Using FreeAgent's ‘Balance at bank’ feature

This article explains how the ‘Balance at bank’ feature can help you reconcile your bank balances to make sure that the balance in your bank account matches the bank balance in your FreeAgent account.

If you have enabled a bank feed in FreeAgent 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. Please note that pending or uncleared transactions won’t appear in FreeAgent until they are cleared by the bank, which may account for a temporary mismatch between the two balances.

Provided all of your bank transactions have been recorded in your FreeAgent account and the correct opening bank balance has been entered, then the FreeAgent ‘Total Balance’ should match the imported ‘Balance at bank’ amount. For bank feeds enabled on or after 30th September 2022 with a supported bank, FreeAgent’s ‘Balance at Bank’ feature will automatically populate your opening bank balance.

Please note that if you do not see the ‘Balance at bank’ option on your bank account in FreeAgent then the feature is not supported for your bank account or feed type.

The balance mismatch alert

If the ‘Total Balance’ for your bank account in FreeAgent doesn’t match the ‘Balance at bank’, FreeAgent will display a ‘Balance mismatch’ warning in the ‘Bank details’ sidebar for the affected account. To match your balances, you will need to identify the issue and resolve it.

Identifying when a mismatch first occurred

If your bank balances don’t match and historical transactions are available for your bank feed then FreeAgent will attempt to detect the earliest date when the accounts last reconciled. This date will appear below the ‘Balance mismatch’ alert in the sidebar.

Select ‘Review these transactions' below the date to review the bank transaction data for that month and resolve any discrepancies.

FreeAgent can import your historical bank balances for the past two years. If the mismatch in your FreeAgent bank balance relates to transactions from more than two years ago, then you will need to correct these before FreeAgent can identify any differences that have occurred within the past two years.

FreeAgent will also display a mismatch alert if the opening bank balance that was entered is different to the balance that was in your bank account on that date, provided you have at least one bank transaction dated on the same day as your FreeAgent start date. If your FreeAgent start date is more than two years ago, then FreeAgent can’t import the relevant information and provide these alerts.

Supported bank feeds for the ‘Balance at bank’ feature

The ‘Balance at bank’ feature is currently available for the following banks and account types:

*This feature is not currently available for Bankline customers of these banks

Please note that credit card accounts are not supported for any bank.