You are charged an additional month beyond your cancelation date. So either you have to plan to cancel 2 months in advance or you have to plan to pay an additional month of service after you actually cancel. Our support team is here to make switching to FreshBooks from any other software (even spreadsheets) super easy, with no interruptions to your business. At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don’t guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services. FreshBooks’ plans also do not have any kind of feature limit – you’ll get the full product no matter what you pay for it.

  • First, that FreshBooks isn’t an all-in-one accounting suite as many believe it is advertised, but is instead a thorough piece of invoicing software.
  • You can also connect your bank account and credit cards to your FreshBooks account to automatically track your expenses.
  • You pay a monthly subscription for this service and additional fees for each user.
  • Business owners seeking to find the finest financial partner must be aware of the differences between QuickBooks, FreshBooks, and Xero.

In terms of user experience, FreshBooks isn’t intimidating to people with no accounting experience. It’s easy to understand the navigational flow of FreshBooks, and it somehow makes accounting easy for non-accountants. Both FreshBooks and Xero have 14 out of 16 reports that we expect to see in an accounting software service. However, some of FreshBooks’ reports seem to lack expanded functionality. For example, the balance sheet of FreshBooks only shows the parent accounts and omits important details like subaccounts.

Another minor drawback with Xero would be the inability to enter the ending balance of the checking account in the bank statement. For expediency, we’d prefer just to enter the bank statement balance and reconcile directly. Instead, Xero requires users to upload a bank statement before reconciliation.

Plus, while Xero has thorough invoicing and receipt scanning capabilities, it doesn’t include business expense tracking with any plan except the most expensive. In our opinion, that’s a fairly glaring oversight—expense tracking is an incredibly common accounting feature that almost all of Xero’s key competitors include in their base plans. If you send dozens of invoices a month to dozens of clients, accounting software with truly unlimited invoicing will be a better fit for you than either Xero or FreshBooks.

FreshBooks vs. Xero: Which should you choose?

But QuickBooks requires a lot of calibration to get it to where it needs to be. And there are some glaring differences between FreshBooks and QuickBooks that may be deal-breakers for either one. If you think that Xero is exactly what you need to manage your financial details, you may want to check out the following available plans.

In Xero, you can view the platform as a demo company with pre-recorded data, which makes it far easier to see how the platform will look and operate when you input your own business’s data. There’s a reason FreshBooks made it on Zapier’s list of the best self-employed accounting software, while Xero made it on the list of the best accounting software for bigger businesses. Xero offers this through Hubdoc so you can access your documents online. QuickBooks offers receipt and document organization with its mobile app as well as the online version. This doesn’t mean QuickBooks Online is the right choice for all businesses, though. Xero’s unlimited-users feature makes it a winner among larger businesses and well-established small businesses that require more than five users.

Freshbooks vs. Quickbooks vs. Xero: A Complete Guide

We’ve noticed several setbacks on Xero that aren’t material per se, and these mainly focus more on practical expediency. We saw that it’s impossible to combine payments received from customers into a single deposit entry, even if they’re all checks or all cash. The problem this creates is your Xero check register will show multiple deposits, whereas your bank statement will show the actual deposit amount which has all the amounts combined. FreshBooks focuses on being user-friendly and lacks some of the more sophisticated features included in Xero, such as inventory and fixed assets. On the contrary, Xero is very sophisticated and harder to use.

FreshBooks vs. QuickBooks Comparison

On the downside, it can be expensive compared to other options like FreshBooks and Xero. Both FreshBooks and Xero allow you to track business performance using your dashboard, and generate and download financial reports. But Xero’s reporting is more robust thanks to its detailed accounting features. It’s available online 24/7, which is great for businesses that have unusual operating hours.

If you get paid for regular services then you can even set up recurring invoices to automatically generate and save yourself the trouble. In addition to its more robust reports, Xero proves itself to be the better fit for established and growing organizations with its bank reconciliation feature. While FreshBooks requires you to upgrade to its Plus plan to access this feature, even the most basic Xero plan offers bank reconciliation, including its new AI-powered predictions feature. FreshBooks and Xero are both powerful accounting tools that can help businesses keep their financial information and assets organized and accessible.

Best Free Accounting Software for Small Businesses

I cannot say that I know everything about the programs, but I am always willing to share my crazy ideas and app hacks with others. Reviews of QuickBooks are also largely positive, although several users do note that it can be a little difficult to use at first. In other words, this is where Xero shows its face as a tool aimed at small-to-mid-sized businesses, rather than just small ones. However, I will say that unless you know about the two separate versions of FreshBooks it’s incredibly easy to stumble into signing up to the Classic version instead of the modern one.

QuickBooks offers its price plans based on the number of users who may need access to the software. On the other hand, FreshBooks uses your client base number to determine what is the journal entry for sold goods on credit the best plan for you. FreshBooks makes it easy to take care of financial details without needing an accountant to see this essential part of the business.

Why FreshBooks Is The Best Xero Alternative?

FreshBooks and Xero offer various plans with different features and inclusions. FreshBooks offers 60% off for the first six months and an additional 10% off if you take the annual billing option if you buy immediately. Otherwise, you can try FreshBooks for free for 30 days and choose a plan at regular prices.

No free trial period is included when availing this promotional discount. FreshBooks reserves the right to change this offer at any time. The total price for a Yearly plan is billed at the time of purchase. It includes both the monthly discount outlined above, as well as an additional 10% discount for selecting a yearly plan. Finally, if you’re looking for an even simpler solution to solely create your invoices, you’re probably better creating your own invoice generator than signing up and paying for a FreshBooks plan.

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