Devart ODBC Driver for FreshBooks: Invoices, Clients and Line Items in Excel, Crystal Reports and SQL
Devart ODBC Driver for FreshBooks is a $109.95-a-year Windows driver that lets accountants and small-business owners query FreshBooks invoices, invoice lines and clients with SQL from Excel, Crystal Reports, Power BI, Access or SQL Server. It supports both the current FreshBooks and FreshBooks Classic, and it can also write changes back.
FreshBooks' own reports cover the usual profit-and-loss and aging questions. When you need a report it doesn't offer, say, billed hours versus billed items per client per quarter, you either export and rebuild it every time or connect a reporting tool directly. This driver is the direct route.
Quick facts
- Version: 2.11.0 from October 16, 2026; the driver has been on sale since July 2016
- Developer: Devart
- System: Windows Vista or later, 32-bit and 64-bit, Terminal Server included, .NET Framework 4.5
- FreshBooks versions: New (company name and access token from a web login) and Classic (server URL and authentication token)
- SQL support: SELECT with joins, subqueries, UNION and aggregates; INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE
- Price: $109.95 a year for Desktop for Windows; $219.95 perpetual
- Trial: 30 days, no feature limits
- Refunds: available within 30 days of purchase only for technical problems Devart can't resolve
- What we checked: on November 14, 2026, the order page charged $109.95 for ODBC Driver for FreshBooks with the default Desktop for Windows edition on a 1-year subscription that renews yearly, and the download page listed version 2.11.0 as a 32.34 MB EXE and 36.29 MB MSI. We didn't connect it to a FreshBooks account
Before you buy
This is accounting data, and the driver can change it. Give report writers a read-only habit, test UPDATE and DELETE statements on a test company first, and remember that edits land in FreshBooks immediately. Pick the right Version setting too: accounts opened on today's FreshBooks use "New", and only old accounts still on FreshBooks Classic use "Classic". The driver runs only on Windows.
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Overview
Devart ODBC Driver for FreshBooks is one of Devart's oldest cloud drivers. Its first release came in July 2016, it added support for the rebuilt FreshBooks in February 2018, and has continued with fixes ever since, including a 2025 fix for reading certain custom fields and a metadata cache in version 2.8.0 (March 2024) that speeds up the table lists BI tools request on every connect.
Devart's own example on the product page shows the kind of question it answers: a single query that pulls the name, description, unit cost and quantity from the InvoiceLine table, joins it to Invoice and to Client (filtered by the client's language), and UNIONs item lines with time lines before sorting. That's a report you'd struggle to build from FreshBooks' screens alone.
Features
Sign-in for both FreshBooks generations
Devart ODBC Driver for FreshBooks has a Version switch. For current FreshBooks accounts you type your company name and click Request Access Token; a web login window asks for your FreshBooks email and password and fills in the token. For FreshBooks Classic, you paste the authentication token from My Account, FreshBooks API, plus your account's API server address. Since 2020 the web login opens in your default browser rather than Internet Explorer.
Real SQL on accounting tables
Devart ODBC Driver for FreshBooks runs SQL-92 SELECT statements, with nested subqueries, LEFT JOINs, UNION, WHERE filters, grouping and ORDER BY. Since October 2017 it has also handled ODBC escape macros for outer joins, dates and scalar functions, which matters for tools such as Crystal Reports and Microsoft Query that generate them.
Tuned for report writers
Devart ODBC Driver for FreshBooks has release-note fixes for Crystal Reports, Power Pivot, Excel 64-bit, Microsoft Access date fields, SAS JMP, RStudio, FileMaker, Tableau and SQL Server linked servers. A ReturnForeignKeys option, off by default, skips the slow foreign-key lookups many tools request but don't use.
Write-back with batching
Devart ODBC Driver for FreshBooks accepts INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE and can combine statements into batches, so client records or invoice details can be maintained from Access forms or SQL scripts.
Benefits
- Custom reports without re-exporting. Build the report once in Excel or Crystal Reports and refresh it each month.
- Accounting next to operations. Join FreshBooks invoices with project, CRM or inventory data in Power BI or SQL Server.
- Long track record. Ten years of fixes for specific reporting tools means fewer surprises with older software.
Real-World Uses
- Revenue by client and line type. A bookkeeper splits billed time from billed items per client in one Excel query, refreshed at month-end.
- Branded statements in Crystal Reports. An accounting firm designs its own client statements from FreshBooks invoice tables.
- Agency profitability dashboard. A studio joins FreshBooks invoices with time-tracking data in Power BI.
- Year-end archive. An IT admin copies invoices into SQL Server through a linked server so finance can query history offline.
Who It's For, and Who Should Skip It
Bookkeepers, accountants and finance staff who already report in Excel, Crystal Reports, Power BI or Access, and developers who maintain Windows business software that needs FreshBooks data, will get the most from it.
