Switching to FreeAgent from another software

This article explains how to import accounting data into FreeAgent if you’ve been using another software package or manually recording your accounts using spreadsheets.

To switch to FreeAgent, you first need to set up your account and then import your accounting data.

1. Set up your FreeAgent account

First, sign up for FreeAgent and set up your account.

2. Import your data into FreeAgent

Once you’ve set up your account, you need to enter your accounting data as at your FreeAgent start date.

To speed up the switching process, you can import your opening balances and bank transactions.

Opening balances

If you’ve been trading for a while, you'll have some opening balances to enter when you start using FreeAgent. These are the figures in your accounts as they stood as at your FreeAgent start date. These need to be entered so that FreeAgent can include them in your accounting reports.

As brought forward balances don’t impact the tax return for the current year of a sole trader, partnership or unincorporated landlord, a full set of opening balances may not be required for these business types.

If you’re moving to FreeAgent from another software package or spreadsheets, you should be able to generate a report to view your trial balance as at your FreeAgent start date which will contain the balances you need to enter in FreeAgent. For advice on extracting data from other software packages or spreadsheets, please refer to your software provider.

You can import your opening balances into FreeAgent as of your FreeAgent start date using our downloadable template or from your own .CSV file.

Your accountant should be able to advise which entries you need to record in your FreeAgent account. Please note that our support team can’t help you with this as we’re not authorised by HMRC to provide accounting advice.

Bank transactions

The quickest and easiest way to import your bank transactions into FreeAgent is by setting up a bank feed. This enables your bank transactions to be imported into FreeAgent automatically overnight each night.

If your bank account is with a challenger bank such as Monzo, Starling Bank, Revolut or Capital on Tap then you can set up an integration, which will function in a similar way to a bank feed.

If a bank feed isn't available for your bank, or you need to import historical transactions that are outside the scope of your bank feed, you will need to either upload bank statements or enter transactions manually.

After your bank transactions have been imported or uploaded, you will be able to view them in the Banking area of FreeAgent, where you can explain them. Once you’ve started explaining transactions, FreeAgent’s popular Guess feature will attempt to explain your transactions automatically to save you time going forwards and reduce the risk of data entry errors.

Additional data that can be imported

Whilst not essential, you can also import the following data into FreeAgent if you need to:

• Historical sales invoices or bills (supplier invoices) using a third-party integration such as AutoEntry, Dext or Fabio.
   
• Historical expenses or mileage claims in bulk by using a template.
   
• Contacts from email software, Basecamp or a .CSV file.
   
• Projects from Basecamp.

Find out more about switching to FreeAgent.

Next steps

Once you’ve imported your accounting data into FreeAgent, find out how to get started with FreeAgent.

There are dedicated articles to help you familiarise yourself with FreeAgent’s terminology and learn what you can file to HMRC and Companies House from the software. You’ll also find lots of helpful information and videos, and a link to sign up for one of our live ‘Getting Started’ webinars, on our Getting Started page.

You can also select the blue ‘Help’ button in the bottom of the screen if you need assistance. Find out more about how to get help with using FreeAgent.