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Our view at Stack - Freshbooks simplifies accounting for solo business owners, freelancers, and small companies. Intuitive, easy-to-use, and affordable. Manage payments, expenses, invoices, and accept payments seamlessly.
If Freshbooks is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.
Credit: Original article published here.
Our view at Stack - Freshbooks simplifies accounting for solo business owners, freelancers, and small companies. Intuitive, easy-to-use, and affordable. Manage payments, expenses, invoices, and accept payments seamlessly.
In a perfect world, every project would go off without a hitch. You deliver great work, and your customer pays the invoice straight to your bank account. But in reality, working with different on different projects makes every invoice a little different too.
Sometimes a client wants to pay for your work before you’ve even created an invoice. Other times you may want to reward a loyal customer with a discount on their next invoice. And sometimes, you need to refund a client after an invoice has been paid (for a customer overpayment).
To help with all of this, FreshBooks just launched the new feature. It’s a powerful addition that allows you to track overpayments, refunds, and discounts, and easily apply them to invoices, so you know exactly how much a client owes.
Credits allow you to track prepayments and overpayments from clients, that you can easily apply to future invoices. This allows you to keep track of discounts, refunds, and service credits.
Credits are a great way to ensure you’re tracking every transaction between you and your clients – even when you don’t have an invoice created.
It also allows you to build better relationships by offering discounts, service credits, and even refunds for your work – so you can be more flexible with your payments.
It also allows you to carry forward a credit balance for any subsequent invoice payment – making a potential invoice payment on a future invoice super easy for you and your client.
Creating a Credit is simple:
That’s it. Plus, once you’ve created a Credit, you can then View, Edit or Delete it. .
After creating a Credit, you can quickly apply it to an Invoice:
Note: If a client has a Credit tied to their account, you’ll have the option of automatically applying it when creating your next new invoice for them.
Plus, when you run a you can match any existing Credits with your bank transactions (so that your bank account and FreshBooks account are in line).
There are 3 types of Credits that you can create on FreshBooks:
Prepayment Credits can be used when a client voluntarily pays for your product or service ahead of time. can be used when you ask for on a specific project.
Credits are also directly linked to each of your client’s Account Statements. This makes it easier for you to keep track of all Credits and credit balance tied to specific clients, so you’ll know exactly where they stand financially. This makes it easy to ensure your accounts receivable is accurate for each customer account.
Alternatively, you can run a Credit Balance Report to see any balances, credits issued, and applied amounts tied to a particular client. Here’s what it looks like:
Your business’ success is always top of mind for us. So if you have any questions on how to use Credits, or anything else, our support team is here to help.
Ready to use Credits? to learn more or !
This post was last updated in December 2022.
If Freshbooks is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.
Credit: Original article published here.
Our view at Stack - Freshbooks simplifies accounting for solo business owners, freelancers, and small companies. Intuitive, easy-to-use, and affordable. Manage payments, expenses, invoices, and accept payments seamlessly.
Getting paid is something to celebrate. It means someone loved your product or service enough to hand over their hard-earned money for it.
And when it comes to getting paid, both you and your clients want transactions in as few steps as possible. When working on big projects spanning a few weeks the traditional process of creating invoices, sending them to , and accepting payment fits the bill. That doesn’t mean it’s one-size-fits-all. Collecting payment for a single item like an initial consultation or an event ticket doesn’t necessarily need to be invoiced, and can be done much quicker without having to invoice.
Enter a really simple, invoice-free, way to accept client payments online: A new one-off payment solution called Checkout Links. Now, you can create payment links, post them anywhere online—as a URL, text, or button link—and without having to create an invoice.
Checkout Links, or payment links, are an amazing new way to get paid in FreshBooks. They let your customers pay in a single click with bank transfers or credit cards. Post them anywhere you want to accept payments like a website, blog, or social channels. You can create an unlimited number of Checkout Links to be reused indefinitely or deactivated when you’re done with them.
Checkout Links are designed to help you quickly collect payment for fixed-price items, whereas invoices are a record of work against a project or highlight the details of services rendered. They allow you to create custom payment links that can be used for as long as you want them – and avoid the need to collect copious amounts of payment details or invoice data. Overall, how you use payment links really depends on your business, but here’s a hit list of possibilities vs what might be commonly invoiced:
Checkout Links |
Invoicing |
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You can find a dedicated page for Checkout Links nestled in the main navigation under Payments (aka your payment page). Which means, Payments is now its own category in the main navigation, and within it are tabs for Invoice Payments, , and now Checkout Links Payments.
That’s it! Just click the Create button to make your new Checkout Link (which will generate a unique, secure payment link)
When a Checkout Link is clicked, your customer is presented with a payment page/box asking them to fill out all the pertinent payment information and their contact information (including shipping address if you want to request it). They have the option to pay with a credit card or bank transfer. Then, all they have to do is click. A receipt is automatically generated on a checkout page right after they submit payment.
Your customers can pay by either credit card or bank transfer, which means you can choose to accept through . Each payment provider then gives you other payment methods/options including Visa, Mastercard, Discover, AMEX, Apple Pay, and so on. Which allows your customers to use payment links with their preferred payment methods.
When a new client of yours pays by Checkout Link, they’ll automatically be added as a Client within your FreshBooks account. This makes it easier to track and manage every payment you receive, and means less time spent adding new client profiles every time you get paid. It’s a simple, barrier-free payment process that allows you to sell products and collect payments super fast.
You’ll see all the financial information for Checkout Link transactions reflected under Sales > in the Profit & Loss Report. This number doesn’t include the tax, which is available separately in the Sales Tax Summary Report.
Payment links are an exciting function we hope you find helpful. But if you have any questions, or you just need a hand getting started, a team is ready to help you out. .
to create your first link or .
This post was last updated on December 14, 2022.
If Freshbooks is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.
Credit: Original article published here.
Our view at Stack - Freshbooks simplifies accounting for solo business owners, freelancers, and small companies. Intuitive, easy-to-use, and affordable. Manage payments, expenses, invoices, and accept payments seamlessly.
Is it time to add a new skill to your toolkit? When you support clients with accounting software, taking the time to level up your skills goes a long way in helping you work more efficiently and reach new customers.
As a firm or business owner, you want to be where your clients are. FreshBooks has an entire training program to help accounting professionals who work with small businesses learn the ins and outs of the platform.
Don’t just take our word for it! We asked Accounting Partners to let us know what they thought of the FreshBooks certification.
“Being FreshBooks-certified has changed the entire course of my business,” said , owner of Heritage Business Services. Read on to get the full story and learn why it might be time to add another certification to your skillset.
Table of Contents
The is an online, self-paced training program designed to give accountants and bookkeepers the tools they need to work better with their clients in FreshBooks.
It walks you through everything you need to know about FreshBooks to serve your small business clients, from setting up your to running reports and managing your clients’ chart of accounts. It also covers the FreshBooks Collaborative Accounting™ framework, a process that can transform the way you and your clients work together.
(👋 Already a FreshBooks Accounting Partner? You can access the certification through the learning management system.)
FreshBooks Collaborative Accounting is a technology-enabled accounting model anchored in a shared workflow between accounting professionals and their clients. Business owners focus on completing front-end tasks in an easy-to-use software platform, and their accountants pick up where they leave off, providing in-depth financial insights and advisory work that has increased value for clients. When you and your clients each take on parts of the financial workflow, you’re both more confident and better informed.
Your client has more agency over their own business and a deeper understanding of their financials. And you have time to do more astute analysis that can help them make those big-picture business decisions.
This model and workflow are designed for future-focused accounting professionals who want to add more value to their firm and give clients a deeper level of service. It’s ideal if you have looking for guidance and more agency over their financial future.
“ not only gives the clients transparency into our tasks but it gives us transparency into the client’s workflow and how they’re going to earn money. And so, that can now help us to advise them on how to get paid,” says Kristen Keats, CPA, of Breakaway Bookkeeping & Advising.
Collaborative Accounting makes it possible for accountants to offer higher-value services to clients. When you’re locked into advisory or niche accounting work that has real value for your clients, you can build your expertise and reputation, bringing in more revenue with less administrative burden.
You can expect to:
Deliver value at scale. By freeing your team of time-consuming compliance tasks and focusing on advisory services, you can expand those services without having to grow your team.
