FreshBooks alternative · Invoicing for service businesses
Invoices that start from the work.
Bill a finished job, a quote or a project's tracked hours in one click. Every invoice has a Pay by card link, and late ones get a reminder by themselves.
From tracked hours to a paid invoice.
Watch the team's hours add up on a project, turn into one invoice, and get paid by card from the email.
- 1Track time on the project
- 2See what's left to bill
- 3Bill hours makes the invoice
- 4Paid by card from the email
What changes on Monday.
- 01
Before
With AloriInvoices made from the job, the quote or the tracked hours in one click
- 02
Before
With AloriTimers, hours and receipt photos added from a phone, on the job
- 03
Before
With AloriInvoices, quotes, jobs, customers and the inbox in one app
What’s in your app.
Alori starts from ready-made modules, then shapes them to the way you work. Add or remove one any time by asking.
Invoices
Pay by card on every invoice
Tasks
Projects with timers, rates and Bill hours
Employees
Team expenses with receipts
Jobs
Finished jobs billed from their quote
Time tracked where the work is.
Start a timer on a project or one of its tasks, or type your hours. Set a rate per task, person or project, and click Bill hours when it's time to invoice.
- Past calendar meetings wait to be logged as time.
- A report groups hours by project, person, client or task.
- Coming from Clockify? Import your time from its CSV.
Expenses with the receipt attached.
On the job, a technician adds an expense, picks what it was for and snaps the receipt. You approve it, and the job shows its cost and margin.
- Parts, fuel, meals, tools or other.
- Approve or decline under Timesheets.
- Job cost adds the labour and the approved expenses.
Change it by asking.
Your app isn’t frozen on day one. Write what you need, the way you’d text it. Alori makes the change and shows you before anything goes live.
- Bill the hours on the office renovation
- Start a timer on the Harbor Dental project
- Which expenses are waiting?
- Remind late invoices every 7 days
The full guide
Everything above, in detail: how it works, what it replaces and what it does not.
FreshBooks alternatives: invoices that start from the work
Short answer: If you are looking at FreshBooks alternatives, ask where your invoices come from. FreshBooks is invoicing and accounting software for small businesses and freelancers: invoices, online payments, time tracking, expenses and bookkeeping reports. Alori is the all-in-one app for service businesses: invoices are made from the quote, the job or the hours your team tracked, in the same app as your customers, schedule and inbox.
Who FreshBooks fits well
FreshBooks is a strong fit when:
- You are a freelancer or a small office that mostly needs to send invoices and get paid.
- You want expense tracking with bank connections, plus accounting reports for tax time.
- You bill in several currencies, take deposits, or send recurring invoices on a schedule.
For simple invoicing with the books behind it, FreshBooks is built for the job.
Why service owners look for alternatives
A service business bills for work it already did somewhere else:
- The invoice gets typed again. The quote, the job and the hours live in other tools, and someone copies them into the invoice.
- Field crews are not in it. Technicians finish the job, buy the part and track the time on paper or in a text.
- Customers write about their invoice. Questions arrive by text, email and phone, far from the invoice itself.
- One more subscription. Invoicing, scheduling, CRM and the inbox each cost their own monthly fee.
Side by side
| FreshBooks | Alori | |
|---|---|---|
| Main idea | Invoicing and accounting for small businesses | An all-in-one app for a service business |
| Invoices and card payments | Yes | Yes, a Pay by card link on every invoice |
| Late payment reminders | Yes | Yes, by email or text, up to 3 times |
| Time tracking | Yes | Yes, timers and hours per project, billed in one click |
| Expenses | Business expenses, bank connections | Team expenses with receipts, counted in each job's cost |
| Quotes and jobs | Estimates and projects | Quotes signed online, jobs with a schedule and crew |
| Accounting reports | Yes | No; syncs invoices with QuickBooks Online |
| Recurring invoices, other currencies | Yes | Not yet; card payments in Canadian dollars |
What Alori replaces, and what it does not
For a service business, Alori replaces the invoicing tool and the steps before it:
- Invoices from the work. Bill a finished job in one click from its quote's lines, bill something without a job, or turn a project's billable hours into one invoice.
- Card payments built in. Every invoice you email has a Pay by card link. You don't need a Stripe account, the invoice turns Paid by itself, and the money goes to your bank every day, for Stripe's card fee plus 0.5%.
- Reminders that chase for you. Late invoices get a reminder by email, text or both, every few days, 3 times at most.
- Time on projects. Start a timer or type your hours, log past meetings as time, set rates per task, person or project, then click Bill hours. Coming from Clockify? Import your time from its CSV.
- Team expenses. A technician adds an expense on the job and snaps the receipt. You approve it, and the job shows its cost and margin.
- Quotes and jobs. Customers sign quotes online, accepted quotes wait to be scheduled, and the crew sees their day.
- Customers, texts, email and calls in the same app, so a question about an invoice sits next to it.
What it does not replace: accounting. Alori has no bookkeeping, bank connections, profit and loss or tax reports, and it tracks the expenses your team pays, not every business expense. Recurring invoices, deposits, partial payments and other currencies are not there yet. If you need those, keep FreshBooks, or use QuickBooks Online with Alori's sync.
How to switch
- Describe your business. Alori builds the app with customers, quotes, jobs and invoices.
- Bring your customers. Paste a list into Ask Alori, or connect QuickBooks Online to sync them.
- Set your prices and rates. Add your services in Settings › Prices, and hourly rates on your projects.
- Send your next invoice from Alori. Keep FreshBooks for the invoices already out until they are paid.
Start on the free plan, no card needed. See pricing.
Questions
Another question? Ask it when you start.
Yes for service businesses that want invoices made from quotes, jobs and tracked hours, with card payments built in. For freelancers who mainly need invoicing plus accounting reports, FreshBooks fits better.
Yes. Track time on a project with a timer or by typing hours, set rates, then click Bill hours. Alori makes one invoice for the project's client, one line per task and person.
No. Alori sends invoices and takes card payments. For the books, connect QuickBooks Online: customers and invoices sync both ways.
Service businesses such as plumbing, HVAC and cleaning companies.