Invoicing Decisions: My Freshbooks Experience

Brian  

For the last couple of years, I’ve been searching for an invoicing tool that worked for the way I work. I tried Blinksale, Freshbooks and Less Accounting, among others. I didn’t have very many clients for my side business, so I was able to organize them using three free accounts. Eventually, that became a pain, especially when tallying income for Uncle Sam, as I started getting more clients.

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So I did a pretty thorough test of features for the three services, plus local software programs like Billings, and I decided on Freshbooks.

Now, they all have something going for them. The Less Accounting guys are awesome. But so are the Freshbooks folks. Saul Colt, “Head of Magic” is an awesome customer service rep. They have also done a great job of adding new features with no additional charge.

I know I’m paying a monthly fee for something I could get with a one-time purchase of something like Billings, but the extra money is worth it for me to be able to do my business on any computer, track time on my iPhone, and give my clients a nice online interface for their invoices as well as any support tickets.

Freshbooks, for me, makes my business complete. Now I just need to get busy customizing the interface to give it the DE look and feel.

The service was just named by RWW to the Top 10 International Products of 2008. They recently added these great features as well, which really is extra icing on the cake:

  • Invite contractors to work on your projects.
  • Contractors can work on your projects from their own FB account.
  • Receive invitations and project notifications from email and your homepage.
  • Invoices that are sent from your contractors will appear in your received invoices subtab.
  • Pass your contractor’s hours and expenses onto your client from your received invoices subtab.
  • You can now invite contractors onto your projects when creating or editing projects.
  • Your project creation page has been redesigned to be easier to use.
  • Your Team tab has been redesigned to include staff and contractors.

It really is painless, and fast. Sign up here for a free account and let me know what you think, or let me know what you use in the comments!

6 thoughts on “Invoicing Decisions: My Freshbooks Experience

  1. Having been all over the place for the last couple of months, I've actually plunked down and bought Billings and have been extremely satisfied with it. Once I realized that I'm pretty much working for myself, the need for having a web-based solution diminished as I ALWAYS have my computer with me — and with the Billings iPhone app ready to drop in January, I'll be able to to use that when I'm too lazy to open up the MacBook.

    Bottom line, all of us seem to be saying "screw you, QuickBooks!"

  2. I second the QuickBooks hate. It might be good for more complex businesses, but definitely not for freelancers.

    Keep me posted on the Billings iPhone app – that would definitely be something that would push me to it.

  3. Brian, I am sure you'll be very happy with Freshbooks. They're a great company and nice guys too. Personally our business outgrew an invoicing app and that's why we built LessAccounting.com. Great review of all the apps.

  4. Just an update to this. The $14 per month price tag for Freshbooks is starting to add up, whereas $39 once for Billings is enticing.

    However, Freshbooks is SaaS, which is lovely, for my multiple systems. But I bill so infrequently I can’t warrant a monthly fee….I wish FB had a “super small business” plan…

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