What is the best invoicing software for consultants in 2026?
The one that turns tracked hours into an invoice line, bills expenses back without retyping, and doesn't charge you for clients you don't have yet.
Consultants bill in three ways: by the hour, by the project, or on a monthly retainer. Most invoicing roundups ignore that. They list prices without saying which plan actually adds time tracking, or how many clients you can bill before the price jumps.
Short answer: FreshBooks for a solo consultant who bills a handful of clients, QuickBooks Online if your accountant already uses it, Harvest for a firm that sells hours across a team. Zoho Invoice is the free option that still tracks time.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored placement is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
The best invoicing software by how you bill
Unlimited time and expenses from $23/mo
Your accountant is on QuickBooksTime on invoices from Essentials, $85/mo
Firm that sells hoursBest timer, free for one seat
Clients abroadProjects and multi-currency on Established
Free with time tracking500 invoices a year at $0
Proposal to paymentProposal, contract and invoice in one flow
6 invoicing tools for consultants compared
The "time to invoice" column tells you the cheapest plan where tracked hours become invoice lines. That's the number to compare, not the entry price.
| Best for | Time to invoice | Free plan | Team size | Visit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FreshBooks | Best for solo consultants | Every plan | 4.1/5 | $23/mo (5 billable clients) | — | Solo consultant | Visit → |
| 2 | QuickBooks Online | Best with an accountant | Essentials, $85/mo | 4.2/5 | Simple Start $38/mo | ✓ | Consultant with a bookkeeper | Visit → |
| 3 | Harvest | Best time tracker | Every plan, free included | 3.7/5 | $0 (1 seat); Teams $9/seat yearly | ✓ | Consulting team | Visit → |
| 4 | Xero | Best for clients abroad | Established, $97/mo | 4.1/5 | Early $27/mo (20 invoices) | — | Firm with foreign clients | Visit → |
| 5 | Zoho Invoice | Best free | Free plan, 3 projects | 4.0/5 | $0 (500 invoices a year) | ✓ | Starting consultant | Visit → |
| 6 | Bonsai | Best proposal to payment | Essentials and up | 3.9/5 | Essentials $19/mo yearly | — | Consultant who sells projects | Visit → |
Prices read on each vendor's official pricing page in 2026, in USD, regular price without launch discounts. Taxes excluded.
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
How we compared and scored
Four of the top five results for "invoicing software for consultants" are written by a vendor that ranks itself near the top. None of them tells you which plan adds time tracking or what happens when you pass five clients. We compared official pricing pages, help docs and user reviews tool by tool, without opening accounts.
Value weighs the most because the feature consultants need (time on invoices, retainers, project profitability) often sits one or two tiers above the advertised price.
- Ease of useA month-end invoice with hours and expenses in ten minutes.25 %
- Value for moneyPrice of the tier that actually includes time and retainers.30 %
- Features and depthHourly, retainer, project, billable expenses, deposits.20 %
- Customer support and assistanceChannels on the plan you pay for, user feedback.15 %
- Available integrationsPayments, accounting, calendars and CRMs.10 %
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored placement is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
FreshBooks
FreshBooks gives every plan unlimited time tracking and unlimited expenses. Track a call, log a flight, and both land on the next invoice. For a consultant, that's the core loop, and FreshBooks does it with the least friction in this list.
The catch is the client cap. Lite bills 5 clients, Plus 50. Retainers, the monthly fee many consultants live on, start on Plus at $43. If you bill a sixth client in the month, you're upgrading.
- Unlimited time and expenses on every plan
- Retainers from Plus
- 30-day trial, no card
- ✓The easiest hours-to-invoice flow
- ✓Billable expenses built in
- ✓Best support score in our grid
- ✗Lite caps you at 5 billable clients
- ✗Retainers need Plus at $43
- ✗Team members cost $11 each
Start on Lite if you have five clients or fewer. Budget for Plus the day you sign a retainer.
QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online is accounting first. Its invoices are solid, and its integrations list is the longest here. The reason to pick it is your accountant: if they work in QuickBooks, every invoice is already reconciled.
Read the tiers carefully. Adding time to invoices starts at Essentials, $85 a month. Project profitability, which tells you whether a fixed-fee engagement made money, starts at Plus, $140. That's the most expensive time tracking in this ranking.
- Time on invoices from Essentials
- Project profitability on Plus
- Largest app ecosystem
- ✓Your accountant probably knows it
- ✓Full accounting, not just invoicing
- ✓Free tier to start
- ✗Time tracking starts at $85/mo
- ✗Project profitability at $140/mo
- ✗Overkill for a solo consultant who only invoices
Pick it for your accountant, not for the invoices. If you only need to bill hours, FreshBooks does it for a quarter of the price.
Harvest
Harvest is the timer consultants keep coming back to. The free plan covers one seat and two projects, with invoicing and expenses included. Teams adds QuickBooks, Xero and Stripe integrations.
Users praise how fast the timer is and how clear project budgets look. They also say invoicing feels basic next to dedicated tools, and some report sync bugs. Most firms use Harvest for time and push invoices into QuickBooks or Xero.
- Fastest timer in this list
- Budgets and profitability per project
- Free for one seat
- ✓Loved by consulting teams
- ✓30-day trial, no card
- ✓Mac and iOS apps
- ✗Invoicing is basic
- ✗Price is per seat
- ✗Free plan stops at 2 projects
The right pick when your problem is knowing where the hours went. Pair it with QuickBooks or Xero for the books.
Xero
Xero is accounting software with clean invoicing and a full ledger behind it. For consultants with clients abroad, the draw is multi-currency, which comes with the Established plan alongside projects and time tracking.
