant with Canadian tax laws. The system automatically calculates deductions, remits taxes, and generates pay slips for employees and contractors. It also keeps payroll records organized with your bookkeeping data, reducing the need for manual entry. You must contact a FreshBooks representative to work out pricing. 

The last add-on allows you to add extra users to your account at a fee of $13 per user. To regulate each user’s access levels, you can assign them one of the following roles: owner, admin, manager, employee, accountant, full access accountant, or contractor. This allows you to distribute financial management responsibilities while keeping sensitive information safe. 

How Helpful is FreshBooks Customer Support?

One of FreshBooks’ biggest selling points is that it offers a wide range of support services. During business hours, the support team is reachable via phone or email. Outside of that, the website provides an in-app AI chatbot, which can answer simple questions or connect users to support teams once available. Many users across review platforms like Trustpilot and G2 report that FreshBooks agents are knowledgeable and friendly. 

FreshBooks also provides a detailed online help center with step-by-step guides, tutorials, and answers to common questions to help users who prefer to solve problems independently. The website also provides webinars, product demos, and articles that explain bookkeeping basics and software features. These self-service features give users a strong reference for exploring the FreshBooks system and its tools.

What size business is FreshBooks best for?

FreshBooks provides great value for small businesses, solopreneurs, freelancers, and self-employed individuals. Its lower-tier plans charge budget-friendly monthly fees and accommodate most basic bookkeeping needs, including invoicing, estimates, and expense tracking. It even provides unlimited time-tracking to help you calculate how much to charge clients and customers. 

Higher-tier FreshBooks plans, however, offer less value compared to competitors like QuickBooks and Xero. QuickBooks benefits from widespread use among bookkeepers and accountants, giving business owners a larger pool of professionals when outsourcing bookkeeping. Meanwhile, Xero provides a more comprehensive report library and allows unlimited users on a single account.

When to Choose an Alternative

While FreshBooks is a strong choice for freelancers, contractors, solopreneurs, self-employed individuals, and very small businesses, there are many scenarios that other solutions can accommodate better. Here, we outline the signs not to choose FreshBooks and provide alternatives. 

You work with a large team

If you work with a multi-user bookkeeping team, FreshBooks is far from the most cost-effective option. All plans, including the Select plan, charge an additional $13 per user regardless of role or access level. The best alternative is Xero, which provides unlimited free user seats with customizable permissions with all plans. 

You want flexibility in choosing accountants and bookkeepers

Though a decently popular small business bookkeeping software, FreshBooks falls far behind QuickBooks in terms of overall market share. Because QuickBooks remains the industry leader, finding QuickBooks specialists is much easier than finding FreshBooks specialists, especially if your business has complex or niche accounting needs. If you outsource bookkeeping and want a larger pool of professionals to choose from, QuickBooks is the better solution. 

You need advanced inventory tracking, job costing, or project management features

While FreshBooks’ generalized bookkeeping tools can accommodate many types of small businesses, the software lacks deep industry-specific tools such as advanced inventory tracking, job costing, or full project management. If your business needs industry-specific accommodations, you’ll likely need to connect third-party apps or explore specialized accounting platforms.

A deep dive into our buyer’s guides can help you find great solutions for a variety of industries. 

• Best Bookkeeping Software for Churches
• Best Bookkeeping Software for Construction Companies
• Best Farm Bookkeeping Software
• Best Bookkeeping Software for Nonprofits
• Best Property Management Bookkeeping Software
• Best Bookkeeping Software for Restaurants

FreshBooks vs. Competitors

What Users are Saying

Feedback for FreshBooks is mostly positive. The software earned high ratings on review sites, with 4.5 stars on both Capterra and G2 and 3.8 on Trustpilot. Most positive reviews praise the platform for being beginner-friendly. Users particularly liked the invoicing and time-tracking features, claiming that both tasks were easy to execute. Some also reported that the software helped them save time on report generation. 

However, a few users found the software too expensive for the features it offered. While the basic plans meet the needs of freelancers and small businesses, higher-tier plans do not scale as well for larger operations. Many reviewers singled out the platform’s limited reporting features, which failed to provide the in-depth analytics growing companies need. 

Bottomline

• Time-Tracking: One of FreshBooks’ strongest features is free time-tracking, which helps freelancers and businesses track and charge billable time more accurately. It is available with all FreshBooks plans. 
• Intuitive Interface: The FreshBooks interface is very easy to navigate, enabling faster onboarding and smoother workflows. The website also provides a dedicated help center and an AI chatbot to help users navigate the software. 
• Customer Support: FreshBooks provides strong customer support options, including a phone line and email support during business hours, and a help center and AI chatbot for simple 24/7 assistance. Users subscribed to the FreshBooks Select plan also get access to their own dedicated support lines. 

The basic FreshBooks plans, FreshBooks Lite and FreshBooks Plus, are strong bookkeeping solutions for freelancers, self-employed individuals, contractors, or solopreneurs. They provide unlimited free invoices, estimates, and time-tracking, enabling you to maintain accurate financial records and transact with clients seamlessly.

However, returns diminish as you scale. The higher-tier FreshBooks plans, FreshBooks Premium and FreshBooks Select, are less cost-effective than competitors of the same caliber, such as Xero and QuickBooks. Choose FreshBooks if you need a bookkeeping software that can accommodate service-oriented businesses with a low to moderate number of clients. Once you expand, start looking for solutions elsewhere. 

Start Your Bookkeeping Journey with EpicBooks

Learning a new bookkeeping platform does not have to be difficult. At EpicBooks, we help you simplify and modernize your bookkeeping processes. With extensive experience and a strong understanding of Canadian business needs, our experts can empower you to navigate today’s digital environment. Our packages cover all your bookkeeping needs, including account reconciliation, asset management, journal entries, and financial reporting. 

FAQs

Can I learn FreshBooks by myself?

Yes, you can learn FreshBooks on your own very easily. The software’s interface is intuitive, with a search bar to quickly locate features. The FreshBooks website also provides an AI chatbot to answer questions and a comprehensive help center with tutorials, guides, and answers to common user questions.

Can I use FreshBooks without an accountant or bookkeeper?

You do not need an accountant or bookkeeper to run FreshBooks. The software is intuitive enough for any type of user to understand, regardless of their level of technical knowledge. Its interface makes tasks like invoicing, estimate generation, and expense-tracking extremely straightforward.

However, accountants can help you make sense of FreshBooks data. Because the software lacks in-depth reporting capabilities, extracting insights and identifying patterns from your financial history might be a little difficult. An accountant can help you uncover the deeper insights needed to drive your business forward. 

How safe is my data with FreshBooks?

Strong security measures help protect your FreshBooks data. The software uses 256-bit SSL encryption to safeguard information between your browser and the platform. It also runs on Google Cloud servers, which have firewalls, monitored infrastructure, and physical protections such as biometric access, surveillance, and redundant power systems. To prevent loss from hardware failure or disasters, the software backs up your data nightly and replicates it across multiple locations. 

FreshBooks also protects users by maintaining compliance with industry security standards. It has achieved SOC 2 Type 1 certification, providing independent verification of its security controls. However, these standards only cover general businesses. Users in highly regulated industries should confirm whether the platform meets their specific compliance needs.