BooksBat vs FreshBooks

Two accounting products, two price points

FreshBooks grew from invoicing into a full accounting product for small businesses. It is widely used, well supported and has had many years to build integrations and mobile apps. That breadth comes with a monthly price that is typical for paid accounting software. Check their pricing page for current plans.

BooksBat started from invoicing too and is now small business accounting: invoices, quotes, sales receipts and credit memos on the sales side, expenses, bills, purchase orders and receipts on the spending side, and a double entry ledger underneath with a chart of accounts, journal entries and a closing date. See bookkeeping. It is priced for very small businesses: free to start, $4 a month for Pro and $12 a month for Business.

Banking: feeds versus statement import

This is the most important practical difference. FreshBooks can connect to many banks so transactions arrive on their own. BooksBat does not offer live bank feeds today. Instead, you download a statement from your bank as CSV, OFX, QFX or QBO and import it. Bank rules then categorize the usual transactions, BooksBat suggests matches with invoices, bills and payouts, and you reconcile each account against the statement balance.

For a business with a few dozen transactions a month, a weekly or monthly import takes a few minutes. If you have hundreds of transactions across many accounts, live feeds will save you more time. See bank reconciliation.

Getting paid

Every BooksBat invoice arrives by email with the PDF attached and a link to a mobile friendly page where your client can view it, download it and pay online. You connect your own account with Stripe on any plan, or on Pro with PayPal, Square, Razorpay, Mollie, GoCardless or Lemon Squeezy. The money goes to you, BooksBat adds no fee by default, and each payment and provider fee posts to your books through a clearing account so reconciliation is quick. See online payments.

Quotes are accepted online with a typed name and a checkbox or an optional e signature, recurring invoices and automatic reminders run on Pro, and 8 invoice designs come with every plan. See quotes and estimates and recurring invoices.

Reports, tax and payroll

• Reports: profit and loss, balance sheet, statement of cash flows, trial balance, general ledger, AR and AP aging, sales by customer and item, expenses by vendor and more, on a cash or accrual basis. Export and scheduled reports are on Pro. See financial reports.
• Sales tax: set rates, combined rates and agencies, run the liability report and record tax payments. BooksBat does not file returns for you. See sales tax.
• Payroll lite on Business: record paychecks and payroll liabilities, track 1099 contractors and run a 1099 summary. BooksBat does not calculate or file payroll taxes, so you or your accountant handle filing. See payroll and contractors.
• Time and projects on Business: timesheets, a timer, billable hours and project profitability. See time and projects.

Switching from FreshBooks

BooksBat has no direct connection to FreshBooks, so moving is file based. Export your customers, vendors and products as CSV from your current tool, then bring them in on the import page along with your chart of accounts and opening balances as of your switch date. Set your invoice numbering to continue from your last number, connect a payment provider in Settings > Payments, and recreate recurring invoices for repeating clients.

Keep your old account for your records until your accountant has what they need for the year, and pick a clean start date such as the first day of a month or quarter.