Rant: Paid $150 for invoicing software that only made things worse

I signed up for FreshBooks after seeing ads everywhere about how it saves time. But their price went up after the first year and my invoice templates kept breaking. Took me like 8 hours over a month trying to fix formatting issues that support could never solve. Ended up going back to a simple spreadsheet and PayPal invoices which cost me nothing extra. Seriously thinking about just sticking with free tools forever now. Has anyone else had a paid tool actually make your freelance finances more complicated instead of easier?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_olivia13d ago

Wait so did the CPA actually tell you straight up that you were overcomplicating it or did you just read between the lines? Because I'm curious if they're all just tired of seeing FreshBooks reports that look nice but miss half the deductions.

quinn34114d ago

Heard a CPA say FreshBooks is getting overpriced for what it does.

craig.parker13d ago

Oh man, don't even get me started. I'm the guy who signed up for FreshBooks five years ago because I thought it would make me look like a "real business owner" and now I'm basically paying for the privilege of having my invoices look pretty. It's like I'm paying extra for the software to laugh at me every month when I realize I forgot to track a single mileage log. I bet the CPA was trying to be nice about it but really wanted to say "just use a spreadsheet, you're overcomplicating it." My accountant probably thinks I'm a joke when I show up with FreshBooks reports that are somehow both too detailed and missing all the important stuff.