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UK Small Business Owners Prefer FreshBooks, Sorry QuickBooks

FreshBooks vs QuickBooks

FreshBooks is a QuickBooks alternative that’s actually easy to use (ahem, QuickBooks). Picture a collaborative accounting experience that makes it easy to work with your accountant and speak with an industry-leading customer support team—like, real humans that pick up when you call—imagine that (ahem again, QuickBooks).

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Monthly Plans

Get 90% off a Lite, Plus or Premium Plan for 4 months. After the 4-month promotional period, you will be billed at full price for the plan you have selected.

Yearly Plans

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.

Promotional offers for both monthly and yearly plans are for a limited period. New customers only. Cannot be combined with other offers. No free trial period is included when availing this promotional discount. FreshBooks reserves the right to change this offer at any time.

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FreshBooks vs QuickBooks

Easy to Use, Stellar Support, It’s a No-Brainer
FreshBooks vs QuickBooks

FreshBooks is built for both business owners and accountants. Unlike QuickBooks, you don’t need an accounting degree to use FreshBooks. Plus you can effortlessly manage your books and run your business using FreshBooks’ intuitive platform. 

Don’t just take it from us: According to PC Mag, QuickBooks is the MOST confusing office app: “The results speak for themselves. Google queries find QuickBooks, the venerable office accounting software, to be the most unfathomable.”

Product Comparison
QuickBooks
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Free Trial
Free 30-Day Trial Included
Free 30-Day Trial Included
Live Human Customer Support
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Easy to Use Interface
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Accountant Access
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Adding Multiple Users
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Crossmark Available Only on Higher-Tiered Plans
Double-Entry Accounting
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Business Health Reports
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payroll
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Bookkeeping
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Mileage Tracking
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Bills & Receipt Scanning (OCR)
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Charter of Accounts
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Expense Tracking
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Unlimited Invoicing
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Online Payments (Credit Cards)
Checkmark FreshBooks has the most options to get paid the way you want and the lowest transaction fees with Barclaycard
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Project Profitability Tools
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Crossmark Available Only on Higher-Tiered Plans
Proposals & Estimates
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Client Communications
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FreshBooks vs QuickBooks Comparison

Easier Accounting and Exceptional Support,
Sounds Like the Fresh Start You’ve Been Looking For

Your growing business needs your attention, that’s why FreshBooks was built to save you time and effort with an interface that lets you easily manage your books and navigate tax time. And if you need support, our award-winning team always has your back.

Switching Made Easy

Our support team is here to make switching to FreshBooks from any other software (even spreadsheets) super easy, with no interruptions to your business. No wonder over 30 million businesses have used FreshBooks.

Easy-To-Use Interface

Our simple yet robust interface has a very short learning curve–with no accounting degree necessary–so you and your team can hit the ground running, and with easy data migration from other platforms, you’ll be saving time in no time.

Human Customer Service

Ya know who always picks up and never transfers you when you call FreshBooks? A real person. FreshBooks has the best rating for customer support among all competitors, at 91%.

Collaborate With Your Accountant In FreshBooks

Collaborative accounting means no more back and forth with your accountant. Give them access, and they can see your info right in the FreshBooks platform, keeping you ready for tax time. 

Easy-to-Use Accounting & Bookkeeping Features

Professional Invoicing

Impress clients with professional Invoices that clearly show the work you’ve done and what it costs…then, just click send. Oh, and use automated payment reminders to nudge clients for payment.
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Keep an Eye on the Big Picture

FreshBooks’ easy-to-use Double-Entry Accounting tools and reports show profitability, cash flow health, and details your spending. Plus, easily file VAT returns online.
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Never Miss an Expense

Snap receipt photos, forward email receipts to your account, and import expenses from your bank – then assign them to clients and stay ready for taxes.  Bank Connections are powered by Plaid, through FreshBooks as their agent.
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Fast & Easy, for You and Your Clients

FreshBooks’ automated online payment options (like automated recurring billing) let your clients pay their preferred way, and get you paid 2x faster.
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Track Time to the Minute

You (and your team) work on lots of projects at once, and missing billable time can be costly. Time Tracking in FreshBooks makes it easy for teams to log time and automatically add it to invoices, so all time is accounted for.
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Keep Everyone on the Same Page

With a business to run and projects to manage, it’s tough to keep everyone synced up and on schedule. Projects in FreshBooks make it easy for your clients, team, and contractors to collaborate, and share files and updates…all in one place.
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Know Your Business Better

Easily track every dollar in and out of your business then run reports to see how your business is doing. And at tax time, do it yourself or just give your accountant access to quickly find what they need.
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Take FreshBooks Anywhere

Stay connected to your clients and team, even on the go. Send invoices, track expenses, and check on projects all with the FreshBooks mobile app. Oh, and if you drive a lot for your business, check out the Mileage Tracker.
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FreshBooks Is the Quickbooks Alternative That’s Easy to Use.

