FreeAgent accountants for UK micro-businesses.

FreeAgent accountants work in a UK-focused cloud platform owned by NatWest Group. It is free for NatWest, RBS and Mettle business banking customers, which made it the default for sole traders and freelancers banking there, and it appears on HMRC's list of software compatible with Making Tax Digital for VAT.

The interface is built for non-accountants, with simplified workflows for invoicing, expense capture and Self-Assessment preparation. For very small businesses (sole traders earning under £100k, micro Ltds under £200k turnover, single-director freelancers), FreeAgent is often the most cost-effective option, particularly where the £30/month subscription fee is bundled with banking. For larger or more complex businesses, Xero Certified Advisor accountants are generally a better fit, and we run that migration in either direction.

We are FreeAgent Practice Partners and certified on the platform. We handle the full scope of accounting work inside FreeAgent for clients who already use it, and we migrate clients to or from FreeAgent depending on what suits. Where several years of records need rebuilding first, that is quoted as catch-up bookkeeping before the monthly cloud bookkeeping service begins.

There is a real threshold and it is not turnover. FreeAgent stops being the right tool the first time you need something it deliberately does not do: hold stock, run more than about five people on payroll, consolidate a second company, or report in a currency other than sterling. Turnover around £150,000 to £250,000 is where most of our clients hit one of those, not because the number matters but because that is when the second employee and the first supplier abroad tend to arrive together.

The compliance calendar does not change when you switch. VAT registration is compulsory once taxable turnover passes the HMRC VAT registration threshold on a rolling 12-month basis, returns are due one calendar month and seven days after the period ends per the HMRC VAT deadline rules, and late submissions now attract points before penalties under the VAT penalty points regime. A sole trader on the standard quarterly cycle with a 31 March quarter end therefore files by 7 May. Our Making Tax Digital for VAT guide walks through where the digital link chain usually breaks.

From April 2026, sole traders and landlords with combined self-employment and property income above £50,000 also fall into Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, dropping to £30,000 from April 2027. That means four quarterly updates plus a final declaration instead of one Self-Assessment return due on 31 January. FreeAgent has built the workflow; the work is in getting the bookkeeping habit quarterly rather than annual. We cover the mechanics in MTD for Income Tax Self Assessment.

Limited companies on FreeAgent still have a separate filing life at Companies House: annual accounts within nine months of the year end, a confirmation statement every twelve months, and Corporation Tax payable nine months and one day after the period end, with the CT600 itself due twelve months after it. That work runs through our outsourced company secretary service, the tax through VAT and tax compliance, and the personal side through UK Self-Assessment tax return filing. For the wider UK picture see accountants for UK SMEs and, if you contract through your own company, accountants for freelancers and contractors. For the three-way UK comparison, including where FreeAgent stops being the right answer, see Xero vs FreeAgent vs Sage. Note that FreeAgent does not support the Construction Industry Scheme, so contractors should read our construction accountants page first. The accounting work that runs on top of the software, whichever platform you land on, is set out in our full range of accounting services.