If your goal is to always be on top of the financial status of your business, maintain pristine bookkeeping, get paid faster, or remain tax compliant, a business accounting software can be a powerful addition to your ecosystem. Investing in the right tool can help you streamline your books, letting you focus on running your business.
If you’re looking for a business accounting solution, you have no shortage of choices. In this blog, we will compare two widely used business Cloud Accounting software – Intuit Quickbooks Online and Freshbooks, both popular among small business owners.
Overview
| Features | Freshbooks | Quickbooks |
| Pricing Plans | Lite – $15 for 5 billable clients Plus – $25 for 50 billable clients Premium – $50 for 500 billable clients | Simple Start – $15 for 1 user plus accountant Essentials – $23 for 3 users plus accountant Plus – $31 for 5 users plus Accountant |
| Important Functionality | Accounts Receivable Expense Tracking Bank Reconciliation Billing & Invoicing Time Tracking Invoice Payment | Accounts Receivable Expense Tracking Bank Reconciliation Billing & Invoicing Payroll Management Inventory Tracking Tax Management Standard reports Invoice Payment |
| Integrations | 200 integrations; over 1000 with Zapier | 400 native integrations |
| Ideal For/Popular Amongst | Small/Freelancer | Small/Medium/Large |
| Support | Support Agent by Telephone/Email Knowledge Base | Support agent by Telephone/Email/Chat Knowledge Base User Community |
| Training | Live Online Webinars Documentation | Live Online Webinars Documentation |
Pricing Plans
Pricing levels are similar for both FreshBooks and QuickBooks Online, though the main driving force behind FreshBooks’ pricing level is the number of billable clients while Quickbooks’ pricing focuses on limiting the users for the system. Check out the pricing system below –
Freshbooks:
- Lite Plan – $15 for 5 billable clients
- Plus Plan – $25 for 50 billable clients
- Premium Plan – $50 for 500 billable clients
QuickBooks Online:
- Simple Start Plan – $15 for 1 user plus an accountant
- Essentials Plan – $23 for 3 users plus an accountant
- Plus Plan – $31 for 5 users plus
Important Features
Businesses can start out small, but they don’t always stay small. While both these software claim to be scalable, FreshBooks’ features fit much better for freelancers while Quickbooks Online is better for a growing business. While Quickbooks Online offers you more features, if it is being used by multiple departments, each team member handling their own accounts, the system can get expensive.
Quickbooks Simple Start plan comes with features such as tracking income and expenses, capturing and organizing receipts, invoicing and accepting payments, and basic reporting, inventory management. The main limitation of the Simple Start plan is accessible for only one user. You also can’t track time and manage bills. For the simple plan, the reporting capabilities are also limited and offer 20 standard reports only. You can also add on a payroll subscription to pay employees and 1099 contractors by 24-hour direct deposit and handle payroll taxes with an additional fee.
As FreshBooks’ pricing is on a number of billable clients, it is often considered an invoicing tool rather than full accounting software. FreshBooks stands out in terms of their time tracking and robust invoice customization. While with the Lite plan, you get access to Accounts receivable, you cannot keep track of your unpaid bills or generate balance sheets. With Freshbooks, you can also buy an “add-on” to run your payroll through Gusto and online payment apps like Stripe and Paypal.
Another very important feature is the Bank Reconciliation capability. Thankfully, QuickBooks and FreshBooks have similar functionality to connect and reconcile bank accounts, allowing an unlimited number of connected bank and credit card accounts. As of today, both Quickbooks Online and Freshbooks offer double-entry accounting.
Both Freshbooks and QuickBooks Online offer iOS and Android mobile apps that complement their online accounting platforms, however, the QBO offers to report on the app while Freshbooks doesn’t at this time.
Support
Freshbooks’ boast of their Award-Winning Support, offering premium service even during the free trial. They encourage telephone support as the first line of customer support and customers are promised that they’d speak to a real live human without pesky wait times, within 2 rings!
QuickBooks Online offers live support options as well, but QuickBooks Online strongly suggests other resources be accessed first.
User Interface
When choosing the right tool, one of the most common deciding factors is the ease of implementation and the learning curve attached to training your front line users.
Ideally, you should be able to look at the user interface and be able to figure out how to get to the features and functions you need, without referring to an instruction manual.
For Quickbooks, it is important to keep in mind that the software interface is different for the online version than the desktop version. While Freshbooks and Quickbooks are both intuitive and user-friendly, Freshbooks is a customer favorite. One of the reviews says – It’s great for small businesses. Ease of use is important; it makes training people on this software a breeze.”
Conclusion
Whether FreshBooks or QuickBooks Online, the right choice will largely be dependent on what your business needs are, number of clients, and what your accounting needs are.
For instance, if you are a freelancer or self-employed who needs only to track time and billable hours, manage finances, bill your customers – FreshBooks might be it. On the other hand, if you need full-service small business accounting software to track expenses and track inventory for your retail business, you might find that QuickBooks Online might be the best accounting software for you.
With each of the two software offering a 30 day trial period, you can easily make the best decision for your business.
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