Explain funds transferred to or from a foreign currency bank account

This article describes how to explain bank transactions that relate to transfers to and from another bank account in FreeAgent that is in a foreign currency. It also explains how to correct duplicate transactions.

Once both bank transactions have been imported into your FreeAgent account via a bank feed or uploaded from a bank statement, you will need to follow the steps below to explain the transfer of funds in FreeAgent. Please note that following these steps before both transactions have been imported into FreeAgent may result in transactions being duplicated.

You can add a new bank account if you need to. If you need to manually add transactions related to a bank transfer, please see this article.

You’ll need to have level 6 access or above to your FreeAgent account to be able to explain bank transactions.

Explaining bank transfers

Navigate to the 'Banking' tab at the top of the screen and select 'Bank Accounts' from the drop-down menu.

Choose the bank account that the money is being transferred from.

Select the transaction that you would like to explain.

Select ‘Transfer to Another Account’ from the transaction ‘Type’ drop-down menu.

Select the relevant bank account that the funds are being transferred to using the ‘Bank Account’ drop-down menu.

Select ‘Explain Transaction’ to complete the process.

What happens next?

FreeAgent will record the transfer as equal ‘Money Out’ and ‘Money In’ transactions in your outgoing and receiving bank accounts.

If the corresponding ‘Money In’ bank transaction in the receiving bank account has already been imported into FreeAgent via a bank feed or bank statement upload, FreeAgent will automatically explain the bank transaction as a transfer from the outgoing bank account.

Correcting duplicate transactions

If the corresponding ‘Money In’ bank transaction in the receiving bank account has not yet been imported into FreeAgent via a bank feed or bank statement upload, FreeAgent will create a manual transaction in the receiving bank account.

When the corresponding ‘Money In’ bank transaction is then imported into FreeAgent, it may create a duplicate transaction for the transfer in the receiving bank account, which you’ll need to match with the existing manual transaction.

It’s possible that there will be a discrepancy between the amount that you recorded in FreeAgent and the amount that’s imported via a bank feed or statement upload because of a difference in conversion rate.

To correct this, you can edit the manual bank transaction (purple entry) and untick  the 'Automatic currency conversion' checkbox. This will allow you to change the value so that the amount is the same as the amount imported into FreeAgent, and then match the two transactions together.

Alternatively, you can delete the manual bank transaction (purple entry). Then select the transaction to explain and then ‘More Options’.

This will allow you to untick the ‘Automatic currency conversion’ checkbox and enter the correct value. Select ‘Transfer to Another Account’ from the ‘Type’ drop-down menu to complete the process

As the value entered is the same as the transfer transaction, this should explain the transfers in both accounts.