Make corrections in bulk in a client's account using Find and Fix
This article explains how to use Find and Fix to make corrections in bulk in a client’s account. It also explains how to make corrections to certain locked items.
Find and Fix allows you to make corrections in bulk to a client’s bank transaction explanations, bill line items and out-of-pocket expenses. You can make changes to the accounting categories (nominal codes), VAT rates and descriptions of the selected items.
Please note:
- FreeAgent's Find and Fix functionality is currently in beta. Therefore, it’s only available for practices that have beta access.
- FreeAgent's Find and Fix functionality won't be available for clients who have an unincorporated landlord account.
- You can only correct a maximum of 100 items at a time.
- If you correct items in a VAT locked period, FreeAgent will preserve your client’s existing locked VAT return and make any necessary changes on their next unlocked VAT return. This is per HMRC’s guidance for how VAT errors should be corrected.
- It’s not currently possible to correct invoice line items, journal entries, capital asset purchases or disposals, purchases of stock, or items in a locked accounting period.
- Clients with full (level 8) access to their FreeAgent account will have access to Find and Fix to make corrections in bulk.
1. Switch to the client’s account
Log in to your Practice Dashboard and select ‘Switch to’ beside the relevant client to access their account.
2. Find the relevant items
Navigate to the ‘Accounting’ tab and select ‘Find and Fix’ from the drop-down menu.
Search for the items you’d like to fix. You can search for items using the following filters:
- Date range
- Accounting category
- VAT rate
- Amount
- Contact
- Item type
- Description/Detail contains
Once you’ve applied the relevant filters, select ‘Search’.
This will display a list of the bank transaction explanations, bill line items and out-of-pocket expenses in your client’s account that match the filters.
To clear all the filters, select ‘Clear all’ to return to the search screen with no results showing.
3. Fix the items
Select the checkbox next to each item you want to fix. To quickly select all the items on a page, tick the box that appears to the left of the ‘Date’ column.
Please note that if an out-of-pocket expense or bill line item has already been added to a project and rebilled on an invoice, the out-of-pocket expense or bill line item will be locked and you won’t be able to fix it. Please see below for how to fix a locked out-of-pocket expense or bill line item.
Once you’ve selected the relevant items, select ‘Proceed to fix items’.
Select which changes you want to be made to the items and select ‘Fix X items’. You can make changes to the accounting category (nominal code), VAT rate and/or description.
Finally, wait for the selected changes to be applied. Please note that this may take a few minutes if lots of corrections are being made.
Once the updates have completed, you’ll be returned to the search results screen where a notice will tell you the outcome of your update.
The filters from the last search will still be applied so items that were successfully fixed may no longer be displayed, depending on which attributes were changed, as they may no longer match the selected filters.
Fixing a locked item
If an out-of-pocket expense or bill line item has been added to a project and rebilled on an invoice, you’ll be able to fix the description and/or accounting category but not the VAT rate. This partial lock applies even if the invoice is in draft status.
To fix the VAT rate of a partially locked item that has been rebilled on an invoice, you'll need to first edit the invoice to delete the item from it. You'll then edit the bill or out-of-pocket expense to remove it from the project. Before you can edit an invoice, it must be in draft status. If the invoice or bill has been marked as paid, you’ll need to remove the payment link first.
To fix the VAT rate of a partially locked item that has been linked to a project, you'll need to edit the item in question to remove it from the project.
Once the partially locked item has been removed from the invoice, and/or unlinked from the project, you’ll be able to fix the VAT rate.
Please note that items in a locked accounting period can’t be fixed at all.
Undoing a correction made with Find and Fix
If you want to undo a change you’ve made to any item, you’ll need to find the item again and apply the relevant changes.
View a history of Find and Fix corrections
Once you’ve made corrections to items using Find and Fix, you can select the ‘History’ tab in order to view a history of all the corrections that have been made through Find and Fix for a maximum of two years.
To view the details of any of the corrections, you can select the ‘View details’ button next to the relevant correction.
This will show you a summary of when the item(s) were fixed, who made the corrections and what changes were made.