FreshBooks is an accounting service for small businesses. The solution enables users to send and manage invoices, track billable time and collect online payments. The vendor’s value proposition this that their solution provides a straightforward service that simplifies the billing process.
$15
per month
HubSpot CRM
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
HubSpot’s CRM enables growth-minded businesses to optimize their relationships with leads and customers. Through harnessing the power of carefully crafted sales, marketing, customer service, content management, and operations tools, the software aims to make it easy to unify team strategy and drive conversion. Additionally, the software allows users to connect with over 875 integration apps, APIs, and solutions partners to create a customizable user experience that suits the way teams work.…
I selected FreshBooks because it combined Toggl, Harvest and Quickbooks features into a single system. This simple move allowed for me to save money on the tools and in turn bring all client data into a single portal.
FreshBooks is easy to use and automatically generates the …
FreshBooks is the perfect tool for businesses who have hundreds of clients and customers whom they invoice regularly. It removes the need to manually send invoices to clients and customers, by streamlining inputted information to create an automated invoicing system which keeps clients and customers up to date with their bills. It is also a great tool for managing expenses, especially for companies with different teams working on varying projects, ensuring these teams do not exceed the budget ceiling.
In my last position at a SAAS company, I used Salesforce and HATED IT. It was so clunky, and when I used HubSpot, it was like a breath of fresh air. Any company that does customer interactions and sales needs Hubspot. There is a TON of room for customization, which is AMAZING. I don't see anywhere that it wouldn't be a good fit.
FreshBooks is pretty intuitive to use. I did have some questions when I first started using the system, but it wasn't a long learning curve.
FreshBooks provides more capability than other billing applications such as PaySimple or BlinkSale. FreshBooks does provide an easy invoicing function. It's easy to create invoices that can be sent via email or snail mail to one or more individuals (for example, the decision-maker and the accounting dept). Clients can pay online or send a check and then I note that the payment has been received. If paid by credit card, the system automatically marks the invoice paid. Your business accounts such as bank accounts can be linked to FreshBooks. Then, the system can automatically draw in expenses and will create simple P&L reports, overdue invoices, client history, etc. If you don't have inventory and complex payroll, etc. FreshBooks provides just the right level of capability to make financial tracking simple.
FreshBooks integrates with a number of credit card companies. I use Stripe, which has fees similar to Paypal, but much more reliable processing. I can accept all credit cards, including American Express, for a reasonable fee.
I can brand invoices with my business logo, but I might like to change colours of the invoices themselves to match the rest of my business documents. That isn't a major point at all, but it's something that I'd like to see.
Freshbooks doesn't remember the categories that similar expenses were previously assigned to. It would be nice if Freshbooks would suggest a category for an already saved vendor, to ensure the consistency of expense reporting.
The home page of a Freshbooks account has a great graph display of expenses and income, but it only shows the last 6 months. This is still very useful, but I'd like to be able to see this kind of graph for different periods of time.
Pricing - HubSpot offers a number of great features in the free version however the paid options can be pricey.
The free version could do with more options in some of the additional areas such as the marketing platform. Although there are some options included, they are very limited.
At the current needs of our business, FreshBooks suits us perfectly - it allows online access by our accountant to the system for GST purposes, easy input of expenses and tracking of Profit and Loss statements. FreshBooks customer service is great as well - very understanding and accommodating.
To be honest there are some barriers due to which we are unable to use Hubspot at it's full potentials. The region that we work in has some restrictions that don't allow us to make calls or text which leaves us to just Email to the client.
FreshBooks is very easy to use even for novices. If you're looking for an online accounting software that is full of features, has great aesthetics and is user-friendly, then this is definitely the software for you. I've been using it for several years now and despite being tempted to switch by other vendors, I like the feel of FreshBooks and it's mobile features.
I think the usability is great. I am able to train a new agent with zero experience in our process with HubSpot in a day or less. They can be proficient in using HubSpot quickly, the way I've designed it to work, in less than a week. I am able to load new leads, set calling campaigns, and start prospecting quickly. I've even had to call customer service for help, and they were super helpful.
I think the support level for FreshBooks is on par with a 6 because the folks behind this application do a fairly good job at providing support for their customer base. I still don't think they are at an elite level when it comes to supporting but are getting there although too slow in my opinion.
Because when I needed help HubSpot responded immediately and provided me with the information I needed which enabled me to realize that HubSpot was even more customizable and easier to use than I thought! And I already thought HubSpot was very user friendly and easy to use, and then Support showed me how to manipulate the settings, columns and the appearance of the tool.
If you've had any prior experience with cloud based marketing automation or group communication tools, you can do the implementation without paid outside support. Though getting to a SLA (service level agreement) would be best achieved with the help of a third party who can facilitate
We do not consider other options since our client wants the implementation of this platform in order to use it in the two countries where it has operations.
At the moment, full integration was not possible and we still share the information with a Mexican system to complete everything necessary.
Salesforce requires a lot of in-depth knowledge both to implement and to manage. I found it to be quite clunky and there was an additional overhead for any marketing functionality, that wasn't up to par. Whilst Zoho had some good features, in practice the CRM was difficult to manage, customer support was non-existent, and like Salesforce, required 3rd party support agents in order make simple changes. comparison, HubSpot allows the user to make many changes themselves such as adding and mapping properties, and also has excellent customer service. Combined with a well-rounded offer in terms of marketing, analytics and a good CRM, HubSpot stands out as the clear winner.
Freshbooks saves me time compared to when I managed to invoice without an app.
Freshbooks make keeping my invoices organized which saves me time.
Freshbooks helps me to know who is late on payments. When I was doing this by hand, some invoices would get lost in the clutter and I would not find out I haven't been paid until much later.
Automation helps to save time so that we can reach out to more prospecting or save time that can be spent on more strategic sales tasks like deal management
Visibility/collaboration helps connect marketing and sales efforts vs them being siloed
Connection with salesforce helps us to get more out of our CRM spend as we have valuable data insights coming from Hubspot
