FreeAgent

Pros

I think FreeAgent does its job well. I've never run into technical faults or found anything I needed to do that it couldn't do. My favorite thing about FreeAgent is that my accountant can access the platform and see everything I can. That makes getting information to my accountants or asking questions incredibly slick.

Cons

I moved to FreeAgent from Xero because it's what my accountant knew how to use. I think Xero has slightly better tech and integrations so I would say I don't find FreeAgent as engaging to use. It's hard to criticize for that though because although it's nice to integrate with other systems, I haven't had any major issues getting information into FreeAgent as required.

Pros

Easy to learn: I could start from recording basic expenses to manage my bills and invoices.

Cons

Not sure. I found harder to understand reports and some initial set-ups because I don't have a background in accounting, but it all made sense whith the help of customer support and later my accountant.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing FreeAgent

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

Pros

I really found this software useful when setting up my first business

Cons

It was limited with regard managing jobs and scheduling

Pros

Ease of use. It is a user friendly software.

Cons

The report quality could have been better. The format used in reports could be improved.

Pros

The best thing about FreeAgent is the dashboard view. From here I can see at a glance how my business is running, with clear visuals giving trends over time for cashflow, invoicing timeline, bank balances, expenses, bills, profit and loss and tax.

Cons

When entering an expense (not using smart capture) it is really easy to put the wrong date in.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

Pros

Freeagent has a great invoice design. I like the fact that for a small business - you can get this software and an online bank account at a very reasonable price. I've used the accounts filing option - and it worked. I was delighted and it has saved me so much time!

Cons

Sometimes, I just think its a bit clunky and could be smoother. It does things I don't like e.g. when a sum is received in and is paying 2 invoices - I don't like the way it split payments. I think the chart of accounts could just be a little bit more user friendly, but for a sole trader, if your books are simple - it does the job nicely.

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

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

Pros

The best thing about FreeAgent is that you can get it for free if you use their offer to set up and use "Mettle" bank account. Also, their menu is perfectly minimalistic to make it fully functioning for our purposes and not making it overwhelming to use.

Cons

Bank reconciliation lacks automation. There is "guess" rules function but you can't modify how it works and it often makes mistakes.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

Pros

I've used FreeAgent for years and always found it to be a solid and reliable accounting product. It handles everything, from sending invoices to clients, to reconciling payments, to helping with taxes.

Cons

It could be better at reconciling bank transactions and uploading the same receipts every month could be easier. It's a lot of manual labour.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

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

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

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

Alternatives Considered

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

Pros

Easy to manage. links with my bank account.

Cons

Nothing really. All pretty easy to use.

Pros

As a user of FreeAgent in my company, I have found this software to be a versatile and robust solution for managing our finances and accounting needs. One of the biggest pros of FreeAgent is its user-friendly interface. The dashboard is well organized and easy to navigate, making it simple to stay on top of our financials and track expenses. Another advantage of FreeAgent is its robust feature set. The software includes invoicing, expense tracking, project management, and financial reporting capabilities, all in one package. This has greatly streamlined our financial management processes, reducing the need for multiple software solutions and saving us time and money.

Cons

One of the few cons of FreeAgent is that the software can be a bit slow at times, especially when navigating through complex financial data. Additionally, while the software includes a comprehensive set of financial reporting capabilities, it may not be as robust as some other accounting software solutions on the market.

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

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

It looks like it has a lot of features but it doesn't work in a logical way.
The tech support used to be available almost 24/7 but the quality and availability have shrunk down significantly.

Cons

This is the most frustrating of all of the accounting software that we reviewed. Everything (even mistakes) gets locked in and can't be edited or amended. There are so many basic functions that just don't work and all customer services do is give you complicated workarounds, most of which don't actually achieve the required outcome. The bank feeds often don't work and you have to log in daily to manually update them. The price is way to high and not good value. The software is not easy to use and what used to be great customer service is now a waste of your time and call tariff. To add insult to injury, they have just been bought over by a bank that has a terrible reputation for so many reasons and will tarnish the reputation of FreeAgent. I'd steer well clear of this software.

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

We use it where I work as a way to track work hours. Usage is pretty simple and the features are sufficient. If you need to track time precisely, there's a nice start/stop function, and if you don't, there are means to insert a whole week in a row. If you're a developer, you'll appreciate the APIs that allow building customized reports for accounting.

Cons

If you don't need precise time tracking, but need to split hours on different activities, data entering becomes pretty slow. You can generate monthly reports to check what to expect from the paycheck, but checking if you made mistakes in the data entry is as difficult as it is entering it.

