---
title: "Known freee issues and features"
url: https://memocore.ai/memos/6a5f639563d783ad68709462
project: "Doing Business in Japan"
tags: "japan-business, accounting-and-services"
updated_at: "2026-07-21T12:18:29.634Z"
---

# Known freee issues and features

Known freee UX/UI issues: slow page loads (over 1 second per button click); three separate posting tools with different logic and lists (自動で経理, 取引・口座振替, 振替伝票) that store data separately, forcing constant switching and refreshing; inconsistent account lists and search methods (sometimes by a Latin-script alias, sometimes only by kanji); copy-paste from some tables doesn't work properly and triggers wizards instead. Negative-amount "black triangles" only display correctly in the transfers section. freee has no built-in mechanism for tracking cost basis (moving average) on multi-currency operations — these calculations have to be done manually in transaction notes. Its "foreign receipts" feature is considered not very useful ("a clunky add-on") by participants.

freee supports tracking expenses paid by the director or an employee with a personal card (a "paid by the director" button next to the cash/account A/account B fields) — standard practice when the corporate account has no credit card, only a cash card: pay with a personal card, then reimburse the expense through the company (against a receipt/order screenshot/e-invoice). There's a separate expense category for 立替 (tatekae, employee reimbursement), letting you separate reimbursements from ordinary revenue (uriage). freee also works reasonably well for the reverse-charge VAT mechanism on foreign services (with markers on the relevant transactions).

Withholding tax can be filed through freee via the "+新規作成" section (for the semi-annual/annual adjustment), though for simple monthly payments it's faster and cheaper to do it manually via e-Tax directly (2 clicks). For consumption tax (消費税), freee only shows the preliminary amount due through its filing-preparation module.

freee HR Labor automatically picks up changes to statutory deductions (example: a new levy, 子ども・子育て支援金, was applied automatically to the director's pay). freee lets you export company data (a backup) but does NOT let you import it back — restoration is manual or requires API workarounds, with no official "restore backup" button. In one real incident, accidentally resetting a demo account affected the main account because the user wasn't watching which account was logged in in the browser — the reset function is irreversible and wiped a full fiscal year's bookkeeping. Recommendation: use separate browser profiles for different accounts and back up regularly (e.g., monthly).

For translating the Japanese interface, options include Chrome's built-in translator (it can break freee's frames — in that case, navigate into the frame by URL and translate separately there), the 10ten extension (a hover dictionary for Japanese text), and ImTranslator; Safari also has a built-in translator. IMPORTANT: browser page translation (e.g., Chrome's Google Translate) can break forms on bank websites (data stored in the DOM) — Firefox without translation, or disabling translation for banking sites, is recommended instead.

Source: https://secure.freee.co.jp/ctax/payroll#/ — freee section for preparing a withholding-tax adjustment. Source: https://support.freee.co.jp/hc/ja/articles/37655404096409 — freee help article on exporting company data. Source: https://www.freee.co.jp/card/ — Official freee corporate card page.