First Freelance - London

robbie K.

I hired this company as I have no idea about tax etc and I wanted the peace of mind that it would all be taken care of, especially as I set up a limited company. However, my experience over the last 6 months has been atrocious.
My company accounts were not finalised on time and subsequently my company was dissolved without my knowledge in Sept. I found out after my business bank account mysteriously disappeared. Since June I have been emailing my accountant asking what the hold up was on my accounts, begging someone to get in touch and to reply to me. it was only after i emailed them at the start of Oct asking how my business could have been dissolved did I receive an email with my accounts ready for my approval. Since then, I have received sporadic replies, if any at all. I have tried calling, but can never get through. I've sent an email a week, with hardly a reply. Now they are asking me to pay to have my business reinstated. I can not stress how infuriating it is to not get a reply to emails for weeks on end. Take your money and run. it is not worth the £35 a week.

Katy C.

Do not use First Freelance. Apart from a good onboarding experience everything else is extremely dodgy. I’ve been asking the company to cancel my subscription repeatedly via phone and email for almost 2 months and no response. I found out no accountant was assigned to me or looking after my company accounts/ tax. Have had to cancel my card so they stop charging me without my permission.

Robert T.

Onboarding has been the only good thing about this company- quick and smooth. Everything since has been awful.

I have just read online my accountant left in September and I was still emailing her in April to try to understand what was going on, apparently I was notified, I'm just not sure how.

I have stated in several emails (most of which were ignored) since last July that I no longer need their services as I no longer need my ltd company. However, not only are they trying to charge me still, but have more than doubled my fee due to inactivity after having negotiated a reduced fee to keep me paying. This beggars belief as they have done absolutely nothing for me. I have just submitted my own tax return, which again is so terrible its quite funny.

After completing my own online bookkeeping on their portal, they have now blocked my access so I will struggle to submit my own accounts. I wonder if a GDPR data request would fix this? Should I discuss this with the financial ombudsman, maybe there are enough reviews on here for a class action process?

I was due to have a call at 15.50 today with a senior accountant, but obviously nobody has called and I have written this review instead.

This company is stressing me out massively, for what would be such a simple tax return and set of accounts.

Marcus P.

First Freelance are excellent at what they do. I have felt well supported and, in turn, confident during the entire process of setting up and running my Limited Company.

The First Freelance Portal is very modern and user friendly. It has definitely been an essential tool for someone like me who does not have any past accounting experience.

They also have a dedicated team who are always more than happy to answer any queries.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend First Freelance to anyone looking at starting up a Limited Company.

Karen S.

This company is no longer professional or ethical. I was using First Freelance for years and paying their considerable fees. In the early stages they were better. However in the last year they have been completely unresponsive on any issue.

In February I paid them to close and wind up my company. It is now September and they have yet to achieve this task. I have chased and called them numerous times and they are incapable of giving an update. At this point I question their ethics and professional abilities as they seem reluctant to lose me as a client, incapable of completing a task and are therefore holding up a process which by any normal standards should have been completed by now.

In short, do not use this company if you want an accountant who is responsive and available to talk to. They will not answer your calls, return your calls or respond to emails unless you escalate each and every query. In my opinion that’s not a service worth paying for.

Chiara L.

Very disappointed in the way my ltd company accounts have NOT been dealt with. No attention to calculation on Self Assessments; no following up timely in relation to queries; not suggesting best options to new users. Trying to close my ltd account since September 2021....what else to say ...I would definitely not recommend them. Don't like to share negative feedback but hope this might help people avoid making a mistake and join them.
I can see I'm not the only one sharing their frustrations.

Helen D.

Cowboys.
Filed my accounts in 2018 late.
Did not inform me.
Received a letter 10 months ago from a Court saying I owe £1K.
Received a letter from Companies House that my Ltd co is insolvent.
Oliver filed accounts late, Haroon kept pushing back, James ignored me, passed to Lucy who keeps apologising and saying that Finance dealing with it.
No answer from Finance for 2 months.
Lucy offered 6 months free accounting.
I decided to give them another chance.
Check bank statements. They have been taking money from me fraudulently.
Untrustworthy, unprofessional, manipulative and coercive company.
Avoid.

first started using this company 5 years ago. At that time, they were professional and responsive.

Since then, they have rapidly deteriorated.

I don't receive responses to my emails for weeks on end, I phone them up and am promised a call back which never happens.

I received a notice of fine for the late filing of my accounts in 2018. FF are still looking in to this and blame an IT error for not being able to investigate the issue.

I now have a fine against my name for something which is not my fault.

I do not recommend this company.

Daniel O.

This company doesn’t even deserve 1 Star. Read the below comments to feel my exact frustration. Good to see I am not the only person feeling the pain. My partner and I are currently with them, but not for much longer. They do not reply to your emails they miss important deadlines. You can’t even get in touch with them via phone. They do not acknowledge their mistakes or try to fix them. Horribly unprofessional. They have been having ‘technical difficulties’ for the past months so their ‘system is down’ resulting in us having to pay late fees for self assessment tax. AVOID AVOID AVOID. Doing your tax is hard enough without having to deal with a ghost of a company. Maybe I should stop paying the weekly £39. Guarantee they will make contact with me then.