[Macworld]

Post your comments for Review: FreshBooks is a nifty accounting tool for iOS here

[soulatrium]

I tried FreshBooks and found that for me, it was not a robust enough offering to justify the hefty monthly fee. Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because its name is similar to "QuickBooks" that it's at all similar. It is essentially just cloud-based invoicing software with a few extras thrown in (at the time I tried it, the expense tracking was virtually useless for me because it did not support automatically importing expenses from my bank/credit accounts). I instead use Billings for my invoicing. It is Mac-native, doesn't require that I be online to use it, and I only had to pay once for it.

[FarazS]

soulatrium, on 01 February 2013 - 06:17 AM, said:

I tried FreshBooks and found that for me, it was not a robust enough offering to justify the hefty monthly fee. Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because its name is similar to "QuickBooks" that it's at all similar. It is essentially just cloud-based invoicing software with a few extras thrown in (at the time I tried it, the expense tracking was virtually useless for me because it did not support automatically importing expenses from my bank/credit accounts). I instead use Billings for my invoicing. It is Mac-native, doesn't require that I be online to use it, and I only had to pay once for it.

@Soulatrium - Faraz from FreshBooks here. Thank you for the candid feedback - will be sure to circulate it among product teams here at FreshBooks HQ for review. I'd also like to mention that you can now automatically import expenses from Financial Institutions directly into FreshBooks. I'd also love to hear what other capabilities you think FreshBooks is missing - feel free to get in touch with me directly by email (faraz@freshbooks.com) if you're up for a chat . Thanks again!

[apta]

I cannot justify paying the hefty monthly fee either. That would pretty much lock me into a $240/year model with no easy way out once I start it. (Sounds like an addiction, no?)

I'm a one person operation and issue 4 to 30 invoices per month. Been using the iBiz desktop application which is very similar to Billings and I only had to pay once ($40 in 7 years). Billings has the convenience of a free iOS app that syncs with the desktop app for on the go invoicing.

Unfortunately the developers of these two apps are moving to the online subscription model similar to FreshBooks and as a consequence their desktop apps are regrettably languishing.