Attract forward-thinking talent. Firms that focus on advisory services vs. strictly bookkeeping tasks will naturally bring in the best and the brightest team members who have a growth mindset for their clients and their company.
Streamline processes and improve overall efficiency. A shared workflow in a single system is more efficient overall. It removes the friction of following up on missing information and managing day-to-day bookkeeping tasks from your client interactions.
Draw in and retain the right long-term clients. Your practice can differentiate itself by building a depth of experience and advisory knowledge in an area aligned with your ideal clients. Distilling your expertise into a higher-level tier will attract clients who match.
Enjoy a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Service-based business owners looking to grow their companies are hungry for accounting solutions that empower them to understand their financial operations better. FreshBooks is the only software that offers Collaborative Accounting, where clients and accountants work together.
Deliver an enhanced client experience. Collaborative Accounting simplifies client interactions by letting you and your clients work together in a single system, so you both have the insights and information you need (and when you need it).
Elevate client relationships. As an advisor, you can minimize the time spent fine-tuning client financials and maximize the time guiding your clients as they grow. This builds strong, lasting relationships. You’ll meet regularly to discuss the financial insights you’re observing that they can use to optimize their business and prepare for sustainable growth.
Okay, you now understand what Collaborative Accounting is, and why it’s important for your clients. But that doesn’t answer the million-dollar question: Why should my team get certified?
Glad you asked! Let’s dig into it.
Are you ready to shake up the accounting industry just a little (or a lot)? The traditional way of working with clients can be transactional and impersonal. It leaves accounting professionals frustrated with chasing data and spending too many hours on basic bookkeeping work. Meanwhile, clients feel removed from their business financials and aren’t getting the insights they need to grow.
“Now, with Collaborative Accounting, we’re able to spend much more time nurturing the client relationship, providing advisory and not just on the financial level but also the personal level,” says Nicole Davis, CPA.
If you’re excited to try a new, collaborative way of working with clients that’s focused on and showcasing your value as an accounting professional, this is the certification for you.
Your clients’ businesses aren’t static, and yours shouldn’t be, either. Getting your FreshBooks certification is an easy, free way to level up your skill set and keep your firm up-to-date on accounting software platforms.
“Being FreshBooks-certified gives my clients (and prospects) peace of mind that I am not devoted entirely to only 1 company’s software,” said Susie Fergus, FreshBooks Accounting Partner. “Instead, I am customer-focused—recommending what is best for their unique business. This software is well-supported, user-friendly, and ever-evolving to meet the needs of business owners.”
In the certification, you’ll explore the FreshBooks platform and features, learn how to onboard clients, and gain a deep understanding of how to use the Collaborative Accounting framework with your clients; thus, benefits both of you.
This allows you to optimize workflows for your clients and get the most out of the technology.
“The best part of the certification is the insight into how the software thinks and acts,” said , owner of Crayon Advisory. “We’re trained to think one way by other software, and it’s not always the best, most efficient, or most business owner-centered way of thinking.”
At the heart of the FreshBooks certification are actionable tactics and resources you can use immediately to expand your advisory practice, without adding more staff.
The modules walk you through the platform and give you training and practical tips on product features and advisory-centric workflows via:
FreshBooks-Certified Partners get dedicated support from our Accounting Specialists, who have accounting backgrounds and know the ins and outs of the FreshBooks platform.
But even if you haven’t completed your certification yet, the FreshBooks team is here to support you! As an Accounting Partner, you’ll be connected with your Partner Consultant, who will become your go-to person at FreshBooks.
You’ve got enough on your plate, so we totally understand that any product certification has to work around your schedule. The entire FreshBooks certification process takes under 4 hours, but you learn at your own pace. You can always pause and pick it back up if you need a break.
The training comprises of modules with video lessons, so you can see how to do pretty much everything in FreshBooks. You’ll get step-by-step instructions on tasks like adding journal entries, creating an invoice, using time tracking, and doing .
You’re not a robot, so no one’s expecting you to remember every tiny detail from the certification. You can always go back to review lessons if you need a refresher.
“The certification modules are like a library for me,” said Kate. “I know that I can’t remember everything that’s taught in each module after only one listen. But, I have a strong grasp of the overall platform, and I know I can search through the module titles when I need to be reminded of how a specific feature works or how to do a specific task.”
“The certification is easy for me to go back and re-watch the thing I need to know or have a question about,” said Megan.
One of the best reasons to get FreshBooks Certified is to demonstrate to your clients that you have the skills to support them across various accounting platforms. When you complete the training, you’ll get a badge signifying your expertise as a Collaborative Accountant to on your website or social media platforms.
“Being FreshBooks Certified gives me one more way to show my clients I’m competent at what I do and with the products I use,” said Megan.
Plus, as a certified partner, you’ll get:
Ready to get started on your training? Great! The first step to getting FreshBooks certified is to .
From there, our team will be in touch to find out your goals and get you on your way to getting certified. I can’t wait for you to join us!
This post was updated in September 2024.
If Freshbooks is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.
Credit: Original article published here.
Our view at Stack - Freshbooks simplifies accounting for solo business owners, freelancers, and small companies. Intuitive, easy-to-use, and affordable. Manage payments, expenses, invoices, and accept payments seamlessly.
To look at The Influence Agency now, it’s hard to believe it came from humble beginnings only a short time ago.
Based in Toronto, the full-service marketing and creative agency specializes in influencer and social media marketing. In just five years, its team has grown to 45 (including Chief Happiness Officer Joy, a rescue dog from Costa Rica), and it’s amassed an impressive client list that includes names like Staples, Jamieson Vitamins, the Skill Trades College of Canada, and HelloFresh.
“The big names are feathers in our cap, but we also really care about the SMBs that come to us and entrust us with their entire marketing budgets,” says Michael Landry, Co-Founder and Vice President of Strategy.
This values system is likely the result of own roots as a start-up. Back in 2017, a team of five crammed into a small one-bedroom condo in downtown Toronto to make its first sales. Landry usually rode his bike to work to save money, and meetings sometimes took place inside his car.
“Once, it was so cold, but we didn’t want to turn on the engine because we didn’t want the client to know we were making the call in a car,” recalls Landry. To make it, Landry knew the agency needed to appear as professional as possible. But when The Influence Agency did land its first major sale, a previous accounting software provider refused to release the funds, undermining the team’s hard-won efforts.
Since then, The Influence Agency has made the switch to FreshBooks. We spoke with Landry to learn more about the agency’s early days and how FreshBooks is now helping it support its clients—of all sizes.
Michael: As we [the four founders] did research into influencer marketing, we saw that it was an emerging advertising method, and there weren’t a lot of players in it. We felt we could find a way to offer something unique that would appeal to us, the consumers. We also stuck true to the services we knew were in demand, including content writing, search engine optimization, Google ads, Facebook ads, and web development.
Today, we’re a full-service digital marketing agency. With every new person we hire, we’re hiring a unique set of skills and talent, which sometimes creates a runway for new things. It unlocks new possibilities and new things that we can do.
Michael: We started on QuickBooks. And with one of our very first big sales that we made, QuickBooks decided that we were too small for them to send us the money. They said, “We’re not sure your business could sustain a chargeback because you’re so new.”
So, we had to send them the contract, along with our financial records, to show them it was valid. We waited three weeks for the statements to come through so that we could start work for one of our first clients ever.
And at the end of the long process, QuickBooks said they couldn’t release the money. So, we had to go to the client and say, “Hey, look, we’re going to have to refund the money. Can you please send us a cheque?” It was really embarrassing. We had hustled to get our business off the ground and make that transaction.
So, we moved on and got FreshBooks. The price point made trying it out very easy. It didn’t seem to have any of these issues. We used it for about a year and a half, then one of our accountants said, “You know, we have got to try QuickBooks again. They won’t give you trouble because you’re a more established business now.”
And again, QuickBooks pulled the same stuff. They questioned a $20 web hosting fee. They held our money hostage, and again, we had to produce contracts. And on top of that, they told us they wouldn’t authorize the $5,000 a month worth of recurring charges and that it could get flagged. So being successful or having a high volume of transactions could cause us more issues.
We had to spend hours upon hours dealing with something that should really be super turnkey when meeting or exceeding our clients’ expectations is what we should be focused on. You don’t need other friction when you’re starting a new business.
