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Endorsements that matter: FreeAgent wins

by Dennis Howlett on May 8, 2009

Since this blog is intended for a professional audience it is perhaps fitting that after I’ve spent 3+ years handwaving in the direction of saas/on-demand accounting solutions that Stuart Jones should Tweet:

@StuartJones Very, very happy to have prepared accounts from client’s records kept on FreeAgent. Saved company £2K tax in process so that was good too.

Stuart has been reading this blog from very early on but was always sceptical about the ability of individuals to keep a set of records that would not require extensive re-work and unpicking when it came to final accounts preparation. For a professional to say: ‘very very happy’ is way beyond the kind of endorsement you’d expect of an accounting services vendor. What does FreeAgent get right?

Basically they blew apart the 600 year old double entry system in favour of one that makes sense to the end user. There is no need to understand ‘accounting’ per se. But at the same time, they always knew they’d need to satisfy regulatory and compliance needs. Keeping complexity in the background, providing a system that ‘learns’ from what users do, maintaining focus on the needs of the community they wish to reach and ensuring the user is always aware of their financial condition are the key ingredients. That and listening to customers. It seems that’s working for professionals as well.

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  • Yes agreed too :-)
    We have more clients moving over to FreeAgent each week, and we have had good feedback from those clients whose records now up to date and on the system. The possibilities are very exciting and it is changing the way we are working with our clients. I agree with M about the one sided journals concern, but, even if you forced a double entry then if the client does not know what to enter and uses a "suspense" account or other account in error, its just as bad. Time will tell though I guess. My experience is that FreeAgent delivers what it sets out too, and when I change my thinking away from some tradditions and think in the same way as "FreeAgent business logic" then everything falls into place very well. A good example was dealing with an intercompany loan account by using Bank Account section instead of focussing on the fact that there was no loan account, and it works very neatly :-)
  • Ooooh - I'd worked that out but needed you to say so (lol)
  • Agreed.

    At the ripe old age of 31 I have had a bellyful of unpicking rubbish records.

    I can't believe there are still accountants out there who make no effort to improve their clients' record-keeping. Don't get me started :-)

    FreeAgent, from what I've seen of it, is very slick and easy to use. My only gripe with it is that users can post one-way journals, which could be dangerous in the wrong hands.

    M
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