FreshBooks + CoinGate: Bitcoin invoicing across borders | payinbtc.me

FreshBooks is built around project and hourly billing, and more than 30 million people have used it across 160 or more countries. Its invoicing collects money three ways: FreshBooks Payments powered by Stripe, a separate Stripe Standard connection, and PayPal. All three move card and bank money. None of them move Bitcoin, and FreshBooks has never shipped a crypto payment option, so a client who asks to pay in Bitcoin currently gets a wallet address in an email and a rate checked by hand.

What those built-in options cost depends almost entirely on where the client sits. A standard card payment through FreshBooks Payments runs 2.9% plus $0.30. A card issued outside the United States adds a further 1.5%, and if the invoice currency differs from your account currency there is another 2% for the exchange. Rates were current as of 29 August 2026 and FreshBooks revises them, so check yours. ACH bank transfer is the cheap route at 1%, but it only works for clients in the United States, which puts most cross-border invoices back on cards.

PayInBTC.me connects FreshBooks to CoinGate so a Bitcoin option sits on the invoices you already send. CoinGate is a Lithuanian payment gateway that has processed crypto payments for merchants since the mid-2010s and added Lightning Network support in 2018, and it lets a business settle in euros, pounds, dollars, or keep the Bitcoin. Your FreshBooks workflow does not change: same templates, same invoice numbering, same client records.

Why FreshBooks and CoinGate work together for cross-border billing

Where the FreshBooks payment options run out

FreshBooks Payments is powered by Stripe and is offered to businesses based in the United States and Canada. A consultant invoicing from Lisbon, Tallinn or Cape Town is on Stripe Standard or PayPal from the first invoice, absorbing whatever those charge plus the currency spread. Even inside North America the fee stack grows with distance, because an international card adds 1.5% and a currency mismatch adds 2% on top of the 2.9% base. The pattern is consistent: the further the client sits from your bank, the more of the invoice the payment rails keep, for work that took no more effort to deliver.

CoinGate turns a Bitcoin payment into a euro, pound or dollar deposit

CoinGate's transaction fee starts at 1% on its standard plan, with no monthly or registration charge, and the business decides what lands in its account: euros, pounds, dollars, or Bitcoin. Payouts go by SEPA transfer at no fee with a 50 EUR minimum, or by SWIFT at 0.50%, and standard accounts settle on a weekly cycle. For a FreshBooks user who invoices in dollars, banks in euros and has no interest in holding Bitcoin, that combination is the practical part. The client pays in Bitcoin and the bookkeeping stays in fiat.

A regulated counterparty on the crypto side

CoinGate is authorised as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider under the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation by the Bank of Lithuania, authorisation code LB002323, alongside a payment institution authorisation, LB002324, covering transfers of electronic money tokens. The licence was granted in December 2025. For an agency whose finance contact asks who is actually handling the money, naming a MiCA-authorised provider is a shorter conversation than explaining an unlicensed gateway, and it gives an accountant something concrete to point at when the payment shows up in the ledger.

Read-only on the FreshBooks side, flat pricing on ours

PayInBTC.me connects to FreshBooks with read-only access and reads only what the payment page needs: the invoice number, the amount, and the currency. It cannot write to your books, edit an invoice, or change a client record. Bitcoin never passes through PayInBTC.me either. The payment goes from your client to CoinGate's checkout and on to the account you nominate, and we charge a flat fee in sats rather than a share of the invoice. On a project invoice worth several thousand, that structural difference is most of the argument.

How the integration works

Setup takes about five minutes and needs no crypto knowledge. Once connected, the flow runs on its own for every invoice you choose.

Connect FreshBooks and CoinGate

Sign in to PayInBTC.me and authorise the connection to your FreshBooks account, then connect CoinGate using an API key from your CoinGate merchant dashboard. The FreshBooks side is read-only, so PayInBTC.me can see invoice details but cannot change anything in your books.

