Bench

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.

Pros

My Team and I are very happy with the Bench software and customer service. It's easy to use, a breeze to read, and simple to update.

Cons

The lag time to get a response from a human being is something I'm getting used to as our world is moving to the online/AI experience.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Bench

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Pros

Simple and easy to use platform interface and features. Consolidated communication in platform.

Cons

Contradicting communication from our point of contact. Multiple changes with our point of contact and main bookkeeper. Charging us 21+ months of billings for accounting and tax services they never provided or actually completed. Bench promising to fix and refund those services and tax filings and then never doing so, over and over fro months. Tax filing errors that we had to discover with a 3rd party accounting firm. If you like getting ripped off, money stolen and then have to hire another accounting firm to fix all the issues they caused, then Bench is for you.

Pros

What we like most about Bench is their level of customer service. From setup to now, the team has been here with us and is extremely easy to reach out to. Beyond this, the interface is very clean, quick to load.

Cons

There are some accounts that can't be automated, but we understand this. That aside, we would like to see Bench expand and offer more all-in-one service beyond book-keeping and tax returns or make any partners more accessible (virtual CFO, CPAs would be great).

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Bench

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Pros

It was great to see a breakdown of all three financial statements for our business, both from a macro and micro perspective. Being able to pull up accounts and see specific transactions from desktop and on the go through mobile was indispensable in running a healthy business and planning for the future. The messaging system was prompt and efficient for keeping in touch with our book keepers and account manager with any pressing questions. They were always very professional and did high quality work. Any questions or concerns with categorization and interpreting information were answered well.

Cons

I think it would be helpful to expand the software to allow for the dropping of all receipts into our account in order to have a one stop location for accessing and printing receipts for accounting and tax purposes. We were informed that only high ticket items needed receipts, and so we ended up using other third party software to track mileage and keep track of receipts.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Bench

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Pros

That had a decent workflow in place that lets business owners answer questions at their own pace

Cons

They are not well staffed. They miss the deadlines often. They are not honest with the timelines.

Pros

Bench was critical in helping me with catch up books for tax time. Being able to upload reports easily from my bank and various credit card processors made things so much easier, and the bookkeepers learned quickly how to categorize the transactions. I'm not sure when I would have caught up on my historical books without Bench.

Going forward from there has been very easy as well. I've been able to link the reports to my card processing software and bank, and get updates as they have questions. So simple!

I find the monthly reports easy to understand and its given me a much clearer picture of my numbers.

Cons

The only challenging initial integration was with Paypal- myself and the Bench team member had a hard time linking everything. We resolved it and I didn't have that issue with other accounts.

I do wish that this software integrated with my invoicing system, so I could easily see where the profits were coming from. However, I use that system's reports to get a good idea of what's bringing in income.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Bench

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Pros

Having all the data to see my business stats has been really helpful. They call it the "Pulse" which shows you the health of your business with a way to visualize how you're doing over time. I like that a lot. Bookkeeping is really easy for me now and I'm thankful I outsourced it. I just connect my accounts and drag and drop invoices and receipts that I scan or receive into the documents section and they take care of things. They also provide a nice, clean, easy to understand summary at the end of each year so my accountant can do my taxes easily. I have no regrets going with Bench. It definitely saves me a lot of time and stress.

Cons

I wish there are some nice comparable summaries like percentage growth or changes month to month, by quarter, and YoY. Prices still feel a little high to me and I wish there was an option for invoicing and receiving payments into my checking accounts.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Pros

Reconciliation and ongoing communication through the chat is priceless. The teams are fast and handling things in real time is valuable to the process.

Cons

I'd hoped my monthly statements would be pulled automatically once I linked my accounts.

Pros

The staff at Bench are responsive and helpful. The software is user-friendly. The price is less than most of its competitors.

Cons

The bank integration does not always function right with the credit union I use.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Pros

I liked the idea of having support and a knowledgeable team to up to date and accurate financials. Unfortunately that was not my experience with Bench.

Cons

I have worked with Bench for over a year and cannot get access to any of my financials. I check in on a daily basis to understand when and how I might get access to my books, but given answers about their three part review process with no explanation or timeline for when I will get my books. After working daily with Bench to get my financials for 2023 for over 5 weeks, I am told the financials will not be ready until after tax season and if I want them to file a tax extension. I could not recommend this service to anyone.

Pros

A pleasant mix of self-service software, with a reliably consistent team who does genuinely get to know my business.

Cons

It is a walled garden, so no integrations with any existing software. Leads to a lot of duplicate or redundant content in Xero, Expensify, and other tools I use.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Pros

1) Uncomplicated Interface — For a non-numbers/non-accounting comfortable individual it's great. It provides me access and understanding to our accounting in a very digestible yet informative manner.

