What is FreshBooks? A complete guide to features, pricing, and use cases

FreshBooks is one of the most popular invoicing and accounting platforms for freelancers and small service businesses, but it's often overlooked in favor of bigger names like QuickBooks. This guide covers what FreshBooks is, how it works, what it costs, and how it compares to QuickBooks. If you're already using FreshBooks and want to take it further, we'll also show you how IFTTT connects FreshBooks to the rest of your stack, automatically alerting you when invoices are due, logging payments to spreadsheets, and creating invoices from other tools without manual entry.

IFTTT is an automation platform that connects over 1000 apps and services, so instead of checking FreshBooks manually for payment updates or copying client data between tools, you build the connection once and it runs automatically.

What is FreshBooks?

FreshBooks is cloud-based invoicing and accounting software designed for freelancers, independent contractors, and small service businesses. It handles the core financial operations of a solo or small-team business, creating and sending invoices, tracking payments, logging expenses, managing clients, and running financial reports, in a platform built for people who bill clients for their time or services rather than selling physical products.

Founded in Toronto in 2003, FreshBooks started as a simple invoicing tool and grew into a full accounting platform. It's now used by millions of small business owners across more than 160 countries. Its reputation is built on a clean, easy-to-use interface that doesn't require an accounting background, which has made it a go-to for designers, consultants, photographers, lawyers, and other service providers who need to get paid without becoming accounting experts.

What is FreshBooks used for?

Freelancers and independent contractors use FreshBooks to send professional invoices, track time on projects, accept online payments, and keep a clear picture of what they're owed. The platform is designed to make the billing cycle, from sending an invoice to getting paid, as frictionless as possible.

Small service businesses: agencies, consultancies, tradespeople, accountants, use FreshBooks to manage client billing across multiple projects simultaneously, track team time, and generate the financial reports they need for tax season.

Businesses with client-facing billing use FreshBooks specifically for its client portal, which lets customers log in, view their invoice history, and pay outstanding balances online without any back-and-forth by email.

Teams that bill by the hour use FreshBooks because time tracking is built directly into the platform and ties to invoicing, you log time against a project, and FreshBooks converts tracked hours into a billable invoice automatically.

How does FreshBooks work?

FreshBooks is built around the invoicing workflow. You create a client, create a project or retainer for that client, log time or expenses against it, and generate an invoice. The invoice goes to the client via email with a direct link to view and pay online. When payment comes in, FreshBooks records it and marks the invoice as paid.

Invoices are customizable with your branding, can include line items for services or expenses, and support multiple payment options: credit card, ACH, PayPal, or Stripe. Automated payment reminders can be scheduled to go out if invoices aren't paid by the due date.

Expenses are tracked by uploading receipts or syncing a credit card or bank account. FreshBooks categorizes expenses automatically and matches them to projects so they can be billed directly to clients or tracked for tax deductions.

Time tracking is integrated directly into projects. You can run a timer within FreshBooks, import time from the mobile app, or add manual time entries. All tracked time rolls up into projects and can be invoiced with one click.

Reports: profit and loss, tax summaries, accounts aging, expense reports, are generated from your invoices, expenses, and payments. For businesses that file taxes themselves or work with an accountant, FreshBooks can invite an accountant to access the account directly.

Is FreshBooks free?

FreshBooks doesn't offer a free plan, but it provides a 30-day free trial. After the trial, four paid plans are available based on the number of active billable clients:

The Lite plan costs around $19/month and supports up to 5 active billable clients. It includes unlimited invoices and expenses, time tracking, and bank imports, but limits the client count, which makes it best for solo freelancers with a small client roster.

The Plus plan costs around $33/month and supports up to 50 active billable clients. It adds recurring invoices, double-entry accounting reports, business health reports, and accountant access, the most common tier for growing service businesses.

The Premium plan costs around $60/month and supports unlimited billable clients. It adds project profitability tracking and lower credit card processing rates. This is designed for established businesses billing a large number of clients.

The Select plan is custom-priced and adds a dedicated account manager, custom onboarding, and volume discounts.