Michael: We’re an 8-figure company now. We’ve never had a chargeback. We’ve never had debt as a company.
We’re continuing to grow our team, and now we’re on Stirling Road, where we have a 5,000-square-foot office that we fully renovated. We’re starting to delve into commercial production, print, and out-of-home advertising. As an agency, we’re evolving to meet all the advertising needs of our clients and become a one-stop shop.
With FreshBooks, I was able to operate my business effortlessly from day one. It took that stress off.
For us, visibility into our business and accounts receivable continues to be so important. Making sure that payments are deposited on time for reliable cash flow is really important. With FreshBooks, I was able to operate my business effortlessly from day one. It took that stress off. The support has been awesome, and it’s so fast and easy to use.
We got to the point where we were billing enough that we wanted to get our fees down on credit card transactions. We also needed to add more clients, which is a great problem to have. FreshBooks set us up on a custom Select plan, which includes an unlimited number of clients and helps keep fees down. FreshBooks has always made life easy.
Michael: FreshBooks has the best user interface, in my opinion. I enjoy the automated report section. It’s one click, and I can get a pretty good understanding of where I’m at.
Every month, we take all of the line items that we sell and categorize each item by department in terms of revenue. And based on that, I can deliver Profit and Loss statements very quickly to our department managers, so they can understand how their individual departments are working. It allows each department to take ownership over its profitability.
Keeping tabs on every department’s individual performance can raise the whole company’s profitability. If you understand how they’re functioning, you can zero in on the ones that need some adjustment, which can really move the needle on the whole organization.
We also built a tool that lets our clients log in and see the results of their marketing efforts. And we included FreshBooks in that tool as an API so that customers can look at their bills anytime. This is just one of the ways we leverage FreshBooks to add value to our customers.
Michael: Since starting The Influence Agency, I’ve started another business—a recruiting company—and FreshBooks was the system I decided to use.
My advice is to go with the system that gives you the most visibility as to where you’re at. You want to make sure that when you invoice somebody, they can pay it, and you can receive those funds in a timely manner. When you get your first big deal, you want to be able to grow your business and not be hampered by a long and arduous process to prove that you’re worthy enough.
If Freshbooks is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.
Credit: Original article published here.
Our view at Stack - Freshbooks simplifies accounting for solo business owners, freelancers, and small companies. Intuitive, easy-to-use, and affordable. Manage payments, expenses, invoices, and accept payments seamlessly.
Once exclusively the domain of software developers, data privacy and regulation has been making front-page headlines in the past few years.
“I went from nobody ever really understanding what I do to everyone now telling me what I do,” says Samantha Simms, CEO of , a U.K.-based digital compliance consultancy.
Samantha, an attorney by trade, has spent roughly two decades working on data privacy and compliance for large corporate legal departments. In 2017, she set out on her own. “I’m a bit of a tech geek,” she says, “I love tech and love to see new software developed and brought to the market.”
Today, she works with clients to help them develop new technology products and scale in an ethically compliant way while remaining commercially viable. Her focus is on helping businesses that have some social impact and on supporting underrepresented communities, including Black software developers.
We spoke with Samantha to learn what makes a great piece of software—and why she thinks FreshBooks fits the profile.
Samantha: The more expertise I gained in my area of law, the less I felt I knew about everything else. I felt there was much more than I could bring to the global table, and I wanted to explore more of myself as a leader. I was looking for a certain freedom, as well, to live my life on my own terms. I also wanted to have more impact—for myself and the wider world.
My clients are largely what I call Black tech and big tech. My focus is on giving underrepresented communities who are trying to enter the tech world the professional support that they may not have access to otherwise. I also work with big tech to ensure that there is fairness built into their tech products.
Samantha: The Information Collective started in the boom time of digital privacy. was just about to be brought into force, harmonizing the European data privacy landscape. With the new legislation, people have recognized the need for digital privacy, so my services don’t require as much of a “sell” as pre-GDPR.
We’re now at the frontier of a newer digital era, where I help clients be prepared for a lot more than data privacy compliance requirements. Our team also assists clients with e-commerce regulations, advertising and marketing rules, and compliant e-communications. We make sure those are handled in a fair, transparent, and secure way.
Samantha: I remember somebody saying to me, “You will always work for someone.” At that time I didn’t understand it, because I was thinking, “Well, if I’m running my own company, I’m not working for anyone.” But I get it now. I am working for my clients. And that is not a problem. That is exactly what I love. But it does mean that I have to be fully present and available As the leader and the principal consultant of my business, everyone looks to me. There is a lot more required of me now than ever before. So now I have more work-life harmony, but I’m not as focused on achieving work-life balance.
Some of the other accounting software seems to have been designed with big business in mind. FreshBooks has been designed with a small business in mind from its DNA. That simplicity saves me a lot of time.
Samantha: I had absolutely no clue about accounting or cash flow or anything like that for a small business when I first started out. When I first started The Information Collective, I had been working in large corporate organizations for a very long time. I knew how large enterprises operated, but I had very little knowledge of the operations of small businesses.
Samantha: I literally did a Google search for “small business accounting software.” What came up was a range of options. I read through a lot of marketing materials and comparative studies. What jumped out at me was that people talked about FreshBooks being simpler to use. And it was more suited to my needs because I only work with a handful of clients at any one time. I didn’t typically need to invoice more than 4 clients in a given month.
It was also easier for my personal assistant, trainees, and the contractors I work with to come onto FreshBooks. They charge their time to me through FreshBooks, and that works really well for us.
Samantha: I love the Dashboard. When I go in, I’m immediately able to see exactly what’s going on and get a snapshot of the financial health of my business. I love the invoicing function as well. I was able to create a more-or-less bespoke invoice straight out the gate. As a fledgling small business working with enterprise clients, branding my own invoice was really important to me. FreshBooks was able to give me a more professional look and feel, even when I was just starting out.
I also use Expenses, Proposals, Time Tracking, and Projects. All those features have really helped me to quantify and qualify effectiveness in my business.
For instance, since the U.K. has allowed , I’ve linked my bank account and my expenses are automatically imported and categorized in FreshBooks. So when it comes to doing the accounts, or looking at disbursements for my clients, I can easily link those back to the actual expense itself. It’s very seamless.
And then, as I continued to grow I started using the Retainers, which is linked to Time Tracking, and also Projects. Those have worked fantastically for me.
Samantha: After I, say, send a proposal, within a new project I’m able to see—because of the tight time-tracking system—how effective my team has been against the number of hours we set for the delivery of the project. Using the (Team Cost Rates, Project Estimates, Profitability Reports) I can see what it actually costs to deliver a project versus the profit made. And I can then use that information for other projects of a similar nature. So it’s helped me a great amount with my as a result.
Samantha: I run my business across the U.K., U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean, and get paid in U.S. dollars, Canadian dollars, and British pounds. Using the integration with Stripe for means that my clients who are not in the U.K. have a familiar way to make payments quite easily and simply. I know funds are coming in and we don’t have to go through convoluted banking systems. It’s really enabled me to expand the business beyond the U.K. market.
Samantha: That’s one thing I liked about FreshBooks from the very beginning. Early on I had a query. The FreshBooks staff member I spoke with was very friendly and helpful, and able to get things done to the extent that I actually assumed I was one of the only people using it. To be honest with you, I was like, “Oh bless, he’s probably the CEO.” And then not long after that, I realized, “Oh, FreshBooks has been around for a long time and they have quite a few customers, so that couldn’t possibly be true.”
A year-and-a-half into my time using the software, FreshBooks invited me to a dinner in London where I met other FreshBooks users and the executive team. I just thought that was such a nice touch—bringing us all together and showing interest in us as clients and customers.
I work with a lot of software companies. I’ve helped to develop a lot of software on the legal side of things. That customer care is not something that you often see in the software business.
Samantha: I’m not an accountant; I’m a lawyer. I have to spend a lot of time either doing client delivery or learning or marketing. I have little interest in learning accounting, beyond what I need to do to keep my business operating. FreshBooks built something because they understood where their customers were coming from. Some of the other accounting software seemed to have been designed with big business in mind, whereas FreshBooks has been designed with a small business in mind from its DNA. And that simplicity, I think, saves me a lot of time.
