CLIENT MIGRATION GUIDE

Transcription

1 CLIENT MIGRATION GUIDE February 2015

2 FreeAgent Client Migration Guide Moving your clients to an accounting system that s designed for them can save you and your practice time in the long run. Having the right systems in place for your clients, one that suits their needs and gives them confidence with their finances, means you ll spend less time with the daily admin and have more time to provide added value services. However, it can also be cumbersome to migrate clients with existing businesses. You need to balance the advantages of the new system against client inertia as well as the challenges of training and the admin burden of data transfer. With all this in mind, we ve developed a number of tools to help you switch your clients to FreeAgent. Practice Portal Our practice portal provides: suggested wording to use with your clients in and on your website a number of videos to both introduce your clients to FreeAgent and teach them how to use some of the basic functionality checklists to help them get up and running. Webinars We host weekly webinars for you that cover key topics, such as tips for bulk uploading clients. We also host weekly client-focused webinars that help your clients get up to speed with the software, so you can start working together in FreeAgent straight away. You can find out more about our upcoming webinars and register for them on our website. Find out more at freeagent.com/accountants 2

3 Support Our award-winning UK-based support team are also on hand to answer any questions you have and to provide first-line support for your clients via or phone. Our dedicated support line for accountants is available on or you can If you would like your clients to contact us with any support queries, they can call or Migration checklists To help you migrate clients to FreeAgent quickly and easily any time of year, we ve pulled together some checklists for you. They ll help you gather the information you need to migrate clients at year end and at VAT quarter end. We ve also created a separate checklist to help you start working with clients who are new to your practice and who are already using FreeAgent. In each, we point you in the direction of where to set up each client s information in Freeagent and provide some handy tips along the way. We found data transition straightforward and easy to manage with invaluable assistance from FreeAgent every step of the way. As soon as we were live, we could quickly and easily get real-time information for our clients as well as receive automatic alerts to spot errors in clients bookkeeping. Neil Armitage, Umbrella Find out more at freeagent.com/accountants 3

4 Migrating clients at year end Client information required: name business name business type (sole trader / limited company / partnership / LLP) address business address company/llp registration number, if applicable accounting dates VAT information: If registration applied for: date of expected registration If registered: VAT registration number VAT registration date quarter end of first VAT return (the first VAT return that business ever completed, not the first that will be filled in using FreeAgent) whether the business is invoice or cash accounting for VAT if the business is using the VAT flat rate scheme, the appropriate trade sector whether EU reporting is needed If the client has more than one bank account, each account will need to be set up separately in FreeAgent. Bank information: name account number sort code opening balance A trial balance as at their previous year end VAT opening balance All your client s debtors and creditors with lump sums The name of each director / employee with money owing to them Find out more at freeagent.com/accountants 4

5 Migrate your clients: Remind your clients that you ll need to complete the five-step getting started process before they can use FreeAgent. You ll be posting balance sheet account totals only In the My Clients or All Clients tab of your dashboard complete the new client screen Fill in your client s information Choose the client s FreeAgent subdomain and access level Invite your client to set their password Click the switch to button to start the getting started process Fill in the rest of your client s information Set up their opening balances You can set a user s access level to No Access if you and your client would prefer that these individuals didn t have access to the accounts. Opening bank balances are input under Banking > choose account > Edit Details If the client has any stock, this should be input in Settings > Price List & Stock Set up each director / employee with money owing to them as a new user Find out more at freeagent.com/accountants 5

6 Migrating clients at VAT quarter end Client information required: name business name business type (sole trader / limited company / partnership / LLP) address business address company/llp registration number, if applicable accounting dates VAT information: VAT registration number VAT registration date quarter end of first VAT return (the first VAT return that business ever completed, not the first that will be filled in using FreeAgent) whether the business is invoice or cash accounting for VAT if the business is using the VAT flat rate scheme, the appropriate trade sector whether EU reporting is needed If the client has more than one bank account, each account will need to be set up separately in FreeAgent. Bank information: name account number sort code opening balance A trial balance as at the date before the FreeAgent start date that shows both balance sheet and profit and loss account codes All your client s debtors and creditors with lump sums VAT opening balance The name of each director / employee with money owing to them Find out more at freeagent.com/accountants 6

7 Migrate your clients: In the My Clients or All Clients tab of your dashboard complete the new client screen Fill in your client s information Choose the client s FreeAgent subdomain and access level Invite your client to set their password You ll be posting balance sheet account totals only Click the switch to button to start the getting started process Fill in the rest of your client s information Set up their opening balances You can set a user s access level to No Access if you and your client would prefer that these individuals didn t have access to the accounts. Opening balances are input under Banking > choose account > Edit Details If the client has any stock, this should be input in Settings > Price List & Stock Set up each director / employee with money owing to them as a new user The name of each director, shareholder and employee with money owing to them Find out more at freeagent.com/accountants 7

8 Make sure that your comes from the account owner. Clients who are new to your practice but have been using FreeAgent the FreeAgent registered account owner, copying in, asking them to confirm to us that they would like to be added to your dashboard. Find out more at freeagent.com/accountants 8

9 FAQs What is the FreeAgent start date? Transactions dated from this date will be used to calculate your clients accounts aka the date for which you enter opening balances so for example if the FreeAgent start date is 1st April 2014, you would enter opening balances from a Trial Balance as at 31st March If their business is new then it might be the same date as the company start date, but if they ve already been trading for some months or years, it will be after the company start date. For existing businesses you might decide to start keeping their books on FreeAgent as from a new VAT quarter, or the start of a new accounting year for your clients business. Once the initial set up is complete, how do I import all my client s customers and suppliers into FreeAgent? There are two ways to enter a new contact into FreeAgent. Either import several contacts at once from your programme such as Outlook, Google Mail or Mac Mail, import them from Basecamp, or you can you can enter individual contacts manually. A step-by-step guide is available on the knowledge base on our website. How can my clients see their accounts information from before their FreeAgent start date? You can save clients historical accounts information into Word and Excel files and upload these into the Files area of FreeAgent for reference. This is particularly useful for giving clients easy access to their individual aged debtor lists. Find out more at freeagent.com/accountants 9

10 What if I don t have a full trial balance as at the FreeAgent start date? Can I put opening balances in later? You can. Bear in mind that opening balances for the codes 818 and VAT Reclaimed and VAT Charged - can t be amended once a VAT return has been filed through FreeAgent to HMRC, So if your client is VAT-registered, make sure these two codes have the correct opening balances before you file a VAT return through FreeAgent for that client. Remember, too, that once you have manually locked your client s accounts, you can t change the opening balances without unlocking the accounts again. What differs when I have payroll? You will need individual payroll figures for the year so far if using FreeAgent for RTI. You will also need to enter journal entries for the payroll to date so the P&L is correct. Find out more at freeagent.com/accountants 10