The FreeAgent Blog

Hi-tech features, faster admin and a workflow so streamlined it'll be invisible to radar. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to read on…

Email File attachments

Uploading new Files into FreeAgent is now as fast and simple as sending an email.

Just attach the files to an email, send it to files@yourdomain.freeagent.com and *SHAZAM* - the attachments will appear in your Files section.

We've also upped the max file size limit on attachments to an altogether more accommodating 5MB. Go crazy!

Improved user management

We've made some changes to the way users are set up and handled in FreeAgent. Now when you create a new User you have the option of sending out an "invitation email", which lets them set up their own password when they first log in.

Setting the permissions for these users works in exactly the same way as it did before.

API 2.0 is here!

We recently posted on the blog about the release of our new API, featuring more resources, JSON responses and OAuth 2.0.

If that sounds like something R2D2 might say, then simply skip to the next section, but if you do want to get your geek on, take a look at the new Developer Dashboard, where you can tool up to integrate your new app and test apps in the sandbox.

We will be supporting the current API for a number of months but at some point we'll be taking this behind the barn out back and putting a bullet in it nudging it into retirement. We'll give plenty of warning of this, but if you have an existing app that uses our API you should definitely be taking a look at the new docs.

Changes to Capital Asset handling

We're changing the way we handle capital assets in FreeAgent.

We've set up a more logical coding system and created different accounts for additions, disposals, and depreciation during the year and on disposals.

If this is of interest, you can find out more in a recent blog post. I dare you to read the whole thing without nodding off!

Redesign preview

Unless you've been hibernating for the last few months you'll probably have heard about our upcoming interface redesign.

If you are only just waking from a winter-long slumber, emerging frightened and bewildered into the morning light, then fear not - we've put together a Redesign Preview which will get you up to speed with everything you need to know.

Take a look and bluff with ease the next time it comes up at a dinner party. Easy now!

We're running out of time!

Quick, before you go:

• We've improved the Contacts Importer so it doesn't explode when you try to import large amounts of contacts
• We've completely rewritten our PayPal sync so it's faster and more robust

And finally - vote for FreeAgent

Every year we enter the Software Satisfaction Awards. It's an important one for us, because it's voted for by you the customer, and we've been lucky enough to win it in the past.

Once again, we're pitted as nimble Velociraptors against the lumbering Diplodoci of the accounting software incumbents and it would mean a lot to us if you can spare the time to Vote for FreeAgent and give us an Excellent (hint, hint) score. Every vote really does count!

This post will self destruct in 5,4,3,2,1…
Roan & The Team at FreeAgent.

We’re changing the way we handle capital assets in FreeAgent.

We've set up more logical nominal codes and created different accounts for additions, disposals, and depreciation during the year and on disposals.

If you look at the list of FreeAgent codes under Journal Entries or in Accounting > Trial Balance > Chart of Accounts CSV, you’ll see the following codes:

• 601 - Capital Asset Brought Forward
• 601-1 - Computer Equipment Brought Forward
• 601-2 - Fixtures and Fittings Brought Forward
• 601-3 - Motor Vehicles Brought Forward
• 601-4 - Other Capital Asset Brought Forward
• 602 - Capital Asset Purchase
• 602-1 - Computer Equipment Purchase
• 602-2 - Fixtures and Fittings Purchase
• 602-3 - Motor Vehicles Purchase
• 602-4 - Other Capital Asset Purchase
• 604 - Capital Asset Disposal
• 604-1 - Computer Equipment Disposal
• 604-2 - Fixtures and Fittings Disposal
• 604-3 - Motor Vehicles Disposal
• 604-4 - Other Capital Asset Disposal
• 605 - Capital Asset Depreciation
• 605-1 - Computer Equipment Depreciation Brought Forward
• 605-2 - Fixtures and Fittings Depreciation Brought Forward
• 605-3 - Motor Vehicles Depreciation Brought Forward
• 605-4 - Other Capital Asset Depreciation Brought Forward
• 606 - Capital Asset Depreciation
• 606-1 - Computer Equipment Depreciation In Year
• 606-2 - Fixtures and Fittings Depreciation In Year
• 606-3 - Motor Vehicles Depreciation In Year
• 606-4 - Other Capital Asset Depreciation In Year
• 607 - Depreciation on Disposal of Capital Asset
• 607-1 - Depreciation on Disposal of Computer Equipment
• 607-2 - Depreciation on Disposal of Fixtures and Fittings
• 607-3 - Depreciation on Disposal of Motor Vehicles
• 607-4 - Depreciation on Disposal of Other Capital Asset

So what does that mean for you?

If you don’t have any capital assets on your books, then you can stop reading this now.

