All business owners know how tough it is to manage finances, especially during a business's infancy. Aside from the daily operational costs, you must monitor overhead expenses, monthly recurring fees, retainer fees if hiring third-party services, and more. Using accounting tools is a way to make your life easier, whether you're running a small or medium-sized business. We'll tell you two of the most popular accounting tools
FreshBooks Overview
Freshbooks was founded in 2004 by a team of Mike McDerment, Levi Cooperman, and Joe Sawada. It's best known for its user-friendly interface and all-in-one approach. It offers invoicing, expense tracking, and basic accounting as a package. It's an excellent option for freelancers or service-based businesses who value ease of use. Freshbooks is a solid option for freelancers and small businesses.
FreshBooks Best Features
- Automatically generates and sends recurring invoices at regular intervals for subscription services or retainer agreements.
- Automate late payment reminder emails to nudge clients about overdue invoices, saving you time and effort.
- Pre-written thank you emails upon invoice payment, adding a personal touch and streamlining communication.
- Low-cost paid plans offer additional features like expense tracking, time tracking, and project management at very competitive rates compared to similar software.
- Customizable professional invoice templates that reflect your brand identity, including your logo, color scheme, and custom fields.
- Automated workflows are set up to automate repetitive tasks, like sending overdue payment reminders or thanking clients after payments.
- Offline functionality allows you to work offline and syncs data automatically when you reconnect, ensuring uninterrupted productivity.
- Freshbooks has powerful mobile apps for iOS and Android.
FreshBooks Limitations
FreshBooks is an excellent choice for small enterprises and freelancers, but it has limitations for more extensive or growing companies:
- Limited Features for Complex Needs: FreshBooks' features might not suffice as your business grows. Inventory management, advanced reporting, and project management capabilities are limited compared to Zoho.
- Fewer Automation Options: While FreshBooks offers automation, Zoho has more robust automation features. Complex workflows or intricate automation tasks might be complicated to set up.
- Limited User and Client Capacity: FreshBooks' free and lower-tier paid plans restrict the number of users and clients you can manage. This can become a hurdle as your business expands.
FreshBooks Pricing:
- Free Plan: Offers basic invoicing features for a single user.
- Paid Plans: Start at $19/month and go up to $60/month, with additional features like expense tracking, time tracking, and more users allowed at higher tiers. FreshBooks also charges separate transaction fees for online payments.
Zoho Overview
Zoho Books was founded by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas in 1996, but they didn't use their current name, Zoho, until 2009. Before that, they operated under the name AdventNet. Zoho is known for its in-depth customer view, which combines all your customer interactions into one place. Also its customization options allow you to tailor the software to your specific business needs. Zoho is a popular option because it's affordable, easy to use, and offers a broader range of tools like customer relationship management, accounting, and online invoicing.
Zoho Best Features
- Zoho Books lets you create quotes quickly by sending professional and personalized branded quotes anywhere
- Monitor how much you owe and to whom. With the Manage Vendor Bills feature, you can convert vendor invoices to bills. Moreover, you can record total or even partial payments and track the status of vendor payments conveniently.
- Enjoy robust sales order functionalities through its sales order fulfillment feature. You can convert sales orders to invoices. Additionally, you can even convert any sales order to purchase orders if you're low on stock.
- Provide customers with payment convenience by accepting online payments and setting automated reminders.
- Strengthen vendor relationships by streamlining your purchase order workflow
- Verify purchases through purchase approvals. You can set up single or multi-level purchase approvals.
- Analytics and Reporting: Zoho CRM provides a wide range of reports and dashboards that track your sales performance and identify areas for improvement.
Zoho Drawbacks
While Zoho offers a robust suite of tools, it's not suitable for everyone.
- Complexity: Zoho can be overwhelming for beginners. Its wide range of features might take time to learn and navigate, especially for those new to accounting software.
- Limited Scalability for Enterprises: While Zoho works well for many businesses, it might fail to meet large enterprises' needs. And managing everything within a single suite can become cumbersome for such large organizations.
- Potential Integration Issues: Since Zoho offers many applications, seamlessly integrating them can be challenging. Data transfer between apps might require additional setup or workarounds.
Zoho Pricing:
- Free Plan: Available for businesses with less than $50,000 annual revenue but limited to one user.
- Paid Plans: Start at $15/month (billed annually) and go up to $240 monthly, offering additional features and user seats at higher tiers.
FreshBooks vs Zoho: Which accounting tool is worth your money?
Imagine Zoho Books and FreshBooks as digital assistants for your business and its finances. Zoho Books is like a powerful all-in-one manager. Think of FreshBooks as a user-friendly invoice expert. The key is to choose the right assistant that is efficient and fit for your needs. Zoho offers more muscle for complex businesses, while FreshBooks keeps things simple for first-time users.
