FreeAgent bank balance: import cutoff or starting point?
Updated · 3 min read
A FreeAgent bank balance can differ from the bank’s live figure because they describe different moments or populations. First compare the account, last successful import time and cleared movements. Do not overwrite the opening balance simply to match the number shown by online banking today.
This guide follows FreeAgent UK business bank-account documentation. Use a suitable native bank export where available; LocalExtract can prepare a local CSV when the supporting record is PDF-only.
The desktop apps export date, description, and amount as CSV. Open CSV in Excel to save an XLSX workbook. Statement support varies: verify the result against your own PDF.
Compare balances at the same import cutoff
FreeAgent’s balance investigation guide explains that its balance starts with the entered opening balance and includes movements currently in FreeAgent. It reflects the last successful feed import or statement upload, not necessarily the live bank position.
The separate Balance at bank feature has its own availability rules. Its feature guidance distinguishes cleared balances from pending movements and excludes credit-card accounts. Confirm that the feature is supported for the connection in use before treating a missing comparison as an error. The feature is not a general credit-card balance checker.
Record the bank’s cleared figure at the corresponding cutoff. A pending card authorization visible in an available-balance figure is not yet a cleared bank movement. Likewise, a movement posted after the last import can explain a timing difference without changing the opening balance.
Check the starting point when taking over a client
For a first migration, FreeAgent’s client-data sequence places account setup and opening balances before bank imports and explanations. Some tools are practice-only, and unincorporated landlord accounts have specific manual-entry exceptions; do not assume every client sees the same import controls.
Confirm the FreeAgent start date and opening bank balance against the handover records. Transactions before that start date should not also be imported as new bank movements. The balance guide describes either correcting the start date or handling earlier records through opening balances as appropriate. Those are reviewed accounting changes, not automatic responses to a temporary feed gap.
Once the starting point is valid, check all bank movements from it onward, including any manual entries that overlap a feed or statement upload. The statement-upload guidance recommends a source beginning after the last existing transaction for a continuing account; inspect actual coverage rather than trusting duplicate detection to make overlapping files harmless.
Explain the cutoff before adjusting the books
This synthetic GBP case defines a correctly established opening balance of 1,000.00. Imported cleared movements total +200.00, so FreeAgent shows 1,200.00. The bank has since posted another −40.00, giving a cleared balance of 1,160.00. A further −15.00 pending authorization produces an available figure of 1,145.00 in the invented bank view.
| Difference | Evidence to obtain |
|---|---|
| 1,200.00 versus 1,160.00 | The cleared −40.00 movement and its import timing |
| 1,160.00 versus 1,145.00 | The pending −15.00 authorization |
| A difference already present at the start | Opening balance and FreeAgent start-date records |
The synthetic cutoff worksheet checks these arithmetic distinctions in Python. It does not reproduce a real bank’s available-balance rules or execute FreeAgent. When the cutoff explanation fails, locate the first period that diverges and retain missing/duplicate records as specific exceptions.
Use the statement reconciliation guide for the broader bank/book review. LocalExtract extracts one PDF into date,description,amount; it does not retrieve a feed, establish an opening balance or reconcile the account. Download for PDF source preparation.
Official FreeAgent documentation checked October 16, 2026.
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