The great thing about FreeAgent is it shows you all the information you need to know - all in one place - the overview screen.

And the best thing about the Overview screen is it shows you how much the business owes you for expenses and how much dividends you can draw out from the company.  To see more about how this works, hop on down to the 'Expenses' section below and the 'Profit and Loss' section below.

Cashflow

The cashflow section shows you your cash in and out for various periods.  You can select the period you want by clicking on the drop down at the top right of the screen as shown below:

Invoice timeline

The 'Invoice Timeline' view shows you the total amount of invoices raised per month together with whether they are overdue, due or paid.

Click on the buttons on the bottom left to scroll through the months for the year.

Click on the 'New Invoice' button and you will be taken to the invoice creation screen.

Click on the 'View all invoices' button and you'll be taken to the section showing you all your invoices that you've created in FreeAgent.

Invoices

Click on the buttons on the bottom left to scroll through the invoices in FreeAgent.

Click on the 'New Invoice' button and you will be taken to the invoice creation screen.

Click on the 'View all invoices' button and you'll be taken to the section showing you all your invoices that you've created in FreeAgent.

Estimates, Projects and Timeslips

Click on any of these tabs to see more information about any estimates, projects or timeslips you've created in FreeAgent.

And again, you can scroll through the list using the buttons on the left hand side, create new transactions or view a list of all these transactions in FreeAgent.

Bank account

This screen shows you the balance on your bank account at the end of each month.

To select a different bank account to view, simply click on the arrow at the top right of the section.

Select 'Upload Statement' to be taken to the upload statement section.

Click on 'View all Bank Accounts' to be taken to the banking section.

Expenses

This screen shows how much the company owes its staff (or directors) in expenses.  It will show the expenses of the person logged in.

To see earlier or later expenses, simply click on the arrows at the bottom left of the sections.

To add an expense, click on 'New Expense' and to see all expenses click on 'View all Expenses'.

Bills

This screen shows how much the company owes its suppliers (if you are not posting your supplier invoices in FreeAgent, this section will be blank).

To see earlier or later bills, simply click on the arrows at the bottom left of the sections.

To add a bill, click on 'New Bill' and to see all bills click on 'View all Bills'.

Profit and Loss Account

The Profit and Loss account tab shows you how much corporation tax you have to pay for the current year and how much profit you have which you can take as dividends.

The sections highlighted above are showing you the following:

• Total income in the year - this is based on the invoices you have created in the system or the cash receipts which you have posted as sales from your bank transactions (if you don't create your sales invoices in FreeAgent)
• Expenses in the year - this is all the costs you have entered into FreeAgent - whether as expenses, as bills or straight from the bank
• Operating profit - this is the profit for the current year - income less expenses
• Corporation tax - this is the estimated corporation tax which you will have to pay for the company's current year - this will need to be paid to HMRC at least 9 months and 1 day after your company's year end
• Dividends - these are the dividends which you have declared in the company's current financial year
  

The sections highlighted above are showing you the following:

• Retained Profit - current year so far:  This is the operating profit less the estimated corporation tax less dividends
• Retained Profit brought forward: This the profit left in the company from prior years after corporation tax and dividends.  If this is negative this means either that the company has losses brought forward or, if the accounts haven't yet been finalised for the prior year end, this may mean that there is an illegal dividend.  Please speak to us if you believe this may relate to a an illegal dividend.
• Carried Forward/Distributable: This is the total estimated maximum amount of profit which can be drawn out as dividends - we don't recommend taking the maximum in case the actual corporation tax for the year is higher than the estimate or if your bookkeeping isn't up to date!  We recommend, if possible, that you leave at least £1000 as retained profit.  We can always declare an additional dividend for you when we prepare the accounts.  IF THIS AMOUNT IS NEGATIVE PLEASE SPEAK TO US AS THIS WILL SUGGEST AN ILLEGAL DIVIDEND.

Taking a dividend

Once you've reviewed your Profit and Loss account as shown above, if you have enough profits and cash, you can then take a dividend.

Once you have paid yourself a dividend, you will need to post this when you reconcile your bank account as follows:

Select the following:

Type = Money Paid to User

Payment to = shareholder's name (remember to split any dividend if you have more than one shareholder)

Reason = Dividend (remember not to select 'Smart User Payment' - you can see why here)

If you want an indication as to what your likely personal tax bill will be, download our workbooks here.

You can also see how much you have taken as dividends in any tax year by going to My Money > Dividends in FreeAgent.

Tax timeline

The tax timeline shows you important deadlines and information - for example when your corporation tax payment is due and how much to pay.

Changing the overview display

You can customise your view of the Overview screen so that the features are displayed in a way that works for you. If you want the Tax Timeline to be displayed at the top so that you never forget to pay your tax bill again, for example, just select the grey bar at the top of that panel...

...and drag it up to the top.