How to switch your clients to a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle-funded FreeAgent account

This article explains how you can switch your clients to a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle-funded account from your Practice Dashboard.

If your client has a business current account with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank or an account with Mettle, you have the option to switch them to a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle-funded FreeAgent account. This means that their FreeAgent account will be free of charge for your practice, subject to the client retaining their bank account.

There are two ways to switch your client to a funded account. You can either switch them from the ‘Clients’ area in FreeAgent, or from a client’s individual profile in FreeAgent.

Switching from the 'Clients' area

To switch an eligible client to a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle-funded FreeAgent account, begin by navigating to the 'Clients' area of your Practice Dashboard.

All clients will be assigned a status of either 'Yes', 'No', 'Eligible' or 'Could be' in the 'Free NWG Licence' column.

'Yes' indicates that the client already has a free licence and 'No' indicates that they are not eligible.

If your client appears as 'Eligible', you can switch that client to a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle-funded account by following these steps.

Clients with a 'Could be' status will need to enable a bank feed to confirm their eligibility for a funded licence. Clients who have a business current account with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank should follow these steps, while those with a Mettle account should follow these steps. Once a client has followed the relevant process, their status on your Practice Dashboard will be updated to 'Eligible' and you will be able to switch them to a free licence.

Switching from an individual client profile

When you navigate to a client profile from your Practice Dashboard, their eligibility for a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle-funded account will be indicated on the right-hand side of the screen.

If your client is eligible, select 'Switch to a free licence' to begin the switching process.

To complete the switching process, review the pop-up displayed on the screen and then select 'Yes, I'm sure'.

Once the process is complete, the client’s account status in the 'Free NWG licence' column in the 'My Clients' area of your Practice Dashboard will update to 'Yes'.

What happens next?

Once the switch is complete, the next time your client logs in to FreeAgent they will see the following message, which asks whether they consent to FreeAgent sharing their account data with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle.

Please note that regardless of whether the client consents or not, their account will remain NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle funded.

Your client will also notice the NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle logo, alongside your practice logo, when they’re logged in to their FreeAgent account.

Commercial insights for clients with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle-funded accounts

FreeAgent’s Insights are notifications that highlight useful information, issues and opportunities to your clients, based on the data in their FreeAgent accounts. Insights can be accessed within Radar, alongside other useful account information.

Our new Commercial Insights will allow your clients to access and use products from trusted partners within their FreeAgent account. For example, we might offer an easy way to add insurance directly from FreeAgent.

The sole trader clients who you choose to switch to a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle-funded account will be able to opt in to these messages if they feel they are of interest. The limited company clients who you choose to switch will receive these messages automatically and won’t be able to opt out.