2021: a year in review

Following the unprecedented challenges of 2020, this year has seen accountants and bookkeepers continue to prepare for the next phases of Making Tax Digital. 

With our partners’ practices thriving, FreeAgent has grown too, adding much-requested new features to the software and hosting a range of events to help you and your clients prepare for the digital road ahead. 

As we approach the end of 2021, here’s a look back at how FreeAgent has supported you and your practice throughout the year.

Developing our software to support your needs

Over the past 12 months, we’ve released a wide range of new functionality at no extra cost to support you and your clients.

Saving your clients time with our award-winning mobile app 

In 2021, we continued to improve the FreeAgent mobile app for your clients, winning the Client App of the Year award at the Institute of Chartered Bookkeepers' annual LUCA Awards for bookkeepers and software vendors in November.

In July, we added Auto Extract to the FreeAgent mobile app’s ‘Capture for later’ functionality. Auto Extract is a handy time-saving feature that extracts information from your clients’ receipts automatically. More than 70,000 receipts have already been scanned since the feature went live.

Finally, we added the ability to approve bank transactions in bulk on the FreeAgent mobile app for Android users last week. We’ll be introducing this functionality for iOS users soon. 

End of Year filing

In April, we released the option to file your clients’ Final Accounts and Corporation Tax returns directly to Companies House and HMRC through FreeAgent. The integrated e-signature capture allows clients with the user role of ‘Director’ to approve their accounts before you file them.

We added CT600A supplementary pages to the filing process in November, allowing you to file on behalf of businesses in which any of the directors have debit balances on their loan accounts at year end.

Making the most of your clients’ banking data

In April, we launched some exciting updates to FreeAgent’s Cashflow forecasting functionality, improving its prediction algorithm and making it even easier for you and your clients to tailor their Cashflow picture in the software.

Our ‘Balance at bank’ functionality, released in May, allows you to see a client’s true bank balance without having to chase them for statements.

Meanwhile, FreeAgent’s ‘Guess’ functionality - an AI-powered feature that guesses explanations for clients' bank transactions - guessed 1.5 million bank transactions per month in 2021, with an average accuracy rate of 95%.

Listening to your feedback

Many of the improvements we make to our software are inspired by feedback and requests we receive from our Practice Partners. Our functionality to support VAT re-registration, released in June, and the improvements we made in August to the process of adding new clients to your Practice Dashboard are just two examples of product improvements we made this year in response to partner feedback. 

Preparing you and your clients for Making Tax Digital 

The implementation of the government’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative has continued to be an extremely hot topic in 2021. Throughout the year, we’ve focused on providing our partners with as much practical help and support as possible. 

We’ve created dedicated resource hubs for partners on MTD for VAT and MTD for Income Tax Self Assessment (MTD for ITSA), which include content you can share with your clients to help them prepare for the upcoming changes.

Providing opportunities to learn, discuss and debate 

In 2021, we continued to provide a wide range of opportunities for our partners to hear from industry experts and engage in debate, with a year-long series of informative and engaging webinars.

Highlights included a session in June on preparing your landlord clients for MTD for ITSA, a debate on MTD pricing strategies in September and a panel discussion on the future of accountancy in November.

As lockdown restrictions started to ease in the latter half of the year, we were delighted to be able to meet accountants and bookkeepers at in-person events, including our roadshows for Practice Partners. These events took place throughout November and focused on helping our partners prepare for the introduction of MTD for ITSA.

Keeping you up to date with industry news

In 2021, we reported on a wide range of industry news stories and legislative updates that affected you and your small business clients. These included:

Supporting you every step of the way

We’ve been committed to providing our Practice Partners with as much support as possible all year round. 

Our dedicated Practice Support team has been hard at work, answering 93% of partner support queries live and responding to chat enquiries in an average time of 1 minute and 13 seconds, achieving a 98% satisfaction rate from our partners in the process.

In 2021, we improved our learning and accreditation experience and 60% of our partners are now enjoying the benefits of becoming accredited. 

You may have noticed that we’ve also made some big changes to the look and feel of our Practice Portal. In 2022, you can expect to see even more exclusive content and resources for FreeAgent partners here on the portal.

We’d like to thank you for being a FreeAgent Practice Partner in 2021 and wish you, your practice and clients all the very best for the year ahead.