It's very important to make sure all your business bank transactions are correctly recorded in FreeAgent. This is because it's the first thing your accountant will look at, but more importantly, it's something any visiting tax inspector is almost guaranteed to check.
OK, so what's the best way to get all my bank transactions in?
The quickest and easiest way to do this is to export your bank statement from Online Banking, then upload it into FreeAgent, and then explain all the transactions.
1. Export statement from online banking
Firstly, you'll need to go into your online banking account and export your statement. I can't show you this because it would be impossible to show examples of accounts from every single bank, not to mention how long the article would end up being. If you do get stuck with exporting the data then you would need to speak to your bank.
When you're exporting, do just make sure that you've included the correct dates for your statement. If you've already input any transactions into FreeAgent make sure that you start from the day after the last transaction's date, if you haven't then make sure you go back as far as your FreeAgent start date if you possibly can. But don't worry if you inadvertently upload the same transactions twice, because FreeAgent will spot any duplicates and ignore them.
Information required in FreeAgent
You need to have your bank account and sort code entered into FreeAgent for the account for which you're going to upload transactions.
Export format
To know what format to export your data in, in FreeAgent click on Banking, and then, on the left-hand menu, click on the bank account for which you're going to upload a statement, and click Upload Statement.
Or alternatively, you can choose Upload a Statement from the Quick Links menu on the Overview screen.
If you use this option, FreeAgent will ask you to choose which bank account you are uploading to.
Whichever option you use to start uploading, FreeAgent then gives you a list of recommended formats to upload in.
2. Import statement into FreeAgent
Once you've exported your statement from your online banking system and saved it to your computer in the correct format, click Browse here, and find on your computer the file you've just saved.
Click on it, then click Upload Statement.
If you want FreeAgent to guess which transactions belong in which category, by looking at transactions you've previously uploaded, then tick the Guess box. Do check to make sure that FreeAgent has guessed correctly!
Unexplained transactions
FreeAgent uploads the file and gives you a message to say how many unexplained transactions there are.
If this is a business bank account, you'll see the number of unexplained transactions here on the left-hand menu.
You'll also see warnings in various places throughout the software, such as here on the profit and loss account, if you have unexplained transactions on a business bank account.
If the account is set as personal then FreeAgent will not monitor unexplained transactions.
Then once you've uploaded the transactions, the next step is to explain them.
If your upload doesn't work successfully, then please contact us for help, by e-mailing support@freeagent.com
What if I've uploaded the wrong statement?
You can undo the last upload.