Not quite ready to use QuickBooks because you think your business is too small? Well, there is a FREE program called FreshBooks which is an online program that you can use just for invoicing.

I have met with some clients in the past that all they used QuickBooks for was invoicing, and then I would teach them other features such as entering checks/debits, reconciling bank statements, and generating financial reports. I was amazed at how much time clients would spend making the perfect invoice and applying payments received but when it came to the vendor side of things they paid little or no attention to it.

Here are some benefits of using FreshBooks:

Integration with PayPal – according to the website (I have not tested out this feature), you can integrate FreshBooks with PayPal to receive your money faster than receiving a check in the mail.

Late Payment Reminders – the program is supposed to send out reminders to customers with past due balances….automatically….so you do not have to think about it.

Recurring Invoices – just like in QuickBooks, FreshBooks lets you set-up an invoice template to invoice a client automatically each month with the same dollar amount.

Monitoring - the program is supposed to let you see who viewed your invoice and when, so it takes out the guesswork of wondering if the invoice was sent to a SPAM box or not.

Now, FreshBooks has other features besides invoicing, but they are not as strong as QuickBooks. For example, you cannot split a transaction for expenses, meaning you cannot allocate a total payment of $500 to $250 Office Expense and $250 to Meals & Entertainment. Also, there is no class tracking in FreshBooks. In addition, you cannot tag a customer to an expense like you can in QuickBooks.

You cannot enter bills into FreshBooks, only expenses that were already paid. By not having this feature you could not generate an Accounts Payable Aging report to see a listing of all your bills coming due which could help you manage your cash flow better.

You cannot reconcile your bank statement in FreshBooks and there are no balance sheet accounts for the program.

The reporting is limited. There is a Profit & Loss report, but there is no Balance Sheet report.

Although FreshBooks is not an all inclusive accounting software program, I would recommend people use the invoicing feature if all they enter is invoicing activity and then put their expenses into Excel or a shoebox. It seems like a nice program to get a person introduced to an accounting software program before moving on to the more sophisticated and complete solution that QuickBooks offers.

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