Setting up your FreeAgent account

This article explains how to set up your FreeAgent account after you’ve signed up.

This article contains the following topics. Select a link to skip straight to that section:

• Signing up for FreeAgent
• Entering your business details
• Choosing your display formats
• Entering your accounting dates
• Entering your sales tax details
• Entering your banking details
• What should I do next?

Signing up for FreeAgent

On the initial sign up page, enter your first and last name, email address and business name. Then, select your business type and category, enter a secure password and select ‘Get started with FreeAgent’ to proceed to the next step.

Entering your business details

Business type

First, you will need to select a business type for your FreeAgent account from the ‘Confirm your Business Type’ drop-down menu. Businesses based outside of the UK can choose either a US Sole Proprietor, US Partnership, US Limited Liability Company, US C Corp, US S Corp or Universal account type. 

There is also a ‘Universal’ account which can be used for UK or international businesses and charities that don't require some of the complex functionality that other UK-based business types require, such as VAT, payroll, Self Assessment and Corporation Tax computations.

If your business is a charity, not-for-profit organisation, social enterprise, or community interest company (CIC), find out how to choose the appropriate account type.

Please note that it’s important to select the appropriate business type when creating your account, as this cannot be changed later. This is because each type of FreeAgent account has different features based on the needs of that kind of business.

Business category

Next, you need to select the category that best describes your business from the ‘Business Category’ drop-down menu. The category you choose won’t affect your FreeAgent experience so if there isn’t a category that matches your business, please choose the category closest to your business.

If your business is a charity, not-for-profit organisation, social enterprise or community interest company, select ‘Charity/NFP/CIC'.

Business name

Then, enter your business name and address. These details will appear on the invoices you create in FreeAgent.

Select ‘Save and Continue’ to proceed to the next step.

Choosing your display formats

Next, you’ll be able to select your preferred display formatting. This includes short date format, currency, timezone, default locale and mileage units.

Choose which format you’d like to use to enter dates into FreeAgent from the 'Short Date Format' drop-down menu.

Then, choose your business's base currency, select your time zone, default language for adding contacts and distance units for entering mileage claims from the drop-down menus.

Select ‘Save and Continue’ to proceed to the next step.

Entering your accounting dates

Next, you’ll need to enter your business’s accounting dates.

When did you officially start your business?

This is the day that your business officially started.

When did your first accounting year end?

The ‘First Accounting Year End Date’ is the date that you want FreeAgent to prepare your first accounting year to.

Please note that the date that you enter as your ‘First Accounting Year End Date’ will be used by FreeAgent to set the year end for future years too. For example, if your first accounting year ended on 30th June one year, FreeAgent will prepare your accounting reports to 30th June each year.

What date do you want to keep your books from?

The 'FreeAgent Start Date' is the date from which you're going to start keeping your books in FreeAgent. Your choice of date will depend on whether your business is new or existing.

If your business is new or if you’ve been trading for less than a year, you might decide to start keeping your books in FreeAgent from the start date of your business. If you’ve been trading for longer, you might choose the start of the most recent accounting year.

All bank transactions, invoices, bills, out-of-pocket expenses, capital assets and journal entries entered into FreeAgent need to be dated on or after your FreeAgent start date. If you enter any of these with a date before your FreeAgent start date, they will not be counted in FreeAgent.

Select ‘Save and Continue’ to proceed to the next step.

Entering your sales tax details

Next, you have the option to enter your sales tax information.

Not registered

If your business isn’t registered for any sales taxes or you don't have the details to hand and want to enter these later, choose 'Not Registered' from the ‘Registered for Sales Tax’ drop-down menu.

Please note that you will need to enter these details before issuing your first invoice.

Registered

If your business is registered for sales taxes, choose 'Registered' from the ‘Registered for Sales Tax’ drop-down menu and enter the relevant details.

Select ‘Save and Continue’ to proceed to the next step.

Entering your banking details

Banking is one of the most important features in FreeAgent. The software prepares your business’s accounts based on the explanations you give for the money paid into and out of your business bank accounts.

Account name

Enter an account name for the bank account to make it easy to identify in case you add more bank accounts later.

By default FreeAgent assumes that all bank accounts are business bank accounts. If you haven’t opened a business bank account for your business, you can tick the checkbox to mark it as a personal account.

Learn more about the differences between business and personal accounts.

Bank details

In order to upload bank statements from your online banking, you’ll need to enter your account and routing numbers in the fields provided. If you don’t want to do this, or would prefer to do this later, leave these blank.

Opening balance

The opening balance is the bank balance before any new transactions on the date you choose as your FreeAgent start date (in other words, the balance at the close of play on the previous day). Enter the exact balance in the field provided. Please note that not entering the correct opening balance can result in reconciliation issues.

Select 'Save and Finish' to complete the setup process and start using FreeAgent.

Once you’ve signed up for a FreeAgent account, you’ll receive an email asking you to verify your email address. It’s important that you follow the instructions in the email to confirm your account to prevent temporary limitations being placed on your account.

What should I do next?

Once you’ve set up and confirmed your FreeAgent account, we recommend reviewing our guide to getting started with FreeAgent and getting to grips with the terminology.