2) Accessible Customer Service/Communications — All the interactions I've had have been professional, courteous, and problem solving driven. It's never "No". Instead if a challenge arises, they've always been proactive in finding a way to address the challenge or question providing options. It's also especially great that you can speak with them or chat with them with no barriers. At first I was very concerned about this since our books are the heartbeat of our financials, and i was quickly at ease after the first few calls and chats.

3) Easy — Once our accounts were synced and Bench had a clear picture of how our business worked, it's set-it-and-forget-it. What used to required a few hours every week for me now has become an hour or two a month.

4) Transaction Verification Made Easy — I especially love how they've simplified this process to almost a game.

Cons

1) Cash based bookkeeping. This was a struggle in the beginning since we were accrual based initially. However upon working with them and our CPA, we've managed to stay accrual based and set up a system where we do adjusted entries after filing taxes.

2) Not Quickbooks. This is not really a con, but should make it clear that if you prefer to stay on Quickbooks, this is not the service for you. They will provide your books as spreadsheets for your CPA to work with. At first I was nervous about this, but it hasn't been an issue.

3) Turnover with bookkeepers — Over the years, we've had I believe 5 different bookkeepers over the course of 6 years due to turnover or what seems to be internal promotions. It has not negatively impacted our service, but I do wish it was less frequent since at times I'd have to remind the new person some of the subtleties of our account.

Pros

Nothing. They do not know what they are doing. There customer service is horrible.

Cons

This is a very incompetent company. They have charged me thousands for services that they have not performed. I have used them for almost a year. I have tried to cancel them and they keep charging me. When you call, no one answers in any department. The voice mail states that they will call you back with in 1 business day. My rep ([sensitive content hidden]) makes appointments and will not hold the appointment time. You sit there and wait for them and they never call.

Pros

The dashboard chat and customer call scheduling were pretty responsive.

Cons

a bit clunky moving from bookkeeping to tax platforms and not knowing which chat/communication to use when customer support tells you to check your messages.

Pros

The platform is intuitive and easy to use. You speak directly with the individual managing your account, which is nice for continuity. Any discrepancies are easily adjusted or annotated. It exports to multiple file types for integration with other platforms. It links with your accounts so you don't have to manually input everything. AND THEIR TEAM ACTUALLY CARES ABOUT YOU, which is a breath of fresh air.

Cons

Sometimes there are functionality issues with linked accounts, but usually it is because of the security protocols of the bank or account.

Pros

Prior to Bench, we used Quickbooks, and it was lifesaver! We had no idea how to use Quickbooks for bookkeeping and Bench made it easy for us. There was low setup involved and their dashboard was amazing.

Cons

As our company grew, we needed more information in our financial statements. At the time, there was low customization with Bench, and we couldn't add or change things in regards to our Profit and Loss statement. Also, at the time, they only did cash based accounting.

Pros

Excellent service to receive an extra dose of stress.

Cons

They have changed my bookkeeper 4 times in a single year; they made repeated mistakes after mistakes on my books, nothing was personalized, all they do is to set the system to classify the transactions; 2 different 'tax experts' that gave me wrong information; books are NEVER completed on time, they are constantly late by several months; about filing taxes: they will file for an extension regardless of whether your books are done or not.. without even consulting with you; messages and emails are never replied to, you have to call every time and nothing gets resolved;

Pros

I thought I would enjoy seeing where my business expenses were going, but so far I am not able to tell what is going on.

Cons

No turn around on items I need categorized. No follow up. Slow to respond.

Pros

Bench is SIMPLE. The software provides me an accurate and easy to understand overview of my monthly and annual financials with easy-to- process visuals and graphs. The software integrates automatically with my bank and credit card, alleviating the back and forth calls and emails I used to labor through with my former "brick and mortar" accountants. When I have a question, the Bench team is always available and quick to respond.

Cons

Nada! No complaints here! I have not experienced a single problem with the Bench software

Pros

We all know that transitioning from the "idea" stage of a side gig to a real independent consultancy can be tricky. Without the right mentorship or support for small businesses, many are under the impression they don't need a bookkeeper. If I had known then what I know now, it could have saved me thousands of dollars and time which is priceless to time-scarce bootstrappers with multiple streams of income. I also like that Bench.co works closely with FreshBooks so when I need help I hear from both teams when needed. It's not just the AI in software, it's the EQ and human relationships that make it all come together. Bench.com are definitely real humans which I loved!

Cons

A real struggle bootstrappers have is time. Therefore, it was a near emotional crisis to embrace I had to go into my documents like a surgeon to know every weird detail of each expense which is time-consuming as the names may slightly differ from the actual purchase.

