Note: The FreeAgent integration is in Beta and currently available to a select group of practices and their clients. We’re working on opening it up to everyone soon.
Connect FreeAgent to Apron to keep your bills, contacts, bank accounts and categories in sync in both directions, so you never have to enter anything twice. You can also publish captured documents straight to FreeAgent.
Before you start
FreeAgent lets the Business owner authorise the connection, so they’re the one who completes the final steps. The same applies to refreshing, restoring and disconnecting.
Pick the option that fits:
Practice setting up a client – go to Connect FreeAgent for a client.
Business owner – go to Connect FreeAgent as the Business owner.
Connect FreeAgent for a client
Your client’s Business owner connects FreeAgent from their own Apron account, so your part is getting them set up and sending them the steps.
Add the Business owner to Apron – make sure your client’s Business owner is added to their Apron company. Check how to add your clients in our article: Add and manage your clients, and how to add the owner in: Invite the business owner.
Share the guide with your client – send them the steps in Connect FreeAgent as the Business owner below, or the link to this article. They’ll just need a few minutes to log in to FreeAgent, select their company and approve access.
Once your client approves access, the connection is live, and you’ll see the data syncing.
Connect FreeAgent as the Business owner
Go to Settings > Company settings > Accounting app. You can also start from Bill Pay by clicking Add bills, then Import from Accounting App.
Click Connect and choose FreeAgent.
Log in to FreeAgent and select your company.
Approve access.
That’s it. You’ll be taken back to Apron, and your data will start syncing.
Note: If you see a message saying the company already exists, that FreeAgent company is already linked to another Apron account. Ask a member of that company to add you to it in Apron.
What syncs
Changes made in either Apron or FreeAgent sync to the other:
Bills – reference, dates, currency and total
Contacts – name, organisation, address and email
Bank accounts – your company’s bank accounts come across from FreeAgent automatically, ready to use in Apron
Categories – the categories used to classify your bills
Tax rates – all the tax rates set up in your FreeAgent account
To pull the latest categories and tax rates from FreeAgent, go to Settings > Company settings > Lists and click Refresh.
Note: Bank accounts are managed in FreeAgent, so add or update your company’s accounts there and they’ll appear in Apron. Your suppliers’ bank details are managed in Apron, so add them to the contact in Apron before you pay.
Publish documents to FreeAgent
Anyone with publishing permissions in Apron can publish documents to FreeAgent from the Inbox in Apron. Once a document is fully processed, it appears in the Bills section in FreeAgent within a few minutes.
What gets created – a bill in FreeAgent
Attachments – one attachment per bill, up to 5MB. Note: if the attachment is larger than 5MB, it won’t be possible to view it in FreeAgent
For more on publishing, check our article: Publish to your accounting software.
Set your FreeAgent preferences
Go to Settings > Company settings > Advanced bookkeeping to choose how Apron handles documents for FreeAgent. In both Purchases defaults and Sales defaults, you can set:
Default due date – used when Apron can’t read a due date from the document
Default VAT rate for documents with no tax – Zero rate, Exempt or Out of scope. To stop Apron from capturing tax shown on the documents completely, select the ‘Not registered for VAT’ option under the General Advanced bookkeeping settings
For the other settings, see our article: Set up advanced bookkeeping preferences.
Manage your connection
Go to Settings > Company settings > Accounting app to Refresh, Disconnect or Restore the connection. This is done by the Business owner.
For more details, see our article: Link your accounting software.
Troubleshooting
Can’t connect? Check you’re the Business owner. If you aren’t, ask them to connect instead.
Published bill not showing in FreeAgent? Check the document has finished processing and isn’t waiting for review in your Inbox, then give it a few minutes.
Bill paid through Apron still shows as unpaid in FreeAgent? See our article: Understand reconciliation for Apron payments.
Publishing issues – check our article: Publish to your accounting software for tips
Coming soon
We’re adding more to the FreeAgent integration later this year, starting with automatic bank reconciliation.
Until then, check how to reconcile your bills in our article: Reconcile with FreeAgent.
Still have questions? Message us via the in-app chat, and we’ll be happy to help.