FreshBooks vs. Zoho Expense

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
FreshBooks
Score 8.8 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
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.
$21
per month
Zoho Expense
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Zoho Expense is online expense reporting software, tailor-made for businesses worldwide to automate expense report creation, streamline approvals and make swift reimbursements.
$5
per month per user
Pricing
FreshBooksZoho Expense
Editions & Modules
Lite
$21
per month
Plus
$38
per month
Premium
$65
per month
Select
Custom Pricing
Free
$0
Standard Plan
$5
per month per user
Premium Plan
$9
per month per user
Custom
Get a Quote
per month per user
Custom
Get a Quote
per month per user
Custom
Get a Quote
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
FreshBooksZoho Expense
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details10% discount for annual pricing.20% discount for annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
FreshBooksZoho Expense
Features
FreshBooksZoho Expense
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
FreshBooks
9.1
35 Ratings
16% above category average
Zoho Expense
-
Ratings
API for custom integration9.330 Ratings00 Ratings
Plug-ins8.926 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
FreshBooks
10.0
41 Ratings
20% above category average
Zoho Expense
-
Ratings
Single sign-on capability10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based user permissions9.941 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
FreshBooks
7.5
57 Ratings
4% below category average
Zoho Expense
-
Ratings
Dashboards8.957 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports8.755 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports4.82 Ratings00 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
FreshBooks
7.5
56 Ratings
2% below category average
Zoho Expense
-
Ratings
Accounts payable8.041 Ratings00 Ratings
Accounts receivable9.455 Ratings00 Ratings
Cash management7.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Bank reconciliation7.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Expense management6.651 Ratings00 Ratings
Time tracking7.642 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-currency support7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Regulations compliance6.021 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-service portal9.13 Ratings00 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
FreshBooks
9.4
49 Ratings
21% above category average
Zoho Expense
-
Ratings
Pricing8.839 Ratings00 Ratings
Order entry9.337 Ratings00 Ratings
Credit card processing9.641 Ratings00 Ratings
Cost of goods sold10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Expense Management
Comparison of Expense Management features of Product A and Product B
FreshBooks
-
Ratings
Zoho Expense
7.6
3 Ratings
8% below category average
Employee Expense Reporting00 Ratings8.13 Ratings
Corporate Card Reconciliation00 Ratings7.13 Ratings
Payment Management
Comparison of Payment Management features of Product A and Product B
FreshBooks
-
Ratings
Zoho Expense
7.2
3 Ratings
10% below category average
Customizable Approval Policies00 Ratings7.93 Ratings
Financial Document Management00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Payment Status Tracking00 Ratings7.93 Ratings
Payment Audit Trail00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Duplicate Bill Detection00 Ratings7.53 Ratings
Advanced OCR00 Ratings5.52 Ratings
Electronic Funds Transfer00 Ratings5.73 Ratings
Best Alternatives
FreshBooksZoho Expense
Small Businesses
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
Score 7.2 out of 10
Dext
Dext
Score 9.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Score 9.1 out of 10
Precoro
Precoro
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Score 8.5 out of 10
Emburse Chrome River
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Score 7.9 out of 10
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User Ratings
FreshBooksZoho Expense
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(75 ratings)
7.9
(7 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.6
(18 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.5
(20 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.0
(11 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
FreshBooksZoho Expense
Likelihood to Recommend
FreshBooks
I recommend FreshBooks to anyone running a service-based business that needs invoicing, time reporting, and accounting tools. FB is adept in all three of these scenarios and isn't overly complicated like similar accounting packages I have used. I love how I can write estimates and proposals, manage the business development process from the software, and quickly convert prospects to invoiced clients.
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Zoho
easy of use for the end users as well as to manage. The option to add new categories (expenses) and have the end users use them immediately is wonderful. The ease of creating a new user as well as customer support has been great. The customer support while having issues has been quick to resolve any issues
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Pros
FreshBooks
  • Invoicing - FreshBooks basically ensures our accountants spend less time on invoices via its automated invoicing system, which sends invoices to our customers and clients alike and also send them regular reminders for them to pay up their bills.
  • Collecting business insights - FreshBooks enable our company analysts measure our business performances via data reports provided by FreshBooks' intuitive dashboard. Allowing us do a comparative analysis of key business metrics of a current month against past months and determine if the business is growing.
  • Expense tracker - We have recently embraced FreshBooks as an expense tracker for teams at our company branch. Thusfar, FreshBooks has performed very well, making our expense management a perfect operation; ensuring teams do not exceed their planned budget and also eliminating the need for tracking expenses on excel spreadsheets.
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Zoho
  • The program will notify users if they have entered a duplicate charge.
  • Once the end-users understood that receipts were mandatory, attaching those receipts has become second-nature. The app makes it very easy to do so.
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Cons
FreshBooks
  • 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.
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Zoho
  • Could have more default options. Instead of making my users select payment method, allow us to default it to one of the options.
  • More room for customization by department. My service department needs different categories of expenses then my sales department.
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Likelihood to Renew
FreshBooks
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.
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Zoho
No answers on this topic
Usability
FreshBooks
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.
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Zoho
Ease of use for the simple basic options. I wish the there was an option for reimbursement to be marked separately. Example for all corporate credit expense reports with $0 reimbursements still have to be marked as reimbursed in order to be removed from pending reimbursement section. For the cost the features offer benefits
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Reliability and Availability
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is easy to use and always works!
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Zoho
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
FreshBooks
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.
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Zoho
The only reason I give Zoho a 9 is because of the issue with the Chart of Accounts skewing every time I export/import. I believe this is due to the fact that I use sub-accounts and Zoho cannot differentiate. Still hoping. :)
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Implementation Rating
FreshBooks
I haven't changed my mind since my first evaluation. Freshbooks is still meeting my needs, easy to use, etc.
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Zoho
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
FreshBooks
FreshBooks does very well in comparison, especially since it is free software for Barclays bank users. Sage software is much worse than FreshBooks. However, Xero and QuickBooks, the market leaders, are still ahead with usability, additional features, reporting, and connection with third-party software providers. We chose FreshBooks as it does everything we require from this type of software.
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Zoho
We selected (switched) to Zoho Expense because it had similar features at a lower price and we were able to receive a discount through our partner relationship with another software company. We have considered moving from Zoho Expense to something else recently due to continued issues with being able to accurately import credit card charges and organize them correctly be team member. Creating some confusion among users.
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Return on Investment
FreshBooks
  • In reality, we do not implement all of its use at the moment in order to determine an adequate ROI.
  • In our approach to the use of the system, it seems to us a considerable time saving by achieving the integration of the Mexican subsidiary with its parent located in the US.
  • Financial reports meet the necessary USGAAP requirements.
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Zoho
  • We have had some issues with the credit card reconciliation process which has made our monthly accounting / close process. This has been a negative
  • Positive ROI is that team members spend less time on expense reports due to the ease of reporting
  • Positive ROI is that substantial training and onboarding is not needed due to the features and simplicity.
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ScreenShots

FreshBooks Screenshots

Screenshot of the dashboardScreenshot of an invoice overviewScreenshot of an example of a customizable invoiceScreenshot of an invoice appearing across devicesScreenshot of expensesScreenshot of time tracking