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Can you trust the numbers in FreshBooks?

FreshBooks is cloud based accounting software for small businesses. Its own help pages give 3 reasons its numbers can look different from what you expect. The first to rule out: Income can appear in FreshBooks' updated report as soon as it is billed, before any cash arrives, as its help pages say.

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Money · Is money moving the way it should?

Is it broken, or just counted differently?

A number can look wrong because the business changed, or because of how FreshBooks counts it. Below is what FreshBooks keeps, where its help pages say the numbers can differ, and how to check them yourself.

What does FreshBooks keep track of?

  • FreshBooks keeps a profit and loss report that shows what is left after expenses.

    In FreshBooks's own words: The total amount earned (or lost) after expenses What is a Profit and Loss report?, read 2026-11-12.

  • FreshBooks can report on money billed as well as money received, so the two views can differ.

    In FreshBooks's own words: Contains income and expenses for all transactions, whether cash has exchanged hands or not What is a Profit and Loss report?, read 2026-11-12.

What can make FreshBooks's numbers look wrong?

  1. Income can appear in FreshBooks' updated report as soon as it is billed, before any cash arrives, as its help pages say.

    In FreshBooks's own words: The updated Profit and Loss report is only available in the Billed (Accrual) accounting method What is a Profit and Loss report?, read 2026-11-12.

  2. An invoice with an unpaid deposit can be missing from FreshBooks' income figure, as its help pages say.

    In FreshBooks's own words: If the deposit amount isn’t fully paid yet, no income will be recognized for the invoice. What is a Profit and Loss report?, read 2026-11-12.

  3. Some costs entered by hand may not reduce the profit FreshBooks shows, according to its help pages.

    In FreshBooks's own words: Manual journal entries written to expense accounts are not included in the Profit and Loss report What is a Profit and Loss report?, read 2026-11-12.

How do I check FreshBooks's numbers myself?

  1. An owner can set the same date range in FreshBooks and compare periods one at a time.

    In FreshBooks's own words: Choose from This Month, Last Month, This Quarter, Last Quarter, This Year, Last Year, All Time, or Custom What is a Profit and Loss report?, read 2026-11-12.

  2. Where the legacy report is available, comparing its Collected and Billed views in FreshBooks shows how much is billed but not yet paid.

    In FreshBooks's own words: Contains income and expenses for transactions where cash has exchanged hands What is a Profit and Loss report?, read 2026-11-12.

How does FreshBooks work with Feder?

Connect FreshBooks to Feder and it joins your Money apps. Feder only reads. It never changes anything in FreshBooks.

When you connect FreshBooks, Feder checks the connection straight away and shows Connected only when that check passes. If a reading cannot be taken later, Feder shows it as not read, never as zero.

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See every connection.

Where do these answers come from?

Everything this page says about FreshBooks comes from FreshBooks's own pages, quoted above with the date we read them. Last reviewed 2026-11-12. We read them again by 2027-11-12. If one changes, this page changes or comes down.

Know the day a number breaks, not the month after.

Some numbers are too quiet to judge daily, such as a form filled in a few times a week. Until there is enough of your own history to judge a change, Feder says it is still learning and scores nothing, rather than guessing.

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