How to schedule a bill payment using Payit™ on mobile

This article explains how to schedule a payment for a bill for a future date with Payit™ using the FreeAgent mobile app.

If you're using the desktop version of FreeAgent, find out how to schedule a bill payment using Payit™.

Please note that Payit™ is only available if you have full (level 8) access to your FreeAgent account and if a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank business current account is your primary bank account in FreeAgent. You also can’t use Payit™ to part-pay any bills.

When you schedule a bill to be paid at a future date, your Cashflow report will use the scheduled date instead of the bill date.

To pay the bill immediately, find out how to pay bills using Payit™ on mobile instead of following the steps below.

What is Payit™?

Payit™, a service provided by NatWest, is a fast and simple way to make payments. It uses Open Banking to let you make secure payments from your NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank business current account to any other major UK bank without leaving FreeAgent. Payit™ is free to use and no fees are applied.

Before you get started

For the best experience, you should install and set up your bank’s mobile app on your device before using Payit™.

You will need to ensure that the person you want to pay is set up as a contact in FreeAgent, with their bank account details included in their contact profile, before you can use Payit™ to make a payment to them.

To create a new contact within the FreeAgent mobile app, tap the three-lined 'hamburger' icon at the top-left of the FreeAgent mobile app and select 'Contacts'.

Tap the '+' at the top-right of the screen and enter the relevant details for the contact, including their bank details, and tap ‘Save’ in the top-right corner to complete the process.

How to schedule a bill payment for a future date with Payit™

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

Select the bill that you’d like to pay from the list. If you haven’t added the bill yet, tap the ‘+’ at the top-right corner, select the relevant contact and complete the details for the bill. Find out more about how to add a bill.

Next, scroll down and select 'Review and pay'.

If you didn’t add a payment reference when you first added the bill, you can do so now by tapping the ‘Reference’ field. The payment reference can be up to 18 characters long and must contain only letters and numbers. If you don’t enter a payment reference, the bill reference will be used automatically instead.

Next, tap on the calendar icon to select a date to schedule the payment for.

The date will default to the current date, but you can choose a date in the future.

Please note that some banks do not process payments on weekends or bank holidays. If you select a date that falls on a weekend, you’ll receive an error message.

If you select a date when your bank doesn’t process payments, your bank may advise that you’ve selected an invalid date when you go through your bank's online banking journey. You would need to return to FreeAgent and choose a valid date.

Once you have chosen the relevant date, tap ‘Schedule with Payit’.

Next, you’ll see a confirmation page where you'll be able to review the details of the bill before scheduling the payment. Once you’re happy that these details are correct, tap ‘Continue’ to proceed.

You’ll be taken through your bank’s online banking login journey to authorise the payment. Follow the prompts provided by your bank. Please note that you will need to complete this step each time you pay a bill or schedule a bill payment using Payit™.

What happens next?

Once the scheduled bill payment has been authorised, you’ll be redirected to the FreeAgent mobile app. When you return to FreeAgent, you will see a green banner confirming the date that the payment is scheduled for.

If the scheduled date has passed and FreeAgent hasn’t received the payment from your bank during the next import, a banner will appear advising you to contact your bank.

Managing the transaction in FreeAgent

Please note that the articles referenced below explain how to complete each process using the desktop version of FreeAgent, rather than the FreeAgent mobile app.

To check if the payment has been made successfully on the day it was scheduled, please check your online banking for the most up to date information.

Once the bill has been paid, the scheduled payment will appear in the 'Banking' section of your FreeAgent account during the next import if you have a bank feed set up, not on the date of the payment. If you don’t have a bank feed set up, you will need to either upload the bank transaction to FreeAgent or enter it manually.

If you’ve enabled the ‘Guess’ feature in FreeAgent, the software will attempt to match the imported or uploaded transaction to the appropriate bill and mark the bill as paid. If you haven’t enabled the ‘Guess’ feature, you can explain the bank transaction manually, choosing ‘Bill Payment’ as the transaction type. Find out more about how to pay a single bill.

Amending or cancelling a Payit™ payment

If you would like to change or cancel your scheduled payment, this will need to be done in your banking app or online banking. Typically there will be a scheduled payment or standing order section to manage future payments. If you can’t locate the payment, please contact your bank for further assistance.

If you cancel a scheduled payment with your bank and you would like the ‘scheduled’ status to be removed in FreeAgent, please contact our support team by navigating to the ‘Settings’ drop-down menu in the top-left corner and selecting ‘Contact support’.