Pros

Easy to master accounting software and programmatic marketing is a little easier and is practically with Bench

Cons

One of the easiest software to find and use. No problem likely

Pros

How easy it is to use the software. It shows you all the financial details of your business.

Cons

I'm really happy with everything they've done so far.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Pros

Very Easy To Use. Has many features & functionality.

Cons

I can't think of any. Very thorough for my particular needs.

Pros

The reporting tools are very clear.
Very easy to upload new documents

Cons

Time to prepare full report of prior month takes a few weeks. Certain expenses are repetitively miscategorized.

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.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Bench

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Pros

I was hesitant to start Bench because I thought I could handle the bookkeeping for our business on my own. Managing money has always been a strength for me. However, as my company grows I find that I need to keep delegating and removing things off of my plate. At the same time as a business owner I like to keep as much cash inside the company as possible.

I finally gave the free trial a chance and it has been the BIGGEST weight off of me. I know that my bookkeeping is totally taken care of and done professionally. The stress of organizing everything for taxes is lifted off, and I know that I always have someone working on it everyday on my behalf.

Anytime I have questions I get an immediate response along with very valuable advice. I am a Bench customer for life!

Cons

I don't like that it keeps disconnecting to my bank account. We've had a few technical issues with that. It can be very time consuming and frustrating especially since I am extremely busy already. I also have to confirm purchases from months prior and that can take a long time! When I confirm those purchases it is usually 30+ transactions and at that point I don't even remember all of them so it takes a while for me to locate receipts. I really dislike that too. I wish it were less expensive for us a small business owner as well.

Pros

Bench is easy to use and navigate. In the beginning, they were fantastic at answering questions I had to help understand how my bookkeeping was being handled. That's about the only good thing I have to say.

Cons

I spent more time dealing with Bench all year long than when I was doing my own bookkeeping on a simple spreadsheet. I expected a learning curve in the beginning. They promised it would get easier "as we learn about your business and transactions," but I found month after month that the same transactions got flagged needing my input. Then, when I did thorough checks on my books, I found several transactions not in the right category. The other thing I didn't like was that my bank constantly needed to be reconnected. I truly felt like I spent more time handling Bench than I would've spend just doing my own bookkeeping.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Bench

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Pros

It was easy to set up. That was the only good thing about Bench. But, you will have to set it up repeatedly because they remember almost nothing from report to report.

Cons

Everything! Bookkeepers change constantly. They seem to intentionally delay and avoid reports by telling you they need one more thing or someone has to finalize and review before they can give you a report. When you realize you never got your report (because small business owners are busy, you know!), you reach out again and it is as if you never asked them for anything. The process starts over, if it ever started to begin with.

Pros

After months of back and forth with their accounting team I was finally put with an account manager who knows what they are doing and can communicate effectively

Cons

They are incapable of filing an accurate tax return. It is now August and they are still figuring out how to file my 2022 return. Each time they send anything over there are multiple errors they need to fix. Their response times are abysmal and their team has little to no knowledge about actual tax compliance and filling.

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.

Pros

Bench has done a great job of placing most items one would require into a dashboard that makes the bookkeeping experience simple. Customer service at Bench is by far the best in the market! Staff at the company truly believe in the product and provide the end user with an exceptional experience each and every call.

Cons

Platform errors and the lack of additional features.

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

Reasons for Choosing Bench

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Pros

We've been using Bench for a few years now and absolutely love it. It can be basically as hand's off as you want. We get an email once a month when they're working on our books, sometimes an extra contact here and there if they provide other documentation throughout the year. And we have our CPA and Bench people in touch with each other which is even more off our plate. As small business owners, bookkeeping used to take a ton of our time, and now it's a breeze. And logging into our account we can look around at where our money is going with a quick glance

Cons

I admit we haven't done a ton of digging around in the actual software - our typical use is them contacting us with any categorization questions once a month (and after a couple years there are hardly ever any). I do wish (or can not find how) we could see how much money we're paying/spending on a particular item. So, say, I want to see how much we're spending on just Facebook ads. What I can do is search for "facebook" (and I can specifically search within whatever time period I want, like Q4 2018 or January 2017), but it won't automatically give me a sum of all of those expenses. I CAN see a summary of expenses by category, but by "line item" (like "Facebook" or "AWS") would be even more helpful.

Pros

cost, ease of use, connection to other platforms

Cons

only cash basis accounting. They do not do accrual. Their service for anything like updating balance sheets with loans, etc is awful. Getting in touch with them via email or phone is next to impossible. It didnt used to be that way.

Pros

The iOS app is simple and easy to use. I appreciate the quick access to messaging back and forth with my bookkeeper, making notes about transactions, and they referred me to Gusto for an integrated payroll service

Cons

Some of the features like their Pulse tab of real time bank account syncing and electronic PDF statement syncing are glitchy.