Freelancers who live in FreshBooks' built-in reports don't need it, and Mac users can't run it. If you want FreshBooks data inside an Excel workbook only, Devart also sells an Excel Add-in for FreshBooks; for .NET applications there's dotConnect for FreshBooks, and for SQL Server ETL packages, SSIS components for FreshBooks.
Usage Guide
- Download the driver from Devart (sign-in required) and run the EXE, or deploy the MSI by Group Policy.
- Choose Trial evaluation, or enter an activation key from your Devart account.
- In ODBC Data Sources (matching your program's bitness), add a DSN with Devart ODBC Driver for FreshBooks.
- Set Version to New, type your company name and click Request Access Token, then log in to FreshBooks in the window that opens. (Classic accounts: enter the server URL and authentication token instead.)
- Tick Save Token if you want to reuse it, test the connection, and click OK.
- Connect from Excel (Get Data, From ODBC), Crystal Reports or any ODBC tool, and start with the Invoice, InvoiceLine and Client tables.
Where it falls short
- Custom fields have been fiddly. Devart had to fix reading of certain custom fields as late as April 2025, so check yours in the trial.
- API speed. Reports over years of invoices go through FreshBooks' API page by page and take longer than a local database.
- No table reference online. Devart's documentation explains connection settings but doesn't publish the full FreshBooks table and column list.
- Windows only, and the subscription license must be online to activate and re-check.
What Users Say
User reviews of the FreshBooks driver itself haven't been published. Devart's ODBC drivers are reviewed as one line on the big review sites.
Devart ODBC Drivers on Capterra and G2
The family scores 4.7 of 5 on Capterra across 26 reviews and 4.6 of 5 on G2 across 18. Ease of installation, speed and a quick path from install to a working DSN are the common praise. Cost is the most frequent complaint, along with patchy explanations of credential settings in the documentation.
Devart customer story (another driver)
Chemsalve, on ODBC Driver for Firebird: "With ODBC Driver for Firebird, we always have our data available in reports."
Comparisons
ODBC driver vs. Excel Add-in for FreshBooks
The Excel Add-in works only inside Excel. The ODBC driver reaches every ODBC program: Crystal Reports, Access, Power BI, SQL Server and your own code. Choose the driver when more than one tool needs the data.
FreshBooks driver vs. QuickBooks Online and Zoho Books drivers
Devart sells matching drivers for other accounting services. If a firm keeps clients on several platforms, the ODBC Universal Bundle covers all of them, plus 80-odd other sources, in one license.
Editions and Pricing
Edition and license type are chosen on the single order page.
| Edition | Use | Yearly subscription | Perpetual |
|---|
| Desktop for Windows | A single workstation and user | $109.95 | $219.95 |
| Server Standard for Windows | Report or web server up to 6 cores | $799.95 | $1,599.95 |
| Server Enterprise / Site / OEM | Larger servers, whole company, redistribution | Quote | Quote |
The Buy Now button orders the default Desktop for Windows edition on a one-year subscription at $109.95; other editions and two- or three-year terms are selected on the order page. Volume discounts start at 5 copies.
FAQs
Does Devart ODBC Driver for FreshBooks work with FreshBooks Classic?
Yes. Devart ODBC Driver for FreshBooks has a Version setting with New (the default) and Classic; Classic accounts connect with their API server URL and the authentication token from My Account, FreshBooks API.
Can I use the FreshBooks ODBC driver with Crystal Reports?
Yes. Crystal Reports is on Devart's list of tested tools for the FreshBooks driver, and version 2.6.0 included a compatibility fix for it. Use the 32-bit DSN with 32-bit Crystal Reports.
Can a bookkeeper serve several FreshBooks clients with one license?
The FreshBooks driver's Desktop license is defined by one computer and one user at a time, and each FreshBooks business gets its own DSN with its own token. Running it for many staff on a shared server needs a Server license.
What is Devart's refund policy for the FreshBooks driver?
Devart refunds the FreshBooks driver in full within 30 days of purchase only if a technical problem keeps it from working and support can't fix it. There's no change-of-mind refund, so evaluate it with the 30-day trial.
Does the FreshBooks ODBC driver keep working if I stop paying?
Only with a perpetual license. A subscription license of the FreshBooks driver is valid for the paid term only; a perpetual license keeps working with its version, and renewing its update subscription late costs 20% extra after 3 months and 60% after 12.
System Requirements
- Windows Vista or newer, 32-bit or 64-bit, including Terminal Server
- .NET Framework 4.5 or newer
- A FreshBooks account (New or Classic) and HTTPS access, direct or through a proxy
- Administrator rights to install
Conclusion
Devart ODBC Driver for FreshBooks is a mature, well-maintained way to report on FreshBooks in Excel, Crystal Reports, Power BI or SQL Server, and at $109.95 a year it's good value for any bookkeeper who rebuilds the same custom report every month. The reason to hesitate is that it's Windows only and writes to live accounting data, so it needs a careful user. Try it for 30 days on a test company and check your custom fields come through.
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