Name: Ryan Sharrer
Company: Level 5 Development Group (L5DG)
Phone: 614 437 2638
Date: July 13, 2006
Email: rsharrer [at] l5dg [dot] com
Web Site: http://www.l5webhosting.com

1. How would you describe your business?
We are a web design, hosting, and search engine optimization firm for small to medium sized businesses. We have 3 offices, in Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio, all of which use FreshBooks.

2. How many clients do you have?
Currently we have 142. That will increase in the near future with our upcoming merger with another company.

3. How did you find FreshBooks?
I Googled "online billing software", got about 20-30 results, and signed up for every one. FreshBooks met all of our needs the best.

4.    What needs motivated you to look for another service?
The need to send the same invoices month after month. Being able to automate recurring invoices allowed us to cut staff in our receivables department, so instead of having a real person send just those invoices out we now have an account manager who oversees the whole process.

Also, our partners in different offices can log in from wherever they are which is great.

5. What were you using before FreshBooks?
We were using QuickBooks, and still do for some of our older accounts. QuickBooks didn't have the functionality we needed, the learning curve was very steep, it cost more than FreshBooks, and we got charged for updates. We also tried AccountLabs but the learning curve was too steep, and the billing facility that comes with dotProject, but that didn't last a week.

6. What were you looking for when you found FreshBooks?
We wanted a billing system that could be accessed by people in other offices so we could collaborate and work on accounts regardless of where the job was located. This is one reason why the "second contact" field is handy for us.

7. What have you found since you switched?
It has saved about $260 a week by reducing billing personnel and software. We can now easily see who has viewed their invoices. We can run reports and see where our money is and who has paid - and send "Pay up, Deadbeat" reminder notices when needed!

8. How does FreshBooks compare to accounting software?
FreshBooks is very intuitive. You can take a web unsavvy person and 5 minutes later they're up and running. The learning curve is lower, the features are better, and the quality is as good if not better than accounting software. With QuickBooks, once you've finished the tutorial you're just confused enough to not know where to start.

9. What is the biggest difference for you from what you were using before FreshBooks?
I save money because I don't spend as much on aspirin!

FreshBooks is easy, straightforward, no frills, and does what you want it to do. You need to get on with your day and FreshBooks allows you to do that. It's a simplistic, powerful and efficient tool.

Every time I call or email I get back a concise response that answers my question. At QuickBooks I get an auto-response acknowledging my inquiry and then four days later get a canned response. I tell my sales people, "You want to know how to do customer service? Look at FreshBooks."

10. How much time where you spending each month invoicing before FreshBooks?
About 10-15 hours a month, and that was when we didn't have as many customers as we do now.

11. How much time are you spending each month invoicing after FreshBooks?
Five hours maximum.

12. What are the key benefits of FreshBooks?
Online access; recurring billing gets our invoicing work done automatically; reports keeps track of who's not paying; and it keeps track of our money.

13. What do your clients say?
One of our clients we recently switched over has said they love it. They get an invoice instantly, can pay online, can print the invoice, and it's easy to read. They also like the fact that it doesn't get lost - there is a lot of paper in their office and previously, when an invoice was sent to them, it could easily get misplaced. Now they can go back and print it again if necessary.

14. What words would you use to describe FreshBooks?
Painless. Accessible. The most efficient billing software. You could put any talking monkey in front of it and they'd be able to use it. If you can't learn it in 10 minutes you're too stupid to do billing anyway.

Automated, efficient brilliance.

15. If you were to recommend FreshBooks to someone else, what would you say?
I've been using the service for 3 years and have never had a problem with it, never once has it crashed. Every time I have a question or suggestion, someone - an actual person - gets back to me. And you can't beat the price. I would also give them a link to the FreshBooks site.

16. Any comments on the "view invoice status" feature?
It's great, we can see when the invoice been viewed and know that it's going to get processed.

17. Is having the invoice as a link better than having it as an attachment? If yes, why?
Yes. You can tell when someone has viewed the invoice when it's a link, plus we're not filling up someone's inbox with an attachment. Also, even though no one's ever used it and we've never double billed, I like the ability for a client to "Dispute" an invoice in case of accidental double billing, etc.

18. What improvements would you like to see to FreshBooks?
A project management capability. This would have the list of jobs and all of the tasks assigned to the job. The customer could log in and see progress (e.g. web site design: 50% complete). Account managers could log in, see progress, and assign tasks. Emails could be sent to account managers and clients when work has been done on tasks.

A desktop version for people who don't want to do their billing online.

19. What incentives to use FreshBooks would be of interest to other people in your industry/community?
I think you can't get better than a free trial. Perhaps promote more the fact that FreshBooks has telephone support, you're one of the few companies that offer this.

20. Is there anything else you would like to tell us, comment or give feedback on?
Your programmers aren't getting paid enough. Every time I turn around there's a new release. And there's actually meat - new features - with each release. I feel like I'm part of the company, and I know there's a happy, warm voice at the end of the phone.

When you talk to your clients ask them what they need that is specific to their industry: fields or buttons, for example, which could be tailored to their industry.

I love FreshBooks, it's so accessible to our staff and clients. I've never seen a finer piece of software.

Thanks Ryan!