Invoicing and chasing
Raise an invoice from a template, take card payment on it, and let it send its own reminders. Getting paid faster is worth more to most small businesses than any tax tweak.
FreeAgent
FreeAgent, set up by a partner and run every day
The bookkeeping software for sole traders, contractors, landlords and smaller limited companies — and free for good if you bank with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle.
What you get
- Free with the right bank account
- Set up around how you make money
- Bank feeds and receipts from your phone
- A running tax figure on the dashboard
- MTD-ready VAT and income tax
- No margin on the licence in your fee
FreeAgent is accounting software built for sole traders, contractors, freelancers, landlords and smaller limited companies. It does the day-to-day well and does not try to be an enterprise system, which is exactly why it suits the businesses it suits.
It is also the one piece of software many businesses can get for nothing, which is worth knowing before you pay for something else.
The cost
It may well be free for you
- Free, permanently
- If you hold a business current account with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank, FreeAgent is included for as long as you keep the account. With a Mettle account it is free for as long as you make at least one transaction a month.
- Otherwise £33 a month
- For a limited company, or £330 a year, both excluding VAT. Sole trader and partnership plans cost less. (FreeAgent's published pricing, checked 8 September 2026.)
- What that means
- A limited company banking with one of those banks saves £330 a year plus VAT against paying for FreeAgent separately. That is the whole of the “save up to £330” claim, and it is FreeAgent's own number rather than ours.
- What we charge for it
- Nothing. The subscription is between you and FreeAgent, or free with the bank account. We are a partner, not a reseller, and there is no margin on it in your fee.
What it does
The parts you will actually use
Bank feeds
A read-only daily feed from your business account. It cannot move money, and it is what makes the books current rather than a January project.
Receipt capture
Photograph it on your phone and it is filed with the transaction. HMRC wants the evidence kept; this is the version of that which actually happens.
Tax timeline
A running estimate of what you owe and when, on the dashboard. Not a promise, but a great deal better than finding out in January.
MTD ready
VAT returns filed straight to HMRC, and ready for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from April 2026. See the MTD checker for which year applies to you.
Time and projects
Time tracking and project profitability, which matters if you bill by the hour or the job and have never been certain which jobs actually made money.
What we do with it
A partner is not the same as a subscription
- 1Set it up properly
Chart of accounts that matches how you actually make money, bank feeds connected, opening balances from your last accounts, VAT scheme configured. A default setup answers far fewer questions than a considered one.
- 2Show you the four things you need
Raise an invoice, photograph a receipt, explain a transaction, find your tax timeline. That is half an hour and it is genuinely the whole of the training.
- 3Watch it during the month
We are in your file, so a mis-coded transaction gets fixed in week two rather than at the year end when nobody remembers what it was.
- 4Do the filings from it
VAT, the year end, the tax return, all from the same records. No re-keying and no “send us the spreadsheet”.
What it looks like
Six screens you will use every month
FreeAgent is the ledger. The Buzz portal and app sit alongside it and hold the things it does not: your deadlines, your documents, the questions we have asked you and the ones you have asked us. Both are included — the what is included page walks through those screens.
Screenshots: FreeAgent. Buzz is a FreeAgent partner.
Questions
What people ask about FreeAgent
Is FreeAgent really free?
Yes, if you hold a business current account with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank — for as long as you keep the account — or a Mettle account with at least one transaction a month. Otherwise it is £33 a month or £330 a year excluding VAT for a limited company. Those are FreeAgent's own published figures, checked on 8 September 2026.
FreeAgent or Xero?
FreeAgent for sole traders, contractors, landlords and simpler limited companies, especially where the bank makes it free. Xero once you need stock, projects at scale, multi-currency, a bigger payroll or a lot of transactions. We are partners for both, so the answer is about your business rather than our licence.
Can you take over my existing FreeAgent file?
Yes. We are added as your accountant, review what is in there, and tell you honestly what needs tidying before it can be relied on. There is no migration involved.
Do I have to do my own bookkeeping on it?
No. Some clients do the day-to-day and we review it; some hand it over entirely — see cloud bookkeeping. What does not work is nobody doing it, which is what a shoebox actually is.
Will it do my Self Assessment?
It prepares the figures and we prepare and file the return. FreeAgent can file a sole trader return directly, but the reliefs and judgement calls that make a return right are not something software decides for you.
What happens if I leave Buzz?
The file is yours and it stays yours. We remove ourselves as agent and you keep everything in it. Nothing about our arrangement locks your records up.
Accreditations & Partnerships
