Marg FreeAgent

FreeAgent brands itself as for freelancers and small businesses, but in reality it is only appropriate for one man bands at best. For those people FreeAgent is a do it all product that while not excelling at anything, can quite aptly do many things quite well for a reasonable price. It has it all covered from invoicing, bank feeds, expenses, payroll, tax estimation, profit and loss, VAT to online filing of self assessment tax returns. Features wise, it's very good.

General user experience is very awkward, it just simply doesn't work as well as many of it's competitors (Xero, Kashflow, Quickbooks Online etc. It strikes me that the very basic of it's double entry & how the data interacts with itself is just build wrongly from the ground up, you can't do basic things such as adding a credit note for part of an invoice (instead it must be written off as a bad debt, even if it isn't. Doing certain things feels like wading through very difficult treacle, things that are done very easily on it's competitors platforms.

Aside from that, the integrations are quite limited, but that isn't surprising considering how it positions itself in the market is in direct competition to anyone who places them self as a cloud integration specialist who can help with this kind of thing. That is a feature which severely limits itself as any kind of long-term growing business solution.

For full disclosure, I'm an accountant by trade and FreeAgent is positioning itself to be the software that removes businesses from needing one, but which will result in business paying more tax, doing things wrongly and not managing themselves properly. I therefore fundamentally disagree with FreeAgent's course.

What are your long-term ambitions for the business? If you are a small one man band who sends out a few adhoc invoices a month, has to manage VAT and already knows how the tax system works inside out, then consider FreeAgent. If not then there's more powerful tools out there, which can also be cheaper (in particular see Xero or Quickbooks Online.

As compared to excel, you are getting a piece of software that removes the need for duplication, helps you do finance stuff more quickly and correctly, and helps with your invoicing. Only recommended for the most basic.

The ability to quickly add times to a project, the way that it remembers clients / tasks which makes updating time sheets less mundane if working on the same project.

For some reason the site never remembers my login details and I'm asked to sign in a lot. I also find it slightly confusing sometimes to know what day I'm filling out information for - I feel this could be improved

Accurately tracking time for projects

FreeAgent is an above average book keeping solution, good for very small businesses. The interface is simple and intuitive and nothing is glaringly missing from the software. The best feature is the ability to add expenses via a mobile app, allowing users to input expenses in almost real time.

The product seems to be made for a UK user base. There are many mentions in the documentation and on the interface to things that a US audience would be unfamiliar with. Also, the mobile app is a bit lacking in functionality. Also, integration with smaller banks is hit or miss. Having to manually download and upload bank statements, then categorize them can be a pain every month.

This is an excellent tool for online book keeping for a small or medium sized business. It is simple to use and easy to understand.

FreeAgent has made book keeping very simple and intuitive. I love that we can access it from anywhere and input our expenses essentially in real-time. Invoicing is very easy and keeping track of other users' expenses is great.

Makes reporting year ends, financials a lot easier

Limited integrations (the triggers/actions in zapier are very limited. Doesn't enable the most useful parts of invoice or finance management automation.

If you're a freelancer, then freeagent is likely to be perfect for your financial/accounting needs. If you're a small business, it depends on your situation.

Invoicing, used to be time tracking (but toggl is far better financial reporting, financial management.

PROS & CONS

What are the best aspects of this product?

I like working with FreeAgent because it provides great book-keeping options. The UI is clear and intuitive. It allows me to add expenses through mobile app and users can input expenses whenever they want.

What aspects are problematic or could work better?

They have made the product for UK audience there are some things that are not clear for US audience. It would be great if they could implement more functions and to improve the integration with other banks. In addition, I don’t like that I have to download manually and then upload bank statement again so I can categorize them.

What specific problems in your company were solved by this product?

FreeAgent makes book-keeping simple process. I can access it from any device and input my expenses in real time, I am able to track other’s expenses and the invoicing is simple.

Are you a current user of this product?

Yes