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FreshBooks is a one-stop, cloud-based accounting software package that for a relatively small outlay can provide you with an easy-to-use package that ticks most boxes.

Within its browser-based design you’ll find a whole host of options that cover any and all aspects of running a business. It doesn't matter if you're a lone freelancer or someone who’s growing a business and employing staff.

FreshBooks is a doddle to use, has the capacity to expand with your business needs and, thankfully, keeps those stress levels low as you build up your accounting profile. New features for this year include advanced search, the ability to download your own statements, Dropbox connectivity, new keyboard shortcuts and much more.

In the UK, Freshbooks has teamed up with Barclays to offer joint bookkeeping solutions for customers, offering new ways to help with invoicing and wider business management tasks. It's now possible to integrate Barclaycard Payments into FreshBooks, providing extra convenience for business customers.

Competitors in this software area include QuickBooks, Xero, Sage Business Cloud Accounting, Kashoo, Zoho Books and Kashflow.

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• Want to try FreshBooks Check out the website here

FreshBooks is easily configured using a step-by-step series of user-friendly windows (Image credit: FreshBooks)FreshBooks: Pricing

FreshBooks comes with a selection of package and payment options that should provide a solution for most, but like most other companies in any industry, prices have climbed in recent years. Still, FreshBooks can justify that with feature improvements and other ways to find value for money, and there are often promotions on to get you through the door for less money.

Lite is the entry-level tier, which costs $21 per month. This and Plus ($38/month) are where FreshBooks envisions attracting most freelancers, but self-employed workers who have a bit more income and more complex needs could toss a coin between Plus or the more feature-packed Premium ($65/month).

Any requirements over and above this selection and you’re best advised to contact FreshBooks for a custom deal, which the company calls its Select plan.

All of the plans are pretty customizable, including options for additional team members ($11/month), online payment accepting ($20/month) and Payroll, which costs $40 per month plus $6 monthly per user. All of this means the costs can quite quickly add up compared with other plans, and while we've criticized others for offering too many plans to make sense of, we're worried FreshBooks' approach can make the costs climb quickly.

FreshBooks also gets a thumbs up for its try-free option, which lets you explore the package and cancel within 30 days if it’s not right for your needs.

Initial setup takes mere moments thanks to a very straightforward cloud-based design (Image credit: FreshBooks)FreshBooks: Features

FreshBooks comes with an impressive array of features no matter which of the package options you adopt. Even the Lite edition sparkles with the capacity for unlimited and customizable invoices, unlimited expense entries, the ability to accept credit card payments online and ACH bank transfers too.

However, the limits come in areas. For example, you can only work with five clients or you'll need to upgrade.

Naturally, the beefier the package the more features you get, so Plus adds to the Lite feature set with up to 50 clients, unlimited proposals, automated recurring invoices, double entry accounting reports and more besides.

For us, Plus might be the most cost-effective plan, with other features extending to e-signature support, bank reconciliation and slicker receipt and expense tracking.

Similarly, Premium gets all the Lite and Plus features along with an unlimited client capacity (up from 500 previously) and customizable email templates, which means you could pretty much manage most of your financing from the single platform.

Anyone with a custom-priced deal can also enjoy a personal account manager, personal FreshBooks training for you and your team along with other value-added features.

FreshBooks Dashboard is where you can control all of the features and functionality (Image credit: FreshBooks)FreshBooks: Performance

FreshBooks has had plenty of time to perfect its operation and this cloud-based system is one that works with little to worry about. The service delivers a neat experience depending on what kind of business you run, and if you’re a one-man-band then there’s very little to go wrong it seems.

Even if you’re operating a large or expanding business FreshBooks seems nicely engineered and rolls with the punches if you’re dealing with large chunks of customer data.

Freshbooks is also available for iOS or Android and the app edition is a clever supplement to the desktop arrangement. Not everyone wants to do everything on their app, especially if that involves large reams of numbers, but this is a great option if you’re keeping track of things on the go.

Updates in early and mid 2025 added manual bank imports and flexible reconciliation options, so if you live in a region where bank connections can be unreliable or your bank doesn't support this feature, then at least you can find another way to connect your expenses.

It's updates like these that speak volumes about a company, and it's promising to know that FreshBooks is making these changes and upping quotas (as mentioned above regarding client capacity) to continue adding value to its products even when prices climb.

FreshBooks can also be used in expanded fashion as your business grows (Image credit: FreshBooks)FreshBooks: Ease of use

Accounting software can be a long and arduous journey if you’re not au fait with its different sensibilities, let alone the work involved in mastering a new system. However, FreshBooks has been honed and fine-tuned over the years and is now an inviting option, especially if you’re starting out in business.

In fact, FreshBooks is refreshing in its set-by-step setup, with initial manoeuvres involving little more than picking a package and following the email address and password route so common with cloud-based operations.

On the whole, we found the experience clean, simple and jargon-free. The simple setup and onboard process also makes it a welcoming place, given how daunting finance software can be for new starters.

