How to enable an Open Banking bank feed

This article explains how to set up an Open Banking bank feed to automatically import transactions from your bank account into your FreeAgent account.

Instead of downloading and uploading bank statements, you can pull your bank transactions into FreeAgent automatically through a bank feed. FreeAgent supports Open Banking bank feeds, which connect directly to your bank, and bank feeds delivered by third-party providers for non-UK banks.

Please note that FreeAgent supports Open Banking bank feeds for most of the UK’s biggest banks, but there are some banks that don’t support Open Banking yet.

FreeAgent has had an open API for many years which allows third-party providers to build integrations. Recently, challenger banks have started to create their own bank feed integrations with FreeAgent. Find out how to set up integrations with Monzo, Revolut, Starling Bank and Capital on Tap.

If your bank isn’t supported by any of the above methods, you'll need to manually upload bank statements or manually enter transactions.

Before you start

If you have an existing bank feed set up in FreeAgent and need to switch to an Open Banking bank feed, you should use the ‘Switch Bank Feed’ button. You can find out more about it in our ‘How to switch from your existing bank feed to an Open Banking bank feed’ article.

Please note that you'll need to be registered with your bank for online banking to complete this process, and that you'll need to have any necessary security devices, like card readers, to hand.

1. Navigate to the relevant bank account and enable the feed

Navigate to the 'Banking' tab at the top of the screen and select 'Bank Accounts' from the drop-down menu.

New FreeAgent users

If you’re new to FreeAgent, you’ll see this screen. Select ‘Connect your bank’ to begin the process of setting up a bank feed.

Existing FreeAgent users

If you’ve been using FreeAgent for a while, you’ll be taken to the 'Bank Accounts Summary' page. Select the bank account you want to enable the feed for from the list. If you’ve had a bank feed set up in the past, you’ll need to follow these instructions to make sure it’s correctly disabled.

From the bank account page, select ‘Enable Bank Feed’ in the top-right corner.

2. Select your bank

Choose your bank from the ‘Select your bank’ area. If you can’t see your bank, navigate to the search box at the bottom of the screen.

3. Select the bank service

Your bank may provide separate bank services for their Business and Personal accounts. If this is the case, then you’ll be asked to choose which bank service you’d like to connect to. If you want to connect both account types, then you’ll need to repeat the process for each banking service.

4. Give consent for the connection

On the next screen, select ‘Connect to my bank’. This provides us with your consent to access your account details.

As part of the Open Banking Standard, we need you to give your explicit consent every 90 days to connect your bank account to FreeAgent. When it’s time to re-consent, we’ll let you know.

5. Authorise the connection with your bank

Next, you’ll be taken to your bank’s website to authorise the connection process. This process may differ from bank to bank, so please follow the prompts given from your bank to complete the connection setup with FreeAgent.

When you’re entering your account number and sort code, it’s important to make sure not to include any spaces or dashes between those numbers, or you won’t be able to complete the setup process.

6. Choose an account and transaction start date

To complete the process, confirm or select a FreeAgent bank account to associate with the feed, choose your transaction start date and select ‘Link Account’. Please note that your transaction start date cannot be earlier than your FreeAgent start date.

What happens next?

Select 'Show me my transactions' and you’ll be taken back to the main banking screen.

On the banking screen, you'll see that your bank feed is currently pending. Your feed should start pulling through transactions very soon.

If you had a bank feed set up previously and had to select the green ‘Import new transactions’ button, you'll no longer see it. Your new feed will now import transactions automatically every night.

If you’ve set up a bank feed with a supported bank, FreeAgent will display the ‘Balance at bank’ for your bank account at the bottom of the ‘Bank details’ sidebar.

This ‘Balance at bank’ is the cleared bank balance taken from your bank feed when it was last imported into FreeAgent. Find out more about the ‘Balance at bank’ feature.

You’ll need to give consent every 90 days to allow your bank transactions to automatically import into FreeAgent. Find out more about re-consenting and updating Open Banking bank feeds.