Comments on: FreeAgent: Big Review + GiveAway

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:32:16 +0000

Freeagent is amazing! I came across this when I was offered it with my Barclays business bank account. At the time I had never heard about freeagent and wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was blown away. Interface is clean, and a totally doddle to navigate and get to grips with. I would of never imagined I would ever say this about accounting, but I actually now find it a joy to do every evening. Freeagent gives me more time to get to down to what i love doing, and that is running my business!

By: Gillian Harlick

Gillian Harlick — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:20:07 +0000

Hi John, I can totally empathise – I’ve had terrible
experiences with accountants (including one company who went on to
claim they could offer marketing advice too when they couldn’t even
file our returns on time even though they had our accounts for 3
MONTHS!!). But since changing a while ago, we’ve got a new
accountant (who is fab so far) and have been using Freeagent
Central – just preparing our second year accounts using it, and I
love it. Great for a growing company like us. The best thing about
it is that you can set up recurring invoices and invoices for
future dates which email out to clients automatically – no more
needing to make sure you are in the office on the first of the
month to get your invoices out. The email reminders are also very
useful and you can personalise all of it so you don’t lose that
personal touch – in fact some of our customers have mentioned that
they feel like its customer service when we are chasing invoices!
Before Freeagent Central accountancy software we used Sage Instant
Accounts, which I found very complicated and time consuming for a
small company like ours. I can honestly say Freeagent Central have
quartered the time we spend doing the books whilst also making our
accounts process more effective. There is an iPhone app now too,
which I was very excited about. However you can’t raise invoices on
it, only bill time and expenses to projects, and track your mileage
etc.

By: ICAEW Cloud Computing for Accountants report 2: SaaS risks AccMan

ICAEW Cloud Computing for Accountants report 2: SaaS risks AccMan — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 15:14:56 +0000

[...] John O’Nolan kicks off by talking about FreeAgent’s data server infrastructure. For him that means no need for backup. [...]

By: John

John — Fri, 07 May 2010 11:39:53 +0000

Hi Mike,
Thanks for the kind words – all the design work on this site is my own :)

By: Mike Larter

Mike Larter — Fri, 07 May 2010 00:11:51 +0000

Hi Jon

Great article review on MyFreeAgent – am looking at this with much interest and have registered for a FREE TRIAL as it must be worth a roadtest for any sole trader or limited company – I have a business PayPal account and a NatWest Business account so want to synchronize the two and file my taxes online at the HMRC website

Am also interested in Crunch too and taking a demo of that this week but I am more interested in an affiliate partnership with them as I am producing a work from home/freelancer money making blog and amongst my affiliate product reviews I will also promote services I use like Skype, Clickbank, and marketing tools along with Adsense & Amazon ads.

You have designed a fantastic website here and I love the way you have designed your custom header graphic
- did you do this yourself or did you hire a graphic designer? Can you recommend any ace graphic designers or outsourcing partners who you use?

Best Wishes
Mike L
Horsham, West Sussex

By: Chris Bridgen

Chris Bridgen — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:30:55 +0000

We’re on the other side of the fence (as accountants), and can definately say that dealing with the guys at FAC has been a great experience. It makes a change to get swift resolution when there are questions to be answered.

The software is superb & we’re looking forward to growing with it and helping clients focus on understanding & running their businesses, rather than battling with the attitude of their old school accountant.

Well done FAC!

By: Spencer Lavery

Spencer Lavery — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:35:42 +0000

I moved from QuickBooks (yuck) over to Xero in early 2009, which was great, but then John pointed me toward FreeAgentCentral and I haven’t looked back! It does everything I needed Xero for, and more. And a heck of a lot easier.

Seriously impressed. Managed to convert a few other chaps to using it as well, great software sells itself it seems!

By: Patrick Macdonald

Patrick Macdonald — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:53:31 +0000

I tried a number of the alternatives both on and offline and came back to FreeAgent for its ease of use and interface. What a great design! Finished my trial and signed up with the referral code to get the 10% off…

By: Business case for SaaS

Business case for SaaS — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:33:51 +0000

[...] as to why there are no more than a handful of shallow vignettes. I wonder for instance why they didn’t notice some of the things that John O’Nolan has been saying. Or why they could not have cherry picked and expanded on the many examples Freshbooks offers. The [...]

By: John

John — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:00:54 +0000

Please Note: All comments below this point are no longer part of the competition. You are still free to leave your thoughts and feeling about FreeAgent, but the competition is now closed.

By: Brian Coult

Brian Coult — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:52:23 +0000

Why thank you very much guys :-) much appreciated…. nice bit of fun more than anything… although im sure Johns referral code is high up on twittertrends!

By: Roan Lavery

Roan Lavery — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:49:38 +0000

Agreed! Just for the quality of that comment I’m going to make sure you get a prize for that Brian, even if you don’t win!

By: John

John — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:36:58 +0000

Best. Comment. Ever!

