FreeAgent and Cloud Accounting Support

This Content Was Last Updated on March 8, 2024 by Jessica Garbett

 

FreeAgent Subscriptions via Whitefield Tax / YogaTax

As a firm we have a reseller agreement with FreeAgent to provide cloud based accounting and bookkeeping software to our clients, and under this arrangement we receive a commission from FreeAgent part of which we pass on to our clients by way of a discount against list price.

Currently our pricing for FreeAgent, including the discount to list price, is:

Free Agent Direct Whitefield cost
Unincorporated Landlords £10/month £10/month
Sole Traders £19/month £16/month
Partnerships £27/month £23/month
Companies £33/month £29/month
All prices exclude VAT.  Available to registered clients of Whitefield Tax only.  Prices correct from 1st February 2024

 

Discount to List Price

As mentioned above, we offer FreeAgent to our clients at a discount to direct pricing, utilising the discount we receive from FreeAgent.

Prior to December 2022 we were offering a larger discount to clients.  However, over the time we have been offering FreeAgent, we’ve found that we’ve had to spend a fair bit of time providing support to our clients, covering a spectrum of support activities – set up, training, ad hoc questions and periodic checks.  Inevitably this has created a time cost which we need to cover.

Use of Cloud Accounting is a cornerstone of HMRCs Making Tax Digital programme, which currently applies for VAT, and extends to other businesses on a staged basis from April 2026.  This is leading to a number of our clients migrating their bookkeeping to FreeAgent which exacerbates this cost pressure.

The discount we get from FreeAgent is part of this equation and helps to offset our support time.

 

Clients With Direct Subscriptions to FreeAgent, or Free Licences via Mettle/NatWest/RBS

When clients subscribe to FreeAgent via ourselves we include a support package covering:

  • Set up
  • Informal training
  • Periodic checking of your data and entries
  • Ad hoc advice

This support package is based around our experience of what a typical client needs from us.  It complements, but does not take the place of, technical software support provided by FreeAgent themselves.

If you subscribe to FreeAgent directly, or have a free subscription with NatWest, RBS or Mettle, and require support from us, then in some cases we need to charge a support fee.

Whether we need to charge this depends on our overall revenue from you, and the amount of support you need.  We will let you know if it is applicable.  Of course, this support isn’t compulsory, but we find most clients benefit from it.

Where we need to charge a support fee it is normally £15/m for companies, or £10/m for partnerships and sole traders, both plus vat.

 

Looking Ahead

With developments in HMRCs Making Tax Digital Programme, notably MTD for Self Assessment from April 2026, it is likely that we will need to embark on a wider restructuring of our fees and support offerings which will subsume the above issues.  We will be working on this over coming months.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax – Position Statement on Prospective Fee and Service Changes