Barclays Business and FreeAgent partner to deliver automated bank data feeds

Barclays Business and online accounting pioneer FreeAgent have joined forces to allow small businesses to automatically transfer transaction data from their bank to their accounting system.

FreeAgent has been chosen as the first online accounting software to deliver automated data feeds direct from Barclays Business accounts - providing business customers with a simpler and more secure way of staying on top of their bookkeeping.

Under the agreement, Barclays DataServices - the new service from Barclays Business - will securely and automatically export customers’ business account transactions and send the data directly to their FreeAgent accounts; saving customers time and reducing the risk of errors.

All Barclays Business customers with a FreeAgent account will be able to use Barclays DataServices completely free of charge, including customers who have Barclays’ award-winning MyBusinessWorks package.

Ed Molyneux, CEO and founder of FreeAgent, said: “Staying on top of the finances is one of the biggest challenges that small business owners face, so we’re delighted to launch this new automated bank feed capability with Barclays Business. By providing the ability to import bank data directly into FreeAgent, we’ll be giving customers an easier and more efficient way of managing their books than ever before.

“We know this intuitive new feature will be very popular with customers and we look forward to exploring how to integrate similar automated bank feeds for other FreeAgent users in the future.”

Richard Exton, Managing director of Clearlybusiness, the innovative arm of Barclays Business, added: “This shifts the dial significantly in terms of speed, ease and clarity for business accounts”.

FreeAgent provides an award-winning online accounting system specifically designed for small businesses and freelancers. Launched in 2007, it has rapidly grown a loyal community of thousands of customers. Since 2011, FreeAgent has been part of the award-winning MyBusinessWorks applications package that Barclays Business provides to its customers.

FACTFILE:
FreeAgent provides an award-winning online accounting system designed to meet the needs of small businesses and freelancers. Since launching its system in 2007, FreeAgent has rapidly grown a loyal community of thousands of customers, who pay either monthly or annually for access to its easy-to-use software.

FreeAgent is run by founders Ed Molyneux, Olly Headey and Roan Lavery, all former freelancers who created the system after discovering that there was no available finance tool on the market to give them a clear picture of their business accounts.

FreeAgent’s investors include Robin Klein at The Accelerator Group - one of Europe’s top investors who was named No 2 in Business XL magazine’s ‘Power Top 50 2011’. FreeAgent has won accolades at the SIFT Media Software Satisfaction Awards and British Accountancy Awards, as well as being listed in the prestigious PCPro A-List and the Guardian’s Techmedia Invest 100 list.

Since 2011, FreeAgent has been part of the award-winning MyBusinessWorks applications package that Barclays provides to its business customers. FreeAgent was also selected in 2010 to power the ‘IRIS OpenBooks’ online accounting system for IRIS Software, whose customers comprise around 50% of the 28,000 accountancy practices in the UK.

Try it for free at: www.freeagent.com
Follow them on twitter: @freeagent

Barclays Business is the business banking arm of Barclays. It has over 770,000 customers with a turnover up to £5m that are a mixture of start ups, sole traders, partnerships and limited companies. We supported a record number of business start ups – over 100,000 new businesses in 2010.

Barclays services to SMEs include:
* A choice of business accounts that they can tailor to their needs and the provision of up to two years free banking to start-ups, subject to remaining in credit.
* Day-to-day business banking support through a team of Business Managers who are available over the telephone for everyday and urgent banking needs.
* Free consultations for businesses with a local accountant, marketing expert and solicitor to advise on topics such as the best legal status, how to advertise or draft supply contracts.
* A free nationwide business seminar and workshop programme. This is designed to help business owners network and gain practical help on relevant challenges such as marketing, trading online or how to generate more business profits. We expect around 12,000 delegates to attend our business seminars this year.
* Business management software that helps business customers complete their account work quickly and efficiently; support their hiring efforts; help back up their business data securely; and avoid late payment and bad debts.

Barclays Business named Business Bank of the Year at the UK’s National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) Industry Awards December 2011.