Early caps you at 20 invoices. Growing removes the cap but not projects. So a consultant who wants time and currencies pays $97 a month. Support gets the most complaints in user reviews.
- Multi-currency on Established
- Projects and time tracking
- Quotes on every plan
- ✓Strong for foreign clients
- ✓Clean invoice design
- ✓Wide integration list
- ✗Projects only on the $97 plan
- ✗Early caps you at 20 invoices
- ✗Support is the weak spot
Worth $97 if you bill in euros and pounds every month. Otherwise FreshBooks covers you for less.
Zoho Invoice
Zoho Invoice is free, and it's not a crippled free. You get up to 500 invoices a year, two users and three projects with time tracking. For a new consultant, that's enough for the first year.
The limits are the three projects and the "Powered by Zoho Invoice" mention on documents. Support is the weakest point in user reviews.
- Free with time tracking
- 500 invoices a year
- 2 users included
- ✓Real features at $0
- ✓Part of the Zoho suite if you grow
- ✓Two organizations on the free plan
- ✗3 projects only
- ✗Zoho branding on documents
- ✗Support rated below average
The best way to start for free. Move to FreshBooks once you juggle more than three projects.
Bonsai
Bonsai chains the sale: a proposal, a contract the client signs, then invoices and payment. For a consultant who sells defined engagements, that's one tool instead of three.
Watch the tiers. Basic at $9 has no invoicing. Invoices start on Essentials at $19 a month billed yearly. The trial is only 7 days.
- Proposal, contract, invoice in one flow
- Contract templates
- 7-day trial
- ✓Best sales-to-invoice path
- ✓Contracts built in
- ✓Clear client portal
- ✗No invoicing on Basic
- ✗Short 7-day trial
- ✗Fewer integrations
Pick it when signing the work is your bottleneck, not tracking it.
The right tool for your situation
Three questions settle it: how you bill, how many clients you invoice each month, and who keeps your books.
You bill hourly, solo
You live on retainers
You run a small firm
Your accountant decides
You bill clients abroad
You sell fixed projects
- The cheapest plan with time on invoices, not the entry price
- Client caps per plan
- Retainers or recurring invoices
- Billable expenses linked to a client
- Deposits on fixed-fee projects
- A field for the client's purchase order number
Six settings that get you paid faster
One hour of setup, once. These come from vendor docs and consultants' feedback.
Ask for the PO number before you start
Enterprise clientsLarge clients' accounts payable teams reject invoices without their purchase order number. Store it on the client record the day you sign.
- Where
- Client record or invoice reference
Set payment terms on every invoice
Cash flowWrite the due date and the late fee policy you agreed in the contract. Automated reminders work better when the terms are on the invoice they chase.
- Reminders
- FreshBooks, QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho Invoice
Mark expenses billable as you log them
MarginA flight logged as billable and tagged to a client ends up on the next invoice. Logged later, it often gets forgotten. FreshBooks includes unlimited expenses on every plan.
- Unlimited expenses
- FreshBooks, all plans
Invoice retainers in advance
RecurringBill the retainer on the first of the month for the month ahead, then add overage hours to the next invoice. FreshBooks Plus handles retainers natively.
- Retainers
- FreshBooks Plus, $43/mo
Take a deposit on fixed fees
ProjectsA three-month project with no deposit means three months of unpaid work. Ask for 30% at signature and invoice the balance against it.
- Ask
- 30% at signature
Keep one rate per client
SetupSet the hourly rate on the client or project, not on each time entry. When you raise your rate, change it once and every new hour follows.
- Where
- Project or client settings
Your tool is picked, what's next
These pages go further on a related question.
All profiles, small businesses included.
You freelance outside consultingInvoicing for freelancersFree plans, client caps, card fees.
You track hours across a teamThe best timesheet softwareTimers, approvals, exports.
You bill back lots of expensesExpense management softwareReceipts, mileage, approvals.
You need a business accountThe best business banksAccounts, cards and real fees.
You want the books tooAccounting for freelancersTaxes, reports, reconciliation.
Invoicing software for consultants · FAQ
What should a consultant include on an invoice?
Your name and business details, the client's details, an invoice number, the date, the service period, each line with hours or days times your rate, expenses on separate lines, the total, payment terms and how to pay. Add the client's purchase order number if they issued one: many enterprise clients won't pay without it.Is there free invoicing software for consultants?
Yes. Zoho Invoice is free up to 500 invoices a year with three projects and time tracking. Harvest is free for one seat and two projects, invoicing included. QuickBooks has a free tier, but time on invoices starts at Essentials, $85 a month.Should I bill hourly or on retainer?
Retainers smooth your cash flow; hourly protects you on open-ended work. Many consultants mix both: a monthly retainer for a set number of hours, then overage billed hourly. Your tool needs retainers and time tracking on the same plan, like FreshBooks Plus.Can I mark up billable expenses?
You can if your contract says so. Most consultants bill expenses at cost and state it in the engagement letter, which avoids disputes. Keep receipts attached to each expense in your invoicing tool.FreshBooks or QuickBooks for a consultant?
FreshBooks if you mostly need to invoice hours and expenses: time tracking is in every plan from $23. QuickBooks if your accountant works in it: you get full accounting, but time on invoices starts at $85 a month.Is Harvest enough to invoice clients?
For simple invoices, yes, on every plan including free. Users find its invoicing basic next to dedicated tools, so firms often track time in Harvest and invoice from QuickBooks or Xero, which Harvest Teams connects to.How do I invoice a client in another currency?
Use a tool with multi-currency and agree on the currency in the contract. Xero includes multi-currency on its Established plan. Check whether your client needs your tax ID or theirs on the invoice before you send it.