FreeAgent Reviews

Pros

Saves loads of time and is easy to use for a business owner without the need for a book keeper or accounting person. Love the bank imports and ease of reconciliations. RTI and VAT submissions submit to HMRC straight from the software. I could go on and on here, but having had business since 1999, the importance of having great finance management as a small business can't be understated!

Cons

At the moment you can scan/photograph expenses and it can complete the data entry using AI. I can't wait until this can happen for bills too!

Alternatives Considered

Sage 300cloud, QuickBooks Online and Xero

Switched From

MYOB Business

Pros

Freeagent covers all my needs. I'm no accountant or don't have a big business so maybe it's missing some features, but for me it's great. (For transparency I get it for free as I'm with Natwest). Being able to use this on my phone or desktop is great. It picks up all of my Natwest transactions and automatically categorises them into different types of expenses or income (ie advertising, Web hosting, office equipment...) and applies standard VAT and adds a description. You just have to go through the list and approve them to make sure its filled in properly (which most are correct).

Cons

Again for me it does meet all of my needs. I suppose one thing I didn't quite understand as it uses many accounting terminologies, however they do have a breakdown of what certain things mean, it just means having to read up on it.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

It was included with my business bank account. I looked at quickbooks but decided to give this a go and I've like it so far.

Pros

Having switched from Xero, which I used for a decade, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to use FreeAgent. I would say the user interface and functionality are more intuitive than Xero. The best thing is, the software is free if you have a business account with NatWest or Mettle.

Cons

It isn't able to split the actual income and fees when reconciling Stripe transactions. I use the DoubleAgent plug-in as a workaround.

Alternatives Considered

FreshBooks, Xero and Microsoft Excel

Reasons for Choosing FreeAgent

Xero was a bit expensive, whereas FreeAgent comes free with my business bank account.

Switched From

Xero

Pros

It has made invoicing and tracking payments very easy.I like the way I can create categories to record paymnents in against

Cons

Haven't found anything yet that i don't like.I am still trying to work out how I track work done on a job that i do weekly that i then invoice monthly

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

it seems much simpler and meets my needs as a small business

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.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Time and Xero

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

It was recommended by my accountant, and I've really enjoyed using it.

Pros

Very easy to use as it is an intuitive userface. Does everything I need as a small business, and can easily send information to the accountant at the end of the year.

Cons

The bank feed seems a bit tempermental at times.

Alternatives Considered

Xero

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

Came free with Natwest bank account, but now I would not change to an alternative even though I pay

Pros

It basically does all the required accounting without having to pay for an accountant to do it for you. The biggest benefit when it comes to tracking business tax and completing a tax return as it pretty much does it all for you.

Cons

Sometimes it's tricky to work out how something works and you have to go and get help from customer support, but this may be more user incompetence than anything wrong with the software!

Alternatives Considered

Xero

Reasons for Choosing FreeAgent

I was getting to the point of needing to pay for some of the options (I honestly can't remember the name of the software used previously and don't want to put the wrong one in!)

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

NatWest provided the service free and it appeared to have everything needed.

Pros

Free for users of certain banks and they get access to it all not just some features.

Cons

That the bank options when reconcilling aren't very flexible or obvious as to which category.

Alternatives Considered

Xero

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

Used it as a sole trader for client then they continued to use it when they changed to a Ltd.

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

Pros

We receive free access to FreeAgent as part of our bank account package. It makes accounting for our club so much easier than the previous excel sheets

Cons

It’s not quite as good as Xero, but it’sa fraction of the price. For a non-profit it’s a winner

Alternatives Considered

Xero

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

Ultimately cost, as a free to us package, it can’t be rivalled

Pros

We've been using Freeagent for over 5 years. In that time frame my company has grown from being a sole-trader to an incorporated limited company with employees. To say that Freeagent has helped facilitate that growth would be an understatement.

We now use Freeagent for our VAT submission (saving us £200pq accountants fees), Payroll (saving us £10pm per employee), Sending out client estimates/invoices, and what we originally bought it for... Book keeping and accounting.

We have Freeagent connected to our bank feeds, meaning we are only ever 24hrs out of date with our live bank accounts. This is now a common practice with similar software, but for us it came just at the right time.

Their team of inhouse accountancy experts is also an incredible resource that we use around once a quarter, or whenever something new crops up that we might need some help with. We still use the skill of an account for filing our end of year accounts, but we could even do this with free agent.

