Gingerbread
Home/Migrate from/FreshBooks
● Migration guide

Leaving FreshBooks?
Bring it all with you.

Clients, invoices, estimates, expenses, time entries, payments. One CSV export from FreshBooks, one upload to Gingerbread. About fifteen minutes, most of which is waiting.

Start the 14-day trialSee how it works ↓
Used by 340+ ex-FreshBooks freelancers in the last six months.
FreshBooks export
clients.csv142 KB
invoices.csv318 KB
estimates.csv64 KB
expenses.csv87 KB
time.csv210 KB
payments.csv156 KB
Gingerbread workspace
Ready
Clients124 imported
Invoices382 imported
Estimates47 imported
Expenses89 imported
Time entries2,106 imported
Payments318 imported
Why people switch

The math, honestly.

FreshBooks is fine. It's been fine for fifteen years. Here's what changes when you move.

FreshBooks
Gingerbread
Price
$21–65 / mo
Lite, Plus, Premium tiers
$49 / mo flat
Or $199 once, self-hosted
Clients included
5–50, then paid add-ons
Extra client: $11/mo
Unlimited
Always
Team members
+$11 each, every plan
Yes, even on the $65 tier
Up to 3 included
Same software for everyone
Offline work
No
Cloud-only
Yes
Local-first, syncs when back online
Speed
Cloud round-trips
Laggy on slow Wi-Fi
Instant
Reads/writes local, syncs in background
Own your data
Export when you cancel
As CSV, more or less
Always
JSON, CSV, SQL, SQLite, anytime
Self-hostable
No
Yes, $5/mo shared host
PHP + SQLite, no Docker
AI features you didn't ask for
"AI Insights" sidebar
Can't disable on newer plans
None
And never will be
What comes over

All of it, mostly cleanly.

Seven things map straight across. Two need a look. Nothing gets lost.

Clients

● Exact
Name, company, email, billing address, notes.
FB · Clients → GB · Clients

Invoices

● Exact
All statuses: draft, sent, viewed, paid, overdue.
FB · Invoices → GB · Invoices

Estimates & proposals

● Exact
Line items, statuses, associated clients.
FB · Estimates → GB · Estimates & proposals

Expenses

● Exact
Categories, receipts, dates, billable flags.
FB · Expenses → GB · Expenses

Time entries

● Exact
Per project, per task, per day. Billable or not.
FB · Time tracking → GB · Time entries

Projects

● Exact
With team assignments and budgets.
FB · Projects → GB · Projects

Recurring templates

● Review
Converted to Gingerbread's recurring invoices.
FB · Recurring → GB · Recurring templates

Payments & deposits

● Review
Stripe/card data doesn't move. Re-link payment methods.
FB · Payments → GB · Payments & deposits

Retainers

● Review
Manual review recommended — FreshBooks and Gingerbread model these differently.
FB · Retainers → GB · Retainers
The walkthrough

Five steps. Fifteen minutes.

Most of which is waiting for FreshBooks to email you the export.

1

Export from FreshBooks

5 min

In FreshBooks, go to Settings → Your Account → Account Export. Pick "Full CSV archive". You'll get an email with a download link in five to ten minutes. Save the .zip to your desktop.

FreshBooks · Account Settings
Account Export
Download a CSV archive of everything in your account.
Full archive
Invoices only
Clients only
2

Start your Gingerbread trial

2 min

Sign up at gingerbreadapp.com. No card. Pick "I'm migrating from another tool" during setup — it skips the welcome wizard and drops you straight at the import screen.

Getting started
What brings you here?
Starting fresh
Migrating from FreshBooks
Migrating from Dubsado / HoneyBook
Just poking around
3

Drag the .zip into Import

3 min

Settings → Import → FreshBooks. Drop the file. Gingerbread reads the manifest, counts what's inside, and shows you a preview before anything touches your workspace. Click Import.

Import from FreshBooks
freshbooks-export.zip
3.4 MB · 9 files · detected ✓
Clients
124
Invoices
382
Estimates
47
Expenses
89
Time entries
2,106
Payments
318
4

Review and adjust

5 min

Gingerbread flags anything that needed a judgment call: retainers, custom fields, any invoices with unusual line items. Approve, edit, or skip. You're not committed until you say so.

Review · 3 items need you
Retainer: Birch & Vine
Review
Recurring monthly, no end date. Keep as-is?
Custom field: "PO Number"
Mapped
Mapped to Gingerbread's invoice notes.
2 draft invoices with no client
Skip?
Ghosts from FreshBooks. Delete?
5

Redirect your payment links

optional

If clients have bookmarked FreshBooks invoice URLs, point them forward. We generate a redirect map you can paste into a one-line .htaccess. Or let outstanding invoices finish on FreshBooks first.

.htaccess
# Forward old FreshBooks links
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^invoice/(\d+)$
  https://billing.your
  domain.com/i/$1 [R=301]
Generated for you during import.
Things to know

What doesn't move.

Some things don't translate cleanly. We'd rather tell you upfront than surprise you on Tuesday.

Stored card details
We don't import tokenized payment methods. Clients re-enter on their next invoice.
FreshBooks Payments
If you use FreshBooks' built-in processor, finish outstanding invoices there. New ones run through Stripe.
Mobile app receipts
JPEG receipts attached via the FreshBooks phone app come over. OCR'd totals might need a second look.
Team comments & mentions
Internal chatter on projects doesn't migrate. The data does — just not the conversation around it.
Chart of accounts
Gingerbread isn't accounting software. If you pushed expenses to QuickBooks via FreshBooks, you'll re-wire that.

I'd been on FreshBooks since 2018. The import took eleven minutes, most of it waiting for their email. By Wednesday I was sending invoices out of Gingerbread and I haven't thought about it since.

Margo Lindqvist · brand designer, Helsinki
Migration FAQ

Before you ask.

No, and please don't. Keep FreshBooks active until your last outstanding invoice there is paid. Gingerbread runs alongside it fine.

Fifteen minutes.
Then you're done.

Start the trial, export from FreshBooks in another tab. By the time your coffee's cold you're working in Gingerbread.

Start the 14-day trialTalk to Bruno first
Stuck mid-migration? Email bruno@gingerbreadapp.com. He'll probably reply within the hour.