Introducing FreeAgent Mobile

In the next week or so, we’ll be rolling out a whole new way to experience FreeAgent - on your mobile phone!

There isn’t any app to download or install, you’ll just log in to your normal FreeAgent account on your iPhone, Android or Windows smartphone and straight into FreeAgent Mobile.

But first, some background

Development on FreeAgent Mobile (or FieldAgent, as it’s known round here) kicked off after a hack week project back in August, but we've been speaking to users for ages about a mobile version of FreeAgent, with 3 main themes emerging:

• People want to see an overview of their business health
• People want to identify the things that need immediate attention, like overdue invoices
• People want to be able to add things (like expenses) quickly on the move

Alongside these, the team had a small set of guiding mantras that defined our strategy for the project, namely:

• The mobile experience should work across different devices and platforms
• The mobile experience should not be a dumbed down version of the desktop experience, but...
• the mobile experience allows us to rethink assumptions of what the app does, and how it works.

With all of this in mind we knew a mobile web version of FreeAgent was the way to go, at least initially, and we had a good idea of the scope for the first release. It doesn't cover absolutely everything but it's a great start for mobile users.

So what can you expect?

The first release will contain a number of mobile optimised views for key sections. We're particularly proud of the re-imagined Overview Screen that displays cash flow, bank account data, mini profit and loss statement and a tax timeline.

Beyond that there are new mobile views for Contacts, Invoices, Bills and Expenses. There’s an optimised view for creating Expenses and Mileage claims, and you can even attach receipt images on iOS6 and newer Android phones.

Lots of the pages haven't yet been redesigned for mobile but you can still access these from the main navigation, as we didn’t want to limit functionality. Over time, we'll just keep making more and more pages of the app mobile friendly, and you'll automatically see these as we release them. 

Although we didn't want to needlessly restrict functionality there are cases where we've reworked screens to focus on the most relevant information, given the context and constraints. In the case of invoices we display only open and overdue invoices, along with associated totals, so you can focus on exactly who owes you money. 

Likewise, the Contacts list has been reworked, and is now ordered by who owes you the most. The details page even lets you put in a nagging phone call by tapping the phone number, or locate them on the map, if you're thinking of sending the boys round. In a nice way of course. 

There's more, but we don't want to spoil all the surprises just now.

When can I have it?

Soon! We’re fixing up the last few remaining bugs and hope to get this into your hands next week, so stay tuned!