Freshbooks vs Less Accounting

March 12, 2025 | Author: Michael Stromann
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Freshbooks
FreshBooks is an online invoicing software as a service for freelancers, small businesses, agencies, and professionals. The product includes a myriad of other related features, such as time tracking, expense tracking, recurring billing, online payment collection, the ability to mail invoices through the U.S. Post, and support tickets.
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Less Accounting
Small business accounting software from Less Everything, because your job title isn't accountant. Track all of your business expenses with LessAccounting, quickly and easily. You can put your expenses into categories, add notes to them, mark them as paid or due, and even upload a picture of your receipt with each expense. Send online invoices to any of your contacts, and track payments when you receive them. You can also set up invoices to reoccur whenever you need, and you can even accept payments for invoices via Paypal. You can customize your invoices with our powerful template engine as well.

FreshBooks and Less Accounting are both cloud-based accounting tools designed to make number-crunching slightly less soul-destroying for small business owners. They let you send invoices, track expenses and pretend you enjoy financial reporting. Both come with mobile apps so you can manage your accounts while pretending to pay attention in meetings and they integrate with banks and payment processors, because even the most rebellious freelancer eventually has to deal with money. Customer support exists, though as with all things, your mileage may vary depending on the mood of the universe that day.

FreshBooks, born in the wilds of Canada in 2003, is the more polished and automation-happy of the two, catering to freelancers and small business owners who secretly wish they had a personal assistant. It cheerfully reminds your clients that they haven’t paid you yet, tracks your billable hours with a mildly unsettling level of accuracy and offers a neatly tiered subscription model designed to part you from your money in the most professional way possible. If you enjoy invoices that practically send themselves and reports that look as though they know what they’re talking about, FreshBooks has you covered.

Less Accounting, emerging in the United States in 2007, takes a slightly different approach, favoring simplicity over bells, whistles or anything resembling complexity. Designed for business owners who break into a cold sweat at the mere mention of the word "bookkeeping," it strips away unnecessary features and politely refuses to overwhelm you. There’s no advanced automation, no project management and certainly no attempts at looking impressive—just the basics, wrapped in a minimalist interface. It even offers a one-time purchase option, for those who prefer their expenses to be as predictable as their caffeine addiction.

See also: Top 10 Online Accounting software
Author: Michael Stromann
Michael is an expert in IT Service Management, IT Security and software development. With his extensive experience as a software developer and active involvement in multiple ERP implementation projects, Michael brings a wealth of practical knowledge to his writings. Having previously worked at SAP, he has honed his expertise and gained a deep understanding of software development and implementation processes. Currently, as a freelance developer, Michael continues to contribute to the IT community by sharing his insights through guest articles published on several IT portals. You can contact Michael by email stromann@liventerprise.com