Additional team members are billed separately on all plans, which is worth factoring in if you have staff who need their own FreshBooks access.

FreshBooks vs. QuickBooks: what's the difference?

FreshBooks and QuickBooks are both accounting platforms for small businesses, but they're designed for different types of users. Here's how they compare:

Bottom line: FreshBooks is the better fit for freelancers and service providers who primarily invoice clients for time and services, especially if built-in time tracking, a polished client portal, and an easy-to-use interface matter most. QuickBooks is more powerful for businesses with inventory, complex accounting requirements, or teams working closely with a bookkeeper trained in QuickBooks. Both platforms have IFTTT support, so you can automate workflows across Slack, Google Sheets, and more regardless of which one you choose.

What are FreshBooks' limitations?

FreshBooks' client limits on lower tiers can be restrictive for growing businesses. The Lite plan's 5-client cap is fine for a new freelancer but gets constraining quickly, and the jump to Plus for 50 clients comes with a meaningful price increase.

Double-entry accounting is available on Plus and above, but it's not front and center in the FreshBooks experience. Bookkeepers and accountants trained in QuickBooks often find FreshBooks less familiar, which can create friction if you need an external accountant to work directly in the platform.

Inventory management is minimal. FreshBooks is built for service businesses, not product-based businesses. If you sell physical goods and need to track stock levels, reorder points, or cost of goods sold, you'll need a different tool.

Payroll isn't native, it's handled through an integration with Gusto. For businesses that want a single platform for both accounting and payroll, the Gusto integration adds another subscription and another login.

Team member pricing adds up. Unlike Xero, which offers unlimited users on all plans, FreshBooks charges per additional team member. For businesses with several staff who need access, the per-seat cost can push the effective price significantly higher than the base plan price.

How IFTTT works with FreshBooks

FreshBooks tracks your invoices, payments, expenses, and clients. IFTTT makes sure that activity doesn't stay locked in your accounting platform, routing invoice alerts to the right people, logging payments to spreadsheets, and connecting FreshBooks to the other tools your business runs on.

IFTTT's FreshBooks integration works through six triggers, three Pro+ queries, and four actions. Triggers include new invoices, invoice updates, and more. Queries let you look up invoices and payments by ID and search invoices by status. Actions let you create invoices, record payments, and more, all from other apps.

Get alerted when invoices are created or coming due

Know the moment a new invoice goes out or a payment deadline is approaching, without refreshing FreshBooks. IFTTT can push a notification or send an email automatically so overdue invoices don't slip through.

Log payments and invoices to Google Sheets

Build an automatic record of every payment received and every invoice sent. Set it up once and you'll have a running spreadsheet log that's useful for spotting trends, sharing with a financial advisor, or preparing for tax season without hunting through FreshBooks.

Create invoices and clients from other tools

FreshBooks actions let you create invoices and add clients from outside the platform entirely. A new row in Google Sheets can trigger an invoice. A Typeform submission can add a new client. Your billing stays current without anyone logging into FreshBooks to enter data manually.

Share invoice activity with your team

Route invoice creation and payment notifications to Slack or your team's messaging tools automatically, so everyone has visibility into what's been sent and what's been paid, without needing access to FreshBooks directly.

Explore FreshBooks integrations

Slack to FreshBooks

Keep your team informed about invoice activity and payment status without giving everyone access to FreshBooks. Useful for small agencies and studios where account managers or project leads need billing visibility without being in the accounting platform.

• - Post a Slack message when a new invoice is created
• - Notify your team when a client payment comes in
• - Share invoice details with your channel automatically

Set up Slack → FreshBooks

Google Sheets to FreshBooks

Log every payment and invoice to a spreadsheet automatically, or trigger new invoices from spreadsheet rows. Useful for businesses that do financial tracking outside FreshBooks, share data with partners who don't have FreshBooks access, or want a simple external record of billing activity.

