Impeccable Customer Service

Although functionality and practicality is what’s most important to me, the first thing that caught my attention was the customer service.  A couple of days after I signed up on FreshBooks, I got a call from one of the FreshBooks staff letting me know that I could contact them if I had any questions regarding their product.  They also took the time to send me an email, that had references to specific information about my blog and my business (which, means that they took the time to read both).  I was really impressed (and a little creeped out, but it was pretty cool) that they would consider taking the time to find out more about their customers.  Honestly, their customer service had me hooked from the start.

Estimating and Invoicing

I hate business.  If I could do what I do for free, I would be in heaven.  Unfortunately, my family won’t let me do that.

FreshBooks makes it pretty easy to work with your customers to come up with a fair estimate as to how much your services will cost. You can give your customers a login to your custom FreshBooks site.  There they can view all of their active estimates and respond with any questions or negotiations regarding the estimate.  Once the estimate is agreed upon, they are able to approve it, and work on the project can begin.

After you are done, you can take all of the information from the original estimate and turn it into an invoice in one click.  The invoice can be sent via email, or by snail mail (but this costs money, of course).  You can customize the invoices with your own logos, and you can also set 30, 60, and 90 day automatic reminders to the customer to pay for your services.  The coolest thing about the online invoicing is that customers can login and pay through a variety of methods.

Manage Staff & Contractors

Another cool thing about the web application is that you can manage a certain number of staff, and an unlimited number of contractors.  They can give your estimates on parts, and track their time spent on a task.  You can then bill your customer for the expenses accrued by contractor or staff member.  It makes large projects VERY easy to handle.

I Hate Bookkeeping

The absolute best part about FreshBooks is the ability to keep track of the books.  As long as you enter in all of your expenses (your income is generally automatic, but sometimes needs to be entered if cash is used as payment) you will have no problem accounting for everything when tax time comes.  Couple this greatness with Outright.com, and you will be sitting pretty.

There’s Always More…

I could go on forever singing the greatness of this application, but you can check it out yourself.  I must warn you that it is geared toward service-oriented businesses, and I’m not sure how a product-oriented business could use it (but I’m sure there is a way).  They have various pricing models, but also have a free model that is a very good way to get a feel of how FreshBooks works.

Just to let you know, they have a referral program as well.  However, none of the links on this page use my referral code, since I don’t want this to seem like a sales post.  Anyway, have a great time checking it out!  I highly recommend it!  Especially if you have a side business.