Create a CoPilot package proposal

This article explains how CoPilot accountants can create package proposals to send to prospective new clients within FreeAgent.

CoPilot is a tool that allows your practice to connect with and manage clients all in one place. The service has been designed to give a seamless experience for you and your clients from initial contact, through onboarding with your practice and the ongoing delivery of the CoPilot service. 

As a CoPilot accountant, your practice will be visible to all qualifying FreeAgent customers who are interested in CoPilot, giving your business a real opportunity to grow. When a prospective client sends an enquiry, you’ll be notified via your Practice Dashboard and via email.

Once you’ve discussed the different ways you could work with a prospective client, you can send over a formal package proposal for them to view in CoPilot. Read more about managing a CoPilot lead.

The package proposal will include any agreed one-off fee covering any work required to get the accounts up to date to start delivering the CoPilot services, and any additional services you have discussed and agreed with the client. Please see below for details of non-accounting services outside the scope of CoPilot.

One-off fees are different from additional services. A one-off fee is a fee that is taken once at the time of the first subscription, such as getting accounts up to date before you fully take on the client - as mentioned above. Additional services are ongoing services such as tax planning and advice. One-off fees and additional services should always be discussed during your initial contact with the client and agreed in advance.

One-off fees could relate to completing historic bank reconciliation, getting the current year's accounts up to date to ensure they are ready for the next filing or even filing a previous year’s Self Assessment or Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax return.

For example, a CoPilot subscription which started on 1st November 2025 would still have an upcoming Self Assessment filing deadline of 31st January 2026 for the period 6th April 2024 to 5th April 2025. Filing for the period 6th April 24 to 5th April 25 is historic and should be charged as a one-off fee to complete the work required to prepare and file the Self Assessment return associated with the period. In addition, April 2025 to October 2026 is seven months in the following tax period (2025-26) where no payment has been taken (as the CoPilot subscription started on 1st November 2025), as such you should discuss and agree a one-off payment to cover these months with the prospective client.

Creating a package proposal

It’s important to format your package proposal clearly and carefully as it will be seen by:

• the prospective client
• other Practice Dashboard users (with appropriate permissions)
• the FreeAgent support team

If the prospective client goes on to accept your package proposal, it will remain on their file.

Package expiry date

You can enter a package expiry date if you wish. This is a date when the package will expire for your prospective client. However, you don’t have to put in a date if you don’t require one.

You can edit the package proposal and resend it to the lead to extend the date if you need to.

Adding a monthly service package

The clearest way to add the details of your monthly service package is in a series of bullet points, as this keeps the information easy to scan for you and your client. However, you can also add this information as a paragraph if you prefer.

Whichever way you choose to add it, it’s important to make sure you have a comprehensive list of services.

Once you’re happy with the proposal, select ‘Send package proposal’ to send it to the prospective client.

If you need to, you can edit the package proposal.

How will the lead see my package proposal

Once you’ve sent a proposal, the lead will receive an email to notify them of the invite. This will include the list of services and price to be billed monthly, along with any additional one-off costs to be billed on the day of acceptance.

Non-accounting services outside the scope of CoPilot

If you and the prospect client have discussed and agreed to deliver any prohibited services, you should arrange for any agreement and collection of these to be processed directly from your practice outside of FreeAgent, as these prohibited services cannot be offered as part of your CoPilot packages.

Prohibited services include “any financial services, insurance or other products or services regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, Prudential Regulatory Authority or other country equivalents or such other services that would require FreeAgent to be regulated and associated costs for non-accounting services outside the scope of the defined CoPilot services”.