Cons

The one thing that has been a niggle like a tiny pebble in your shoe, or scratch on the roof of your mouth, is that you cannot send a remittance! Many people have requested this functionality but it has largely been ignored by the freeagent team. I have no idea whether it is a technical or philosophical reason they've just not engaged with it... If they did implement this functionality it would pretty much make it perfect for my companies needs.

Pros

It's just so easy to use. We run our plumbing business with this app and it integrates well with Commusoft our field service management software reducing time spent double entering information and doing tasks like invoicing. Now we invoice and complete the job in Commusoft and it pushes al the relevant information to Freeagent.

Cons

It only does CIS one way. As we have grown from a subcontractor into a contractor that now employs subcontractors we need a simple way to process CIS invoices from our SC's

Pros

This online software is relatively simple to install (settings, configuration, customization, etc.) and should not require the use of an integrator.

Cons

a bit difficult to use but it's a better software

Pros

Cheap depending on your business needs or the size of the business.
Famous for its incredible invoice templates
Shows your real-time profit position and it automatically updates your accounts.
Cloud-based, so there is no software to download or install
The interface is very friendly and lovely.

Cons

Online help, known as My Business Works Support has been known to be rather unhelpful and excessively rude
Tends to receive bugs or glitches that often take time to repair, if fixable at all
Even though this program offers Multiple Currency options, the proper support for this feature is seriously lacking
Not very quick with software updates (some have been waiting years for new and desired features)

Pros

I hate taxes and book keeping work. Using just common sense, you can immediately do 90% of tasks within FreeAgent, quickly and easily. FreeAgent staff are on standby to help you with the other 10%. It's fantastic.

Cons

Some of the features are not intuitive, and take a bit of practice to get right. The one time I have had to use a work around is the system does not have a function allowing you to remove partner drawings directly from a foreign currency PayPal account. Hardly a deal-breaker.

Pros

* Auto integration with banking API feeds
* Intelligent learning for your regular banking transactions
* Templates for sending invoices etc
* VAT & SA form integration with HMRC

Cons

* Slightly clunky UI for viewing recent expenses
* Inability to remove user's who have left the business

Pros

Great customer support- all from trained accountants in the UK that are able to walk you through any problems you might encounter when doing you tax and vat returns

Cons

None- inpeciable and consistent service at all times.

Pros

the mobile app is great for tracking time or updating expenses while on the road
Like the time reporting features to report by contact or project
Tax Timeline also really helpful for getting a quick understand of what's owed

Cons

It's difficult to make corrections on invoices, especially if an expense or time item is labeled wrong, requires deleting/creating a new invoice rather than being able to unlock the items associated with it and fix them.
Layout options for invoices are very limiting unless you create your own CSS file.
Can't change account type without contacting admin - ie I mistakenly set up as a sole trader instead of private ltd company and says I have to contact customer service to change it.

Pros

FreeAgent is a fantastic product. I have only needed to use support a couple of times and they were more unusual questions.

As a freelancer, keeping an eye on income and expenditure, billing and chasing invoices and recording expenses with my phone is really important. Add to that the easy submission of my tax return and it really is a great piece of software.

Cons

I am a little disappointed that I could not receive any of the discounts offered to new customers. (e.g. 6 months half price).

Pros

FreeAgent is one of those programs that integrates all sorts of difficult tasks into one single multi-use product. We specifically use it for payroll, invoicing and accountancy and find the integrated approach saves time and helps us quickly track accountancy errors and oversights.

Cons

The live link to the bank account statements is often glitchy and can cause a headache for those trying to account for every transaction.

Pros

FreeAgent has enabled me to free up so much of my time because i can schedule and manage invoices individually or on repeat. Also helps when preparing tax and vat returns.

Cons

The function to connect credit card accounts does not always work that well but i think we have cracked it.

Pros

FreeAgent is great in January when I can file my tax return directly to HMRC. The form is also filled with data I've entered throughout the year so self assessment time is pretty hassle free, which s unusual for a freelancer. I've just started using the mobile app and find that this is really is good too. I can take care of all the day-to-day stuff, like explaining bank transactions and entering mileage, when I'm out and about on business to stop it mounting up.

Cons

The mobile app is really great, but doesn't yet have the same in-depth functionality as the desktop app.

Pros

The software has all the features I need to run my business. It has helped me save so much time preparing self assessment filings.

Cons

The support documentation does contain some out of date screenshots and instructions.

Pros

It allows me to keep on top of the financial position of my company allowing me to make decisions with up to date knowledge. Compared to my peers who don't use the software I am saving time and money doing my accounting.

Cons

The mobile app is not as feature rich and some of the functionality that it does have does not share the same options as the web version e.g. split transactions