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FreeAgent alternative

Switching From FreeAgent To A Team That Runs It

Zoho Books will run your accounting cleanly, once someone structures the chart of accounts, connects the bank feeds, and builds the reports you actually read. That part is a job. Our managed Zoho Books plan handles it at a flat monthly rate: invoicing and recurring billing set up properly, feeds reconciled with rules that hold, financial reports built to answer your questions, and integrations repaired before a month end goes sideways.

With Cascadia you get

  • Someone watching your bank feeds
  • Rules that match your ledger
  • API work where settings stop
  • Reports built around your questions
  • Your account, your ledger
  • Plan limits watched before they bite

The short version

Why teams pick Cascadia over FreeAgent

Recurring transactions and categorization rules are updated when the business changes instead of being left as configured. Reconciliation gets done rather than deferred to year end, when the receipts have gone.

What you get here

  • Opening Balances & Migration
  • Sales Tax & Compliance Configuration
  • Multi-Currency & Multi-Branch Setup
  • Invoice & Estimate Template Design
  • Recurring Billing & Payment Reminders
  • Payment Gateway Setup
  • Collections & Customer Statements
  • Bank & Card Feed Connections
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What ships in the standard plan here

One price covers the lot. There is no upgrade tier holding a feature back.

  • Opening Balances & Migration
  • Sales Tax & Compliance Configuration
  • Multi-Currency & Multi-Branch Setup
  • Invoice & Estimate Template Design
  • Recurring Billing & Payment Reminders
  • Payment Gateway Setup
  • Collections & Customer Statements
  • Bank & Card Feed Connections
  • Reconciliation Rules & Categorization
  • Expense Capture & Receipt Handling
See Managed Zoho Books

What the managed part actually means

A bank feed that stopped importing looks identical to a quiet month. So does a duplicate expense account, right up until the profit and loss stops matching what you thought the business did.

API work where settings stop

The built-in settings cover common accounting well. The awkward cases need more: approval logic your finance team requires, invoices generated from another system, or data pushed somewhere Books does not natively reach.

Reports built around your questions

A stack of default reports nobody opens is not reporting.

Your account, your ledger

If you ever change providers, the account structure, templates, rules, and integrations stay exactly where they are. Nothing sits in an agency account, so there is no export to negotiate and no leverage held over you.

Plan limits watched before they bite

Zoho Books prices by tier and by user, and features like multi-currency and custom domains sit behind specific plans. We track your usage against your current plan and flag a change before a limit blocks something you need at quarter end.

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Who this comparison is for

Businesses outgrowing spreadsheets and QuickBooks

Spreadsheet accounting works until it does not, usually around the point where two people need it open at once.

Zoho One customers not using Books yet

Zoho One includes Books, and plenty of companies pay for it while their accounting still lives somewhere else.

Agencies, contractors, and product sellers

We configure recurring invoices, project billing, and the Zoho Inventory connection to match how you actually bill, so revenue does not depend on somebody remembering to raise an invoice.

How our managed Zoho Books service works

Whether you are starting from nothing or inheriting a setup somebody else built, the sequence is the same. We work out how your money actually moves, get the structure and the feeds right, then go live and keep it running afterward.

  1. 1

    We assess your current setup

    First we look at how things run today: what you already pay for, what is configured where, and which parts are actually causing you trouble.

  2. 2

    We map how your money moves

    We start with a consultation about how you invoice, how customers pay, what your accountant needs at year end, and where your financial data lives today.

  3. 3

    We build the structure and connect feeds

    Accounting that goes live untested produces confident, wrong reports, which costs you more than having no reports at all.

  4. 4

    We go live, integrate, and keep it running

    From there it stays managed. Feeds get monitored, broken syncs get repaired, categorization rules get updated as vendors change, and new reports get built as you start asking new questions.

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How FreeAgent works

What FreeAgent does, in their own words

FreeAgent is UK-focused cloud accounting, owned by NatWest Group. The figures below were read in September 2026 and are quoted in pounds excluding VAT.

