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How to prepare bank transactions for FreeAgent

By Arron Child, reviewed by Arron Child. Updated 15 July 2026.

FreeAgent's statement upload is the strictest of the UK accounting importers, which is actually a virtue: a file it accepts is usually a clean file. It wants exactly three columns, no header row by default, and signed amounts.

The format

12/01/2026,-45.60,CARD PAYMENT TO TESCO
13/01/2026,1250.00,SALARY MERIDIAN SYSTEMS
  • Column 1: date, DD/MM/YYYY.
  • Column 2: amount, signed. Money in positive, money out negative, plain decimals.
  • Column 3: description, quoted if it contains commas.

FreeAgent also accepts OFX and QIF, but CSV is the format you can inspect and fix by hand, which matters when an upload is rejected at 5 pm on filing day.

Uploading

  1. In FreeAgent: Banking, then the account, then Upload Statement.
  2. Choose the CSV. FreeAgent parses it immediately and reports the rows it understood.
  3. Review the transactions it created, then explain them as usual.

The FreeAgent preset in the converter emits this exact three-column shape with signed amounts, produced locally in your browser.

Why uploads get rejected

  • A header row where FreeAgent expected data: either remove it or tick the option to skip the first row where offered.
  • Unsigned amounts: everything arrives as money in, and the account balance drifts upward absurdly. The amount column must carry minus signs.
  • Dates in ISO or US format: FreeAgent UK expects day first.
  • Currency symbols or thousands separators in the amount column.
  • Windows-1252 encoding oddities from Excel round-trips; save as UTF-8.

After the upload

FreeAgent shows the account's running balance including the new rows. Compare it against the closing balance printed on the statement PDF. A mismatch means the file was incomplete or mis-signed; delete the uploaded statement, fix the source, and re-upload rather than adjusting transactions by hand. The reconciliation guide shows how to find the exact break quickly.

Checked against FreeAgent's importer on 15 July 2026. FreeAgent is a trademark of FreeAgent Central Ltd; ukbankconv is not affiliated with FreeAgent.