Report Cards FAQ
The following is a list of Frequently Asked Questions about the FreshBooks report card service.
- How do I access my Report Card?
- When is the next Report Card coming out?
- Why can’t I see my industry averages?
- What about my privacy?
- What is the quality of the data and who is in my industry?
- Why are there less than 10 people in my profession?
- Why don’t the averages add up?
- What can I do to affect the accuracy of my data?
- What is next for the FreshBooks Report Card Service?
How do I access my Report Card?
When you logged into your account, you can access your Report Card from the right hand side of your “Account info” page which is available from the “Home” tab.
When is the next Report Card coming out?
Every calendar fiscal quarter (i.e. every three months) you will now receive a Report Card from FreshBooks.
Why can’t I see my industry averages?
If you can’t see your industry average there are two reasons why. First, you need to tell us your industry – if we don’t know what industry you are in, how can we tell you what your industry average is? Second, you need to have been with FreshBooks for one full fiscal quarter. Without a full quarter of data we cannot tell you anything meaningful about your business.
What about my privacy?
Your data is only contributed to the report cards if you chose to opt in. If you don’t opt in, no one will know your profession so your data can’t be used at all. Only active users are asked to participate, though less active users are able to sign up to the service from their company info page if they want to participate.
What is the quality of the data and who is in my industry?
The companies included are other FreshBooks companies who indicate they are in your profession AND who chose to be involved in the report cards AND who collect money in the same currency as you AND who sent and collected payment for more than 10 invoices last quarter. Oh yes, and over time the top and bottom 10% performers are removed from all large samples to guard against statistical outliers.
Presently there are over 80 service-based industries from engineers to web designers, PR firms to ISPs, web hosts to dog walkers. Each of these industries is fairly niche and therefore your data is relatively granular, which is a good thing. Therefore, whatever data there is will be good, even if there are less than 10 companies to compare your data against.
Why are there less than 10 people in my profession?
See “What is the quality of the data and who is in my industry?” above.
Why don’t the averages add up?
Good question. I (Mike) turned to Joe (co-founder, Chief Architect and PhD Computer Science) for the answer on this one. Here’s what he said:
The “average invoice size” for your profession is an average of an average. Here is an example:
Your Account:
“# of invoices sent this quarter”: 10
“Average invoice size”: $15
“Amount invoiced last quarter”: 10 x $15 = $150Another Account:
“# of invoices sent this quarter”: 40
“Average invoice size”: $5
“Amount invoiced last quarter”: 40 x $5 = $200Your Profession:
“# of invoices sent this quarter”: (10 + 40)/2 = 25
“Average invoice size”: ($15 + $5)/2 = $10
“Amount invoiced last quarter” = ($150+$200)/2 = $175As a result, the “Amount invoiced last quarter” for your profession equals to $175 even though 25 x $10 does not.
Hopefully that’s as clear as mud.
What can I do to affect the accuracy of my data?
Over time, and as more businesses start using FreshBooks, the data will become better and better. You can help improve the data by spreading the word about FreshBooks and getting more people on the service, or by sending us a note and telling us where we can advertise to find more businesses like yours.
What is next for the FreshBooks Report Card Service?
To learn more about where this service is heading, please read this post.
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6:34 pm
would be great if the record card was compared to median scores, rather than averages since median is less affected by exceptionally different scores.
9:46 am
Can we somehow break this down by number of employees? For instance, I’m a team of 1. When I look at “Amount invoiced last quarter” am I being compared to businesses with more than one person working? A business with 30 employees generating $5,000 in invoices isn’t necessarily better than a business with two employees generating $4,500 in invoices.
7:46 pm
Iagree with Jeff—I too am a company of one ,suplimenting my income very well. But it would be nice to have a tallly that graded us with our # of employee’s. All in all this service is great!!!
9:23 am
And the benefit of using the report card is? Other than understanding that maybe we are still not charging enough? But the benefit of putting that banner on our site?? If I have 4 leafs as opposed to 5, then it looks like I am not working hard enough – and I agree that a business of two is much different than a business of 5 or more!
Still love you all!
1:22 pm
I think the report card is an interesting concept, however, I am also a team of 1, and so who am I being compared to…? And are they all graphic designers or are they in other professions? If so, then it is not a fair comparison because the pricing structures are probably a bit different. Good idea but not sure how it helps me. I already know I’m not charging enough. One other thing: different parts of the country command different rates…I love FreshBooks but not sure about this feature.
1:48 pm
Hey Amy – thanks for sharing your thoughts. So you know you will be compared with other graphic designers. We don’t break things out by team size at this stage and this is something we’ll maybe look at in the future. That said, beyond how much you collect, there are many other valuable tidbits (ie time to collect, etc) in the report cards…so I hope you can derive some value from those numbers.
5:24 pm
Hi! Where do I get to chose a category? I filled in ‘Advertising’ and I get a blank in ‘Your profession’. Am I the only one in ‘Advertising’?
BTW- Thnx for the magazine (Entrepeneur). Nice gesture and the note inside was gold!
9:49 am
Hi Ejpeg,
Thanks for asking. One reason why you might get no information under profession after selecting “Advertising” and waiting a quarter is if you using a currency that not many people are using. Under “What is the quality of the data and who is in my industry?” above, we have very strict rules on comparing companies using the same currency. If you would like us to comment on your account specifically, feel free to shoot us a note from the feedback form available when you log out of your FreshBooks account.
1:57 am
Actually that’s a good point, I am a designer of 1 and am up against potentially bigger teams of people. Will there be something in the future to show this?