Setting up your FreeAgent account - Universal

1 Business Details

FreeAgent account type

If your business is based outside the UK or US, choose 'Universal'.

Address

Fill in your business address details. These details will appear on the invoices you create in FreeAgent so make sure they’re correct.

Select ‘Save and Continue’ to go on to the next step.

2 My Settings

Choose from the drop-down list which format you’d like to use to enter dates into FreeAgent when you date your transactions. If you keep the default “dd mmm yy”, your dates will show as, for example, “25 Dec 17”.

Choose your business’s main currency from the list. Set your time zone, and choose the default language for your business.

If you’re going to be tracking milkeage, decide whether you want to do that in miles or kilometres.

Select ‘Save and Continue’ to go on to the next step.

3 Accounting Dates

When did you officially start your business?

This is the day the business officially started.

When did your first accounting year end?

This date will be used by FreeAgent to set the year end for future years too.
So if your first accounting year finished on 31st December 2017, FreeAgent will work out your accounts to 31st December 2018, 31st December 2019, etc. and produce reports ending on your first accounting year end date and for each year after that.
If you're not sure what your year end date should be, then ask your accountant. Don't worry, you can change the date later.

When would you like to start keeping your books from?

What we sometimes refer to as your ‘FreeAgent start date’, is the date from which you’re going to start keeping your books on FreeAgent. It might be today's date, or you might decide to start keeping your books on FreeAgent as from a new VAT quarter, or (perhaps the easiest because you'd be able to easily collect opening balances from your accountant), the start of a new accounting year for your business.

You shouldn’t enter any transactions dated before the FreeAgent start date, and all your opening balances will be as at that date too.

Select ‘Save and Continue’ to go on to the next step.

More Information:

• FreeAgent start date for new businesses
• FreeAgent start date for existing businesses

4 Main Sales Tax Settings

Not Registered

If your business isn’t registered for any sales taxes at all, choose “Not Registered” from the drop-down list.

Registered

And if your business is already registered for sales tax, choose “Registered” and fill in the details.

If you don't have the details to hand, choose "Not Registered" so that you can finish the Getting Started process, but remember to fill in your details before you issue any invoices.

FreeAgent can handle one or two different sales taxes.

Select ‘Save and Continue’ to go on to the next step.

5 Bank Account

Banking lies at the heart of FreeAgent. Money in and out of your business is analysed from your bank accounts to build a true picture of your business's accounts.

Account name

Give the account a name such as “Bank of America Current Account” so that it’s easy to identify this account later, if you put in more bank accounts.

Business and personal accounts

By default FreeAgent assumes that all bank accounts are business bank accounts. But if you’re a sole trader, or a partner in a non-limited-liability partnership, and you haven’t yet opened a dedicated account for your business, you can tick the box to make this a personal account.

Learn more about the differences between business and personal accounts.

Opening balance

The opening balance is the balance as at the start of the day on your FreeAgent start date - which is the balance at the close of play on the previous day.

Sort code and account number

If you want to take advantage of FreeAgent’s quick and easy categorisation of your bank transactions by uploading your statements electronically from Online Banking, you’ll need to fill in your bank account’s sort code and account number. If you don’t want to do this, just leave these boxes blank.