Ease-of-use is enhanced as the system can be adapted to suit what type of user you are. Larger concerns, for example, allows team members to be added. Freelancers and self-employed sole trader-types have it even easier.

FreshBooks might look simplistic but it comes with a raft of powerful tools (Image credit: FreshBooks)FreshBooks: Support

FreshBooks has a dependable and well-established support system that goes back as long as it has been operating. To start, there’s an excellent online area of the FreshBooks site that offers up a delicious selection of quick fix answers.

There are top categories too, such as dashboard and settings, invoicing and payments or handling online payments, which cover the majority of newbie enquiries.

Support extends beyond how to use the platform to discuss broader topics, like MTD explanations for smaller businesses who will soon be affected by the changes.

However, for the more unusual requests you may have, or indeed if you prefer a human to advise you, then there’s an easy-to-find phone number in the same section of the site. Live support is available from Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm EDT (Excluding Holidays) in the US. Alternatively, FreshBooks has a support email address to beef up the contact and support options.

Like other businesses, you can use the chatbot to help you find the right support article 24/7, but you'll still need to wait for a human to come online if you need further assistance.

FreshBooks can be used to seamlessly connect to any or all of your financial institutions (Image credit: FreshBooks)FreshBooks: Final Verdict

We’re really pleased with the way the latest incarnation of FreshBooks looks and performs. It’s been around for a while now and that is obviously a strength as the FreshBooks folks have refined the essence of the accounts package, but the best part is how polished it has become, making what can be a regular, tedious and complex task a joy to complete.

Its strongest suits include invoicing, expense management and tax-ready reporting, which it handles with ease, and it’s easy to setup and configure, the menu systems and sections are plain and simple, plus there’s plenty of power behind it to ensure things keep on ticking even if you’re asking a lot of it.

All told, FreshBooks seems like a mighty fine way to do your accounting and, depending on your requirements, is actually pretty cost-effective. We just worry that it could be seen as more of a premium product, with higher tiers and add-ons quickly making it a more expensive option than some others.

• We've also highlighted the best budgeting software  

The feature will be available through a software update rolling out today to select Apple Watch models.

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, August 14 (game #795).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #796) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• TAKE CARE OF
• HAZE
• PAY
• РЕС
• FOOT
• FINE
• CASH
• THIGH
• BREAST
• МАС
• CAPITAL
• TENDER
• GRAND
• WING
• SETTLE
• BRILLIANT

NYT Connections today (game #796) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Chicken pieces
• GREEN: Sorting the check 
• BLUE: Superb
• PURPLE: Partially fancy snacks

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #796) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: POULTRY CUTS 
• GREEN: HANDLE, AS A BILL 
• BLUE: SPLENDID
• PURPLE: STARTS OF CULINARY NUTS 

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #796) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #796, are…

• YELLOW: POULTRY CUTS BREAST, TENDER, THIGH, WING
• GREEN: HANDLE, AS A BILL FOOT, PAY, SETTLE, TAKE CARE OF
• BLUE: SPLENDID BRILLIANT, CAPITAL, FINE, GRAND
• PURPLE: STARTS OF CULINARY NUTS CASH, HAZE, MAC, PEC

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 mistake

The tile that read TAKE CARE OF stood out so much I honed in on finding common words to link to it.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who did this and I’m also sure I wasn’t the only person to wonder about the phrase “FOOT the bill”. It comes from adding up a column of figures at the bottom of a page rather than anything to do with our feet.

My mistake came in thinking that CASH, CAPITAL, GRAND and TENDER were all expressions for money. I got “one away” but switched my attention to the far more obvious collection of POULTRY CUTS.

I love nuts, but even after the answers were revealed I struggled to think what PEC could be referring to. Are Pecan nuts culinary? I thought they were a poor man’s walnut.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Thursday, August 14, game #795)

• YELLOW: DERRIERE BACKSIDE, CABOOSE, SEAT, TAIL
• GREEN: USED TO HIT A BALL IN SPORTS BAT, MALLET, RACKET, STICK
• BLUE: COMPONENTS OF A BRIDE'S ENSEMBLE BOUQUET, BUSTLE, TRAIN, VEIL
• PURPLE: RHYMING COMPOUND WORDS BACKPACK, NITWIT, COOKBOOK, HUBUB

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

QuickBooks is an instantly recognizable name in the world of accountancy and bookkeeping. It’s owned by Intuit, which also has other options for small business owners and large ones too, with a diverse portfolio that includes TurboTax, Mint and Proconnect.

QuickBooks also comes in numerous different varieties, from desktop editions through to the hugely popular Online edition.

There are also regular updates to the QuickBooks portfolio of products, with the UK getting a raft of new features to help users keep abreast of tax and other regulatory changes such as MTD. There's an income tax estimator tool, improved tagging and a beefed up employee portal for larger businesses.

Professional accountants have new tools, including a month-end review tool. QuickBooks is, essentially, always evolving. There's a new QuickBooks Business Account digital payment option aimed at small business owners now too.