• - Log incoming payments to a running Google Sheets record
• - Append every new invoice to a spreadsheet as it's sent
• - Create a FreshBooks invoice from each new row added to a sheet

Set up Google Sheets → FreshBooks

Typeform to FreshBooks

Turn client intake form submissions into FreshBooks clients automatically. Useful for freelancers and service businesses that use Typeform for onboarding new clients and want each submission to create a client record in FreshBooks without manual data entry.

• - Create a new FreshBooks client for every Typeform submission
• - Pre-populate client details from intake form responses
• - Trigger invoice creation when a new project kicks off

Set up Typeform → FreshBooks

Square to FreshBooks

Connect your point-of-sale and invoicing so Square payments flow into FreshBooks automatically. Useful for businesses that take in-person payments via Square and want each transaction recorded in FreshBooks without switching between platforms.

• - Record a FreshBooks payment when Square processes a new order
• - Create a Square customer when FreshBooks adds a new client
• - Keep your payments and billing records in sync automatically

Set up Square → FreshBooks

8 more ways to automate your billing workflow

If you're already connecting FreshBooks with IFTTT, these Applets extend automation to the other tools in your stack. Square and Stripe are two of the most common payment tools small businesses run alongside their invoicing platform, and both are on IFTTT.

FreshBooks and IFTTT: better together

FreshBooks keeps your invoices and payments organized. IFTTT makes sure that activity doesn't stay siloed, routing invoice alerts to the right people, logging payments to spreadsheets, creating clients from intake forms, and connecting your billing platform to every other tool your business depends on, automatically.

Ready to connect FreshBooks to your workflow? Get started on IFTTT today, no code required.

Frequently asked questions about FreshBooks

Does FreshBooks support multiple currencies?

Yes, FreshBooks supports multi-currency invoicing on Plus and Premium plans. You can create invoices in different currencies for international clients, and FreshBooks will display the currency on the invoice and in the client portal. Exchange rate tracking and automatic currency conversion for reporting are more limited than dedicated multi-currency accounting tools, FreshBooks records transactions in their original currency but does not automatically convert everything into a base currency for consolidated reporting. Businesses that invoice heavily in foreign currencies and need consolidated reporting may find a dedicated accounting tool like Xero's Premium plan better suited for that workflow.

Does FreshBooks have a mobile app?

Yes, FreshBooks has a mobile app for iOS and Android that covers the core billing tasks most freelancers and small business owners need on the go, creating and sending invoices, logging expenses by photographing receipts, running the time tracker, and checking which invoices are outstanding or paid. The app is particularly useful for service providers who work on-site and want to send an invoice immediately after completing a job. FreshBooks also offers a separate app called FreshBooks Time Tracking (available for teams) that's optimized specifically for logging hours. Some features: detailed report generation, accountant access, and recurring invoice setup, are better managed from the desktop version.

Can I manage multiple businesses in FreshBooks?

Each FreshBooks account covers one business. If you need to manage multiple businesses, as an accountant or an owner of several companies, each requires its own separate FreshBooks subscription. Unlike some accounting platforms that offer firm or practice management tools for managing multiple client accounts from one login, FreshBooks doesn't have a multi-entity dashboard. Managing multiple businesses means logging in and out of separate accounts or maintaining separate browser sessions.

Is FreshBooks good for VAT and tax filing?

FreshBooks supports VAT invoicing, you can add VAT numbers to your account and have VAT calculated automatically on invoices sent to clients in VAT-registered countries. For UK and EU businesses, FreshBooks generates the tax summaries and reports needed for VAT filing, though the actual submission to HMRC or other tax authorities happens outside FreshBooks. In the US, FreshBooks handles sales tax in a similar way, you can apply tax rates to invoices, but it doesn't file tax returns on your behalf. For businesses with complex multi-jurisdiction tax requirements, FreshBooks is best paired with a dedicated tax tool or accountant.

Explore more IFTTT blogs

FreshBooks is one of over 1000 services you can connect with IFTTT. Whether you're automating your small business, staying on top of your to-do list, or just trying to reclaim a few hours in your week, IFTTT works across the tools you already use. Here are a few more blogs to help you get started.

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