Every small business owner knows accounting can be a nightmare. Very rarely have I met someone who always has everything under control. This all changed for us when, a few years ago, we discovered FreshBooks Cloud Accounting.

Our Brief Thoughts on This Accounting Software

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Here are Four Reasons Why Ansley Creative uses FreshBooks Cloud Accounting

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1. A Streamlined Process from Proposal to Paid

Before FreshBooks, we would create all kinds of PDFs, Google Docs, and more in order to communicate with our clients. We would create proposals one way, estimates anther, and finally send invoices in yet another form. All of this made bookkeeping a nightmare… By the time tax season came around we found ourselves trying to reconcile folders of documents on Google Drive with our PayPal account activity and believe me, it was not fun.

FreshBooks allowed us to bring together all of these disparate components of our process in one place.

We can quickly and easily put together a proposal or estimate, send it to the client, and turn it into an invoice on acceptance—all without confusing the books.

2. Flexible Invoice Structures

If your business is anything like ours, every project is unique (shameless plug—check out some of our unique projects here). This means pricing and payment schedules are not constant from one client to the next. FreshBooks handles this with ease. We’re able to prepare invoices requesting a deposit to start the project or including a payment schedule for the duration of the project. Each of these options allows us to set either a flat-rate or percentage based amount.

No matter how complex the project, we’ve always been able to lay it out nicely in a FreshBooks invoice.

3. Integrations

In the modern age, integrations are everything. When we realized that we could connect our accounting software to Slack, GSuite, WordPress, and more we were pumped! Now we’re using Zapier to create smarter automations that help us save time and money. FreshBooks offers more than 70 integrations.

4. Time Tracking and Project Management

We’re a services business and for that reason the Time Tracking and Project Management components of FreshBooks accounting software are probably two of the most appreciated feature sets for us. We can easily keep an eye on our hourly budgets and see at a glance where we’re making or losing money. With the mobile app, we can quickly start or stop a timer and add details to the log later.

But it can’t all be good, can it?

I guess not… If I really had to nit pick, I would say there are a few small annoyances I have encountered while using this software for the last two years.

First, link sharing is not pretty. In my workflow, I always send clients a link to an invoice, estimate, or proposal. Since we are a design agency all about branding and identity, I do not like to have FreshBooks send the link for me in an unbranded or off-brand email. Luckily, FreshBooks allows me to create a shareable link—the only problem is these links are huuuuuuuuuge. This means I have to take an extra step before I can share the link with a client.

Secondly, I have noticed that navigating some of the secondary sections of the software can be cumbersome. For instance, when viewing Clients I would expect to be able to click on a client and view a list of invoices, estimates, or proposals relating to this client. However, in my experience, I have not been able to quickly access this information. Instead, I go to the Invoices, Proposals, or Estimates section and search the client name in order to view the respective documents.

In Conclusion

We have loved centralizing all of our accounting in FreshBooks. It has saved Ansley Creative a bunch of time and money already, making it well worth the investment. From this one platform we are able to effectively manage all financial aspects of our business as well as perform key tasks relating to project management and time tracking.

If you’re interested in taking FreshBooks for a spin, you can find more information here.

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