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

Pros: ability to photograph receipts and store them within expenses
All the main categories of expenses are there
Links to your business bank account

Cons

Con: One major drawback is that you can't print out a consolidated tax return before or after filing. For sole traders a tax return is often the only way to prove income when applying for loans, etc, and HMRC doesn't offer this service either.

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

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

A great product which is very easy to use. I like the fact that it learns from previous accounting entry explanations to offer good suggestions.

Cons

I wish I could use it with more than one business to lower the cost of paying twice.

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

Pros

I love free agent. It makes invoicing, book keeping and automating reminders very easy. It's also very easy to modify your invoice designs. Customer support has always been good on the few occasions I've needed them.

Cons

I'd like to be able to do reports on a monthly basis rather than the preset options. Little bit more expensive than it's rivals.

Pros

FreeAgent is an incredibly supportive and useful tool for someone that is not good with accounting and has a very busy job that makes accounting a very timely task. To be able to rely on software to explain transactions, calculate your income and outgoings as well as file tax for you is very useful without having to worry about a lot of jargon. The support has been very useful at times when needing help with some explanations or more.

Cons

It was a while back that they announced that they could no longer offer accounting support, and always recommend hiring your own accountant, however back when I first signed up for FreeAgent I was sure that they advertised themselves as not requiring an accountant.

Pros

Free Agent came bundled with my NatWest account. It is easy to use with a clear interface and integrates well with my bank accounts. The mobile app is excellent and the support (both technically and professionally) is clear and of good standard. I find their email updates helpful.

Cons

I would like them to be able to import transactions directly from Stripe as a ‘bank account’ as currently you have to manage this manually.

Pros

FreeAgent is so easy to use. The customer support is fantastic. FreeAgent integrates with your bank accounts (bank feed), so you always have an accurate picture of your finances. NatWest Bank owns FreeAgent, so you know there is a good name behind it.

Cons

In the cash flow projection, one field resets itself, but they have taken that onboard and will tweak the code.

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

Switched From

Pros

Really great for small business, simple accounting across the board. I really like the dashboard feature.

Cons

I wish the dashboard could be a bit more customisable with options to show reports or category spending as a tile / more configurable layout

Pros

It's nicely laid out and easy to navigate, the automatic filling is a breeze, recurring invoices & bills save so much time and the time tracking features are useful in some cases.I used the software probably just when it started many years ago when i started as a freelancer, but it was pretty expensive then, so i moved on. I returned when it was offered for free through my bank as it was a bit of a no brainer.

Cons

The integration with other tools is very lacking, yes it has zapier but with only a couple of integration points its basically useless with the tech stacks most of us operate now. From memory (as i cant find the customer forums anymore) users have been requesting improvements to this for at least 6 years, so It's not going to be improved basically.

Alternatives Considered

Pros

I like how easy to use the site is. I mainly use it on web and I'm not sure if there's an app but coming in to work, having never used this before, it was easy to find my way around it and get on with work without training.

Cons

I miss the ability of exporting data into Spreadsheet and trailing trough pages of invoices to highlight and copy so I can paste into Spreadsheet is tiresome. I would love for this to be changed.

Pros

I always know my financial and tax situation. I'm never in the dark. You put in the info as you generate it and you'll never be in any doubt about your financial health.

Cons

I know Xero has lots of bells and whistles but Freeagent is simple to use, predictable and the support is from UK or US based specialists who really know what they're talking about.

Pros

I have been using FreeAgent since I registered my company. It handles all my accounting needs. Saves me so much time.

Cons

Categorisation of expenses can be improved. It works so far but wish they had simpler naming.

Pros

I enjoy the simplicity in creating new invoices and the VAT breakdown being provided so it is clear to the client. It is easy to either download the invoice as a PDF and email it manually or do so via FreeAgent itself.

Cons

As a new user I have found it difficult to change the status of an invoice ('paid' status in particular).

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

It is Automated on Invoicing, etc. That is very error prone.

Cons

I do not like Freeagent. Freeagent do not give options. It is very closely connected.

Pros

It's straight forward, easy to set up and use. Everything you need to manage your accounts is in plain sight rather then you needing to know there is a completely different process somewhere else that actually needs to be completed. The processes are quick and easy to work out.

Cons

Nothing much to be honest. It would be better if it was easier to link to other programs that you use but this can be overcome with a bit of thought.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing FreeAgent

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

Pros

The customer service is one of the best in the industry and a great user interface.

Cons

Lack of features such as reports and 3rd party integrations

Pros

British-owned, everything you need to get going for a small business with lots of additional features

Cons

Weirdly, I find the expense reporting a bit tricky to set up

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

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

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

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

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

Reasons for Choosing FreeAgent

Switched From

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

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!!!

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

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

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

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

Reasons for Switching to FreeAgent

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.