By: Brian Coult

Brian Coult — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:42:31 +0000

Why should use Freeagent for various reasons but mostly;

F – For its FEATURES and FUNCTIONALITY that have been made so simple powerful and FUN to use
R – For its RESPONSIVE customer support that appears to be second to none
E – For its EASY to use yet beautiful interface
E – For its EFFORTLESS way of performing your calculations for you
A – For its ACCOUNTS integration be it your business bank or paypal account
G – For its ability at any GIVEN moment to tell you how much your making and what you owe
E – For the EXCELLENT web app that it truly is
N – For the NIRVANA it creates at your desk as you no longer worry so much about your Accounts
T – For the way it will now handle my TAX RETURN the greatest gift it could ever give

But most of all becasue John is bound to give you his refferal code the moment freeagent even enters your mind.

By: Keith Cirkel

Keith Cirkel — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:45:37 +0000

I signed up to FreeAgent thanks to this article. I used to use GnuCash, which is free double entry accounting software, and this completely trounces it, the auto-tax calculations, the full profit+loss, multi-user accounts and really, really decent invoicing. I will definitely be paying for the full version as soon as this months cheques come in.

I am especially astounded at the level of competence of the staff at FreeAgent, they managed to fix my problems, (which where more to do with tax than the software) within a really short time. Good quality app bettered by good quality staff.

By: Ramon Lawson

Ramon Lawson — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:21:38 +0000

I love freeagent, I have been trailing it before and now thinking of signing up for a year.

In particular I find the UK tax features amazing; they can potentially save a lot of time and resources that would otherwise be spent on accountants.

Ramon Lawson

By: John Wilson

John Wilson — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:04:27 +0000

This is system is much more reliable and easier to use than the Excel spreadsheets I’ve running my freelance accounts from. Thanks for making me aware of this. I’ve already sent links to your post to several people who are looking to at freelancing or already run their own business.

I was looking at FreshBooks & CannyBill but I think we have a winner here in FreeAgent.

All the best.

John

By: Michael Savage

Michael Savage — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:38:14 +0000

I don’t wanna win this but awesome competition John!

By: Jonny Vaughan

Jonny Vaughan — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:12:55 +0000

I used Microsoft Accounting 2009 for six month when I started up my own business but this month I’ve started trialling FreeAgent and it’s so much better. Instant reports, online availability, and it doesn’t take up 500mb of memory!

It’s made running my small business so much easier and I have more of a grasp of my accounts than I ever have had.

By: Edward Bellamy

Edward Bellamy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:41:33 +0000

The best thing about freeagent is the little tick box which says ‘I have a VAT receipt’ when adding mileage claims. Makes life of VAT almost pleasant!

By: David

David — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:14:43 +0000

I am planning on switching to free-agent for all new jobs and come next year start full time. I also am looking forward to the possibility of editing the invoices by modifying a CSS file.

By: Mark Poppen

Mark Poppen — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:42:05 +0000

Hey,
I’m in Canada, and FreeAgent seems to work fine here!

By: Danny

Danny — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:04:09 +0000

Carpenter Box seem very expensive mate, more expensive than the ones Freeagent recommend on their site anyway. I can’t pay that much so I’ll keep looking… sigh.

By: Japh

Japh — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:40:44 +0000

Hi Andrew, I too am an Aussie, and I’m giving FreeAgent a go at the moment. Seems like it could be a winner! :D

By: John

John — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:23:08 +0000

Hi Andrew, yes FreeAgent offer a “universal” plan which can be used internationally!

By: Randy

Randy — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:21:25 +0000

I needed only simple powerful invoicing so I gave a try on several tools like Free Agent, Freshbooks and BillMyClients. However, most of these apps have bundled too many features that makes them bloated in my opinion.

Recently I found an app called CurdBee, which is specially tailored for invoicing and it was really simple for my needs.

By: Andy Stewart

Andy Stewart — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:45:45 +0000

I’ve been using FreeAgent since their beta program and it has become the one software app I wouldn’t want to run my business without. I use Basecamp every day for managing all my projects and value it highly…but if I were cut off tomorrow I would cope. However if I were cut off from FreeAgent, I would really struggle.

FreeAgent does everything I want my accounting software to do. More than that though, it’s so pleasingly good at what it does and it really does put you back in control of your business’s finances. I think those feelings of happy control are why I (and lots of others) like it so much.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:11:28 +0000

Hi,
I’m on the lookout for a product just like this. However, I am in Australia. Can I still use freeagent or….? Taxes etc are a big, dark mystery right now (I suppose thats how the accountants like it!).

By: John Griffiths

John Griffiths — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:57:54 +0000

I’ve used they’re competitor FreshBooks to handle some non-concurrent things and they’ve been pretty good, however being non-UK it’s kind of a pain as you still have to deal with the hassle of calculating your tax returns and watching your books, which let’s face it isn’t the most fun in the world.

Accounts is in general a pain, I mean, what developer wants to spend a day or three each month going through all their receipts and bills filling every dot and logging every penny (and believe you me, accountants DO care if there’s even one penny lost in the books).

So I’m glad FreeAgentCentral exists to take this task over for me.

I’ve signed up for their free 30-day trial and will see how it goes, I don’t really know what to expect as all I know is what i’ve read from their site, this review and their talk at FOWA; but after diving into the site it’s a pretty swish experience which makes me want to use it more.