I’ve been at the forefront of developing a large number of consumer-facing and business-facing software technologies as a specialist in digital compliance. I would say I’m a very good test use case for whether something works well or doesn’t work well. If it feels simple to use, it gets my tick in the box. And for me, that’s FreshBooks.
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If Freshbooks is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.
Credit: Original article published here.
Our view at Stack - Freshbooks simplifies accounting for solo business owners, freelancers, and small companies. Intuitive, easy-to-use, and affordable. Manage payments, expenses, invoices, and accept payments seamlessly.
Thinking of FreshBooks for your clients but not sure where to start? You’re in the right place.
You already know that the right accounting software will help clients keep track of their day-to-day finances and give you the information you need to offer expert accounting services. Which might be what led you to consider a different software option. Many business owners who aren’t “numbers people” —and even .
At FreshBooks, there are multiple plans to suit businesses at any stage, whether they’re just getting started or are scaling up fast. Read on to find the plan that’ll work best for your clients.
Table of Contents
Before comparing plans, it’s important to understand who is a fit for FreshBooks and why.
FreshBooks is ideal for:
You know that the right software is not just about your tech stack and your proficiency or level of comfort. It’s about your client being able to use the software comfortably, too. That’s why the works so well for accounting professionals who use FreshBooks with their clients. Now let’s compare plans and see which works best for your clients.
Now let’s compare plans and see which works best for your clients.
Each FreshBooks plan has its own unique features and benefits. As a cloud accounting and invoicing software, there are tons of great features available on all .
Key Features
All of our plans allow business owners to send unlimited invoices and estimates and track unlimited expense entries. Growing businesses particularly like how easy it is to and send their clients payment reminders.
Speaking of getting paid, FreshBooks plans allow business owners to with credit cards and bank transfers.
FreshBooks’ and Time Tracking features are great project management tools. Users can review all time tracked from their team members, as well as see all invoices and expenses associated with a specific project.
While FreshBooks may have started as an invoicing software company, today’s small business owners turn to us for help with their day-to-day bookkeeping and accounting tasks. All of our plans include financial reporting tools so users can generate invoicing and payments reports, , and .
Key Features
Chances are that most of your small business owner clients will find that Plus is the best FreshBooks plan for their business.
With a generous limit of 50 billable clients, they’ll be able to invoice their regular customers and still have room to grow their client base.
As an accounting professional, you can feel comfortable recommending the Plus plan because it’ll capture the financial data you need to help your clients. And it’s priced competitively for them to boot.
Whether you need to set up your client’s FreshBooks account from day 1, or you only need access at tax time, FreshBooks has two that allow this to happen.
By setting up your client’s account from the Accountant Hub, you, as the can set up their Chart of accounts, and connect their bank account to start automatically importing transactions. You can also decide if you or your client will pay for their FreshBooks subscription (if included in your list of offered services). In the advanced accounting settings, both accounting roles allow you to make accounting changes within the account, like creating custom accounts in the chart of accounts and creating and editing journal entries, The Accountant Hub will allow you to manage your clients’ FreshBooks accounts in one place.
The feature lets you match account activity in your client’s bank account against entries recorded to their FreshBooks account. While the tool does a lot of the heavy lifting by automatically scanning the account and providing a list of likely matches, you can also manually match account activity to further ensure accuracy and consistency.
You can also record transfers and contributions to or draws from owner’s equity to cut down on the need for manual journal entries. Imagine the time-saving potential for your accounting processes!
Speaking of financial data, let’s dive into the information clients can easily track with the Plus plan, and what it’ll look like on your end. FreshBooks’ double-entry accounting features allow you and your clients to get a full-picture view of money earned versus money spent.
The double-entry accounting reports on the Plus plan that make this possible are:
Key Features
The Premium plan has all the features of the Plus plan and then some. It’s ideal for owners who are scaling up and starting to outgrow the Plus plan.
Typically, most owners who choose the Premium plan do so because it supports an unlimited number of clients, which is a step up from the 50 available on the Plus plan.
It also offers owners additional email settings, including automated client emails with dynamic fields and customized email templates and signatures.
From an accounting perspective, the Premium plan also includes the and the Project Profitability features. Clients can use Project Profitability to easily track and record their bills for various vendors all in one place–giving you the visibility to accurately advise on cash flow at any time. By comparing the profitability of standardized services, businesses can get accurate and real-time insights to all the revenues, expenses, and employee costs associated with the client or project.
Key Features
The Select plan is our highest-tier plan and should be considered for clients whose businesses are at a stage that requires specialized support.
Select plan members can expect a dedicated account manager, customized onboarding services, and data migration services.
It’s also a good option for businesses that process a lot of online payments as it’ll allow them to take advantage of lower credit card and debit card processing fees.
Along with the accounting tools included on the Plus and Premium plans, the Select plan also offers a greater level of insight into a business’s finances with additional reports. Recurring revenue reports, for example, help with revenue forecasting. In particular, the can be run from the present date to any date in the future to see future projected recurring revenue at any given time.
The Lite plan tends to be the best fit for businesses that are just getting started and have less than 5 active clients. While the Lite plan definitely punches above its weight as an invoicing tool, it doesn’t offer the same accounting tools as our other plans.
That’s not to say the Lite plan is short on features! For example, the ability to import expenses as a CSV file into FreshBooks is available on all plans. Clients also get unlimited invoices.
However, you might find that a different plan is the better fit for your client if they’d benefit from the dedicated Accountant role, double-entry accounting, accounting reports (other than the P&L Report and Sales Tax Summary Report), or bank reconciliation features.
When saying that FreshBooks is built for owners, that also includes accountants and bookkeepers, too. The was designed to support accounting professionals build up their own businesses with access to great tools, education resources, and a peer network to collaborate (and sometimes commiserate) with.
Switching a client to a new accounting software can feel daunting. Our team is equipped to help accounting partners migrate their clients’ full general ledger (GL) to FreshBooks as seamlessly as possible.
Partners also get dedicated support from our partner support specialists, who have accounting backgrounds and know FreshBooks features through and through.
Want know more? Email us at accountants@freshbooks.com to set up a call with one of our partner consultants.
We know that your top priority is to provide your clients next-level service by helping them track their finances and make sound financial decisions. At FreshBooks, we have the same commitment to unbeatable service.
With any plan your client chooses, you can count on FreshBooks to deliver outstanding service from our award-winning Support team.
Every small business is different. Their accounting needs vary by business type, size, and industry. We know there’s no one-size-fits all solution when it comes to accounting software, which is why we don’t try to be!
Get your clients started with a or contact our award-winning Support team at 1-866-303-6061 or for more information.
This post was updated in March 2024.
If Freshbooks is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.
Credit: Original article published here.
Our view at Stack - Freshbooks simplifies accounting for solo business owners, freelancers, and small companies. Intuitive, easy-to-use, and affordable. Manage payments, expenses, invoices, and accept payments seamlessly.
Aliya Jiwan-Thawer is a seasoned media trainer and media relations consultant who brings over 20 years of communications experience to the table. After working 10+ years as a television and radio news reporter for major Canadian broadcast networks, Aliya transitioned into the world of public relations.
While in public relations, she had the chance to work with both large and boutique PR agencies, creating and executing public and media relations campaigns in a variety of industries including financial, health, IT, education, childcare, corporate and non-profit sectors.
Aliya’s insight into the workings of a newsroom allows her to identify the qualities that make stories stick. She understands the science of generating media interest, and her rapport with media connections enables her to secure media interviews for clients on a wide range of topics.
Today, using her experience as a television news reporter, Aliya has also trained countless CEOs and company spokespeople for some of the toughest media interviews. She’s used her platform and company to help successfully launch a variety of products and charities for her . She has also media trained a wide range of spokespeople and managed numerous fundraising events while positively positioning her clients in ways that have raised awareness and brought attention to their stories.
As Aliya found herself making a career transition from journalist to media trainer and media relations consultant, she found herself in pursuit of added flexibility to help her dedicate more time to motherhood, “When I really needed that flexibility, I didn’t have it. So I left, and it was scary. I was very lucky that I had the support of my parents and my spouse because it’s a scary thing to go from making really good money on a consistent basis to not being sure how much money is coming in”.
Today, Aliya is able to maintain a balance that suits her professional profile while also carving out enough time to spend time with her family. As she continues to scale her , she remains focused on her passions while allowing FreshBooks to take over the parts she’s happy to spend less time on.