Unlike QuickBooks Online, you don’t need an accounting degree to use FreshBooks. With the best customer support in the industry, it’s easy to see why QuickBooks customers switch to FreshBooks.

QuickBooks’ customer service is very frustrating. The chatbot also doesn’t function properly 100% of the time, which adds to the frustration. When calling the hotline…It takes a long time, and when a human finally answers, they don’t have the decision-making autonomy to help.

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QuickBooks’ support is the worst in the industry…you have to use chat only. Support never fixes any bugs. After 17 years, I am looking elsewhere

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I ended up abandoning Quickbooks. I dreaded doing my books when using QB. It assumes a degree of accounting expertise that the layperson does not possess. I expected better from QB, given how expensive it is.

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QuickBooks’ software has glitches. If you need help, there is very little hope of ever getting your issues resolved.

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QuickBooks’ app is slow to manually process data. There are major limitations when attempting to modify data within the software or correct recording errors. They advertise that any business owner can do everything themselves with the software, but in practice, most of the things business owners do are inaccurate.

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My overall experience with QuickBooks is frustration. They need to focus on getting it right before they move on to expanding their product line. Their software rarely works right. I would use anything else that was online.

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Award-Winning Customer Support

  • Help From Start to Finish: Our Support team is highly knowledgable and never transfers you to another department.
  • 4.8/5.0 Star Reviews: Yup, that’s our Support team approval rating across 120,000+ reviews
  • Global Support: We’ve got over 100 Support staff working across North America and Europe
Award-Winning Customer Support

Frequently Asked Questions

As accounting software, can FreshBooks automate my accounting tasks?

FreshBooks’ features automate most of your accounting so you can spend more time focusing on your work and your clients. You can have invoices automatically generated and sent, expenses automatically tracked, and even have your payments automatically recorded, all without you lifting a finger.

Instead of wasting time labouring over manual inputs or struggling to keep track of bulky receipts, you can use the FreshBooks accounting application to safely automate your accounting.

With FreshBooks, you can rest easy knowing that your accounting struggles are behind you.

FreshBooks vs QuickBooks: When it comes to accounting software, there is no comparison. We simply couldn’t recommend QuickBooks with a clear conscience.

Learn how easy FreshBooks is to use in this 30-second video.

Can FreshBooks help me migrate all of my data from QuickBooks?

The short answer is YES!

The long answer is as follows:

When setting up a FreshBooks account, you can start fresh, or transfer over existing data from any previous software like QuickBooks, HoneyBook QuickBooks Online, Zoho Books, or Xero. If you’re not a fan of manual entry, Clients, Expenses, and Items can be imported by you with the steps below. For Taxes, you can email us the below details, and we’ll take care of it for you.

NOTE: If you choose a Select Plan, your information will be migrated for you by one of our account specialists.

Below are the types of data FreshBooks can import:

Clients: Clients can be imported using the steps here yourself.

Expenses: You can now import Expenses yourself with the steps here.

Items: Import Items using the steps outlined here.

Taxes: For Taxes, you can put together a CSV file for each type of data with the required columns below first. Then send this from your owner’s email (that matches your account) with written permission for us to upload.

Required Fields

  • Tax Name – i.e. ‘HST’
  • Percentage – i.e. ’13’ for a 13% tax

Optional Fields

  • Tax Number – Government-registered tax number

Vendors: Import Vendors using the steps outlined here.

QuickBooks vs FreshBooks: How does FreshBooks pricing compare to QuickBooks pricing?

The main difference between FreshBooks pricing and QuickBooks pricing is:

1) We don’t charge extra for basic features. FreshBooks offers essential features on all plans:

  • Unlimited Customized Invoices
  • Unlimited Expense Entries
  • Unlimited Time Tracking
  • Unlimited Estimates

You can also check out how FreshBooks compares to other programs and details about its function as a viable alternative on our comparison page.

Can I use FreshBooks features while away from my office?

You sure can. 

Many FreshBooks customers have service-based businesses that have them constantly on the go. Not all accounting software options allow you to bring your software along with you while serving billable clients.

FreshBooks offers mobile access with iOS (iPhone Mobile) and Android Mobile apps that let you painlessly invoice your clients and track expenses wherever and whenever you need to. FreshBooks also has mileage tracking on iOS (coming soon to Android).

Now you can bring your account everywhere. It can be easily accessed from any device, from your PC (Windows desktop) or Mac desktop to your mobile phone. 

