FreeAgent

"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!

"Highly recommended"

Pros: I got access to this software FREE of charge through banking with RBS. Having previously used Xero for our book-keeping, I found it had the same great functionality but a much slicker design. It's simplicity and ease of use is the best thing going for it.

Cons: Had some issues at the beginning with connecting our bank feeds but this was sorted out quickly by the team at FreeAgent - can't think of any real faults with the software.

"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!!!

"Great for small business that want their weekend back"

Comments: I've gone from from a struggle one man band that worked all day and did the paperwork each evening, to having time to spend with the family, and being able to see what I ned to pay to HMRC and when, and I can now see that sending out my invoices in good time, means that the customers are paying me, so the stress levels have gone down so much.

Pros: I no longer have to nominate which computer is the one that the accounts is on.
I can open a web browser on the PC in my home office and enter my hours, mileage, upload photos of receipts, automatially let it reconcile the bank and credit card statements, and let it get on with doing the calcuations.
I no longer have to set aside a weekend each month for doing invoices and expenses.
or the last weekend of each quarter for doing the VAT return
or various days of the last month of each financial year for doing the annual return.

Cons: Now that the company has made enough money to be able to purchase three cars, it would be nice if the mileage drop down had options for company owned vehicles and the AFR mileage rates, but it only has AMAP rates for personally owned bike, motorcycle or car.

"Overall"

Pros: Overall experience is good. It allows to better organised both my bookeeping but as well my employee work due to its usability. Love as well the API integration that allow me to create custom analysis.

Cons: Too much focus on UK client. We are an Italian company and some of the functionality available for UK are really complex to achieve for us and required workaround.
Billing only in 1 currency is crazy, why do you have invoice in multiple currency but billing cannot be done? It should be a simple addition to make but it has been year that people asked for this and still not implementation.
Country specific payroll. Although I am aware it will be impossible to enable payroll for every country out of the box why don't allow customer to customized the payroll functionality to meet payroll requirements or add important deadline for taxing purpose.
Even the export functionality can be improve and should be added to every areas from timesheet to bill, from invoice to expense with filter that allow you to specify the data you want to export.
VAT calculation for Intrastat - due to the internationalisation of business should be easier to export only bill and invoice that are related to country outside your normal business area.
What about language package? Again if not possibile provide an LDK that allow client to customize the interface.