EDINBURGH, Scotland, February 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

FreeAgent, the online accounting pioneer, has launched a new Alerts tool enabling accountants to automatically track their clients' finances and highlight in real-time areas of opportunity or concern.

FreeAgent Alerts allows accountants to set-up customised alerts to monitor their clients' account activity for transactions and entries that may warrant closer examination. By using Alerts, accountants will also be able to take a more proactive approach in helping their clients keep on top of their finances, and ensure that potential issues are spotted and acted on sooner rather than later.

The new feature is available exclusively through the accountant's existing dashboard, which presents an at-a-glance view of all of their clients on the FreeAgent platform and a portal to drill into the specifics of any one of their accounts.

Because FreeAgent offers accounting software online specifically and has been seamlessly integrated into the IRIS accounts production solution, it also provides better accessibility for users and a significant reduction in time spent on manual or paper based processes.

FreeAgent believes that Alerts is a major breakthrough in cloud accounting and a first for the industry. Ed Molyneux, CEO and co-founder of FreeAgent, explained: "Alerts will enable accountants to immediately focus on advising and providing insight to their clients, rather than having to spend a lot of time doing more manual monitoring. It puts them on the front foot and helps them to be more proactive in advising their clients."

FreeAgent collaborated with a number of accountants and accounting firms on the development of Alerts including Freelance World, which provides a full range small business accounting software across the UK. 

Alasdair McGill, Managing Director of Freelance World, said: "Online accountancy has revolutionised the way accountants work with their clients and FreeAgent's latest Alerts tool goes even further to help us keep on top of our clients' accounts. Alerts will give us the ability to monitor our clients' accounts on a daily basis, giving them peace of mind that we're watching the numbers.  I'd like to congratulate FreeAgent on how far they've come over the last year to give us a great all-round product that will help us to do a better job for our clients."

FreeAgent is available to accountancy practices throughout the UK via the company's close partnership with IRIS Software where FreeAgent powers the IRIS OpenBooks solution, a key component of the OpenApps suite. With the company's clear insight and knowledge of the accountancy marketplace, IRIS was involved throughout the planning and development process of Alerts.  

Commenting on the latest initiative, Phill Robinson, CEO of IRIS Accountancy Services said:  "Both IRIS and FreeAgent share the drive to constantly innovate and improve our offering to our customers. Alerts is one more reason for accountancy professionals everywhere to evaluate the benefits a shift to online accounting software could bring to their own firms and their clients."

About FreeAgent:

Edinburgh-based independent FreeAgent has pioneered online accounting since the launch of its service in 2007. It has rapidly grown a loyal community of freelancers and small businesses, who pay either monthly or annually for access to its software offering many easy to use features, including an invoice template.

In a survey, 99.5% of FreeAgent users said they would recommend the software to others, and the service won the prize for Best Newcomer at the 2009 SIFT Media Software Satisfaction Awards. In 2010 it won the SIFT SME Accounting and Finance Software Satisfaction Award, beating all of its desktop and web-based competitors to take the title. The company also offers a free accountancy software trial to those who may be interested in the company's products. More information can be found at http://www.freeagent.com.

PR Contact:
Ed Molyneux
CEO
FreeAgent
40 Torphichen Street 
Edinburgh
Scotland
United Kingdom
EH3 8JB
+44(0)131-447-0011
http://www.freeagent.com

SOURCE FreeAgent