I guess it’s that Apple smell, you know where the groovy graphics, attractive layout and intelligent design make it want to be a part of your life; it’s like pulling you in saying “hey, let me deal with your books and let you get your life back”, they honestly just want to help and that’s what’s winning me over.

Will have to wait and see but so far, i’m hooked!

Good work guys & girls.

By: John

John — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:59:28 +0000

Hi James, I just use FreeAgent now :)

By: Aaron Russell

Aaron Russell — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:51:50 +0000

I signed up for the FreeAgent free trial at about roughly the same time as you, so have had a fair amount of time to get in to it too. I’ve now signed up and am happily paying for what I think is an excellent product – but wouldn’t ‘arf mind 6 months of freeness too!

I must confess there’s little I like doing more than counting my beans. Previously I managed all my accounts via a rather extravagant excel spreadsheet, which was actually a reasonably effective (and cheap) way of doing things, so to make the switch to a package where I had to pay every month to use it was quite a step.

But now the enjoyment I get from bean-counting has gone up tenfold! What’s more I’ve actually learnt one or two things along the way that previously I was doing slightly wrong. So all in all, another happy customer here :D

By: Hugh Collier

Hugh Collier — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:10:46 +0000

I very recently extended my trial account for a year. Looks like I should have waited :(

I have to say though that I totally agree with your very well written review John. I am immensely impressed with FreeAgent and although I haven’t really had time to fully upload all my details and contacts yet I can already see the awesome potential it has. I love the way you can track expenses and upload receipts. It really lets you see exactly where your spending your money, which in turn makes it easier to set prices which are fair and realistic.

I absolutely love the overview screen when you first login. Very helpful stuff. I’ve set this thing up as an SSB with Fluid and it’s open nearly all of the time – pretty impressive really and the way it should be too.

I also tried a few other accounting and invoicing solutions including Freshbooks, Billings and some that I’ve forgotten too and it’s true that they don’t come close to FreeAgent.

My only minor gripe (and it is very minor when all things are considered) is the limited number of invoice designs included. Now since I’m a web designer I could easily make my own with the invoice devkit but honestly I’m not sure I can be bothered (overkill?) so I’ll probably just use one of the pre-set ones. It would be nice to have more choices in this area though. I’ll still be recommending FreeAgent to my friends and associates mind you. Just a bit gutted I didn’t hang on and see if I couldn’t have gotten 6 months free though.

By: James

James — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:48:28 +0000

Hi,

Good article! I actually use Freeagent Central already, and can’t agree more with your analysis on how it helps out small web design businesses.

However, I read your previous blog on Billings.

Billings was great, until I began to take on employees who I wanted to have access to create invoices etc, but unfortunately there was no network version available (and iBiz was pathetic).

So we switched to FreeAgent for all of our estimating, invoicing purposes, are you using a combination of both? If so how does this work?

James

By: John

John — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:43:32 +0000

Hi Luke – why don’t you give the Sole Trader option a go? I wish I’d had that when I was freelancing on the side as it helps you out with doing your taxes, which is the only bit that I always got stuck on! And you never know, you might get it extended by 6 months for free ;)

By: Japh

Japh — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:34:31 +0000

Thank you so much! It is ‘Satellite’, well picked. I’ll give it another go over the next week or so and get in touch with you then :)

Thanks again!

By: Luke Jones

Luke Jones — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:32:35 +0000

I’m not earning enough money at the moment for an application like FreeAgent to be worthwhile for me, though everything I’ve read and seen about the application is absolutely amazing. I had a look into FreshBooks, but this seems like a more complete and well-rounded piece of software. So as soon as I’m earning the money, I’m going to begin using it!!

Great reviews John, as usual.

By: David

David — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:30:32 +0000

Hi Japh,

I’ve extended your FreeAgent account for a month (I think I found your account… ‘Satellite’, yeap?).

Any way, drop me a line (david@freeagentcentral.com), and we can have a chat – I’d love to know where we can help you out, especially if you are getting bugged by your current set up at the minute.

No worries about including you in the prize draw as well.

Cheers,

David

p.s. John = Awesome.

By: Japh

Japh — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:07:49 +0000

Brilliant review, John! I tried FreeAgent a while ago, but there were a few little funny things about me being in Australia and not the UK.

However, as I do have a trial account, I’d love to have it extended for 6 months for free, as I’m a bit dissatisfied with my current accounting solution :D

By: Mark Poppen

Mark Poppen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:15:44 +0000

W00t! After you telling me about this gem, I started fiddling with it. It looks slick, it’s navigation is well positioned, and does exactly what the doctor ordered: work!
I was looking for an invoicing app that also did expenses, but on my search for a decent app, Freeagent never showed up. Thanks to John, I found this business saver.

Oh, maybe the best part is: I’m working with a local, small town bank, that doesn’t show sort-codes and stuff in their exported statements. It took the FAC support desk only a day to find me a temporary solution, so now even I can upload statements.

I’m thrilled!

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:24:33 +0000

Hey John,

Looks like your on the way to getting yourself a free account :P, I am going to give it a go for the business i am starting.