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

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.

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

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.

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

FreeAgent is more advanced than my previous service provider, Freshbooks. It allows me to handle the split between personal/business bank accounts and their expenses better and even submits my tax return to HMRC for me. The few times I've contacted their support, they have responded quickly, actually understood what I've asked and provided a detailed response, specific to my issue.

Cons

As a sole trader working on various contracts for 7.5 hours per day, I need to be able to track my time and bill my clients based on it. This is the only area where I found Freshbooks to have the edge—it provided a daily timeline where I could click on my start time, enter the duration, client and project and track my time visually. This meant that I could tell at a glance where there were gaps in my day and correct them accordingly.

FreeAgent allows me to add Timeslip entries, however it can get confusing quite quickly as there is no start time and no visual timeline. I have to rely on the running total of hours shown per day and try to work out the amount of hours to submit per task. So the interface isn't as intuitive as I would like, but the wealth of other extra features I have access to with FreeAgent does go some way to making up for it.

FreeAgent does also work out at around double the monthly subscription price of Freshbooks, which isn't ideal in my circumstances, but I do feel I am getting a better all-round product for the money.

Pros

FreeAgent is a fully-featured accounting and invoicing web app that comes with a great little mobile app too.

It has a really clear and easy-to-use interface, making it easy to navigate and produce invoices, check your accounts for selected periods, track your time, manage projects... the list goes on. But for all the functionality, it never feels cluttered.

I've experienced great support whenever I've asked for it and it hasn't ever produced any unexpected errors or bugs. It just works.

Cons

I wanted to recommend this product to my wife for her business but it's just a little bit too expensive for a startup small sole trader company like hers. A reduced cost account type for single users would be great.

Pros

Live bank feeds, easy to use, perfect for invoicing, accounting for small businesses, keeping the accountant and bank manager happy with the efficiency! It does everything (for me and my business needs) apart from making me coffee :-) Always a pleasure using freeagent, it's really fun to use!

Cons

Ive been using it for nearly two years....
Can't fault it!

Not sure if I could add a further business to the platform, for example: using same login details but be able to switch between businesses?? That would be really good.

Pros

Perfect for freelancers and small teams, FreeAgent includes all the aspects needed to control accounts, create / send invoices and keep an eye on projects. Highly recommended for any solo practitioners.

Cons

If you plan to grow and scale your team, it can be a bit limiting, however it is still a great tool for smaller teams and individuals.

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 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.

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

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

I use freeagent everyday for my business and it's like the best so far. Helps to generate invoices and estimates for client, it gives an overview of your account in the first page which you can easily see at first glance. I recommend freeagent anyday anytime.

Cons

Freeagent generates number for each of the invoice or estimates which can be confusing sometimes especially if you have to delete that invoice or estimates but nevertheless it's a stress free software, it does all the work.

Pros

Exceptionally easy to use and easy to learn. I keep the tab open every day. It's easy to "undo" if you make a mistake in an invoice. There's basically nothing that can't be undone by reverting to draft. The recurring invoices tool is really helpful. I don't use the feature where it'll email invoices/reminders. I prefer to do that myself and it's really easy — nothing to really keep track of since I invoice all clients on the same day each month. They make it easy to label bank transactions so as long as I remember to do that once a month or so, all my accounting reports are always current. I don't have to spend too much time on accounting and I don't really have any complaints. The customer service is always fantastic.

Cons

I wish the time tracking feature were just a little slicker. I use Toggl for time tracking, and then I import hours for each client each month. Not a big deal, but one of those little things that would put it over the top.

Pros

The ease of use combined of the platform which is exceptionally intuitive, combined with the brilliant customer service.

Cons

FreeAgent appears somewhat UK-centric, although the support is still exceptional. The banking does connect to banks in Canada and I have been able to manage harmonized sales tax in Ontario. It may have some current limitations to make it a credible better substitute for Sage, in respect of the tax nuances across different Canadian Provinces.

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

Love the user interface, which is easily customisable and visually it is really appealing. Makes accounting fun!
Easy to use, once you know how to access some of the features.
I have a straightforward business in private medical practice and this software takes care of my invoicing, accounting and expenses all in one, with automatic updating of all the relevant information at your fingertips.
Both my secretary and I can access the software from anywhere, so it makes for easy team-work.
One of the best features for me is the projects section, where I can keep track of the numerous expert reports that I have on my books at any one time.

Cons

Sometimes working out how to find something, or to alter a document isn't intuitive, and I have had to refer to the website for help, which has always been useful (so far).
(NB I think the user who didn't like being referred to My Business Works is being unnecessarily unfair to this software because they had to go through a Barclays intermediary - Barclays are known for their poor service, but this is not FreeAgent...)

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

Automated invoicing and accounts overview that highlight things before they become an issue. Fantastic UK based support team.

Cons

A little more expensive than some of the competitors.

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.