How to Add Your RSS Feed to a Feed Reader
New in version 3.4 is the ability for you to receive your recent activity updates in an RSS feed. For those new to the world of RSS, here is a little guide to adding your RSS feed to a feed reader. In the example below I will be using a feed reader recommended by FreshBooks called Feedreader.
1. From within your FreshBooks account, browse to the “Home” tab and click on the feed icon link.
2. Right click on the your RSS feed URL and select “Copy Shortcut”.
3. In your RSS reader select a button or link that allows you to add a new feed. When asked for the URL to your feed, paste in your FreshBooks feed URL. In Feedreader, simply click on the “New” feed button and paste the URL in the address field.
4. When adding a secure feed you will need to specify a username and password or login credentials. Enter your FreshBooks login information. In Feedreader you will receive a popup like the one below.
Simple as that! Now you should receive recent activity updates in your RSS reader. Please note that only an RSS reader that supports RSS authentication is supported.
has sent, it would stand taller than the 
9:56 am
Just an FYI that this doesn’t appear to work with either Netvibes or Bloglines, both of which supported authentication to some degree. Not a huge deal to me since the Freshbooks start page lists all of the recent activity.
Wes
10:21 am
Wes – I use Bloglines, and you are right, they don’t support authenticifation of this kind. It’s a total drag if you ask me.
Inside your account we have listed some feed readers that do support password protected http authentification – some are web based if you want a service like Bloglines.
1:54 pm
We use netvibes. It works fine with basecamp and its authentication but not with freshbooks
When can we expect support for that?
2:41 pm
We’re looking into NetVibes authentification right now…we can’t even get it to prompt user for username and password. Seems odd frankly, especially since you say Basecamp works. It might be because our feed runs over SSL. Does your Basecamp feed run over SSL? Many don’t. We have an email into their support team and we’ll post what we learn here.
NOTE: we just found some threads on the Basecamp forum stating that people can’t get NetVibes to work…maybe you have a special account?
Again..we’ll let you know what we find.
NOTE2: We just had someone try to add a BaseCamp feed…it was an SSL feed. It did not work either. Like the FreshBooks feed, no prompt for username or password, it just says “Looks like this feed is not valid or currently not responding”.
8:03 am
Maybe basecamp is working because it was previously on non ssl and we recently moved to ssl.
I am using this url for the feed:
http://user@account.clientsection.com/feed/recent_items_rss
Note: user and account name been changed.
When I added it first, it asked me for username and passwords and I entered them. Since then no problems at all.
8:07 am
Tried with https and without same error “Looks like this feed is not valid or currently not responding”.
Lets hope netvibes resolves it soon.
5:09 pm
[...] If you haven’t subscribed to your FreshBooks system’s RSS feed, then you might be missing out on a lot. If you ever want to be notified of your accounts activities in real time, then RSS is your answer. This will also allow you to keep an independent permanent record of your account activities as well. I wrote an introductory post on RSS some time ago, so take a look if you aren’t too familiar with RSS. [...]
9:05 am
Feedbuster also should be added to the list of non-working feed readers
2:40 pm
Google Reader is a no-show as well.
12:35 pm
Note this exchange in the Freshbooks Forum:
http://forum.freshbooks.com/viewtopic.php?id=1179
Apparently the non-secure feedreaders simply will not work with the RSS feed from your account. BUMMER.
Freshbooks, can you PLEASE get email notification of payments going asap!?!
1:04 pm
Authentication is not necessary. Just use a secret URL, like Google does for Calendar RSS. It is no more or less secure than a password.
4:46 am
FYI: Doesn’t appear to work with Lotus Notes (v8). I can force the issue with “Subscribe … using” applet, which causes Notes to merely render the feed XML code.
12:31 am
Has anyone gotten the RSS to work in Viigo for blackberry?
2:28 pm
I would like to see it work this viigo for blackberry also.
5:09 pm
I am using Apple Mail and it asks for authentication but then does nothing once submitted.
I have double and triple checked everything and cannot figure it out…
Any thoughts?
1:26 pm
I use Mail myself, and I’ve noticed its functionality is a little busted in this respect.
I find the way to do it is to open the RSS link in Safari first, then provide the authentication and save it to your keychain.
Then, add the RSS feed in Mail; it will use the Keychain entry from Safari to access the feed, and all will be well.
4:31 pm
thank you very much
http://www.egpigeon.com/try/modules/newbb_plus/cache/forum.xml
1:17 pm
Does this Rss work with Outlook 2007? I cant seem to get it to work.
cheers
stu
2:22 pm
Please support RSS Feeds for Viigo!!!!!
