Accounting Made Easy – FreshBooks Review

FreshBooks is a service that serves over 5 million businesses worldwide. It is classified as a cloud accounting service. This means that it is the solution for businesses that want to step into the 21^st century from the older, traditional methods of bookkeeping such as old school pen and paper. The site itself is pretty fluidly designed. There are helpful video tutorials for every aspect of the cloud service. The website is secure as well, and allows a new user to make payments and upload their company details without having to worry about espionage or theft.

The welcome page upon signing up is very user-friendly

First Impressions

As soon as the signup is completed (there is a free 30 day trial period), the homepage is shown along with some incredibly useful links and contact information. These include links to the customer service team (which isn’t a 24-hour hotline, which is a little off-putting), and free webinars and android/iOS apps for the CEO on the go.

Helpful links to tutorials right on the home page

Getting acquainted with the site is made easier because all of the functions of the service are linked right on the home page, along with a summary of your company, profits, recent activity and more. You can also click through to helpful video guides on using the cloud accounting service to its maximum potential, which is pretty cool. There is a quick launch “Get Started” toolbar on the side as well.

Payment And Subscription

Pricing is a major factor for a business that is looking for an accountant, whether it is a digital one or a human. The smallest subscription package for FreshBooks is $12.95 a month. The most popular package has the essential features and some add-ons for $29.95 a month, which isn’t bad at all. With a high satisfaction rate as well as a satisfaction guarantee that will give your money back in the first 30 days, it is a great tool for small businesses on a budget.

30 day money-back guarantee and decent prices for subscription

Features

There are many intrinsic features of the cloud accounting service, and they are pretty well done. Easy to use and very comprehensive, these features won’t leave your company wanting for anything. You can add a new client to your business, so that you won’t need a separate database of clients and their contact details. Because of the cloud, this information is secure and safe.

Easy to add new clients to the database on the cloud

There is also a useful feature for adding invoices for your transactions. These can be sent directly to your printer over the internet or via old-school wired printing. The invoice forms are detailed, and allow for better organization of your company transactions.

Invoice generation is simple and organized.

If clients are more interested in quotations for your services instead, you can generate estimates, using the intrinsic feature on the site. These can later be converted into invoices without further details needing to be entered, if the transaction goes through in the end.

Quick and easy estimate to invoice conversion and generation

Two other features are expense management and time tracking. Expense management allows you to keep track of all corporate expenses. These include spending for personal use from the corporate account. This is deducted from your invoices using an algorithm and your company’s actual earnings for the fiscal term are presented to you faster than a human accountant ever could.

Expense tracking allows for more accurate income calculation

Timesheet generation and tracking allows you to keep track of daily hours, task completion times, deadlines and more. You can organize these by project as well, or by the client who requested it. This makes for a far more organized company overall.

Live timers and organized timesheets

Conclusion

FreshBooks is a cloud accounting service that is fast, helpful, organized and secure. It does have its flaws and shortcomings, but they are barely noticeable because of the design, helpfulness and overall cleanliness of the service itself. It is one of the better accounting services out there for the small business.

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