About Bench

Bench is the online bookkeeping platform for small business owners. Each month, Bench automatically gathers transaction data from all connected business accounts. Then, a dedicated team of bookkeepers ensures books are tax-ready. With books up-to-date, users can access the Bench iPhone or desktop app to monitor cash-flow and financial health with intuitive expense reports, income statements, and more. Users can also send the Bench team a text in the message feed, and they respond within one business day. And at tax time, Bench delivers a package with everything needed to get filed.
Bench Software - Pulse dashboard
Bench Software - Profit and loss
Bench Software - Income statement
Bench Software - Transaction sync
Bench Software - Transaction sync continued
Bench Software - Pulse dashboard - thumbnail
Bench Software - Profit and loss - thumbnail
Bench Software - Income statement - thumbnail
Bench Software - Transaction sync - thumbnail
Bench Software - Transaction sync continued - thumbnail

Bench pricing

Bench does not have a free version but does offer a free trial. Bench paid version starts at US$249.00/month.

Starting Price:
US$249.00/month
Free Version:
No
Free trial:
Yes

Alternatives to Bench

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QuickBooks Online Advanced

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Pilot is a cloud-based accounting solution that assists small to medium-sized businesses with financial reporting and...
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Bench Reviews

Feature rating

Value for Money
4.5
Functionality
4.5
Ease of Use
4.7
Customer Support
4.7
5 reviews of 286 View all reviews
Manabu
  • Used Monthly for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 4/10/2017

Solves the Startup Book-keeping Headaches

All of my book-keeping headaches are gone!

Pros

I really like it that Bench people essentially leave me alone and they will do all the bookkeeping stuff for me. It is not my forte, so it is great and done at much lower price point than hiring a firm. The web interface is great and pretty much you upload your expense receipts and they will take care of it.

Cons

Occasionally the bank statement transfers stops, then takes a bit of trial and errors for it to work, only happens perhaps once a year or so. No biggie, but could improve it.

Response from Bench Accounting

Hi Manabu - Thank you for your kind words! We're thrilled to be able to ease the headache of bookkeeping for you. We've passed the message on to Nadeeshi and the rest of your team, and you've made their day much brighter. - SP

Replied 5/10/2017
Dez
  • Industry: Information Technology & Services
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 27/10/2020

Clean

Our overall experience has been that Bench is personable, intuitative, and user-friendly.

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

FreshBooks

Reasons for Choosing Bench

We switched away from QuickBooks mainly to give our bookkeeper an out, though we were also looking for a tool that offered easier access and further automation/connection to other tools we use in our operations.

Reasons for Switching to Bench

We considered several products, most of which I can't seem to find in the product selector on Capterra but I don't see that to be too relevant here. The point would be that we selected Bench mainly because our largest need was for a bookkeeping solution from a company with both a quality product and quality service, able to offer a demo of sorts, and flexibility. Bench.co offered us all of this.

Response from Bench Accounting

Hi Dez! Thank you so much for your kind review. We also appreciate the feedback! Wishing you all the best.

Replied 12/11/2020
Arsen
  • Industry: Accounting
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Monthly for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Features
3
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
1

1
Reviewed on 21/3/2022

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.

Replied 24/3/2022
Jonathan
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 25/8/2020

Excellent Book Keeping Software For Running Your Business

Understanding the financial health of our business has been critical in making decisions both long and short term. Bench helped free up the minimal time that we as business owners have and spend more of that time focusing on our business, which has been very helpful.

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

Xero

Reasons for Choosing Bench

They were not able to provide adequate book keeping services, due to complicated books.

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Recommendations from online users, Youtubers, and a good first hand experience from the beginning while switching over to Bench.

Response from Bench Accounting

Hi, Jonathan. Thanks so much for sharing your kind review! We also appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback. We have shared this to the appropriate teams.

Replied 23/9/2020
M. Brandon
  • Industry: Marketing & Advertising
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Weekly for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Features
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 17/6/2020

Extremely happy with my choice!

Overall, really great! They're super helpful. Most of the time they're quick to respond, but at times have needed to have an extra poke to get a response. That is a rarity. Usually, I'll hear back from someone by the next day at the latest.

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

FreshBooks, QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise and Xero

Reasons for Switching to Bench

A good blend between what I need the most, pricing, and peer reviews.

Response from Bench Accounting

Thank you so much for your kind words! It's great to hear that we have been able to take away some stress. We've also shared your feedback with the appropriate parties for further consideration!

Replied 12/8/2020

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