Add the Bitcoin link to an invoice

A 'Pay with Bitcoin' link is placed on the FreshBooks invoices you send, next to the payment options you already offer. Your invoice template, numbering and layout stay exactly as they are, and clients who prefer to pay by card or PayPal still can.

Your client chooses to pay in Bitcoin

When the client clicks the link, PayInBTC.me reads the invoice total from FreshBooks, calculates the Bitcoin amount at the live rate, and redirects to the CoinGate checkout with a QR code and a payment window.

Payment settles through CoinGate

The client pays over the Lightning Network for near-instant settlement, or on-chain for larger amounts. The payment lands in your CoinGate account, and your settlement preference decides where it goes next: euros, pounds or dollars to your bank by SEPA or SWIFT, or Bitcoin to a wallet you control.

You get a confirmation and mark the invoice paid

PayInBTC.me emails you when the payment clears, and the transaction appears in your CoinGate dashboard with the fiat value at the time of payment. You then mark the invoice as paid in FreshBooks yourself, because the connection does not write back.

What FreshBooks users get from this pairing

A cross-border invoice stops costing more than a local one

The 1.5% international card fee and the 2% currency fee both disappear, because a Bitcoin payment is the same transaction whether the payer is in Toronto or Nairobi. There is no card network deciding what a foreign payment is worth.

Settlement in your bank's currency, without holding Bitcoin

CoinGate can convert the payment and pay out in euros, pounds or dollars, so a business that does not want Bitcoin on its balance sheet does not have to hold any.

A flat fee instead of a percentage on our side

PayInBTC.me charges 1,500 sats per invoice, or 2,500 sats a month for unlimited invoices, whatever the invoice is worth. A $500 invoice and a $15,000 invoice cost the same to put a Bitcoin option on.

No chargebacks and no dispute fees

A card payment can be reversed months after the work shipped, and FreshBooks Payments charges $15 per dispute on top of the reversal. A settled Bitcoin payment is final, which removes a category of risk that hits project-based businesses hardest.

A payment route for clients your card processor cannot reach

Some clients sit in countries where the built-in options are awkward or unavailable, and a wire arrives days later with fees at both ends. A Bitcoin link on the invoice needs no merchant account in the client's country.

Your FreshBooks setup is untouched

The integration adds a payment link and reads invoice data through a read-only connection. It does not alter your templates, your client list, or the FreshBooks Payments and PayPal options you already have switched on.

What it costs on a typical invoice

Take a $3,000 invoice, a common size for a FreshBooks user billing a project or a month of retainer work. The interesting comparison is the second row, where the client is abroad and the invoice is in a currency other than your FreshBooks account currency.

Method	Cost on a $3,000 invoice	Notes
Card payment through FreshBooks Payments, domestic client	About $87.30	2.9% plus $0.30 on a standard card, rates current as of 29 August 2026; 3.5% plus $0.30 for Amex, corporate cards and Advanced Payments
Card payment through FreshBooks Payments, client abroad	About $192.30	2.9% plus $0.30, plus 1.5% for a card issued outside the US, plus 2% when the invoice currency differs from your account currency
ACH bank transfer through FreshBooks Payments	About $30.00	1%, with caps available on Select plans, and available only for clients in the United States
Bitcoin via PayInBTC.me and CoinGate	About $31.50	CoinGate's standard plan fee of 1%, plus a flat 1,500 sats to PayInBTC.me, roughly $1.50 at recent Bitcoin prices

The row worth reading twice is the second one against the last. Collecting this invoice from a client abroad by card costs roughly six times what the same invoice costs over Bitcoin, and the ACH route that would match it on price is closed to anyone outside the United States. Note where the percentage sits: PayInBTC.me charges a flat fee in sats, and the 1% belongs to CoinGate. A business that wants no percentage at all can point the same FreshBooks connection at a self-custodial provider such as BTCPay Server instead.

Who this fits

Freelancers and consultants billing from outside North America

FreshBooks users in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America who cannot use FreshBooks Payments and are left with Stripe Standard or PayPal, paying the currency spread on every invoice they send to a client abroad.