So, depending on your requirements, you can choose from QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Self-Employed, QuickBooks Online Advanced, QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping, QuickBooks Desktop for Mac, QuickBooks Desktop Pro, QuickBooks Premier and QuickBooks Enterprise. However, it is possible to create a custom package using the help of the QuickBooks team if you need a more bespoke option.

• Want to try QuickBooks? Check out the website here

QuickBooks: Pricing

With such a wide variety of QuickBooks options you’ll find that pricing is similarly expansive and there are often deals to be had too. For example, we've seen deals of 70% for three months, and even up to 90% for six months.

Customers and business owners of all sizes are catered for, starting with the £10+VAT/month Sole Trader plan and £16+VAT/month Simple Start plans.

Larger businesses will more than likely need to upgrade to Essentials (£33+VAT/month), Plus (£47+VAT per month) or Advanced (£115+VAT per month).

Although there's no free plan, there are options to save. For example, you could take out one of QuickBooks' seasonal offers that often give a number of months at a heavily discounted price, or you can sacrifice the longer-term offer by signing up to a month-long trial, after which you'll begin to pay the full price.

Still, to have the option of a whole month's trial is excellent news, and it should give business owners time to fully migrate any data into the MTD-compliant system and tweak settings – many other competitors in this space offer a 14-day trial, if at all.

(Image credit: QuickBooks)FeaturesQuickBooks: Features

QuickBooks covers all the basics across all plans, and because there are no free options, you won't be faced with a highly limited tier.

For example, all subscriptions come with invoice and estimate support, customized reporting and cash flow insights.

You can also capture receipts via the camera on the smartphone, which can then be easily linked to capturing expenses like mileage tracking It also integrates easily with other apps, including PayPal.

In light of changing regulations within the industry both in the UK and globally, QuickBooks will now estimate quarterly taxes, but beware that lower-tier plans lack any advanced invoicing like recurring invoices and project/time tracking.

The higher you go, the more you unlock, beginning with HMRC VAT submissions and multi-user support to employee time tracking and stock tracking.

There's also a payroll add-on for middle tiers and above if you're running a larger business, plus support for multiple users.

(Image credit: QuickBooks)QuickBooks: Performance

Gone are the days of tracking income and expenses locally on spreadsheets, and QuickBooks knows this because its platform is a fully fledged SaaS offering – everything runs through the cloud (securely), which means real-time data syncing and multi-device support.

So far we can report strong stability and responsive workflows, but it's worth noting that lower-tier versions are more lightweight so there's less to go wrong in the first place.

(Image credit: QuickBooks)QuickBooks: Ease of Use

The QuickBooks Online subscription plans have an advantage that they will work on any platform via the browser, and also have integration with the iOS and Android apps for use on a smartphone or tablet.

For those that prefer the downloadable software, it works for both the Windows and macOS, but unfortunately there is no mobile app support.

We love how intuitive the user interface is – new users can take advantage of a pretty simple onboarding process, and there shouldn't be too much of a learning curve when getting used to this particular platform. Unless you want to explore deeper (which you can do when you're ready), the out-of-the-box experience is simple enough for self-employed individuals who might not have as much accounting experience.

Having the backing of one of the industry's giants – Intuit – also means it's one of the first to get more advanced features, including AI which makes analyzing data and creating custom workflows easier.

(Image credit: QuickBooks)QuickBooks: Support

Support has been improved for QuickBooks and it now has a wealth of different options to choose from if you're in need of help.

This includes an online help hub, with lots of documentation, videos and other training resources. There's also a blog, a vibrant community and lots of social media too.

Depending on your package level, you might also have access to a professional advisor. All tiers get free customer support and free onboarding, too, which goes some way towards bridging the gap between non-human software and a fully human accountant.

(Image credit: QuickBooks)QuickBooks: Final Verdict

For a small business without a dedicated accounting department, or even a sole accountant, QuickBooks offers an attractive solution to managing the finances because it's both simple to use and packed with powerful financial features.

The fundamental bookkeeping ingredients are all here, covering invoices, payroll, estimates, employee time tracking, sales tax, inventory tracking, and is able to sync bank transactions. The online versions clearly have a better set of features than the downloadable version.

Our concern is that this full feature set comes at a higher price than some competitors, which include FreshBooks, Xero, Sage Business Cloud Accounting, Kashoo, Zoho Books and Kashflow to name just a few. A basic, free tier wouldn't go amiss for smaller-scale self-employed operations.

Compounding this issue is that as the additional services such as payroll and time tracking are added on to the base package, the costs go up even higher. While a seriously cash-strapped business may be better off looking elsewhere for more of a value bookkeeping solution, for the small business that can make use of the wide range of available bookkeeping features, QuickBooks via the online subscription remains an attractive and comprehensive choice.

Read our review of QuickBooks Online here

Read our review of QuickBooks Desktop Pro here

• We've also highlighted the best accounting software in this roundup