Aliya: After spending over a decade as a TV news reporter and anchor, and a little bit of time as a producer with various news outlets at places like CBC and CTV, the natural progression from journalism for me was to move into media relations. I got a job working at a large PR agency, and there was so much I learned there about just the actual job and media relations, media training, writing, editing, and managing teams. Then I got an opportunity to work at a smaller agency, which involved a lot of leadership, as it was a smaller firm. The biggest perk there was I got to work from home most of the time.
After a lot of commuting from the suburbs to the city with that job, I found myself having to endure a struggle that a lot of parents face when their kids first start daycare–being at an age where they are changing socially and sick often—you need a very understanding employer who is comfortable with you stepping away and go pick up your kid first, and putting the grind second.
After a while, I realized I didn’t really have that flexibility, and I felt like I was constantly walking on eggshells. With both of my parents being self-employed, they would say time and time again that consulting or starting my own business would be the right move. With that in the back of my head, when I really needed that flexibility I decided to leave and transition to working for myself, which was very scary initially. I was extremely lucky to have the support of my family and go from making really good money on a consistent basis to not being sure how much money I’m going to make.
With FreshBooks, it’s hard for me to fall behind on invoices and lose grip of my income projections since everything is tracked month to month. That makes tax time especially painless.
Aliya: The actual client services part came naturally to me because I was already managing clients, and I knew exactly what the clients needed. Having the taste level with the writing and the editing along with having that news judgment of what will help clients get media coverage, all of that came naturally to me. But knowing how to run a business? That was tougher to handle.
Making sure I was the person who was client-facing and doing the work wasn’t an issue at all, but also being the person sending out invoices and making sure the money came through was not something that came naturally to me. I was lucky to have the guidance of my parents who were both self-employed and both accountants. They kind of guided me through the process of and tracking my billable hours to make sure I was ready for tax time.
Aliya: For me, it was a series of spreadsheets and Word documents. Microsoft Office was my best friend initially because that’s all I knew. And when you only have a handful of clients, you can get away with it. As soon as I started ramping up clients, it became apparent that I needed a better way to do things.
The other challenge when you’re a consultant is, you need to really be prepared for the ebbs and flows of the business. Some months can be very, very busy, and suddenly other months can be very quiet. You need to really manage your cash flow properly so that you not only have the money when it comes time to pay your taxes and and all that fun stuff, but also so that you have the income to carry you during those slower months.
Aliya: When it comes time for tax season, I basically give my accountants access to my FreshBooks account and they see everything at a glance. What I have to stay on top of are expenses, and incurring any mileage. With FreshBooks, it’s hard for me to fall behind on invoices and lose grip of my income projections since everything is tracked month to month. That makes tax time especially painless.
Aliya: It was really when I started scaling and adding more clients to my business. In the beginning, when you only have a handful of clients, tracking in a spreadsheet and having a column for billables and another for taxes felt sufficient. But at scale, those things were impossible to sustain. I started working with agencies who would subcontract work, and when I was getting 10-12 invoices per month, I knew it was time to find a better way—I was taking way too long to process them. I went from spending hours upon hours with my invoices to spending maybe two minutes tops. It was such a breeze to track billables in FreshBooks and then simply press “Generate Invoice”. It’s the best!
Aliya: From the moment I first used FreshBooks it was immediately apparent that it was quite user-friendly. I didn’t really want to go through a steep learning curve with a new platform, I just wanted to use something that I know works. What I really needed was to be able to track billable hours. It was important for me to make sure that I was billing my clients accurately. At the same time, if I had a , I wanted to be able to let my clients know in advance that this was going to be a slow month, but that we had some money to carry over. Or, if it was going to be a really, really heavy month, maybe we want to scale back a bit next month, just to balance things out. FreshBooks gives me a level of foresight that I couldn’t achieve before.
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Aliya: I use invoicing literally all of the time. Every single project that I do with every client that I service involves invoicing through FreshBooks. I also put all of my expenses in there which includes monthly expenses like newspaper subscriptions, but also includes parking or any purchases I make for my business—software, subscriptions, etc. The one thing I still want to implement would be using the feature more. With COVID, I haven’t had as many excuses to travel!
Invoicing was a very manual process and something that took a lot of time for me before. I was tracking the time on a spreadsheet and then manually creating an invoice, whereas now I spend a couple of seconds generating invoices directly in FreshBooks.
Today, I can probably block off an hour at the end of every month and get all my invoices and expenses sorted. That’s a game-changer for me, and it helps me put that time back into my business, or spend more time with my family.
If Freshbooks is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.
Credit: Original article published here.
Our view at Stack - Freshbooks simplifies accounting for solo business owners, freelancers, and small companies. Intuitive, easy-to-use, and affordable. Manage payments, expenses, invoices, and accept payments seamlessly.
If you want to avoid stress at tax time, it all comes down to one thing: Preparation.
Even before you or your client (whoever is doing the hands-on bookkeeping) can , some housekeeping is in order. That means making sure all financial data is accurate and compliant.
There are many moving parts, and it can be easy to overlook something, especially when you’re working with , or you’ve got clients on multiple platforms. Unless that is, you have a handy-dandy checklist like this one that covers the steps you need to get tax-ready.
Et voilà! Here are all the end-of-year processes to complete in FreshBooks so you’re ready to file.
Table of Contents
First things first: To gain access to your client’s account in FreshBooks, you’ll need them to from within the platform. (Note that there is no cost to your client to do this.)
Once you accept the invite, you can . In the Accountant role, you can access all your client’s accounting reports and expenses. You’ll also be able to create Journal Entries and custom Sub-Accounts in the Chart of Accounts.
However, only can request admin-level permissions (the Accountant – Full Access role in FreshBooks), which allows you to complete many tasks, like setting up your client’s account for them, doing day-to-day tasks like invoicing and managing bank connections for bank feed.
If you are a FreshBooks Accounting Partner and need these permissions turned on, contact your Partner Consultant directly.
Step one is ensuring that FreshBooks balances match up with the bank and credit card balances. This task is done using our Bank Reconciliation feature. If the balances still don’t match, it is time to review the bank accounts!
Using the , start at the opening balance date of the bank account and go month by month. If you find a place where the FreshBooks balance doesn’t match the bank statement, a transaction was missed. If you run into any problems, check out the answers to .
If you’ve done step 1, your petty cash balance should be $0. But I recommend double-checking the Trial Balance to be sure. If petty cash is not $0, you can drill down into the Petty Cash balance and view all transactions that make up the balance in the .
The only transactions you should see under the Petty Cash account in the General Ledger are transactions marked as transfers. (Transfers between connected business accounts and credit card payments, for example.)
For a full view of last year’s expenses, run the (P&L). Viewing either month-on-month or quarter-on-quarter is a great way to quickly spot spikes in spending/expenditure. You can drill down into what makes up the expense category total and easily to fields like merchants or expense categories.
If you need more explanation on expense categories or expense refunds, you can run the . You can email your client directly from FreshBooks to ask for additional expense information to complete your year-end tasks.
In FreshBooks, any expense refunds (located at the bottom of the Expense report) are deducted from the refunded expense category.
Consistency is key and helps keep the business owner’s personal expenses separate from business expenses.
Run the General Ledger report or Trial Balance report for transactions that are in the personal expense category or marked as Owner’s Equity in the Bank Reconciliation screen.
If business expenses paid for with the business owner’s personal credit card were added here accidentally, this will need to be fixed manually. on how to do that in FreshBooks from one of our Accounting Partners, Kate Josephine Johnson.
You’ll want to run all of the following reports. I recommend running them in the order listed below.
Make sure you run your reports with your preferred accounting basis: Billed (Accrual Basis) vs. Collected (Cash Basis). And be sure to set the filters consistently when you run each report.
All reports are available on accrual and cash basis except for the Trial Balance and General Ledger reports, which are accrual-basis only.
You know it, you love it, you need it for tax filing. It’s the P&L report! has general info and FAQs about how to access and run this report in FreshBooks.
While your P&L summarizes revenue from invoices on a single line, the gets into the nitty-gritty. In this report, you can dig into which items and services make up the revenue amount, whether sales tax was applied, and more details. This report can be exported to Excel.
