Reply to: Good Timesheets & Expenses Apps

[PeterSon55]

a friend of mine uses Xero and admits it has saved him lots of time overall. recommends it to everyone, so i'm thinking of using it too

[SimonMac]

Current agency uses:

Timesheet Portal Prices

Seems to work well, no idea who it stacks up price wise but for a single user its about £30+VAT a month for Timesheets and Expenses only

[SueEllen]

thanks all. FreeAgent it is by the looks of it!

Out of interest, are you all using FreeAgent for accountants, and are you doing your own accounts or through an online accountant?

I look at the likes of FreeAgent, and I think, why bother? Surely my accountant should take care of most of this?

(n00b remember )

If you want your accountant to do your bookkeeping you will pay a lot more.

Freeagent, Xero, Sage etc and spreadsheets are all tools that enable you to do your bookkeeping yourself.

[Invisiblehand]

thanks all. FreeAgent it is by the looks of it!

Out of interest, are you all using FreeAgent for accountants, and are you doing your own accounts or through an online accountant?

I look at the likes of FreeAgent, and I think, why bother? Surely my accountant should take care of most of this?

(n00b remember )

Freeagent offers you automation and visibility most accountants do not. Most contractors prefer to have a professional actually do the submissions and be on hand to answer any queries you may have.

[FrontEnder]

thanks all. FreeAgent it is by the looks of it!

Out of interest, are you all using FreeAgent for accountants, and are you doing your own accounts or through an online accountant?

I look at the likes of FreeAgent, and I think, why bother? Surely my accountant should take care of most of this?

(n00b remember )

You need to keep records of everything, expenses/mileage capital purchases and most importantly invoices and sales. Your accountant will ask that you record these in some ways, so generally there's 2 choices - fill everything in on a spreadsheet or use online bookkeeping like Freeagent.

I much prefer using Freeagent as I can set up a data feed from my bank account. I can set up things like regular bills and expenses and I can then match up the transactions (It will usually automatically do this and I just need to approve it). I can set up my regular weekly milleage and then just delete or change it if I do anything out of the ordinary.

Most importantly it will give you a view of what profit I have (i.e. how much I can take out as a dividend) at that time. If you look at you're bank account you might see £20k in there, but how much of that do you owe out in VAT, corporation tax etc.

Your accountant should be able to tell you this, but do you want to phone him up or email him when you can just log on and find out in seconds?

[northernladuk]

FreeAgent is just a booking tool. It doesn't keep abreast of changes and the intricacies of tax law. I can claim anything I want on FreeAgent but my accountant will tell me I can't. Conversely my accountant can tell me what I've not claimed for.

[thunk]

thanks all. FreeAgent it is by the looks of it!

Out of interest, are you all using FreeAgent for accountants, and are you doing your own accounts or through an online accountant?

I look at the likes of FreeAgent, and I think, why bother? Surely my accountant should take care of most of this?

(n00b remember )

[Louisa@AardvarkAccounting]

I think Louisa is referring to apps like Receipt Bank, where they fill out the amount, date and the description based on the receipt uploads.

Yes, that's the one, Receipt Bank is the one I've used in the past but there are a couple of options now.

It's great, if you have a lot of receipts and want to reduce any time inputting them.

[Michael at BI Accountancy]

ICBW, but I "think" FA's own app does that now? Anyway, I agree. And as FA becomes the default option for contractors, we'll see more stuff like this coming out.

I think Louisa is referring to apps like Receipt Bank, where they fill out the amount, date and the description based on the receipt uploads.

[FrontEnder]

ICBW, but I "think" FA's own app does that now? Anyway, I agree. And as FA becomes the default option for contractors, we'll see more stuff like this coming out.

You can upload photos/attachments using the app, but you still have to fill in the details.

There's a 3rd party app that can do that, but it wasn't worth it for me. It was a monthly fee, almost as much as freeagent I think.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

I remember a few years ago when I used to recommend FreeAgent I was seemingly one of the only ones. Now you're all using it. Bloody hipsters.

[Darren at Fox-Bartfield]

Freeagent

Looks like that's +3 for the Freeagent option!

The app is pretty good, uploading photographs of receipts and allocating accordingly. I understand that they're also bringing in some form of OCR shortly to help auto allocate/suggest account headings in the same way as the import function does at the moment.

[Fred Bloggs]

+2. You can also add other app's too which integrate with FreeAgent. For example, receipt apps, where you can take a photo, it will then analyse the receipt and add in the details automatically.

ICBW, but I "think" FA's own app does that now? Anyway, I agree. And as FA becomes the default option for contractors, we'll see more stuff like this coming out.

[Invisiblehand]

Definitely Freeagent.

[Louisa@AardvarkAccounting]

+1. No point in using anything else IMO. The app does loads of useful stuff too.

+2. You can also add other app's too which integrate with FreeAgent. For example, receipt apps, where you can take a photo, it will then analyse the receipt and add in the details automatically.