If you do have capital assets, then you’ll see things working slightly differently.

We’ve changed the numbers of some codes as follows:

• 611 (Computer Equipment Additions) will become 602-1 (Computer Equipment Purchase)
• 613 (Fixtures & Fittings) will become 602-2 (Fixtures & Fittings Purchase)
• 615 (Motor Vehicles) will become 602-3 (Motor Vehicles Purchase)
• 612 (Computer Equipment Acc. Depreciation) will become 606-1 (Computer Equipment Depreciation In Year)
• 614 (Fixtures & Fittings Acc. Depreciation) will become 606-2 (Fixtures & Fittings Depreciation In Year)
• 616 (Motor Vehicles Acc. Depreciation) will become 606-3 (Motor Vehicles Depreciation In Year)

These codes will be discontinued, so If you have any figures in codes 611-616 you’ll see them in slightly different places when you next look at your Trial Balance. Other than this, the Balance Sheet will look exactly the same.

We’ve also worked some accounting magic so that anything you post to a code starting with 602 or 604 will be rolled up into its counterpart starting with 601 at the end of the financial year, so that at the start of the new financial year you’ll see last year’s cost brought forward, plus any additions, less any disposals, all in the one code. This is something you’d otherwise need to do yourself, or ask your accountant to do, when your final accounts are prepared.

Similarly, anything you post to the 606 or 607 codes will go automatically into its 605 counterpart at the end of the year. This is to do the same thing with the depreciation.

FreeAgent’s automatic depreciation entries will be posted into the codes that end in “Depreciation in Year”.

New assets

When you enter a purchase of a capital asset, you'll be asked how you'd like to categorise it - Computer Equipment, Fixtures and Fittings, Motor Vehicles, or Other.  Make sure you choose the correct category so that your asset goes into the right line on the balance sheet.

We've been dying to tell everyone about something for the last few months and it’s great to finally let the cat out of the bag - we can today announce that we're launching a US operation: FreeAgent Inc.

For the estimated 42 million freelancers and self-employed workers currently in the States, tax filing is just as fraught for our US cousins as it is in the UK - so we’ll be in place and ready to help ease the burden for them over the year ahead.

As usual we don’t do things by halves: to kick-start our US plans we’ve acquired a great software company called 60mo, and we’ve raised a further round of growth investment from Lightbank, a high-profile Chicago-based tech fund.

The guys from 60mo have a wealth of knowledge of US accounting and taxes, and have been visiting FreeAgent HQ in Edinburgh for an intensive Rocky-style training montage to prepare them for the task ahead. We’ve force-fed them deep-fried pizzas and Irn Bru, plugged them into the FreeAgent matrix and sent them back to the US unobtrusively tattooed with Saltires.

Before leaving sunny Scotland, the new FreeAgent Inc team solemnly promised to “take the ball and run with it”. Personally, we think that if they’re using a football metaphor they should be kicking the ball, not carrying it - and they can take those ridiculous pads and helmets off while they’re at it as well.

Now that they’re back home, the team is helping us build US versions of the unique, automatic accounting, tax-forecasting and filing features that our UK users enjoy. Unlike software packages such as Quickbooks which are currently widely-used in the US, we’ll be offering an accounting tool that is designed specifically for freelancers and independent workers and makes them feel smart, not stupid, about their finances.

This is great news too for our other users in both the UK and elsewhere in the world. We'll have more resources to improve FreeAgent in ways that will benefit everyone. And building from our recently announced direct feeds with Barclays, we'll continue to press forward with even more revolutionary capabilities for the UK version of FreeAgent.

Onwards and upwards!

This morning at FreeAgent towers we celebrated welcoming aboard our 20,001st subscriber.

It feels like we barely have time to reflect on where we’ve come in the last five years before we shift up yet another gear. This time it took us all of nine months to double our customer count, a real testament to the strength of our product and the dedication and hard work of the team here.

Does that mean we’re resting on our laurels now? Now’s the time to kick back a little? After all we’ve got this thing sorted, right?

Certainly not. We’ll continue to invest heavily in maintaining the exceptional quality of our customer service across the growing customer base. We’ll continue to improve the already best-in-class design, usability, responsiveness and capability of our product. We’ll continue to build strong relationships with market-leading partners and relentlessly progress towards our goal of ‘democratising accounting’ - making business owners everywhere be awesome at managing their finances.

And if it’s not mixing the space opera metaphors too much, we’ll continue to boldly go where no accounting software has gone before!

PS If you want to be a part of the FreeAgent story, check out our open jobs. We’re especially keen to find the world’s best ruby engineers and superhero support accountants & bookkeepers!