FreeAgent CSV: Bank Imports, Invoices, and UK Self-Employed Exports

FreeAgent Is Built for UK Freelancers — CSV Still Feeds the Bank Tab

Self-employed people and small limited companies across the UK (and UK contractors abroad in the US, AU, CA, and EU) use FreeAgent for invoicing, expenses, and Making Tax Digital workflows. Open banking covers many accounts; CSV bank upload remains essential for stubborn banks, historic catch-up, and accountant exports.

Export vs Import

Different risk levels.

Step-by-Step: Import a Bank CSV

The most common FreeAgent CSV task.

• Download transactions from your bank for a clear date range.
• Prefer a simple three-to-five column layout: date, amount, description (plus balance if required).
• Normalize UK dates (DD/MM/YYYY) or convert to ISO before upload.
• Keep amounts as plain numbers; watch sign conventions (money out negative vs debit column).
• Preview/clean in Online CSV Editor — remove header junk rows banks love to insert.
• Upload in FreeAgent’s bank import; map columns; review unmatched rows.
• Explain transactions as usual — CSV import is not auto-categorisation magic.

date,amount,description
2026-05-01,-42.50,COFFEE WORKSPACE LONDON
2026-05-02,1200.00,ACME LTD INVOICE 1842
2026-05-03,-19.99,AWS EMEA

Exports for Accountants and Year-End

Handoff path.

• Export the report FreeAgent provides for the period (P&L, transactions, invoices).
• Name files with tax year + date exported.
• Convert to Excel if your accountant prefers .xlsx.
• Do not “tidy” VAT columns without telling them what you changed.

UK Locale and VAT Notes

Where US-format files confuse FreeAgent.

• DMY dates: 03/05/2026 is 3 May in the UK, not March 5.
• UTF-8 for payee names with apostrophes and accents.
• VAT: imports of invoices must respect how FreeAgent expects net/VAT/gross — follow their template.
• Sterling only in amount columns unless FreeAgent’s multi-currency features apply to your account.

Duplicates and Overlaps

Catch-up imports go wrong here.

• Do not re-upload a date range already explained via open banking.
• Overlap days carefully — FreeAgent may allow duplicates if descriptions differ slightly.
• After historic load, lock the process (prefer feeds going forward).

Common Mistakes

Self-assessment season classics.

• Leaving bank CSV preamble rows (“Account Name”, blank lines) in the file.
• US MDY dates from a US-formatted spreadsheet.
• Flipping signs so income looks like spend.
• Editing FreeAgent exports and re-importing as if they were bank files.
• Emailing full transaction CSVs with personal spend unredacted.

Best Practices

Keep the ledger trustworthy.

• One bank account → one clean CSV convention.
• Version every upload with account + date range.
• Explain promptly after import.
• Prefer open banking when available; CSV is the fallback.
• Clean files in-browser before upload on shared machines.

Why Use Convert CSV Online?

Convert CSV Online is free, browser-based, and requires no account for everyday conversions. Strip bank preamble rows, fix UK dates, and normalize amounts before FreeAgent import — useful for UK freelancers and remote contractors worldwide.

Conclusion

FreeAgent CSV bank imports work when dates, amounts, and descriptions are clean and non-overlapping with existing feeds. Export carefully for accountants, respect UK DMY, and treat CSV as a bridge — not a second set of books.