Benefits of integrating Receipt Relay

No more typing in receipts

Forward a receipt or invoice to your own Receipt Relay email address, and it’s created in FreeAgent within a minute or two, with the original receipt attached, so your books stay up to date without logging in.

It files each receipt the way an accountant would 

A paid receipt is matched to the payment in your bank feed and explained, or added as a bank transaction if you enter them manually. An unpaid invoice becomes a bill with its due date entered automatically. Something paid on a personal card becomes an out-of-pocket expense. VAT is read from the receipt, including the reverse charge, and the same invoice is never created twice.

You stay in control

Everything appears in FreeAgent as normal, and bank payments can be marked for your approval. If something can’t be sent to FreeAgent, you get a short email explaining why.

For accountants, it means fewer missing receipts at year end. A practice logs in once with its FreeAgent practice login and switches Receipt Relay on for the clients it chooses.

How Receipt Relay works with FreeAgent

You log in to your FreeAgent account, which connects Receipt Relay through FreeAgent’s API, and you get your own private forwarding address. Only emails from addresses you approve are read, so nobody else can add anything to your books.

When a receipt or invoice arrives, Receipt Relay reads the supplier, date, amount, VAT and what was bought, and chooses a category from your own FreeAgent categories. It then creates the right record in FreeAgent:

• Paid receipts are matched to your bank feed and explained, without doubling up anything you’ve already recorded.
• Foreign currency receipts are matched to the payment in pounds when it reaches your bank feed.
• Unpaid invoices become bills.
• Personal card receipts become out-of-pocket expenses (it asks once per card).
• VAT is handled, including the reverse charge.
• Bank payments it explains can be marked for your approval.

It only adds records and attachments. The one thing it ever replaces is a guess FreeAgent has made itself about how to explain a payment, and only if nobody has approved it yet. Anything you’ve explained or approved is never touched.

For teams: employees forward their own receipts and each becomes an expense claim under their own FreeAgent user.

For accountants and bookkeepers: one practice login, an address for each client and you pay only for clients who use it.

How do I get started with Receipt Relay?

You can connect Receipt Relay with FreeAgent by following these steps:

Business owners

1. Go to receiptrelay.co.uk (opens in new window) and click ‘Sign in with FreeAgent’.
2. Answer one question: is your bank connected to FreeAgent?
3. Add the email addresses you’ll forward receipts from.
4. Forward a receipt to your Receipt Relay address, or set up a rule in Gmail or Outlook to forward them automatically.

Accountants

1. Go to receiptrelay.co.uk (opens in new window) and click ‘Sign in’ > ‘For your practice’.
2. Choose the clients to switch on.