Managing multiple bank feeds into FreeAgent – any tips?

roarrory33

We’ve got four business bank accounts and our bookkeeper currently downloads statements from each one, then imports them into FreeAgent.

The issue is the formats are all slightly different, so we keep running into small errors during reconciliation and it takes extra time to fix each month.

Is there a simpler or more consistent way to handle this? Ideally something that reduces manual work and helps avoid those import issues.

Would be interested to hear what’s worked for others.

saveallmymoney

Does FreeAgent not connect directly to your bank through open banking? I have Mettle and Barclays and both have the transactions auto import.

roarrory33

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81944824#Comment_81944824

Yeah, I think that’s exactly where the difference is. For accounts where the Open Banking feed works well, it’s pretty seamless.

Our issue is that not all of the accounts support that reliably, so we end up in a mixed setup, some auto-importing cleanly, others still needing manual uploads. That’s where the inconsistencies creep in and slow things down.

If all four behaved like Mettle/Barclays it probably wouldn’t be a problem at all.

Savvy_Sue

I guess the question that raises for me is why / whether you actually NEED four business accounts? Or whether you can find alternatives for the ones which don't support Open Banking?