Using FreeAgent to keep the records if you get another accountant

[knutefla]

Many members mentioned FreeAgent is a really good solution for book keeping. Could you please confirm if it would provide the contractor a complete control on the historical records so changing for another accountant is not a problem ? I guess we can just keep the same FreeAgent account and just give the new accountant access to it, is that right ?

My current accountant provides its own specific online book keeping software, but my concern is that it may be complicated to change in six month time, and it will require a lot of work to catch up with the new system. What happens if you get FreeAgent provided by your accountant and you want to change, can you keep your account and pay for it ?

[pr1]

Many members mentioned FreeAgent is a really good solution for book keeping. Could you please confirm if it would provide the contractor a complete control on the historical records so changing for another accountant is not a problem ? I guess we can just keep the same FreeAgent account and just give the new accountant access to it, is that right ?

My current accountant provides its own specific online book keeping software, but my concern is that it may be complicated to change in six month time, and it will require a lot of work to catch up with the new system. What happens if you get FreeAgent provided by your accountant and you want to change, can you keep your account and pay for it ?

There is an "export all data" function in freeagent which spits everything into an excel document which makes it very easy to swap accountants even if you don't keep the same freeagent account

[Darren at Fox-Bartfield]

Freeagent

It's easily portable, the account you have remains intact no matter which accountant you have in place. The incoming accountant emails support at FA to notify of the change, FA then obtain confirmation from the client and outgoing accountants and transfer the agent details.

Similarly if you have your own account with them a quick email to support then puts the new accountant as your agent. Takes a day or so and quite painless.

To move from an external package to FA tends to work well using the CSV download from the old system then into FA.

[Maslins]

Many members mentioned FreeAgent is a really good solution for book keeping. Could you please confirm if it would provide the contractor a complete control on the historical records so changing for another accountant is not a problem ? I guess we can just keep the same FreeAgent account and just give the new accountant access to it, is that right ?

My current accountant provides its own specific online book keeping software, but my concern is that it may be complicated to change in six month time, and it will require a lot of work to catch up with the new system. What happens if you get FreeAgent provided by your accountant and you want to change, can you keep your account and pay for it ?

1st para - correct.

2nd para - FreeAgent accounts provided by an accountant are no different to ones you get yourself independently. It's just a temporary status of who pays for it, and who has access. When a FA account is on an accountant's dashboard, the accountant automatically has full access and pays for the account. When it's in personal ownership by a business, the business will pay for it, and they can choose to set up an accountant (or indeed several if they wanted to) as a "user" on the account to give access that way.

I'm sure most other FreeAgent friendly accountants like ourselves like the account to be on their dashboard for two reasons:
1) ease of access - we just need one login, rather than a separate login for each client's account,
2) we "bulk buy" accounts so get them at a hefty discount off the RRP.

It's not something you as a user should be concerned about, the accountant doesn't have any ability to hold your FreeAgent data to ransom/similar.

[knutefla]

Many thanks for your replies, that's what I wanted to know

[Fred Bloggs]

Actually, I think the rise of FreeAgent in the contracting world is a great thing for us. Not only does it put all your Ltd Co data in front of you in real time, it also gives you complete portability to choose your accountant with the minimum hassle or delay. The more people who realise this then the more we will see providers no longer being able to charge stupidly high fees for providing minimal added value. And on the other hand, it will help the added value providers to grow their businesses too. Win/Win for everyone.