The One Tool Every Startup Should Use: Freshbooks

Disclaimer: Freshbooks has not paid for this placement or offered us anything to write this. We just genuinely love their product.

Chances are if you’re involved in a startup you’re part of a small team, or it may just be you. This means incurring obvious time restrictions.

When we were starting CAVE, we spent the majority of our time on our product. Often, operational items fell to the wayside. Accounting was one of them.

I knew we didn’t have the cash-flow to pay an accountant a monthly retainer. I also knew we had to get our expense tracking, and invoicing in order. Luckily for us, Freshbooks was recommended to me relatively early on in CAVE’s existence. For those not familiar with Freshbooks, it’s low-cost accounting software, starting at $19.95, which has been a life-saver for our business. Though I’m sure we’ve just scratched the surface with how we use Freshbooks, I wanted to highlight a few of the features which have become pivotal to our business.

Time-Tracking

We’re a digital marketing agency, so time-tracking software is a must. The time tracking engine allows us to easily track time and provide transparency to our client base.

Expense Recording

Tracking expenses is a must. If a shoe box is currently holding all of your receipts then expense tracking in Freshbooks will help you tremendously. The system lets you (i) hook up to your bank account, so expenses automatically generate and (ii) it allows for you to attach photos of receipts to each expense.

Easy Invoicing / Accepting Payments

We have clients across North America, so invoicing and then waiting for checks in the mail got old, fast. The invoicing system in Freshbooks allows you to create, edit and send invoices all from its back end. Freshbooks also processes payments with popular services such as PayPal and Stripe. A quick and secure payment is well worth the small percentage transaction fee.

Mobile App

I think the real advantage to using this software is the mobile app which accompanies it. The mobile app comes in most handy when recording expenses. Attach photos to all of your expenses, and never miss the chance to write off a purchase when you’re out of the office.

If you’re shopping accounting software, I’d highly recommend Freshbooks. It’s saved us time and money.