FreeAgent
UK accounting software built around freelancers and small limited companies. Invoicing, expenses, VAT and Self Assessment in one place, and free outright if you bank with NatWest, RBS or Mettle.
Features
Most accounting software is built for businesses that happen to be small. FreeAgent is built for the way freelancers and one person limited companies actually work, which is why the tax side of it feels less like homework than the alternatives.
How freelancers tend to use it
- Sending invoices and chasing them automatically, with reminders going out on a schedule rather than when you remember
- Connecting a bank feed so transactions arrive on their own, then explaining them in batches instead of typing anything in twice
- Photographing receipts and logging expenses and mileage as they happen, so January is not an archaeology exercise
- Filing Self Assessment and VAT returns straight to HMRC from inside the software, with the figures already filled in
- Watching the running tax forecast, which is the feature that stops the January bill being a surprise
Three ways to get it
Paying for it directly is only one of them, and often the worst value.
It is free, permanently and with no feature limits, if you have a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle business account. NatWest Group owns FreeAgent, which is why. If you are paying full price and eligible for one of those accounts, that is worth an afternoon of your time.
Plenty of freelancers never buy it at all, because their accountant provides it as part of the fee. If you are choosing an accountant it is worth asking which software they include, since that decision quietly settles which package you use for years. The trade off is that the subscription belongs to the practice rather than to you, so ask what happens to your data if you later move on.
Worth knowing
It is firmly a UK product, so it understands Self Assessment, VAT schemes and Making Tax Digital properly, but it is no use to you if you file anywhere else.
Where it thins out is anything product shaped. There is no real stock or inventory handling, and multi currency is workable rather than good. It is built for selling your time, not for selling things.
Who it suits
Best if you are a sole trader or a single director company selling services and you want the tax side handled rather than merely recorded. If you are already banking with NatWest or Mettle, or your accountant includes it, it is close to a default choice, because the usual objection to good accounting software is the monthly cost and in both of those cases there is not one.