If you’ve been following the steps to this point, you’ve already run your . Done and done!
The shows the amount owing to the government in sales taxes. For each sales tax set up in FreshBooks, you can see the total sales tax collected minus sales tax paid for expenses.
These amounts can be reconciled/matched to your Invoice Details and Expense reports to see which transactions have sales tax applied.
Run the to confirm whether invoices have truly not been paid or to determine if they are due to be paid in the following period. (See the , if needed.)
Businesses with employees or contractors have additional tax requirements. Be sure you and/or your client know the deadlines and understand which forms to file. In the U.S., it’s 1099 forms for contractors and W-2 forms for employees.
For businesses with W-2 employees, in 2024, we launched , powered by Gusto, as an add-on to your FreshBooks subscription. Look for enhancements to this add-on, including processing payroll for contractors.
Once you or your client have ticked off each box on this checklist, you’re ready to file all your paperwork. If you rely on your clients to do their bookkeeping, share this for clients with them as a next step.
Keep in mind that FreshBooks Accounting Partners receive comprehensive training in all the platform’s business tools, accounting features, and reports. In addition, Accounting Partners get 1:1 support from FreshBooks Partner Support Specialists, which can be extremely helpful during tax time. If you haven’t considered becoming a partner yet, .
Thanks to for inspiring this post.
This post was updated in March 2024.
If Freshbooks is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.
Credit: Original article published here.
Our view at Stack - Freshbooks simplifies accounting for solo business owners, freelancers, and small companies. Intuitive, easy-to-use, and affordable. Manage payments, expenses, invoices, and accept payments seamlessly.
Throughout her career, Sara Lobkovich has honed in on her expertise in adult learning, instructional design, and helping teams understand their strengths to work together and achieve peak performance. She has oscillated between being an entrepreneur and holding full-time positions across technology, law, marketing, and strategic ops.
Her latest passion is her own company, . The company focuses on OKR coaching, business strategy, conflict resolution, and sustaining organizational momentum.
“OKRs are about increasing organizational performance and results, and, done with integrity, help organizations improve inclusion, belonging, and increase well-being and humane conditions in the workplace,” Sara said.
With Red Currant, Sara was looking to translate her passions and career experience into a viable business, but scaling her business quickly while starting with no revenue was quite the challenge. By seeking out FreshBooks to , invoices, and expenses, and to fill in her , Sara was able to focus on growing her business with confidence that her books and finances were in good hands.
Sara: Red Currant Collective is a strategic impact consultancy. The main services we’re focused on are around objectives and key results (OKRs) for organizations to build momentum throughout all areas of their business.
I formed the business in January of 2020, but I took on some full-time work amidst the pandemic and officially opened Red Currant in March of 2021. We’re relatively new, but we’ve exceeded my own expectations in terms of revenue and growth so far, so I’m really happy and excited about where we are headed.
Sara: The scariest part for me of starting my own business is the financial operations of it. It’s not my zone of genius or competence. I knew I needed help with this area, and my husband is also a small business owner on the blue-collar side.
I learned through his business that outsourcing what isn’t in my area of expertise could only make things run smoother, and I made that decision to immediately look for a good way to outsource both the bookkeeping and the financial component of my business before I actually needed to. It was important to me to find a platform I trusted and the best tool for the job.
Sara: Exactly. There wasn’t a pain point necessarily. It was more just the awareness of knowing the and financial side of things was not my strong suit. For me, it was important to invest in a tool like FreshBooks to fill that gap and give me confidence on that side of my business.
I don’t have to spend a moment worrying about my finances. I know this is not super sexy to say, but it just works.
Sara: I used FreshBooks at a previous business years ago and loved it, and Bench was also recommended to me by a colleague. Knowing I needed help in this area, I didn’t even do a trial. I just signed up and took the leap of faith, and I have absolutely been blown away by the effectiveness of
We’re trying to get my husband to move over to FreshBooks, but there are some industry-specific details in his inventory management which make that tedious. It’s so much less of a hassle using FreshBooks, though! We’ll migrate him eventually, [laughs].
Sara: I looked at a few other options, but considering where my business was starting from zero, anticipating rapid growth, and needing an extremely easy-to-use tool, FreshBooks stuck out to me, and I’m so glad I went that way.
Sara: I knew I needed it for invoicing, and I knew I needed expense tracking management, so basically bookkeeping. I also really wanted something I could accept online payments through, and that’s been of tremendous value for me. Lately, I’ve actually been really annoyed when won’t use the online payment option, [laughs]. I have a client right now who’s asked me to send them my bank routing number and account numbers so they can pay me. And I’m like, come on, just pay me through FreshBooks!
Sara: With FreshBooks and Bench, I don’t have to spend a moment worrying about my finances. I know this is not super sexy to say, but it just works. And for a business owner to subscribe to platforms and services and then have them over-deliver on their promises, it just makes a huge difference.
I would say it’s never too early and never too late to get on board with FreshBooks. When I wrote the first check for that first month of service, I didn’t have any real revenue yet. It was difficult because it felt like I was spending money before I was making money. However, worked with me going back to the very beginning of my business, only a month or two after I really started operations. They helped me account for everything from my owner contributions, to the startup of the business, from my personal finances before the business was formalized and held my hand through that transition from being a personal project, spending money on my future business all the way to being an up and running LLC with .
So, when I think about tax time coming up and my overall readiness, I have so much peace of mind. I’m thrilled that I signed on early because things were so simple in the first couple of months. But now, as things get a little more complex, I have a solid foundation with a few months of finances that are crystal clear and accounted for.
If Freshbooks is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.
Credit: Original article published here.
Our view at Stack - Freshbooks simplifies accounting for solo business owners, freelancers, and small companies. Intuitive, easy-to-use, and affordable. Manage payments, expenses, invoices, and accept payments seamlessly.
When Victoria launched her Ottawa-based marketing agency 16 years ago, she expected to ease into entrepreneurship. Instead, on day 1 her former employer called up to hire her as a contractor and she was off to the races. From that day, has seen consistent organic growth.
Rapid growth is the dream, . Victoria didn’t have systems in place—everything was done manually. And it was just her. She was the designer, the marketing expert, the accounts, the admin. It only took a few months to realize that she needed help.
Today, Excentric Agency is a full-service marketing firm specializing in branding with B2B in Canada, the U.S., and the UK. Victoria’s 15-person team is a mix of graphic designers, web designers, website developers, marketing strategists, and SEO/PPC experts, plus contract writers and other freelancers.
We spoke with Victoria to learn more about why and how she uses FreshBooks for her agency.
Victoria: We had a client using FreshBooks and she was telling us how great it was. At that time, we were using Excel. And then we had to do our invoices in another program. Because we’re a branding company, our invoices had to look nice. So we had Excel for tracking the financials and then we had another program to make them look pretty and then another system for people to track their time. And it was just it was so cumbersome.
And that’s okay if you’re just starting out and you have just a few invoices. But as the company started to grow, the team members started to grow, the client base started to grow, keeping track of receivables just was not easy. And end-of-month invoicing was very time-consuming. It was a real chore. End-of-month invoicing was taking 5 times as long as it needed to.
We can actually say within a Project how many hours we have as a team and we can monitor where we are. [It] gives us really good intel for quoting future projects.
Victoria: I like that we can set up Projects. We do have clients that use us on a monthly basis, but we also win project-based work. So we know based on the price tag of the job, we know how many hours, if we’re estimating correctly, it should take us combined as a team. And it’s important that we know where we are in the hours that we have allotted to that project.
So [in FreshBooks] we can start a Project and we can actually say within the Project, how many hours do we have combined as a team and we can monitor where we are. And then also it gives us really good intel for quoting future projects. Because we can go back into FreshBooks and we can say, “Oh, wow, we were way under on that one, or we were way over on that one.”
And because our team members are logging specific tasks of what they’re doing…we can actually see even where we need to allot more or less time on similar future Projects. So it’s really, really good in that respect.
Victoria: Yes, and I like that there’s a choice between Estimates and Proposals. The Estimates are great for smaller project-based work, but the Proposal is nice because you can actually do a long-form Proposal in FreshBooks with an overview of the Project.