4:01 pm
Helow i have some problem. I can’t find my Rss link on my blog. Is here any one who know how can i find it.
11:01 am
FWIW, I use Mozilla Thundebird’s RSS support. It works for this feed without any problems.
9:02 pm
This feed only show one line in Safari on Mac OS and when I subscribe in Mail I just get the one line as well. Is there something wrong with it or does it just show the last update?
Other RSS feeds work fine and list multiple items as they are added to the feed. Thi
11:02 pm
Google rss reader is a good software
11:45 am
Google Reader support would be awesome, so would support for all RSS readers… Why not do this and save yourselves headaches?
Just like Google does, just use a “secret” RSS URL for each freshbook account!
A hacker that wants to view a freshbooks CURRENT account RSS:
KNOWS the RSS URL
KNOWS common passwords
Has a FAIR chance of doing it
A hacker that wants to view a secret RSS url:
Has NO IDEA what the secret URL is, which could be even 40+ characters of random URL, making his chance of success almost infinitely small.
9:35 am
Another vote for the secret URL so I can get this in Google Reader
8:14 pm
Another vote for Google Reader please
9:21 am
Does anyone know of an RSS reader for Android that will support this feed with it’s authentication method?
5:08 pm
Can we an option somewhere in the settings to enable a low security version of the feed with encrypted URL, so it can work virtually in any RSS reader ?
I believe it’s up to us to decide if we want to be paranoid or not
2:25 am
Another vote for Google-style secret RSS URL. Google Reader user.
7:39 am
Can we expect Google Reader any time?
11:38 am
Also would like this to work in Google Reader.
10:57 am
A vote for getting this to work in Apple Mail, please.
12:44 am
Another vote for support for Google Reader please.
7:24 pm
I can also use the RSS reader within Mozilla Thunderbird with no problems. I will post instructions on my website soon for those who may need help.
8:03 pm
I’d really like for this to work, but it’s not working with my Google Reader. It doesn’t prompt for my user name and password.
7:55 pm
This feature would be most helpful. Anything new on a fix?
3:00 pm
I’m pretty surprised that there is no way to make this work in Google Reader so far. GReader is by far the most popular feed reader out there…
7:17 am
Actually, kind of silly you need to authenticate the feed. The URL is private to you only so you should be able to choose if you want it password protected or not.
If you can choose authentication, problem solved. It will work in all rss readers.
I’m trying to add it to Apple Mail’s rss feed thing (which asks for id/pass) and it’s not working.
1:58 am
Win7 desktop gadget: Works.
5:45 am
You can subscribe to an authenticated RSS feed in Google Reader (or other reader which does not support authentication) using a service like http://freemyfeed.com/.
7:32 pm
Another vote for Google-style secret RSS URL.
12:56 am
I vote for secret RSS URL as well, but only because it is MORE secure than configuring RSS software with the keys to my entire account.
Consider this; I want to load the feed into an RSS app on my Android phone so I can keep an eye on things, then someone pokes around in my phone and finds my RSS feed configuration, complete with my full account information they could easily use to access my entire invoicing system. It’s backwards if you ask me.
99% of all breeches will come from attacks directed at users and user computers and user software, not directly at FreshBooks. So why configure computers and software to store critical account names in their configuration? I mean, RSS readers aren’t exactly known for securely storing their data in the registry or ini files or wherever they store it.
Get my drift?
4:42 pm
I would also like to vouch for http://freemyfeed.com/
I used this to by pass the authentication required to see your freshbooks activity. This is a fantastic alternative until freshbooks upgrade or change existing setup.
Oh and freemyfeed also supports google reader!
And its free
10:19 am
Yesterday I added freshbooks to my feed reader (which is feedreader 3.14)
Two issues
1.
I really don’t know exactly what I am getting into with a feed reader, and all this talk about security confuses me and makes me nervous- especially with my business accounts!
2.
My freshbook feed only showed entries for last year up to August. There is nothing for yesterday nor any thing for this year.
Would be good if some one could explain my above issues as simply as you would to a little child.
I have deleted the freshbooks feed (the other feed is from a daily inspirational message ) until I get clarification on the subject.
3:17 pm
Hi Sandra,
It’s probably best to give in a call to our support team – 1 866 303 6061 – they’d be happy to take you through what you need to know.
5:52 pm
Thanks John. I will do that
11:04 am
Hi, just wondering if there is any forecast on making this compatible with Google Reader. Thanks!
7:39 pm
A big thanks to everyone for the https://freemyfeed.com/ recommendation. It works a treat!