Correcting differences between your Mettle and FreeAgent transactions

This article explains why there might be differences between your Mettle and FreeAgent bank transactions, and how to correct any mismatch. 

Why are there differences?

Mettle experienced some issues in sharing transactions with FreeAgent. While only a small number of transactions were affected, there may be differences between the bank transactions and bank balances in your Mettle and FreeAgent accounts and these will need to be corrected on the FreeAgent side. FreeAgent has already taken steps to minimise what you will need to do.

There was an ongoing issue with some bank transactions dated from August 2023 onwards being incorrectly added together. This resulted in FreeAgent only receiving one transaction instead of multiple transactions, potentially meaning the wrong total value was recorded in your FreeAgent account. This issue has been resolved and no further transactions will be affected.

There was also an issue with some Mettle refunds dated between August 2023 and January 2024 that resulted in FreeAgent only receiving the original transaction from Mettle, and not an additional transaction with the refunded amount. This issue has been resolved and no further transactions will be affected.

What do you need to do in FreeAgent?

To correct the differences in FreeAgent, you’ll need to identify the affected transactions and then explain the corrections made by FreeAgent. Once you’ve done that, make sure that the bank balance in Mettle matches the bank balance in FreeAgent.

1. Identify the affected transactions

Affected customers have been sent an email from Mettle which includes a list of all their affected transactions as of 20th August 2024.

If you haven't received an email or if you need an updated monthly statement, please contact the Mettle support team at support@mettle.co.uk or send them a message in the Mettle app.

You can get a view of all your transactions by exporting them from the Mettle app.

Alternatively, there are two ways to review the transactions in FreeAgent:

• Reviewing historic transactions that are showing as unexplained or marked for approval by going to the Banking section in FreeAgent and selecting the Mettle bank account. You can select the ‘Unexplained’ or 'For approval' filter at the top of your list of transactions to make this easier.
  
   
• Going to the Audit Trail report and filtering to show ‘Bank Transactions’ on or after 20th August 2024 as transactions will show on the date that they’re updated. In the ‘Action’ column you will see ‘Updated - Mettle correction’ against any bank transactions which relate to this issue.
  
  

2. Explain or approve the corrections 

FreeAgent has automatically adjusted the affected bank transactions in your FreeAgent accounts by the amount of the difference to match what appears in your Mettle bank account as of 20th August.

From 3rd June 2024 onwards, any incorrect transactions have been updated in FreeAgent by Mettle automatically on an on-going basis.

There may be a very small number of transactions between 16th April and 3rd June that have been affected and these have now been corrected on 20th August.

For any affected transactions before 3rd June, the difference between the original value of each transaction and its adjusted value will now show as a new unexplained transaction for you to explain to the relevant category in your accounts.

For any affected transactions after 3rd June, the full amount of each affected transaction will be marked for approval. You’ll need to review this new value and take steps to explain or approve it.

• You may be able to simply explain it to the relevant category in your accounts or approve it if you’re happy with any suggested explanations.
   
• Alternatively, if the entire transaction needs to be explained in one lump sum (perhaps because it was a purchase of one capital asset), you would need to remove the explanation from the original transaction and then re-explain the entire unexplained transaction to the relevant category.

For visibility, an entry will be added to your Audit Trail report for the updated transaction indicating that it has been updated due to the ‘Mettle correction’.

If the corrections were made in a VAT locked period, FreeAgent will defer any VAT effects of the corrections to your earliest unlocked VAT return once you’ve explained or approved all the transactions.

Any corrections to transactions in an accounting period that is locked due to a Self Assessment tax return having been filed, or marked as filed, or end-of-year accounts having been approved and signed, will be deferred to the first day of the next open period. If you are unsure how to deal with this, then please contact FreeAgent’s Support team or speak to your accountant. 

3. Make sure your bank balance in Mettle matches the bank balance in FreeAgent

Once you’ve explained or approved the corrections, check that your bank balance in the Mettle app matches the balance in your Mettle bank account in FreeAgent.

You can use the Bank Reconciliation report to help you check that the two figures match.