Sometimes we have 30- to 40-page proposals that we do, say, in Google Docs. We PDF them and we can actually embed the 30- to 40-page long-form in the FreshBooks Proposal, so we can just put the pricing and everything for signature in FreshBooks with the attached 40-pager. And then it acts as a service-level agreement. And it’s more like a contract because we can request an actual signature.
Victoria: Now it’s just so much more efficient. It’s just easy. The Dashboard alone. Just to go and see: How much do I have in receivables? What’s in U.S. dollars, what’s in Canadian dollars? What’s [owing] past 30 days? Just to see that at a glance—it’s fantastic. And to be able to sort. I do that often, for example, when I’m at the end of Q1, I can go and look at, okay, well, what are our earnings for Q1? And then I can see what are our taxes collected so that we know how much of that is tax.
End-of-month invoicing is a breeze now, it really is. We can see the number of hours each team member has worked on a project. I would say end-of-month invoicing saves us a full day of time each and every month. It also reduced our bookkeeping costs because our bookkeeper has access to our FreshBooks account.
Victoria: My bookkeeper is added [with the Accountant role] so she can go in and see, what have we invoiced, what have we collected, what tax have we collected. So she just is invited to that. And then every month… I mean, in the old days, I used to have to send her all these attachments of files and now she’s just she can go in and she can just look. So that is really great, too.
End-of-month invoicing is a breeze now, it really is.
Victoria: Well, we actually had a record year this past year. And so, you know. Could we have done it without a platform like FreshBooks? I don’t know how we would have, to be honest with you; because as you grow, you need to have processes in place. [There’s] no way we could have grown without the tools in place.
So I would say if they want to keep a pulse on how their company is doing financially, that’s key. And if they want to spend less time on admin, then they should try it out… And honestly, I wouldn’t even say “invest”, because it’s not a lot of money, and the time that you’ll save alone is— your time is more valuable.
Victoria: I know this sounds like a silly thing, [but] I love the new feature of the motivational quotes. You’ve added this is a kind of a new feature where when you’re waiting, instead of looking at a spinning wheel, they serve you with a motivational quote. And I know it’s such a small thing, but I like it. It’s a nice touch.
If Freshbooks is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.
Credit: Original article published here.
Our view at Stack - Freshbooks simplifies accounting for solo business owners, freelancers, and small companies. Intuitive, easy-to-use, and affordable. Manage payments, expenses, invoices, and accept payments seamlessly.
Carolina Ramirez Herrera is a digital nomad and dot connector with brands and people in the travel agency, amassing an incredible portfolio of work and collaborations around the world with her namesake agency
Prior to flying solo with her own venture, Carolina cut her teeth as a Global PR Director for the Oasis Collections team specializing in strategic partnerships and business development. She has mastered the art of collecting memories without sacrificing her knack for business, but her initial introduction to being a solopreneur was accidental.
“I started consulting kind of by accident,” said Carolina. “I said, ‘OK, let me start freelance consulting until I know what I want to do’. One thing led to another, and four years later, here I am. Today, Carolina specializes in consulting across public relations, marketing, and digital media with clients ranging from real estate, hospitality, travel, art, and health and wellness.
Born and raised in Miami, Florida, with Colombian heritage, Carolina is fluent in English, Spanish, and Italian, and truly embodies a worldly perspective in her business and private life. We sat down with her to understand how she has been able to scale her business with the help of and balance her jet-set lifestyle.
Carolina: I’m Colombian originally. My parents and I grew up in Miami. My parents live in Miami, and I grew up there, went to school there. I moved to New York after college and traveled a ton. But my base, I guess, for a while has always been Miami just because my family is there. I guess it’s also a great place to “hub,” in terms of travel. It’s super close to travel to Latin America and to Europe. It was only later in life when I noticed people were like, oh, of course, Florida. That’s where you have your company. Taxes. Duh.
Carolina: I remember it was around the time I was doing my first invoice for my company, and I was thinking it would be easy to just do them in Excel. After using Excel for about a month or so, my business began to grow quickly, and it was hard to keep up. I even tried writing down expenses and owing amounts in my physical notebook. Finally, I realized it just wasn’t the way to move forward.
And then, it was actually one of my really good friends who said, “Wait, you don’t have accounting software?!”
After some Googling, I looked at my options and bounced around between FreshBooks and QuickBooks. QuickBooks, for me, was too expensive, and the user interface of FreshBooks stuck out as it was very simple to navigate. The competitive pricing of FreshBooks and the user interface…it’s just very user-friendly. For someone in branding and marketing PR, that’s important.
Carolina: Invoicing and are a lifesaver for me. The invoices dashboard is so useful; the fact that it shows you overdue amounts right away keeps me organized. Rather than stressing about it, I basically look at it once or twice a day and know what’s coming in and what’s going out.
I love the offered as well because I work with clients in different countries with multiple currencies constantly. It shows me euros and dollars separately, and it’s easy to stay organized and takes away a lot of manual work.
Carolina: Consulting in marketing and PR, every client is different in their needs and what they’re looking for. For example, I use many contractors, and then I kind of build mini-teams with the people I am working with.
For example, there might be one client that needs a social media manager and a copywriter, so I need to find a way of tracking that. Now I use the FreshBooks Bills and Vendors tabs in the Accounts Payable section. Before, I would just write things down ad-hoc!
Carolina: Well, you should definitely invest in accounting software because will murder you if you don’t, for starters!
Taxes can be really difficult if you’re not an accountant. If there’s one thing you should be organized with, it’s and your finances because it’s your money. And there’s no way you’re going to grow, especially when you work with larger clients with full-on accounting departments. They don’t have time to deal with your invoice mayhem.
Carolina: Honestly, there’s a lot more I could be doing with FreshBooks for my business. I love Recurring Invoices and some other features, but there’s a lot more I have to learn.
What makes it easy with FreshBooks is the customer service. Not to sound like a cheerleader, but support is always so supportive and quick on calls and emails. Since I’m always traveling, sometimes I need quick answers and quick fixes, and FreshBooks is very supportive.
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If Freshbooks is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.
Credit: Original article published here.
Our view at Stack - Freshbooks simplifies accounting for solo business owners, freelancers, and small companies. Intuitive, easy-to-use, and affordable. Manage payments, expenses, invoices, and accept payments seamlessly.
The term “advisory services” gets thrown around a lot, so it can be hard to know exactly what it means. “Is this something new?” “Is it different from what I’m already doing?” “I feel like I advise my clients all…the…time!”
So what is it really?
I believe advisory services will be the future of accounting and bookkeeping for firms and solo practitioners. Why? One reason is that technology is making compliance work easier. Increasingly, businesses can automate accounts receivable processes, expense management, and more, making outsourcing less appealing.
Another reason is that the post-pandemic economic uncertainty has prompted business owners to keep a close eye on cash flow. More than ever, businesses need the advisory services a professional can offer.
So, let’s break down what accounting advisory services really are, what they mean to your firm, and what they can do for your clients.
Table of Contents
Want to hear a secret? No degree or credential is required to offer advisory services. What is required is the ability to help your clients solve their problems and improve their business.
Delivering on a value proposition like that requires you to continually grow and develop these skills:
You don’t need to be born with these skills. You can identify your strengths and weaknesses and create your own path through books, training courses, and mentorship to fill out your advisory toolbox.
The key here is to realize your clients don’t need someone with all the answers. What they need is someone willing to ask the right question (sometimes a lot of questions). They need someone who understands how stressful and isolating it can be to run a business and who will come alongside them and help them solve problems. What they need is a human being. What they need is you!
Most of the traditional services we think of as accounting and bookkeeping are compliance services. These include keeping up with the books, generating financial reports, and filing taxes—all compulsory for business owners. These services are focused on historical data.
Advisory accounting goes beyond this by examining the present or looking to the future and providing guidance to business owners. With the right direction, owners can make better-informed business decisions, increase their profits and cash flow, and avoid potential problems — but more on that later.
Consulting services are typically provided on an as-needed basis, often as one-time engagements. When the client runs into a problem, they call you up to ask for your help. You consult until the issue is solved, and then go back to compliance. You may collect a consulting fee, or—far too often—your client may just assume these 911 phone calls are part of the deal when they hired you.
Advisory services, on the other hand, are built into your engagement with the client. Your client knows you’ll provide guidance in certain areas, and they understand that they’re paying a higher fee for the added value of your advice.
