Can I migrate from my current tool?

Yes. CSV importer for clients, projects, and time entries — most teams migrate in an afternoon.

Is there a desktop app?

Yes — a native macOS menu bar app on every plan. Start and stop timers, add time, and see your week without opening a browser tab. It signs in with your normal Tempough login (no separate setup), stays in sync with the web in real time, and keeps working offline — entries you log without a connection sync automatically when you're back. Download it from Settings → Desktop app. A Windows version is on the way.

Can I control what different roles see?

Yes. Permission groups bundle granular keys (view team time, approve timesheets, see project health reports, etc.) and you assign them to staff. Admins can revoke the Dashboard entirely for specific roles, or set a per-user default landing page so contributors jump straight to Timesheet and payroll goes straight to Reports.

Does everyone have to use the dashboard?

No. The Dashboard is a permission — turn it off for a role and those users land directly on their chosen default view after sign-in. Individual gauges adapt too: managers see team-wide utilization, contributors see their own.

Who processes invoice payments?

Your own Stripe account. Payments settle directly to your bank — Tempough never holds funds.

Workspace-level isolation so data never crosses between accounts. Two-factor authentication with backup codes. Scoped tokens for integrations and AI access. Every change recorded in a searchable audit log with configurable retention.

Can I connect Claude, Cursor, or Zed?

Yes. Tempough exposes an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server from Partnership up. Each user mints a personal token in Profile → AI access — the AI client then acts as that user, scoped to their permissions. A contributor's AI sees their own time; a manager's AI sees the team. Per-token rate limits and sustained-abuse auto-cooldown built in.

What if I pick the wrong tier?

Move between tiers any time. Features turn on or off tenant-wide when you switch — data stays put, no migration, no downtime. Individual plans can upgrade to Partnership when a co-founder joins, and Partnership plans can move to Team when the business grows past two people.

Does it work for solo freelancers or partnerships?

Yes to both. Free covers the basics — timer, timesheet, projects, and CSV export — for one user, forever. Individual at $8/mo adds invoicing and QuickBooks export. Partnership at $15/mo adds a second seat for a partner or co-founder. All three plans support unlimited clients and projects; the difference is whether you need to send invoices and how many people are logging time.

Are there any add-on fees or metered usage charges?

No. The monthly price on this page is the full cost. Tempough does not charge per email sent, per API call, per integration, or per any other usage metric. No overage charges, no tiered add-ons, no "starter" features that get unlocked for extra money. If you ever see a surprise line item on your invoice, it's a bug — email us and we'll fix it.

How does Tempough's invoicing compare to FreshBooks?

Tempough's invoicing is Stripe-powered (you connect your own Stripe account) and supports time-based, fixed-fee, recurring, and ad-hoc invoices. FreshBooks invoicing is more bookkeeping-shaped — it's tied into their accounting general ledger. If you want time-to-invoice as the primary workflow, Tempough is more direct; if you want accounting-first invoicing, FreshBooks fits that.

Does Tempough handle sales tax?

Basic per-invoice tax rates yes. FreshBooks-grade sales tax with multi-jurisdiction rules + automatic remittance reports — no. If you sell across state lines and need automated sales tax compliance, FreshBooks (or a dedicated tool like TaxJar / Avalara) is the right product.

Will my expense + receipt history come over?

Expense entries (date, amount, category, project, person) come over via CSV import. Receipt file attachments don't round-trip cleanly through CSV — you can re-upload receipts for important entries, or keep historic receipts in FreshBooks as an archive. Most teams accept the receipt-attachment loss for older history and start fresh on new expenses.

Is it cheaper to switch?

For most service businesses, yes. FreshBooks Premium is $30/mo (US, 2026) for a solo with the full feature set. Tempough Individual is $6/mo with invoicing + QuickBooks export. If you need accounting and tax, FreshBooks may still be the right answer. If you need time + invoicing + project profitability + forecasting, Tempough Team at $11/seat is roughly 1/3 the per-seat cost with a wider feature surface.

What about FreshBooks' accountant collaboration features?

Tempough doesn't have a dedicated "invite your accountant" surface — accountants access through standard staff invites with scoped permission groups (e.g. read-only on reports). This is workable but less polished than FreshBooks' accountant portal. If your accountant uses FreshBooks specifically and you don't want to retrain them, this is a real friction point — drop us a line and we'll talk.

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FreshBooks Alternative

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FreshBooks alternative?

Most teams shopping for a FreshBooks alternative are here for one of a few specific reasons. Tempough is built around those reasons. Here's the honest case.

Why teams leave FreshBooks

We're not going to pretend FreshBooks is a bad product — it isn't. But these are the recurring patterns we hear from teams who switch.

1. FreshBooks is accounting-first; time tracking is bolted on

The product was built for bookkeeping with time tracking added later. If you primarily need to log time and bill clients (rather than do journal entries), the workflow always feels backwards — you start in the books, not in the timer.

2. No capacity planning or forecasting

FreshBooks has no concept of scheduled assignments, person-level capacity, or forecast-vs-actual variance. For an agency or consulting firm that needs to plan team availability for upcoming work, that's a missing primitive — not a feature you can configure around.

3. No project profitability / margin reports

FreshBooks tracks revenue but doesn't support per-user internal cost rates, so there's no way to compute project margin inside the tool. For service businesses where profitability is the actual question, you end up exporting to spreadsheets.

4. FreshBooks Premium is $30/mo — competitive with Tempough Team Pro

Premium at $30/mo on FreshBooks is roughly the same price as Tempough Team Pro for a 2-3 person team, but with a very different feature surface. FreshBooks gives you bookkeeping and tax tooling; Tempough gives you forecasting, cost rates, margin reports, and approvals. If you don't need the books, the swap saves money.

5. Project workflow is shallow (no phases, no milestones, no change orders)

FreshBooks projects are flat — name, client, hours budget. No phase concept, no milestone-based billing triggers, no change-order tracking. Design studios and consulting firms structurally need phases; FreshBooks can't model them.

Want the feature-by-feature comparison?

A full side-by-side matrix lives on the dedicated comparison page.

Tempough vs FreshBooks →

Common questions

Yes, but it's more work. Tempough doesn't do bookkeeping — if you stay on FreshBooks for accounting, you'll export invoices and time from Tempough as CSV and import to FreshBooks manually each month. Most teams take the migration as an opportunity to move accounting to QuickBooks Online, which Tempough exports to natively.

Already decided to move?

We wrote a step-by-step migration guide covering the Harvest export shape, the email-column gotcha, and the recommended import order.

Switching from FreshBooks → migration guide

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