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AIA

FreeAgent adds cardless payments

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11th Sep 2012
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Edinburgh-based Cloud accounting developer FreeAgent has extended its online payment capabilities through an alliance with GoCardless.

The GoCardless partnership will let users set up online payments directly through FreeAgent, without the need to set up a merchant account to handle the transaction or pay any credit card fees.

Formed in January 2011 to develop a simple online payment mechanism, GoCardless is based near London’s “Silicon Roundabout” at Old Street and was backed with around £1m in venture capital.

GoCardless typically charges around1% of the transaction value, up to a maximum of £2. By comparison, card providers charge on average 2.5% of transaction value, with no cap.

“A client payment portal that allows users to have their invoices paid online is one of the most popular feature requests we’ve ever had,” says FreeAgent product director, Roan Lavery.

It’s been a busy period for the company. After receiving £2m investment a year ago, it has expanded into the USA. In this country, it continues to cater for the accountancy practice market through IRIS, which supplies its own variant of FreeAgent Central under the name OpenBooks.

The Cloud developer has also put resources into revamping its core product. Basing many of its new features on user requests, FreeAgent upgraded its online accounting system during the summer. Anyone logging into the application now will see a freshened up Overview page that includes a cashflow reporting panel as well as the traditional FreeAgent tax  timeline. The application also displays a global bank balance that summarises all the user’s bank accounts and includes a contact summary screen showing client/supplier performance data.

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