Bench Accounting Review: Pricing, Features, Alternatives

Bench has raised $53M in funding to date and currently employs around 550 people out of its Vancouver headquarters. Bench accounting, is a fintech company that uses proprietary software to automate bookkeeping and provide financials for small business owners. The biggest consideration for business owners deciding whether or not to use Bench is that it produces cash basis financials with optional accruals (AKA “modified cash basis”).

Accounting and bookkeeping are two of the most important focus areas for any business, as no venture can succeed without effective financial management. However, every company may be unable to retain expert bookkeepers and invest in dedicated accounting resources. This is where Bench accounting alternatives come into the picture, allowing any business to manage its accounts without explicit accounting expertise. These services are versatile, flexible, affordable, and easy to use to meet the accounting needs of various businesses. You will need to handle any other accounting, tax, and admin tasks on your own.

  1. If you sign up for an annual contract, the monthly price goes down to $249 for Essential and $399 for Premium.
  2. You can also add services like payroll, invoicing, bill pay and inventory management for an extra fee.
  3. Best for users of QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Live helps with fundamental tasks like managing bank feeds, reconciling accounts, classifying transactions, and reviewing monthly statements.
  4. This could be helpful if you’ve been behind on your books all year and tax deadlines are approaching.
  5. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.

To make taxes more hassle-free, you can upgrade to the Premium tier, which includes unlimited bookkeeping and tax support. Premium also has filing for sole proprietors, contractors, and businesses (S-corps, C-corps, and partnerships). The Accounting tab on your dashboard provides you with real-time updates of your financials, showing exactly how much money you have and how you’re spending it. You can access your income statement, balance sheet, and other reports that are fully customizable.

How can I ensure the accuracy of my Bench bookkeeper’s work?

To make a profound difference in the quality of life of one million people. If you haven’t done your books in a long time, you’ll need to pay extra to get caught up. However, I use that system’s reports to get a good idea of what’s bringing in income. 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. This could be helpful if you’ve been behind on your books all year and tax deadlines are approaching.

There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. Whether you’d like a tax season review call or a monthly check-in, they can assist you. There’s no extra fee or hourly charges for support, and you’re welcome to reach out to them whenever you have a question. I spent more time dealing with Bench all year long than when I was doing my own bookkeeping on a simple spreadsheet. 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. A scalable cloud ERP solution for growing medium-sized businesses and large enterprises.

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Now that you have all the pertinent info, are you still wondering which bookkeeping service is right for you? Bookkeeping can be complicated — especially for bench accounting competitors business owners who’d rather be focused on building their businesses. At Pilot, we work to ensure that your bookkeeping service is as accurate as possible.

How does Bench Accounting work?

Therefore, it is crucial to look at competitors and alternatives to Bench bookkeeping services to select the solution best suited to your business’s current and future accounting needs. Many Bench accounting alternatives offer comparable services and features while overcoming major limitations. Comparing these with your business needs and expectations can help you make a well-informed decision when it comes to choosing the right online accounting and bookkeeping service for you. Zoho Books is a comprehensive smart accounting software solution designed for small businesses to better manage their finances and control their cash flow more efficiently.

That’s part of why it’s the method favored by investors and venture capitalists. Bench and Pilot are bookkeeping services that manage and organize your company’s financial books so you don’t have to. You might have noticed that we’re writing about the difference between our service and someone else’s. We’ve done our best to give them a fair shake because we want you to make an informed decision. If you need to contact your bookkeeper, you can book a call or message them directly through the app.

In fact the directors are commecial men managing a trading cncern for the benefit of themselves and of all the shareholders in it. Beyond just creating budgets, your accountant can help you with forecasting, analyzing key performance indicators (KPIs), and developing a financing strategy. In 2016, they raised $16 million in Series B funding, led by Bain Capital Investments, with Altos Ventures, and Contour Venture Partners participating.

Each month, your bookkeeping team — made up of three in-house Bench employees — will categorize all your transactions, reconcile your bank accounts and prepare financial statements. This process is completed within 15 business days once you’ve sent all the necessary documents. The best online bookkeeping service should offer a wide range of bookkeeping solutions, including catch-up bookkeeping, invoicing, bill pay, bank reconciliation, payroll, and tax filing.

Monthly prices are either $299 or $499 per month, depending on whether you need tax services. When you sign up, you’ll be matched with a dedicated bookkeeper who is backed by a team of in-house accountants. Your bookkeeper will categorize transactions, reconcile accounts, and prepare reports on your behalf. You’ll also be granted access to an online application that allows you to view the status of your financial data and communicate with your bookkeeper.

But for companies that have a lot of inventory, or for those that process large invoices and accounts payable, accrual accounting is necessary to get a clear picture of a financial position. Bench aims to give business owners more time to focus on what they care about, and less time crunching numbers. Here, we’ll take a look at the distinctive features of Bench’s service that enable effective online bookkeeping. Receipt Stash simplifies accounts payable bookkeeping by automatically extracting expense information from any receipt or invoice, and categorising items using dynamic supplier rules. All expense items are stored securely in a single, easily searchable cloud based account and can be published to your accounting software with the push of a button.