Well, I promised two big announcements this week, and this one is certainly a biggie.

After weeks of work, we’ve finally launched our international version of FreeAgent named “Universal”, and relaunched a new website into the bargain.

For those of you who don’t know, FreeAgent is an online accounting and money management application that takes the pain out of managing your finances as a freelancer, contractor or consultant. It’s built specifically for small, service based companies and up till now has been exclusively for UK companies. With Universal that is no longer the case, and now companies from across the world can sign up and start using FreeAgent to get their finances in order.

The Universal version doesn’t have quite the full feature set of oure UK accounts at present, as FreeAgent is built around the UK tax system, allowing users to calculate tax liabilities from bank account statements and invoices generated through the system.

Universal has basic, sales tax functionality but not the sophistication of our UK tax engine. This will come in time though, as we plan to roll out localised versions of FreeAgent built around specific country tax systems over the coming months, starting with the likes of Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

If you’ve not checked FreeAgent out yet, please head on over to the new site and give it a go. We’ve got screencasts, demo sites and a 30 day free trial if you’re interested.