Agencies and studios with clients in several countries

Small teams whose invoice list spans three or four currencies, where the international card fee and the exchange fee stack on top of the base rate and turn a routine collection into a percentage worth budgeting for.

Independent professionals with technology and Bitcoin clients

Developers, designers and advisors whose clients already hold Bitcoin and would rather pay from a wallet than enter card details. For them the Bitcoin link is the path of least resistance, not a novelty.

Retainer businesses that bank in euros

Firms invoicing in dollars or pounds but banking in the eurozone, who want the payment converted once and paid out by SEPA rather than passing through a card network and a bank's exchange desk.

Getting started

You need a FreshBooks account and a CoinGate merchant account. CoinGate onboards registered businesses and runs verification checks before payouts, so allow time for that step before your first invoice.

Create your CoinGate merchant account, complete verification, and set your settlement preference to euros, pounds, dollars, or Bitcoin.
Register at payinbtc.me, authorise the FreshBooks connection, then add your CoinGate API key.
Switch on the Bitcoin payment link for the invoices you want to offer it on, then send one as a test.

The first month is free, so you can run a few real invoices through the setup before deciding whether it stays. Full setup instructions are at docs.payinbtc.me.

Get started free →

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this change how I create invoices in FreshBooks?

No. You invoice in FreshBooks exactly as you do now. PayInBTC.me adds a 'Pay with Bitcoin' link to the invoices you choose and reads the invoice number, amount and currency to build the payment page. Your templates, numbering, client records and existing FreshBooks Payments or PayPal options stay as they are.

Does the payment only work over the Lightning Network?

No. CoinGate handles both. Lightning settles in seconds and suits most invoice amounts, while larger payments can go on-chain and confirm in the usual block time. Your client sees the options at checkout and pays with whichever their wallet supports.

Where does the Bitcoin end up?

In your CoinGate merchant account first, then wherever your settlement preference sends it: a bank account in euros, pounds or dollars, or a Bitcoin wallet you control. PayInBTC.me is non-custodial and never holds or touches the funds at any point. It reads your FreshBooks invoice data and hands the payment to CoinGate's checkout.

Do I need to understand Bitcoin to use this?

No. Setup takes about five minutes and the payment flow runs on its own afterwards. Your client handles the Bitcoin side when they pay. If you would rather not hold Bitcoin at all, CoinGate's conversion means the balance you withdraw can be in your own currency, and the amount that reaches your bank is the one you record in FreshBooks.

Will paid invoices be marked as paid automatically in FreshBooks?

Not yet. PayInBTC.me has read-only access to FreshBooks and does not write back to it, so you mark the invoice as paid yourself after the confirmation email arrives. Automatic reconciliation is on our roadmap and we will not claim it before it ships.

What does it cost per invoice?

PayInBTC.me charges a flat 1,500 sats per invoice on pay-per-use, or 2,500 sats per month for unlimited invoices, or 25,000 sats per year. The first month is free, with three free invoices on pay-per-use. CoinGate's own fee is separate and starts at 1% of the transaction on its standard plan, with no monthly or registration charge.

Is CoinGate regulated, and what does its MiCA licence cover?

CoinGate is authorised as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider under the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation by the Bank of Lithuania, authorisation code LB002323, with a separate payment institution authorisation, LB002324, for transfers of electronic money tokens. The licence was granted in December 2025 and covers crypto-asset services across the EU under one framework. Licences and their scope change, so read CoinGate's own terms before you plan around them.

Can I use this if my business is outside the European Union?

Yes. FreshBooks is used in 160 or more countries and the PayInBTC.me connection itself carries no geographic restriction. CoinGate states that it serves merchants in 180 or more countries, but eligibility, the settlement currencies available and the payout methods on offer depend on where your business is registered and banked. Check CoinGate's current terms for your jurisdiction before you rely on a particular payout route.

More questions? See our full FAQ →

Accept Bitcoin on FreshBooks Invoices with CoinGate