Sole trader, £19 a month (September 2026)Invoicing, expenses, bank feeds, VAT returns, Self Assessment filing, payroll and time tracking.
Partnership or LLP, £24 to £27 a month (September 2026)Sources differ slightly. Adds profit share calculations on top of the sole trader features.
Limited company, £33 a month or £330 a year (September 2026)Adds end of year filing. A 50 percent discount for the first six months is commonly advertised.
Free with certain UK bank accountsNatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank and Mettle customers can get it free with a qualifying business account, with Mettle requiring at least one transaction a month.
Add-ons are small but realSmart Capture Unlimited around £5 a month and an Amazon UK marketplace connection around £6 a month.
It is built for UK taxHMRC recognized with Making Tax Digital support. That focus is the reason to choose it and the reason it does not suit businesses outside the UK.

Taken from FreeAgent pricing record, FreeAgent plan comparison. Checked September 2026.

What clients say about working with Cascadia

“I’ve always dreaded website management, but Cascadia has done an incredible job with my WordPress site, making it one less thing for me to worry about.”
Alex R.Cascadia client

Shall we take it on?

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FreeAgent alternative questions

Straight answers about switching, pricing, and what moves with you.

See Managed Zoho Books
What does Cascadia do that FreeAgent leaves to me?

We take on the API work where the built-in settings stop. The built-in settings cover common accounting well. The awkward cases need more: approval logic your finance team requires, invoices generated from another system, or data pushed somewhere Books does not natively reach.

What if we have more than 2 organizations or 15 users?

Tell us and we will look at what is actually needed. Some businesses carry extra organizations that could be consolidated, and some genuinely need them for separate legal entities. If the additional scope is real, we will quote a higher tier rather than let service quality slip quietly. We would rather have that conversation up front than stretch a plan until it stops working.

Do you work with Zoho Books inside Zoho One?

Yes. Zoho Books is included in Zoho One, and many of our clients reach it that way. The management work is the same either way. If you run several Zoho applications, our Zoho One bundle covers the whole ecosystem rather than one app at a time, which usually works out better once you are managing more than a couple of apps.

How long does onboarding take?

Most setups are running within two to four weeks. The first stage covers access, a review of how you invoice and get paid, and connecting your bank feeds. The second covers chart of accounts structure, templates, recurring billing, tax configuration, and reporting. A migration from another accounting system takes longer, and we will give you a realistic timeline before you commit rather than partway through.

Is there a contract or minimum term?

The subscription is monthly with no long-term commitment. You can cancel with notice, and because everything lives in your own Zoho account, you keep every account structure, template, rule, and integration we built. We would rather earn the renewal each month than rely on a contract to hold an unhappy client in place until a term runs out.

Can you fix a Zoho Books setup someone else built?

Yes, and this is a common starting point. We audit the existing setup, trace where the numbers stop making sense, and find the broken feeds, duplicate accounts, half-finished integrations, and categorization rules that stopped matching. Sometimes the fix is repair work and sometimes rebuilding a section cleanly is faster. We will tell you which, with reasoning, before doing either.

How do I get started?

Start with a consultation. We review how you invoice, how money comes in, what your accountant needs at year end, and where your financial data currently lives, then confirm whether the standard plan covers it. From there we collect access, connect your feeds, and get the structure right. If your requirements are bigger than the subscription, we will say so and quote the project.

What is managed Zoho Books?

Managed Zoho Books is an ongoing subscription where we run your Zoho Books environment for you. That covers your chart of accounts, invoice and recurring billing setup, bank feeds and reconciliation rules, financial reporting, integrations with Zoho CRM and outside tools, and user permissions. Instead of finding someone every time a feed breaks or a report needs building, you have a team already inside your setup handling it month to month.

What is included in the monthly plan?

The plan covers management of up to 2 Zoho Books organizations and 15 users. Within that, we handle configuration changes, invoice and template updates, bank feed repairs, reconciliation rules, report and dashboard builds, integration upkeep, permission administration, and advice on how to structure your finance stack. Larger pieces of work such as a migration from QuickBooks or a custom API build are scoped and quoted as separate projects.

Do you do the bookkeeping, or just manage the system?

We manage the system, not your books. We build and maintain the setup so that categorization, reconciliation, invoicing, and reporting work correctly, but we do not act as your accountant or bookkeeper and we do not file your taxes. Most clients keep their existing bookkeeper or CPA and find that work gets faster once the underlying setup stops fighting them. We are happy to coordinate directly with whoever handles it.

Do I still need my own Zoho Books license?

Yes. You keep your own Zoho Books subscription and own the account, the data, and everything built inside it. We work in your environment as an administrator. That matters if you ever change providers, because nothing sits behind our accounts and there is no export to negotiate. We will also advise on which plan tier fits your user count and the features you actually need.

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