About Bench










Bench pricing
Bench does not have a free version but does offer a free trial. Bench paid version starts at US$249.00/month.
Alternatives to Bench
Bench Reviews
Feature rating

- Industry: Telecommunications
- Company size: 11-50 Employees
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Love Bench!
Bench is the easiest way to manage our books online. It's been a huge time and money saver over the last few years.
Pros
I've been using Bench for years now and it's so simple to see and manage my books. When something isn't categorized correctly, I add a comment and it's moved over to the right one. It's been great and easy to use.
Cons
The monthly income statements are behind often. I have to ask to get them on time. I wish it integrated with Quickbooks as my CPA can easily manipulate the data for reports.
Alternatives Considered
QuickBooks Desktop EnterpriseReasons for Choosing Bench
The accountant was slow and took forever to make small updates.Reasons for Switching to Bench
I didn't want to do the work!Response from Bench Accounting
Thanks, Chris! We appreciate you taking the time to share your experience and feedback. We've passed your comments to your team as well! Wishing you all the best.
- Industry: Management Consulting
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Weekly for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Friendly, helpful staff. Software is nicely designed and easy to use. It's too expensive.
Overall, I've been very impressed with Bench. The people, organization, resources, and software are top-notch. The price, however, is too much for someone who is self-employed or a small business owner with limited transactions. I understand that you generally get what you pay for, but I don't feel that you get 10x the value over self-managed bookkeeping using Quickbooks, Freshbooks, or Wave bookkeeping software. Excellent product -- it's just not for everyone.
Pros
Everyone I worked with to understand and use the bookkeeping software was friendly, professional, and helpful. The dashboard analytics was very easy to understand and is very appealing. I also like that I can export all data into a single workbook (summaries and itemized transactions).
Cons
I don't like that the product is so expensive. Depending on how large your business is and how many transactions you're managing, this product may be too expensive. For example, I've used Quickbooks Self-Employed for years and it's under $20/mo. In comparison, Bench (without any promotions) is hundreds of dollars per month. Granted, they are provided professional bookkeeping services as well as the software, but for a business with 50 transactions per month, it is a little overkill. It's really the only thing I don't love about Bench.
Reasons for Choosing Bench
I wanted to test out Bench to see if the added cost would equate to advice on how I could save more than I'm spending. To date, everyone has been helpful but I have received no recommendations.Switched From
QuickBooks Self-EmployedReasons for Switching to Bench
I chose Bench over FreshBooks and Wave Accounting because of the bookkeeper assistance, design of the product, and ease of use.Response from Bench Accounting
Hi Steve, thank you for sharing your experience with us. It's great to hear that your team has been friendly, professional, and helpful. And that you are finding our User Interface to be appealing and easy to use.
We're concerned to hear that you feel as though you are not experiencing the price to the relative value of our product. A member of our Client Success Team will be reaching out to you shortly.
- Industry: Accounting
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Monthly for 2+ years
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Review Source
After happily using Bench for almost 2 years, I DONT recommend it at all
I saw many articles about bad experiences with Bench before I decided to work with them. I also saw dozens of good reviews about them. I didn't mind bad ones and thought it won't happen to me. But it happened.
Let's talk about the service and value I got; It's just bookkeeping software with a guy sitting in front of it. They consistently put my expenses in the wrong category. I had to check all the transactions manually every time. I did this with Xero for less than $40/mo. All transactions from my bank account are automatically imported to Xero and I just need to check once a month. No value here.
I didn't mind paying +$200/mo more for the same result since we had no problem with them. I also felt more secure since there is someone on the line. They offered me to file my taxes for an additional fee. I agreed. They filed franchise and corporate taxes for 2020. Everything was smooth and simple. I decided to extend my subscription for another year.
Last month, in the middle of tax season, I received an email saying that they will not file my taxes since I am a US non-resident. I respectfully understand that they made some decisions regarding their services. I am totally ok with it, but I should be informed about this in advance.
But informing me a few weeks before the deadline, in the middle of tax season, when it's impossible to find an available CPA is a selfish attitude that shows they don't care about their clients.
Pros
Standard features that all bookkeeping apps have. Syncs my bank transactions to the app. Saves time.
Cons
Service. I paid more only to have a human backed bookkeeping service to file my taxes. But it didn't happen.
Response from Bench Accounting
Thank you Arsen for sharing your experience with us. We sincerely regret to hear that this has been your experience with us, as we aim to provide accurate and open communications with our clients. A member of our Client Success Team has reached out to discuss your concerns, and we have passed this review to our Bench Tax team for further review.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Monthly for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Great option to take bookkeeping off my plate
I've gained more time and mental space to focus on other things since handing my books over to bench.
Pros
Using bench takes bookkeeping tasks off my plate, giving me more time to focus on more important areas to grow my business.
Cons
I am not able to get quite as granular with monthly reports as I was doing my own books with Quickbooks, but the bookkeepers are very helpful with providing info when requested.
Response from Bench Accounting
It's great to hear we've been able to make your life a little easier, Angela! Thank you so much for sharing and for being with us.
- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Weekly for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Life and Business Changing
In the wake of COVID I left the agency I was at to do my own agency. While I had my business as a side-agency for a number of years and applications like Freshbooks and then Quickbooks Self-Employed helped me manage things I dreaded tax season and all the work I needed to do every year.
During COVID I had to get my business up and going, get clients, execute projects, and get things done. I had zero time for managing my books. When the end of the year came up I dreaded the work that was ahead of me with several big projects in progress. Then, through the service I use to pay my contractors, I found out about Bench and it has changed my business AND my life.
Bench took 15 months' worth of books that needed to be done and assigned them to a "catch-up" accountant. He went through everything, classified all my expenses, and had a simple way to ask me to review anything they need clarification on. They pulled difficult things to deal with like my processing fees from Stripe and instantly accounted for them. On top of that, having an honest to goodness accountant and accounting team to know how to PROPERLY set up a Chart of Accounts and classify expenses was game-changing. This service easily pays for itself in the time it saves me and the peace of mind it gives me.
Pros
- An accounting team to get me on track.
- Tax resources with their Bench Tax service.
- A beautiful interface that is easy to understand and use.
- Superb customer service with timely replies to any questions you have.
- An easy way to review anything your team needs clarification on, I rarely spend more than 5 minutes a month classifying expenses for them.
- EXPERTISE, Bench isn't just software to do your books, THEY are doing your books, understand small businesses and bring accounting expertise at a very affordable price.
- Completed my taxes easily and reduced my tax burden, it was the most painless tax process I've had in years.
Cons
- Communication early in Bench Tax could be improved but I mostly put this on me for being behind.
- Having a separate signon for Bench Tax is a bit of a pain but not a big deal.
Response from Bench Accounting
We appreciate you taking the time to share this positive experience with us, Guy! We're so happy to hear that the Bench platform, the expertise of your bookkeeping team, and timely client support have taken the burden of bookkeeping and tax filing off of your plate. Thank you for being with Bench, Guy!