FreeAgent Reviews

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!

Pros

The billing and invoicing functionality is a key feature of the product and works very well. They send a Monday motivator email summarising your agenda for the week on Monday mornings. This includes items such as unbilled hours logged, payments to approve and bills to chase or pay. MFA is supported for increased security.

Cons

There are few things that I don't like to be honest, the only one that can be annoying is the bank feeds can sometimes be a little slow to show items. A manual refresh option for bank feed data would be useful.

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

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

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

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.

Pros

The software is easy to use, and once you understand it very powerful. It makes submitting your tax return very, very easy. I like how it can take you from being self-employed to being a LTD company. The way that it recognises some transactions and automatically categories them is great too.

Cons

There are two things I don't like about the software. There isn't an easy way to record simplified expenses. You have to add them manually, which isn't ideal for how it should work. The second is that if someone pays by card, it doesn't carry all the info from FreeAgent to Stripe. For example, email address so they get a card receipt instantly.

Pros

It's very intuitive and has amazing support and training for us and our clients. We use this software for our smaller sole traders who find it really easy to use. We do most of the setup and they basically just invoice their clients using the mobile app :)

Cons

Integrations are pretty non existent for a lot of apps. For example merging eBay or most till sales with FreeAgent can be quite difficult however this is overcome by using Zapier

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

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

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

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

FreeAgents offers a lot of features for a very low price and the customer service is good also. I have used them for 3 years and there are other programs that may be a little better, but they are also a lot more expensive.

Cons

I wish that recurring billing was a little easier and the number of integrations is good, but it does not integrate with one of my core programs which is a bummer.

Pros

Super responsive customer support
Most day to day business transactions covered well
Generally clean design

Cons

The expense handling suite is quite poor (both mobile and web)
e.g. Does not have the following
- Sortable columns in the expense listing table (e.g. list by highest value descending, or name)
- Ability to filter by type or project
- Drag and drop receipts into web interface (you have to upload through file navigation)
- Quick take photo for expense button (mobile)
- Ability to email expense emails or pics of receipts to an inbox

Timesheet feature set also rather basic

Pros

Integrates with my bank accounts and PayPal.
Does bookkeeping without me having to know how to do bookkeeping.
Great referral program!
Good support when I've needed it.

Cons

Reports and accounts set up is skewed to the UK market (my American CPA is used to seeing certain things set out differently).
Bank feeds can be slow to update.

Pros

I've been using FreeAgent for approximately 5 years, I think, and I would be lost without it. The app is really user-friendly, and I love how easy it is to submit my accounts to HMRC at the end of the year. On the few occasions that I've needed assistance, I've had an almost immediate response with helpful information. Highly recommended.

Cons

It felt a little expensive at first as a solo trader, but I think it proved its worth in ease of use so quickly this isn't really a con. Plus they have a great affiliate scheme so you can bring the overall cost down by recommending others.

Pros

It makes my life easier. I was spending at least half a day totting up time spent and billing clients but Freeagent does it all for me at the touch of a button. That has been the absolute stand out time saving feature for me. Plus it's not complicated, easy to use and displays everything clearly.

Cons

Every month I have to re-input the tasks for clients. I wish it would hold onto those so that I could re-use them for my ongoing clients.

Pros

It came free linked to my sign-up to my online business banking account. Customer support is quick and comprehensive. It's reasonably user-friendly for the non-accountant to use.

Cons

It can sometimes confuse as to where administration input linked to an expense transaction should be applied - through the bank account app or Freeagent

Pros

It's an incredibly easy to use all-in-one accounting solution that's built for freelancers, all the way up to large businesses. Creating and managing invoices is very easy and you can even sync it up to your bank account. Whilst many of the more advanced accounting features go unused by myself I can clearly see the value in them for others.

Cons

It's not the cheapest solution if you're just creating a few invoices each month but for any typical independent professional it's a great solution. I can't think of any real cons to this product.

Pros

It just works. The software looks good on desktop and connects to the mobile app well. From invoicing, to time tracking, to payroll, tax returns ... so much functionality and pretty much error free. Unlike other financial software, you don't need to pay more for features like payroll and multi-currency. Win.

Cons

It would be useful to have a few more multi-currency features (e.g. multi-currency bills and expenses).

Pros

Incredibly easy to learn how to use even if you've never managed a business before. Perfect for freelancers as well as small-businesses. Nice design both for the website as well as the PDFs created.

Cons

Large businesses and more experienced accountants are likely to find the functionality a bit limiting.

Pros

The software was easy to learn and very user friendly. This software has freed up a lot of my time and made our entire organization for efficient and effective. One of those programs where you start using it, you don't know how you ever were able to run your company without it.

Cons

Nothing. I have been impressed with all the features. It was easy to learn and their customer support team was there to help me with everything along the way.

Pros

I've worked with accounting software before so it didn't need much time to set up. I also like how everything is linked – contacts to invoices to banking feed... lots of the features are automised so you don't have to do everything twice and the system learns and adapts to your set up, e.g. it starts guessing the categories for expenses and other items in your banking feed.

Cons

It doesn't come cheap which for a freelancer is perhaps the biggest hurdle. But it is good value for money.

Pros

For me, the general look of the overview screen makes the experience of looking at my accounts a lot less scary. I also find that the whole thing is easy to use, from reconciling my bank accounts to sending out invoices. Plus they actually sort your taxes out (this might only be in the UK though)!

Cons

I am probably not using as much of the software as I could. (e.g. payroll and time tracking) but I'm just proud that they've convinced me how simple and professional it is to use them for invoicing.