Being able to create and send invoices on the go means no delays and no accounting headaches waiting for you. You can use the FreshBooks automated bookkeeping software wherever you have access to the internet, so let FreshBooks take care of your invoicing worries while you sit back and relax.

With automated bookkeeping software like FreshBooks, you can take it easy as you travel and rely on real-time notifications to keep you updated on billing and invoicing. From business trips to business lunches, keeping track of your payments will be a piece of cake. This mobile access is all part of your free trial too!

Learn how easy it is to use the FreshBooks mobile app in this 30-second video.

What online payment options does FreshBooks offer?

There are a number of payment processors and payment options you can choose through FreshBooks. FreshBooks integrates with a number of payment processors so that you can choose the payment method that works best for you and your business. Whether you want to accept credit card payments, set up bank transfers, or get paid through FreshBooks Payments, you can easily set up the method you prefer. You can also set up different payment methods for different clients, depending on what suits them best.

The payment providers we utilize are WePay, Stripe, and PayPal in order to provide the following payment methods:

  • Major credit cards
  • Apple Pay
  • Google Pay
  • PayPal
  • FreshBooks Payments
  • Stripe
  • Bank Transfers

Online payments get you paid 2x faster, but did you know you can get paid even faster and more often with the right Invoice Payment Terms?

How can my clients automatically pay their Invoices?

As a client, receiving a FreshBooks invoice with line items for subscription-based products or services, it’s easy to pay. All you have to do is save your credit card, banking, or other payment details online in the FreshBooks application so you’re automatically billed each time an invoice comes due. Imagine doing this without invoicing software—dealing with paper invoices and receipts and having to keep track of phone and address records separately.

Automatic Recurring Invoices in FreshBooks combined with Recurring Payments makes it simple for clients to pay and for you to accept payments for products or services rendered—hands-free. Recurring Payments works together with Recurring Templates to automatically bill clients every time an invoice is generated and sent.

Saved payment information can always be removed if you want to opt-out of Recurring Payments at any time.

Customizable invoices packed with billable hours and expenses, using advanced features like recurring subscription billing and online payments makes it easy for self-employed professionals to get paid faster.

When it comes to making online payments easy for you and your clients and comparing QuickBooks vs FreshBooks it’s easy to see why people choose FreshBooks.

Can I import my expenses from a file or automatically track them?

You can import expenses from our expense tracker by uploading a CSV file as well as having FreshBooks automatically track them by connecting your bank accounts or credit cards.

If you want to import your expenses in bulk with a CSV file, you just need to ensure your file is populated with the necessary fields, and then select “Import Expenses from a File” from the “More Actions” button in the Expenses section of your FreshBooks account.

You can also connect your small business bank account and credit cards to your FreshBooks account to automatically track your expenses right in FreshBooks online accounting software.

You can easily test out expense tracking and importing during your 30-day free trial.

Related articles:

4 Reasons You Should Track Your Business Expenses Daily

Capture Expenses and Invoices on Project Pages in FreshBooks

Is my data safe with FreshBooks?

Everything in your FreshBooks accounting software, from client time tracking to expense tracking to credit card information, is completely secure in FreshBooks.

FreshBooks protects your personal information. For the security of transactions, we use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol, which encrypts any information such as credit card numbers and billing information that you send us electronically. The encryption process protects your information by scrambling it before it is sent to us from your computer. In addition, your data is backed up automatically and is accessible from any device, so you can always stay connected and up-to-date.

Want to learn more? Check out this article from our blog: How Secure Is Your Data in the Cloud?

Do I need an accountant if I use FreshBooks?

This is one of the biggest differences when comparing QuickBooks vs FreshBooks. 

FreshBooks is a super-easy-to-use accounting software built specifically for small business owners, letting you easily do everything yourself. However, when it comes to using all the tools available to you as a small business owner, your accountant should definitely be part of your toolbox.

Sending customizable invoices and managing billing and invoicing for several businesses in FreshBooks might be right up your alley, but leveraging insights from accounting reports might be something you want a second set of eyes on.

Not only does FreshBooks small business accounting software allow you to add your accountant to your account, but FreshBooks also has an Accountant Partner Program that pairs you, the small business owner, with accountants. This ensures that businesses are matched with accountants that suit their specific needs.

Talk to your accountant and start a free trial to see how easy it is to work together. And if you need a hand, our phone support with a live rep extends to both you and your accountant with no additional fees.

One thing we recommend while comparing QuickBooks vs FreshBooks is to learn all about the FreshBooks Accountant Partner Program.

Want to hear what it’s like to be part of the Accountant Partner Program? Here’s a great article: How FreshBooks’ Accounting Partner Program Helps CMA Lindsay Support Clients

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