How to edit or remove a bank transaction explanation using the FreeAgent mobile app

This article explains how to edit and remove bank transaction explanations using the FreeAgent mobile app.

If your business is VAT-registered and you edit or remove any explanations from transactions that appear on a VAT return that you’ve either filed or marked as filed, the VAT return will be locked, so FreeAgent won’t apply any changes to it. Instead, the effect of editing these transactions will be deferred to your next open VAT return.

Please note that any changes you make using the FreeAgent mobile app will be reflected in the desktop version of FreeAgent. You will need level 6 access or above to FreeAgent in order to use this functionality.

Navigate to the relevant bank transaction

Tap the three-lined 'hamburger' icon at the top-left of the FreeAgent mobile app and select 'Banking'.

Next, choose the relevant bank account from the list.

Select the relevant transaction from the list.

Edit or remove the bank transaction explanation

You can either edit or remove the bank transaction explanation.

Editing a bank transaction explanation

To edit the bank transaction explanation, tap the ‘Explained as’ field and choose the appropriate option from the list.

Once you’ve made the relevant changes, select ‘Save changes’ at the bottom of the screen to update the bank transaction explanation. Alternatively, tap ‘Save’ in the top-right corner.

Removing a bank transaction explanation

You can either remove a single bank transaction explanation or multiple bank transaction explanations in bulk.

Remove a single bank transaction explanation

To remove a single bank transaction explanation, tap ‘Remove’ in the top-right corner.

Select ‘Remove’ in the pop-up menu to complete the process.

If there is a file attached to the bank transaction that was automatically matched to the transaction by FreeAgent, it will now automatically be moved to the ‘Smart Capture’ tab in your Files area. If the attachment wasn’t captured using Smart Capture, you’ll have the option to either permanently delete the attachment or move it to the ‘General files’ tab in your Files area. Choose the relevant option from the menu.

The bank transaction will now be marked as ‘unexplained’ and displayed in red under both the ‘All’ and ‘Unexplained’ tabs in the ‘Banking’ area.

Removing multiple bank transaction explanations

For iOS devices, select the three dots in the top-right and choose ‘Select explanations to remove’ from the drop-down menu to bring up the option to select multiple transactions.

For Android devices, press and hold on a transaction to bring up the option to select multiple transactions.

Tick the checkbox to the left of each bank transaction explanation that you’d like to remove. Please note that you can remove multiple ‘Money In’ explanations or multiple ‘Money Out’ explanations at the same time, but you can’t remove a combination of the two. Instead, you'll need to remove one type of transaction first, then the other.

Select ‘Remove’ at the top of the screen.

If there are any files attached to the bank transactions that were automatically matched to the transaction by FreeAgent, they will now automatically be moved to the ‘Smart Capture’ tab in your Files area. If the attachments weren’t captured using Smart Capture, you will have the option to either permanently delete them or move them to the ‘General files’ tab in your Files area. Choose the relevant option from the menu.

The bank transactions will now be marked as ‘unexplained’ and displayed in red under both the ‘All’ and ‘Unexplained’ tabs in the ‘Banking’ area.