In a study conducted by CPA.com, nearly . So, it’s likely that you’ve already been offering advisory in one form or another.
However, if you want the best results for you and your clients, it’s important to make it integral to your offering.
Compliance services are increasingly becoming a commodity. There’s little differentiation between the tax returns or financial statements produced by one firm versus another. The result is a race to the bottom in terms of pricing. This is why you see so many firms marketing themselves with phrases like “trusted” or “accurate,” which are standard expectations.
A way to set your firm apart is with advisory services.. You can add real value to a client’s business and help them reach new levels of success, and it all starts with your greatest areas of expertise.
Start by asking yourself:
Through advisory services, you can help answer those questions by offering support such as:
It can also mean helping your clients understand complex business issues based on their accounting data. For example: Advising on increasing revenue, reducing costs, determining the right time to hire, or renegotiating a bank loan.
Again, consider what matters to them.
A few years ago, I was working with a fitness studio owner looking to expand to more locations across the country. We went into our meeting with plans to review the previous quarter’s financial results, followed by an examination of the forecasts I had prepared for the next 3 locations they wished to open. (You can see that I was dabbling in advisory by forecasting.)
When the meeting started, instead of getting right into the numbers, we ended up spending 20 minutes talking about our children, business travel, and the mom guilt that we both felt as with children who sometimes have to be away from our families. We spent the next 20 minutes discussing staffing challenges they were facing and developing a plan to kick off a program that would help motivate employees.
Only then did we discuss the forecasts and opportunities for their 3 new locations to determine the capital required to grow their business.
That may sound like wasted “free time” chatting with a client and fielding questions, but it wasn’t wasted at all. It was an essential piece of developing trust and understanding. At that moment, she didn’t need just accounting expertise, she needed me to be human.
By empathizing, listening, asking questions, and contributing to the conversation in a relatable and authentic way, I was able to uncover the client’s biggest pain points and, ultimately, developed a better financial plan for her that aligned with her goals and values.
As an advisor, it’s important to remember that clients don’t primarily value the spreadsheets, numbers, or the effort you put into creating them. What makes a real impact is the outcome. The partnership and relationship you bring to the table are a huge part of helping them get where they want to go. Financial reports and data should support client conversations, not monopolize them.
The fitness studio owner I previously mentioned initially came to me for bookkeeping and taxes, but she became an ongoing advisory client. She later confided that there was no way she would have been able to expand her business and add new locations without us. Developing that “partnership” plus the financial insight made it happen.
When clients recognize you as a partner or integral part of their team, it can alleviate their stress about income and expense concerns and give them a sense of financial security for the future.
“The intersection of your client’s needs and your skills forms the basis of advisory.”
They can simplify their business and better understand their finances by or another platform. A powerful aspect of advisory services is helping clients design suitable workflows and coaching them to effectively use tools to streamline their day-to-day financial tasks.
Ultimately, advisory services are all about to overcome their biggest problems and achieve their biggest goals. These are unique to every business, and the intersection of their needs and your skills forms the basis of advisory.
It’s crucial to remember that many businesses don’t know what they need or what’s causing their biggest problems. They may also be floating downstream, headed toward a waterfall, and be blissfully unaware of the trouble coming their way. This is why it’s vital to build advisory into your . Often, clients don’t know they need to ask for these services and won’t ask for your help in a consultative capacity until it’s too late.
Advisory services are a fantastic opportunity to grow, both in terms of income and professional development.
By embracing the , you can revolutionize client interactions and enhance your capacity to deliver scalable advisory solutions.
Collaborative Accounting is a technology-driven approach to accounting, supported by a shared workflow between accountants and their clients. It streamlines front-end tasks for business owners through an intuitive software platform, leaving accountants the space to focus on high-value advisory services.
This approach offers numerous benefits, including:
With Collaborative Accounting, the possibilities for enhancing client experiences and delivering impactful advisory solutions are endless.
Advisory allows you to create more value for your clients and increase your prices. If your clients still pay by the hour (), it might be time to reconsider your price structure. Value-based pricing ensures that your clients know exactly what it will cost each month and lets them clearly see the return they’re getting from your services.
Hourly rates, on the other hand, punish you for getting better at your job and don’t reflect what clients are actually paying for.
If you’re an accounting professional interested in offering advisory services but you aren’t sure where to start, begin by taking small steps.
The best thing to do is to get educated by obtaining the . In under 4 hours, this program will guide you through various advisory opportunities related to the everyday tasks of business owners. It covers the framework in detail, including shared workflows for each front-end accounting tasks, tips on advisory conversations, and much more.
Remember, every journey begins with a single action. Your path to becoming an indispensable advisor for your clients starts today.
This post was updated in May 2024.
If Freshbooks is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.
Credit: Original article published here.
Our view at Stack - Freshbooks simplifies accounting for solo business owners, freelancers, and small companies. Intuitive, easy-to-use, and affordable. Manage payments, expenses, invoices, and accept payments seamlessly.
For Lindsay Darby, CMA, using FreshBooks with her small business clients has been transformative. Why? They love the automation and the ease of using FreshBooks compared to other tools.
Once she became a FreshBooks-Certified Accounting Partner, Lindsay realized how valuable the community behind the program is:
“I just really love being able to bounce ideas off the other accountants. The other FreshBooks Accounting Partners have been so helpful. … I’ve received great feedback from them—and from the FreshBooks Accounting Specialists. It’s been really collaborative.”
(Read more about as a FreshBooks Accounting Partner.)
Not all accounting partner programs are created equal. Our program is designed for accountants and bookkeepers who are seeking deeper connections with their clients and want to work with clients in a more strategic and advisory capacity. We make this happen through what we call Collaborative Accounting.
In a Collaborative Accounting model, your business-owner clients manage some or all of their day-to-day operations, like invoicing, expenses, and payments. This frees up your time to provide high-value services, including strategy, analysis, and coaching.
You and your clients work together in the software, each handling part of the workflow. That way, you both have visibility into the business and a deeper understanding of it. The goal is a seamless experience where the accounting professional becomes a true partner in their client’s business.
FreshBooks was built for small business owners. Again and again, they to use FreshBooks compared with other accounting software. They tell us how by their bookkeeping. And that their accountants are relieved to no longer wade through piles of receipts at tax time.
That creates a ripple effect that makes the collaborative accounting approach possible.
“When business owners have access to the technology they’re comfortable with, accounting professionals get timely data that enables them to provide so much more than bookkeeping or compliance support,” said , CPA and Head of the FreshBooks Accountant Channel.
“Businesses benefit immensely when their accountant or bookkeeper offers forward-looking analysis and advice. It sets the stage for success.”
The mission of the Accounting Partner Program is twofold:
Our mission centers around the FreshBooks’ 4E philosophy: “Execute extraordinary experiences every day.”
Just looking for the master list of partner program benefits? Okay, you’ve got it!
Comprehensive Collaborative Accounting™ certification and ongoing education. Starting with our comprehensive FreshBooks accounting professional certification and training, you’ll have many opportunities for learning and development.
Human-centric account management. Work with a Partner Consultant who will help you reach your goals as a FreshBooks Accounting Partner.
Dedicated support. Get help when you need it from Accounting Specialists on our industry-defining support team. These FreshBooks experts understand the needs of accountants and bookkeepers.
Client discounts. Offer your clients access to exclusive FreshBooks discounts, including a 15% discount on new subscriptions.
Free data conversion. We’ll help you migrate client data from another accounting platform to ensure a smooth transition to FreshBooks.
Free FreshBooks Account. Receive a personal subscription to use for your own books
or as a demo environment.
Client referrals. Want more clients? Through our FreshBooks-Certified Accounting Partner Directory, you can get connected with our small businesses seeking your services.
In addition to these program benefits, as an accounting partner, you also have opportunities to provide product feedback and contribute to the FreshBooks feature roadmap.
The Accounting Partner Program is best suited to modern accountants and progressive bookkeepers who are interested in a and are actively building a cloud-based practice.
The Collaborative Accounting model makes it that much easier to plan proactively. So, the program is also for accounting professionals who are investing in working with scaling businesses and want to grow alongside them.
Curious to learn more and connect with the program? We can’t wait to hear from you.
First, to apply online. Then, we’ll be in touch directly so you can:
Ready to begin your journey?
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If Freshbooks is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.
Credit: Original article published here.