5 Years of Using Freshbooks
I am just wrapping up my
5th year in business as I write this blog (April
2009 is when I incorporated). When I opened my doors for business I knew I needed two programs to help get me going and not cost a lot of money. I turned to Google Apps for Business to run my emails, contacts and calendars. I then needed a program that would send estimates, invoices and track my business expenses. I landed on
Freshbooks. My web designer, David Guy, was using it at the time and loved it. So the decision was easy and it is where I plan to stay as I start my
6th year in business.
Can A Contractor Use Freshbooks?
Since my embracing and using of Freshbooks a lot of fantastic invoicing and accounting (cloud-based) programs have surfaced. I have tried most of them. The ones listed below all have their place in the market and are high quality products.
Most contractors I know have settled on Quickbooks or Quickbooks Online and are happy with the products overall. It makes sense for most contractors to stick with a trusted company like Intuit. They really are the leader in the small business accounting world. I have had a few contractors use
Freshbooks for some more seasonal businesses (like Christmas lights) because it is really just a simple system for sending estimates, invoices and receiving payments online. Even though I personally use and
LOVE Freshbooks, I’d say that
most contractors should probably consider Quickbooks as their billing solution. It would be difficult to switch between the two programs. Freshbooks does not offer some of the key features, like Job Costing. Freshbooks does have a number of plugins and integrations, as does Quickbooks. So if you really do want a simple solution to start, check out their
Add Ons Page. I tried Quickbooks for myself for awhile, but stayed with Freshbooks for
3 reasons:
- My accountant approved
- My customers have never once complained about using it to pay their bills
- It is a piece of cake to use.
So, if you happened upon this post in search for a very simple and easy to use invoicing system,
Freshbooks takes the cake. If you need a more robust accounting system with a lot of bells and whistles, try
Quickbooks (for contractors) or check out Xero.