Without a doubt, FreshBooks is one of the biggest names in the industry. Earning this stature is no coincidence. Their solution offers a wide variety of features that sets it apart from the rest of the competition. In this section, I take a look at a few of the best features FreshBooks has in store.
- Efficient Invoicing
- Expense Tracking
- Time Tracking
- Double Entry Bookkeeping
- FreshBooks On The Go
- Project Management Tools
- Project Estimation Tools
- Get Paid Effortlessly
- Simple Reporting
- Partner Programs
1) Efficient Invoicing
Invoicing lies at the heart of FreshBooks. It provides a platform to generate setup customized invoices in minutes. This feature gives your business the credibility it deserves. Moreover, you can set up payment options straight from the invoice itself. FreshBooks also notifies you when clients have read the invoice.
Consequently, you do not have to deal with clients who claim to have not received the invoice. You can also automate the processes to the extent of your choosing. This facility helps you run your business on cruise control.
2) Expense Tracking
This one is rather straightforward. To run a business efficiently, you need to know and track your expenditure. FreshBooks lets you do just that, through innovative expense tracking solutions. Connecting your bank account or credit card with FreshBooks allows you to automate your expense tracking. I love this feature as it gives you all your expenses without having to look elsewhere.
Tax filing is kept in mind when recording expenses. As a result, you can arrange everything categorically to avoid confusion later on. At tax time, you have all the information at your fingertips. It integrates well with its project management features to help your team track the money spent. Additionally, it enables you to keep an eye on how the expenditure is tracking the budget. As you can see, FreshBooks makes it easy to track your expenses.
3) Time Tracking
Time is easily the most critical resource that you have in your control. Hence, it necessitates sound judgment and use. As the famous saying goes, “what gets measured gets managed.” FreshBooks lets you manage your time by allowing you to measure (read, track) where you spend it and how. The time tracking dashboard gives you an at-a-glance view of how you spent your hours. This feature is a sure-shot efficiency booster.
Moreover, the actual process of tracking your time is hassle-free. All you need to do is start the timer and get down to business. When you finish, you will have it invoiced and ready to go. The same applies to the mobile app and the Google Chrome extension. FreshBooks virtually ensures payment for every billable hour. Lastly, you can keep your team in-check by seeing how they spend their time. This way, you can ensure efficient time utilization for each project and nip problems at its bud.
4) Double-Entry Accounting
The end goal of making invoicing easy, and tracking time and expenses is to account for it. FreshBooks provides simple accounting tools to assist you and your accountant. This platform ensures compliance by offering features like trial balance, balance sheet, general ledger, and more. These advanced reports give you all your business insights in one place. Thus, you can make more educated decisions and forecast your financial growth.
You can also invite your accountant to your FreshBooks account. I dig this feature as it gives him exclusive access to your financial records and reports. This functionality, in turn, allows them to support your business entirely. The final piece of this puzzle comes in the form of bank reconciliation. FreshBooks automated bank reconciliation to help organize your transactions like never before.
5) FreshBooks On The Go
We have reached a point where our smartphones have become indispensable tools. It has become second-nature to reach for your phone to do the most basic of tasks. In such a situation, mobile app support for any business platform is necessary. FreshBooks’ mobile app gives you all the cloud-based features in a small package. You can design custom invoices on the go and send it to your clients at any time, anywhere.
You can also wave goodbye to collecting and organizing paper receipts. FreshBooks has baked in a neat feature that lets you snap a picture of the bill and automatically add it to your expenses. The app also allows your clients to send you questions and feedback about your services. In short, the mobile app keeps you connected and on top of your business at all times. With the app, you can be sure not to miss an update and send timely invoices to your clients.
6) Project Management Tools
FreshBooks offers a suite of collaboration tools to help you manage your teams better. This platform assists you in boosting your productivity. To achieve this, you can invite your employees, contractors, and business partners to get more done in less time. File sharing is also very effortless and convenient. Moreover, you can set access rights for each file to ensure maximum security.
Additionally, collaboration tools allow you to hold group chats and meetings within the app. This way, your clients can provide their input at every step in the project. A happy client means more business, and this is pivotal. Lastly, you can assign rates or billable hours for a project on a per-client basis. This feature gives you unparalleled flexibility when running the show.
7) Project Estimation Tools
This feature is bound to amaze your clients. Aside from sending out custom invoices, you can create new proposals that will help you land more projects. Right from the cloud-based platform, you can set the scheme, the scope of your project, and the deliverables. I cannot help but imagine how impressed your clientele will be.
For your business, too, this is an easy way to save time (and money). You can rely on one platform for almost all business needs. By using the ‘Estimates’ feature, you will get a notification when the client is on board with your proposal, and you can begin your work right away. You can also easily add discounts and turn an estimate into an invoice. For a feature that is not directly related to accounting, there is a considerable amount of thought put into the estimation tools.
8) Get Paid Effortlessly
The easier it is for clients to pay you, the sooner you get paid. FreshBooks understand the importance of getting timely payment to keep your business afloat. Hence, they offer a host of payment options. There is native support for all major cards and ACH transfer (limited to clients in the USA). The pricing is also transparent, and you will not run into any hidden costs.
Integration with Stripe makes it even easier to get paid on time. It also supports all major cards and ACH transfers, straight to the bank. Payments can be initiated from the invoice, making it very convenient for your clients. Furthermore, you can set up recurring billing profiles for clients that keep coming back for your services. It adds processing fees automatically as an expense to your expense tracker. I found this feature to a neat little addition to their roster of payment options.
9) Simple Reporting
Powerful analytic tools drive most of today’s businesses. It is also common knowledge that the analytics are only as useful as what you can learn from them. FreshBooks lets you instantly see how well your business is performing. Profit and loss reports are readily available from the ‘Dashboard.’ You can rest easy knowing that tax-time will not be an issue as all the data is right there.
The reports are complete with a color-coded breakdown of expenditure and other financial documents. Even your accountant will appreciate the readily available summaries of all transactions. I feel this feature wraps the feature set correctly.
10) Partner Programs
The sheer variety of partner programs is staggering. Their ‘Partner’ page greets you with many options to establish a partnership with FreshBooks. You can provide integration solutions and even put the FreshBooks API to work. If you’re an educator, you can levy the power of FreshBooks to teach students how to manage accounts efficiently.
Additionally, you can use their affiliate program to pocket a few extra bucks. Referral links can help you and your friends get a discount while availing FreshBooks’ services. What caught my eye were the different options that are at your disposal on their website. There is something that everyone can use, for an overall better experience.
