A great invoicing tool for the small business!
Updated April 29, 2021

A great invoicing tool for the small business!

Tim Vahsholtz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with FreshBooks

I use FreshBooks for all my billing. Being a small business, it helps to have automated invoicing and reminders for some of our clients. FreshBooks also provides auto payments if our clients prefer.

One main reason I went with FreshBooks is the fact that it links up with Fundbox. Our clients are good about paying (usually), but not knowing exactly when checks arrive can be strenuous on small business. By linking up w/Fundbox, we can use that service to keep cash flow going in case of a tardy payment.
  • FreshBooks is great for creating, sending and/or auto charging for invoices you set up in advance. Several of my clients are on monthly service packages, and it's great to save time by having the invoices ready to go. Most of our clients pay via check, so we only have FreshBooks create the invoices. Plus, we can double check that there are no additional charges that need to be added before the invoice goes out.
  • FreshBooks has a pretty robust auto email section. New invoice emails, payment reminders, and notifications of late fees are all part of this feature. Plus, if you learn the shortcodes, you can customize these emails.
  • FreshBooks interfaces with Fundbox, an important tool for a small business of our size.
  • One big area for improvement is being able to automatically carry over a past due balance to a new invoice. If a client is late with their payment, you have to either add the previous balance to the new invoice or have two invoices sitting out there, which can be confusing for the client. If the new invoice has the previous balance included with it, you must zero out the previous month invoice, or your FreshBooks will indicate you have more money owed than you actually do. (This is an accounting issue).
  • It would be nice if FreshBooks would interface with Quicken and or QuickBooks. (I'm not certain that it doesn't, but don't believe it does.
  • Overall, FreshBooks has had a positive impact on our business in time saved. We probably spent half a day creating monthly invoices for our clients, now it takes a few minutes.
  • Because of FreshBooks' payment portal (as opposed to just Paypal), we receive payments a week to ten days faster, on average.
  • FreshBooks' ability to borrow against invoices via Fundbox allows us to keep a positive cash flow at all times.
FreshBooks allows for more than one payment portal, automatically creates, sends, and/or auto charges invoices, and has a more robust automatic emailing system, as compared to PayPal Payments. PayPal Payments is more suited to "one-off" transactions, in my opinion. Also, it is much easier to generate reports through FreshBooks, when compared to PayPal.
For small businesses, this is a really great invoicing program. We used PayPal to manually send invoices before, and FreshBooks helped to automate a significant portion of the process. Plus, the interface with Fundbox is quite helpful. Once you send an invoice, it shows up in Fundbox, and you can borrow against that invoice. This helps with positive cash flow.

FreshBooks Feature Ratings

Accounts payable
Not Rated
Accounts receivable
6
Expense management
5
Time tracking
Not Rated
Regulations compliance
Not Rated
Pricing
5
Order entry
6
Credit card processing
6
Dashboards
7
Standard reports
7
Not Rated
API for custom integration
Not Rated
Plug-ins
Not Rated
Not Rated
Role-based user permissions
Not Rated