- Accounting software provider FreeAgent launched a new AI-powered tool to enable landlords to capture and categorize rental statements.
- The new offering helps bookkeepers and accounting firms better serve their customers in property management as the Making Tax Digital initiative comes into effect throughout the UK.
- Headquartered in Scotland and founded in 2007, FreeAgent made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013 in London.
Scotland-based fintech FreeAgent unveiled a new feature for its FreeAgent for Landlords accountholders. The new AI-powered tool enables rental statement capture and categorization, transforming letting agent statements into entries that are structured, categorized, and reconciled automatically.
“If you work with landlord clients, you’ll know exactly what we mean,” FreeAgent noted in a blog post announcing the new offering. “Every month, letting agents send out rental statements. On paper, they look straightforward enough. But a single statement can be a jumble of rental income, management fees, repair costs, contingency balances, and a net payout.” The challenge for accountants is recording all of this information accurately, especially for tax purposes. With data as diverse as this, separate categories for rent invoices, bills for fees and repairs, and more will have to be created and eventually reconciled against a final bank payment. For accountants managing a large number of landlord clients, this work can become overwhelming.
“Our new feature captures and categorizes rental statements using AI to lighten the load,” FreeAgent explained. “All you need to do is upload the letting agents’ statement. Then FreeAgent will extract rental income and fee data, match line items to the correct property, assign the right accounting categories, and reconcile the final net bank payment in seconds.”
Platforms like FreeAgent have become valuable resources for companies looking to comply with the Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative launched by the UK’s HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) office. MTD is designed to modernize the country’s tax system by fully digitizing all aspects of tax administration. The goal is a more effective, efficient, and transparent process for taxpayers by reducing errors, delivering real-time information about tax liabilities, and simplifying tax compliance via digital record-keeping and reporting.
“We know that the real challenge of MTD isn’t just about hitting submission deadlines,” FreeAgent Director of Product Craig Clarke noted. “Overcoming the manual, disjointed bookkeeping that makes managing property finances a headache is going to be just as tall a hurdle. That’s exactly why we built FreeAgent for Landlords—a product specifically designed to make accounting for rental income as simple as possible.”
A Finovate alum since 2013, FreeAgent offers accounting software and support for small businesses and their accountants and bookkeepers. The company has more than 200,000 users who rely on FreeAgent’s software to manage finances from daily administration to big-picture, financial planning.
Photo by Adam Wilson on Unsplash
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