Pros

I like the ease of use. There is a lot of info that is consolidated well, and the customer service is quick.

Cons

Overall the service works well, but for a small company with relatively few expenses, the $300/mo pricing is a bit steep. I feel that a tiered rate based on expense quantities would be valuable to smaller companies wishing to offload the accounting work, but can't justify the cost.

Pros

Offloading expense tracking was a massive weight off of my shoulders. I now have more time to lead my small team and know that my accounting is in good hands - if there is ever a question or discrepancy they reach out immediately.

Cons

Honestly the price. I wish it were significantly cheaper. Much of the expense tracking is already done through freshbooks, other financial input apps have APIs for the Bench team to use as well - so I don’t think the limited personal interactions (which is not a detriment-the less I can talk to accountants the better) warrants the steep price tag.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Pros

Incredibly supportive staff, intuitive friendly user-interface, provided year end tax portfolio that I could easily give to my CPA. Bench is just fantastic, I can't say enough good things about the way they have handled my accounts for the past 3 years, highly recommend. If you're a professional, this is for you.

Cons

The only con here is that I didn't switch sooner.

Pros

I like that the online interface is user friendly, albeit a little glitchy.

Cons

Software is glitchy and could use a bit of tweaking in order to ensure that it is more effective.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Pros

There was nothing I liked about bench. They charged me for work not completed.

Cons

They lock you into a 12 month contract and do not bother to do the work accurately.

Pros

With Bench handling all our accounting needs is easy
It makes financial reporting easy

Cons

Not a single issue with Bench. It is has has been very swift.

Pros

The best thing about the software is hands off. In comparison to other software you have to not only implement the software you have to hire someone to upkeep it/reconcile it every month, whereas this is all in one pricing.

Cons

The software may be a little confusing at first but with the customer service they help you navigate how to use the key features. I do wish there was a easier way to download a simple profit and loss and there are some other things that they may not be able to do that you need a CPA for but you at least have all your information in order for the CPA.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Pros

Bench is an amazing product that is in the cloud. I love that i can access my books from anywhere on the go and get a snapshot of how the company is doing week to week.

Cons

There are no cons at this point. I wish they started an accounting arm that tied to bench since their product is so awesome!

Pros

Back in 2020-21 they were fine, I had one point of contact and reminders to upload information.

Cons

My books have not been completed for tax years 2022 or 2023 yet. My taxes were filed incorrectly for 2022 and it almost ruined my business due to over paying taxes. I've had 6 different book keepers in as many months. No humans working on my books. Books never get done and can't trust the results.

Pros

My QuickBooks was a mess. I had brought in duplicate transactions from syncing with square and I was going to need to manually adjust thousands of items. Then I found bench! The bookkeepers are relatively easy to get in touch with when you have an issue; you can book a call, chat, etc. Come tax time the year end summary they put together was amazing. It made filing taxes very easy.

Cons

The bookkeepers are spread very thin, and turnover is high. I've been with them a little over a year and I've had 3 different bookkeepers. I had to complain about one of them because he wasn't giving me a complete set of books each month. (They ended up giving a month free while they caught up my books.) It costs much much more than QuickBooks and doing it yourself, and you do have someone knowledgeable doing the work, but all than means nothing if your books are fragmented.

Pros

I like that it's easy to use, comes in a user-friendly format, and simplifies accounting for me. It's dummy-proof! I'm mostly looking forward to an easier tax season with this software.

Cons

It's a little expensive for a one-person office, so I wish there were more tiers in pricing. But I like the product and will continue to use it, and understand that it costs money for a good product.

Pros

We transitioned from a traditional outsourced bookkeeper to Bench and love the ability to go in and view our reports quick and easy. The team is also much quicker to finish month end reports and responds quickly.

Cons

The onboarding process was a bit difficult. We had to adjust our expense categories to match. We would like to use the accrual accounting adjustment but haven't been able to get help with this yet.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Bench

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Pros

Extremely professional bookkeepers, easy to use user interface and 100% hands-free. They even have auto-linked bank accounts to pull your bank statements so you don't have to manually send receipts and statements. You can view your dashboard anytime and see live updates on your balance sheet. My CPA loves their books as well.

Cons

Sometimes the connection might be off and I'll have to upload documents anyways, and they'll still need my input for returning vendors/suppliers.

Pros

Very easy to use . This product has been very useful for me to track all business expenses and have all of the required audits of my accounts while also producing annual earnings reports. Very professional.

Cons

It would be nice if the system was able to read the memos for checks written to determine the purpose for the expenditure rather than the business owner having to review each check and identify its purpose for the business.