FreeAgent introduces GoCardless open banking payments and automatic payment retries

Expansion of eight-year partnership enables FreeAgent to bring full suite of GoCardless features to customers

AUSTIN TX AND LONDON - June 24, 2025 -- GoCardless, the bank payment company, has expanded its partnership with  FreeAgent, a cloud based business accounting software for small businesses, freelancers and their accountants, to provide faster and more convenient payment solutions to their customers.

GoCardless's Instant Bank Pay, its open banking-powered payment solution, and Success+, the fintech’s AI-driven tool to automate payment retries, are now available directly within the FreeAgent platform.

Instant Bank Pay will allow FreeAgent customers to offer a more convenient, secure, and instant way to pay. By collecting funds directly from their customers’ bank accounts, they will reduce late payments and improve cash flow. This is particularly beneficial for high-value one-off invoices, as it helps businesses to avoid costly card fees and removes the need for customers to manually enter bank details.

FreeAgent customers will be able to use Instant Bank Pay alongside its existing GoCardless Direct Debit functionality, enabling them to take both one-off and recurring payments within a single platform. This creates a flexible payment flow for different use cases, such as accepting an immediate ad-hoc payment for a new client via Instant Bank Pay and setting up a recurring Direct Debit for ongoing services.

FreeAgent has also added GoCardless’s Success+ to its platform. Success+, which recovers two-thirds of failed payments on average, applies machine learning to data from the millions of transactions GoCardless processes each year to intelligently identify the best time for payment retries. This means FreeAgent customers will have access to an innovative tool that helps them recover more revenue, decrease involuntary churn and save time from chasing late payments -- all whilst delivering a better customer experience and no disruption in service.

Andrew King, Principal Commercial Manager at FreeAgent, said: “We are incredibly excited about adding two new GoCardless features within FreeAgent. Instant Bank Pay is our first open banking payment solution for accounts receivables, and represents a significant step in handling one-off invoices. Equally, Success+ will be a gamechanger when it comes to addressing one key pain point for small businesses – ensuring their payments are successful. Our goal is to provide our customers with the best tools that simplify their financial lives and by integrating these two products, we can do exactly that."

Tom Metcalfe, Director, UK&I Partnerships at GoCardless, said: “Expanding this partnership with FreeAgent allows us to bring the power of Instant Bank Pay and Success+ to a vast network of small businesses, freelancers and their accountants. This collaboration will not only offer them a cheaper alternative to cards but also a way to collect more of their hard-earned money and prevent involuntary churn."

More details can be found at: https://www.freeagent.com/blog/gocardless-game-changing-payment-solution

For further information contact:

press@gocardless.com 

About GoCardless

GoCardless is a global bank payment company. Over 100,000 businesses, from start-ups to household names, use GoCardless to collect and send payments through direct debit, real-time payments and open banking. GoCardless processes US$130bn+ of payments annually, across 30+ countries; helping customers collect and send both recurring and one-off payments, without the chasing, stress or expensive fees. We use AI-powered solutions to improve payment success and reduce fraud. And, with open banking connectivity to over 2,500 banks, we help our customers make faster, more informed decisions.

We are headquartered in the UK, with additional offices in Australia, France, Ireland, Latvia and the United States. For more information, please visit www.gocardless.com and follow us on LinkedIn @GoCardless. 

About FreeAgent

FreeAgent provides award-winning accounting software specifically designed to meet the needs of every small business and the accountants they work with. More than 200,000 UK businesses use FreeAgent to manage their business finances.

FreeAgent empowers business owners to look after much of the day-to-day bookkeeping admin, which means accountants and bookkeepers can spend more time delivering valuable services such as providing tax or business advice. 

FreeAgent won Silver in the Customers at the Heart of Everything category at the 2024 UK Customer Experience Awards. It was also named Friendliest Software of the Year at the 2024 Institute of Chartered Bookkeepers LUCA Awards and has previously won major industry accolades from the British Accountancy Awards and AccountingWEB Software Awards.  

In 2018, FreeAgent was acquired by the NatWest Group where it is run as an operationally independent entity.