FreshBooks vs. Futuramo Time Tracker

FreshBooks is the perfect tool for businesses who have hundreds of clients and customers whom they invoice regularly. It removes the need to manually send invoices to clients and customers, by streamlining inputted information to create an automated invoicing system which keeps clients and customers up to date with their bills. It is also a great tool for managing expenses, especially for companies with different teams working on varying projects, ensuring these teams do not exceed the budget ceiling.

Incentivized

Futuramo is best for when you're working alone on a project, or with a small team, given the glitches with the time tracker and the poor integration with Futuramo Tasks and Projects. Unless you're going to manually calculate the times spent on all tasks individually in order to know the total time spent on the project, I would not recommend using it on projects where you'd be billed per the time spent rather than a fixed amount.

Incentivized

• FreshBooks is pretty intuitive to use. I did have some questions when I first started using the system, but it wasn't a long learning curve.
• FreshBooks provides more capability than other billing applications such as PaySimple or BlinkSale. FreshBooks does provide an easy invoicing function. It's easy to create invoices that can be sent via email or snail mail to one or more individuals (for example, the decision-maker and the accounting dept). Clients can pay online or send a check and then I note that the payment has been received. If paid by credit card, the system automatically marks the invoice paid. Your business accounts such as bank accounts can be linked to FreshBooks. Then, the system can automatically draw in expenses and will create simple P&L reports, overdue invoices, client history, etc. If you don't have inventory and complex payroll, etc. FreshBooks provides just the right level of capability to make financial tracking simple.
• FreshBooks integrates with a number of credit card companies. I use Stripe, which has fees similar to Paypal, but much more reliable processing. I can accept all credit cards, including American Express, for a reasonable fee.

• The biggest pro of Futurama Time tracker is that it comes bundled with other tools. These are "Projects, Tasks, Virtual Tickets, Time Tracker, and Icons." This means I can track the time spent on each task within a project.
• Time Tracker is easy to use, all you need to do is go to time tracker, enter the task you want to track, choose what project and clients it's under, and then click the play/start icon.
• For projects that involve collaborating with others (either external freelancers I'm managing, or my staff) I can track the time spent on each task by each user. So I know how long each person spent on their task and how it related to the estimated time. This way I know if the project will take longer or shorter than estimated.

Incentivized

• Pricing structure is very poor for us. $10/user per month when we have staff that comes and goes. And it's impossible to change a free contractor to a paid staff and vice-versa. This is my biggest complaint.
• They only allow one admin owner user. Emails must come from that account. This is annoying, as other staff cannot log in with the same power.
• The user interface is quite dated. I've made recommendations to improve it and all have been ignored. It's skinny and not fluid. Also, there is no way to link between invoices and clients.

• I'ver been using Futuramo for almost 2 years, primarily because they reached out to me to be one of the first users/testers. I've also shared some glitches that could be improved but the timer glitch is still there. When I start the timer to track a project, instead of the timer to start counting, it remains at 00:00 which is worrying because it makes me feel like it's not actually tracking what I'm working on. I was once 18 mins unto a task and when I checked the tracker it said 00:16 I was so worried I ended the task. Interestingly when I ended the task, it showed the correct time which was 18 minutes. I'm happy the timer was working but I'm also frustrated and in near-panic.
• Like TopTracker, I wish there was a way to take screenshots of what I'm doing, that way I can be sure that the rest of the team is actually working on the timed tasks.
• In the Time Tracker section of Futuramo, where the tasks timed are listed, I wish it was possible to actually click on any of the tasks there to see things like mouse clicks and keyboard taps. Similar to how Hubstaff and Upwork tracker tracks "productivity" (I'm not sure what this is called).
• If you track a task not originally in Futuramo Task but created in Time Tracker, connected to a project or client, when you go to Futuramo Task, it won't be listed there. And when you to go Futuramo Projects, you still wouldn't see it there. I would like to go to Futuramo Project and see all the tasks there, both those timed and those yet to start.

Incentivized

At the current needs of our business, FreshBooks suits us perfectly - it allows online access by our accountant to the system for GST purposes, easy input of expenses and tracking of Profit and Loss statements. FreshBooks customer service is great as well - very understanding and accommodating.

It is well-built software with no significant drawbacks. It offers all the necessary futures expected from online software. However, it is not yet up there with Xero and QuickBooks regarding connections with other software and advanced reporting features. The developers work closely with accountants, and therefore, I expect further development of the software.

Incentivized

FreshBooks is easy to use and always works!

Incentivized

I think the support level for FreshBooks is on par with a 6 because the folks behind this application do a fairly good job at providing support for their customer base. I still don't think they are at an elite level when it comes to supporting but are getting there although too slow in my opinion.

Incentivized

I haven't changed my mind since my first evaluation. Freshbooks is still meeting my needs, easy to use, etc.

There is no fluff and feature overload with FreshBooks. I can get to what I need quickly and easily. I don't have to deal with unnecessary features and fields the system considers essential. The payment features are streamlined and have lots of flexibility when receiving payments. I love FreshBooks support, and it is 100 more customer-friendly and easier to work with than its primary competitors from my experience.

Incentivized

Hubstaff and TopTracker are still better at tracking tasks because of:

1. Fewer glitches with the timer.
2. Desktop app.
3. Both take screenshots at random to which can be reassuring to clients.
4. Both track keyboard taps and mouse clicks and show how "active" I am. This coupled with the screenshots can be reassuring for my clients.

Incentivized

• Since implementing FreshBrooks, 80% of invoices created are paid in less than 30 days from the time the invoice is sent via email to the client. Prior to FreshBooks, we were mailing or hand-delivering our invoices and payment on those invoices was in the 45-90 day range.
• Time tracking is done directly in FreshBooks (or through a plugin that's connected directly to FreshBooks) and is very easy to use. With this feature we're much better able to track all business activities. This has helped us to quantify the time we're spending on non-billable business-related work in addition to our billable client hours. We've been able to adjust our pricing accordingly, as well as being more efficient with our non-billable activities.
• When FreshBooks online payments is set-up in your account, payments made with this method are automatically sent to your bank account. We choose between FreshBooks payments and PayPal payments in order to manage how much money stays in the PayPal account for online expenses vs. how much is transferred directly to the bank account.

• Increased productivity: Futuramo Time Tracker makes it easy to know how long it'll actually take me to complete a task, and when put together, how long it'd take me to complete a project.
• Track Billables: While calculating all the time spent on each task manually was exhausting, once that was done, I knew how long it took me and my team to complete a project and was able to bill my client for just that time.

Incentivized