Stay Fresh With FreshBooks

Cloud accounting will make your life much easier.

When it comes to anything involving taxes, bookkeeping, etc. count me out! I am not an accountant, nor do I ever wish to be. I'm sure if I took the time to learn how it's done I could figure it out and understand it... but I'd rather watch paint dry. There's really no escaping it when you're a business owner, though. I miss those days when I'd receive my W9, forward it to an accountant, and wait for my tax return check to deposit. Ha.

If you LOVE these types of responsibilities that come with the pleasures of being a business owner as much as I do, you're really going to love FreshBooks. I love it so much I'm writing an entire blog post about how helpful it is. These are just a few features that they have to offer.

1. Accounting Tools

FreshBooks makes bookkeeping easy. All financial transactions are imported and categorized, which makes tracking your invoices a breeze. So whether you received an invoice payment, took a client out to lunch, or refunded a customer... it's all tracked!

You'll have access to many different reports, also, including profit & loss, sales tax summary, invoice details, payments collected, and more. My favorite part of it all is that you can invite your accountant to your FreshBooks account. Everything they need is right there, and you won't have to lift a finger during tax season.

2. Expenses

Wouldn't it be great if we could all run profitable businesses without any expenses? With FreshBooks, you can connect your credit card or bank account to track your business expenses. You know what that means? No more manual spreadsheet data entry or file drawers filled with old receipts. I also like this feature, because I don't have to look back to make sure I remembered to send every possible tax write-off to my accountant... and we all know every penny counts!

You can track your project spending here, as well. So when you and your team have a budget to stick to, all the details are right there in front of you.

3. Mobile

Speaking of tax write-offs, a big one is mileage. Instead of guestimating during tax season, you can use the FreshBooks mobile app to track your mileage as you drive. That's not the only reason I'd recommend using the mobile app, though. You can stay on top of your receipts and invoices on the go, too. Let's say you randomly connect with a new customer while you're traveling, and they purchase your service. You can invoice them right then on your phone... no need to wait until you get back to the office.

4. Project Management

When you start growing your team, the last thing you'll want to be doing is constantly checking up on each individual making sure they're completing their projects without any issues, finishing on time, or worrying about how you'll all be able to collaborate successfully. You'll never be able to scale. So I think it's really great that FreshBooks offers a project management feature. The fact that you can manage your finances, projects, and team all in one place really makes this program a triple threat. Some key features include:

• Chat and collaborate on work

• Assign project due dates

• Quickly see an overview of project status

• Manage team projects and deliverables

• Invite your staff, clients or contractors to a project

• Share images and files from within FreshBooks

• Manage projects on the go with the FreshBooks mobile app

• Assign a rate or hours to a specific project for a client

• Control what your team can and cannot access with team permissions

And these are only to name a few!

When you start rock'n and roll'n in your business it's really an exciting time. But I also understand that it can get overwhelming, especially when it's all new. You'll learn, and over time it'll become second nature. FreshBooks will help along the way, making the process much easier for you and your business. Check them out online for a free demo! And keep on kicking ass.