FreeAgent
What Is FreeAgent?
FreeAgent is award-winning online accounting software that’s designed specifically for small businesses and freelancers. Over 100,000 business owners and their accountants and bookkeepers use Read more FreeAgent to create invoices, monitor cashflow, file tax returns and much more. With no confusing accounting jargon and a friendly support team on hand to answer any questions, FreeAgent makes it easy to keep your business admin on track. Read lessWho Uses FreeAgent?
FreeAgent is designed especially for small businesses and freelancers. The software is primarily designed for UK-based businesses, but it does also offer a basic package for international businesses.
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Reviews of FreeAgent
Anne
Makes bookkeeping easy for a novice, and still keeps an accountant happy
Comments: Saves me a whole lot of time, and helps me keep clear records for my accountant.
Pros:
At the moment it's free through my business banking account - I tried it because of this but it would definitely be worth paying for. I am relatively new to running a business and the software is very intuitive for a novice. My accountant is pretty happy with it too, so that's a big thumbs up! It makes invoicing and payment of exenses very easy, and is great for keeping track of money coming in/out and keeping an eye on invoices due for payment. Payroll is incorporated (you can file it with HMRC through FreeAgent or let your accountant do it separately). I also like the fact that it reminds me when my corporation tax and annual accounts are due. In a few clicks I can see my profit & loss account and my trial balance as well as spend in the different (customisable) categories. Really helps me keep on top of everything. The Android app is also great for reconciling payments and recording expenses on the move. The help files are fantastic, and the clear accounting descriptions and explanations make them a great resource for a small business even if you don't use the software.
Cons:
Exporting information is a bit tricky in some areas - you can get a pdf out quite easily but an xls or csv would be more useful (you can export the entire company dataset as a csv, but not filtered individual elements such as unpaid expenses or balances within individual accounts). In some cases you can get round this by cutting and pasting, but it's a bit fiddly. Exporting all company data does not export attachments - so you need to keep a separate copy of scanned receipts etc outside FreeAgent. It is one of the more expensive cloud accounting software packages out there, but I have looked at a whole range and you can't beat the functionality, so that's what you are paying for I guess!
FreeAgent Central Response
5 years ago
Hi Anne, Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. It's great to hear about the features you like using and we really appreciate your positive feedback. I'm also pleased to say that we are currently working on improving our exporting data feature, which will be released very soon. Thanks again for using FreeAgent, we really appreciate it! All the best, The FreeAgent Team
Ben
Alternatives Considered:
Affordable accounting software; good but needs a few tweaks to be great
Comments: Clients who have made the transition can be viewed on one dashboard, and makes managing client records much easier.
Pros:
Very easy to onboard clients; Linking bank accounts through open banking is straightforward and facility works well; Simple user interface makes it easy for novices to use; Very good customer support; Can be had for free of you use and RBS group bank account including Mettle; On the go invoicing is nice for some business as well as the expense logger
Cons:
Not as flexible as some accounting packages; a few of the facilities are still a work in progress and you need to do a workaround
Caleb
Alternatives Considered:
Accounting Simple & Affordable
Comments: Great experience, would definitely recommend to small businesses and freelancers!
Pros:
It's very user friendly. It's great for freelancers or small businesses that do a lot of their own bookkeeping and accounting. It simplifies things in a way to make it easy.
Cons:
The simplified software is great for basic transactions, but sometimes it would be better to have more customisation. There are fixed categories of expenses, so you can't create a custom one.
Verified Reviewer
Painful to use, Clunky and not great
Comments:
Using the software was very awkward and restrictive. I lost confidence in it very early on.
My experience has been years of utter frustration.
Regular promises of fixes and upgrades never materialised over the last 3 years and despite sticking with it, and getting the software for free, I ended up having to opt for better software.
Customer services are quick to respond but they tend to misinterpret your issue. Their idea of helping is sending you a link to a long drawn out document that frustrates you even more than the original issue. Most of the issues can't be resolved by sympathetic customer support reps because they are hard-coded into the software as basic incapabilities.
Pros:
It's a Scottish company, albeit taken over by an anti-Scottish UK bank. Customer services are relatively quick to respond but don't often understand or resolve your issue. They do send you a Monday motivator which is useful. It's now free if you bank with RBS/Nat West, but I'd rather not bank with either and even at £0 it's not worth it. I'd rather pay for a decent software and save the cost of hours of inefficiency and extra accountancy fees later.
Cons:
It is very clunky and awkward to use. It is very expensive for what it is and definitely not even worth using for free. Several essential basic functions are missing and it is very restrictive/prescriptive forcing you to work their way or not at all. Customer services regularly have to fudge "workarounds" to fill the gaps in FreeAgent's basic functionality and often these "workarounds" make more mess than doing nothing, leaving you with more to pay your accountant to fix it. FreeAgent does several things in very unusual ways and then doesn't allow you to fix them. Payroll does post journals into your ledgers but even the best accountants can't make any sense of them. This software tries to be all things to small businesses giving tools that quite frankly are dangerous to unqualified accountants. It allows you to do your own VAT, Corporation Tax and Self Assessment wrongly, without any tax planning advice which could cost you tens of thousands of pounds in VAT/tax that isn't due, not to mention HMRC penalties etc. I know of several clients who have overpaid an absolute fortune and had seriously damaging run-ins with HMRC as a direct result of trying to DIY using this software. Buyer BEWARE!!!
FreeAgent Central Response
4 years ago
Hi there, We¿re really sorry to hear about your experience and appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback and frustrations. If there's anything we can do to help improve your experience, or any additional feedback you'd like to share with us, please contact us at @[email protected] Warm regards, The FreeAgent Team
Chris
Invaluable software
Comments: Very nervous at the start but great account manager and patient support team have been a massive help
Pros:
Easy to use. Easy to find what I want. Brilliant support
Cons:
There must be a downside but thankfully I have not found it yet
