FreshBooks exposes a REST API that lets you read and write clients, invoices, expenses, time entries, and payments programmatically, along with an app store of prebuilt connectors for the common pairings, Gusto for payroll, Shopify and a handful of CRMs, Zapier for simpler trigger-based automations. For anything outside that standard set, a specific CRM, a bank feed, a project tool that isn't on the app store, the API is where we build the connection FreshBooks doesn't ship on its own.
FreshBooks' app store covers the common integrations well enough for most freelancers and small service businesses: Gusto for payroll, a short list of CRMs, Shopify for e-commerce invoicing, and Zapier for lighter no-code automation between FreshBooks and a few thousand other apps.
Once a business needs something the app store doesn't cover, a specific CRM Zapier only partially supports, a bank feed with mapping logic that's specific to how the business categorizes expenses, a project tool that needs two-way sync rather than one-off triggers, the work moves to FreshBooks' own REST API.
The API covers the core objects a business actually needs to automate around: clients, invoices, expenses, time entries, and payments, authenticated through OAuth. It's a real, documented API, not a workaround, which makes most of what we build here straightforward custom development rather than anything fragile.
When Zapier's trigger-based automation isn't enough, a CRM deal closing needs to create the client and sync changes both directions, for example, we build the two-way sync directly against the API.
Payments collected through a processor FreshBooks doesn't reconcile with natively get matched back to the right invoice and marked paid, instead of someone checking two systems side by side.
A CRM, a bank feed, a project tool, an accounts-payable process: name what's still manual and we'll take a look at what the API can do about it.
If Zapier's one-directional triggers aren't enough and FreshBooks' app store doesn't list what you need, that's exactly the gap the API closes. Tell us what you're trying to connect and we'll say what a real build against it would involve. And if FreshBooks isn't where your integration gap actually is, that's fine too, n-frames builds on top of whatever invoicing or accounting platform a business runs.
Let's talk →Yes, a REST API with OAuth authentication covering clients, invoices, expenses, time entries, and payments. It's documented for developers building custom integrations, not just for FreshBooks' own app store partners.
Not through a native FreshBooks app-store connector. A Salesforce connection needs either a Zapier-based automation for simple triggers or a custom integration built against both platforms' APIs for anything that needs two-way sync.
Yes, through a listed app-store integration that syncs Shopify orders into FreshBooks as invoices, handling the standard e-commerce invoicing case without custom development.
Yes. FreshBooks is a supported Zapier app, which covers simple one-directional triggers, create an invoice when a form submits, for example. It's not built for two-way sync or anything involving custom logic, which is where API-level work takes over.