Bench Reviews

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.

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.

Switched From

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

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.

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

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.

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.

Pros

It seemed like it was going to be easy and helpful but that is not the case

Cons

It's impossible to talk to support, they didn't file any returns for us even though we have paid them for 3 years. Customer support is rude and non-responsive. I would trust them with anything.

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

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 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

Very easy implementation - love the human support on closing the books each month.

Cons

Not all of my business accounts can be connected via feed (ie intuit payroll), which requires a drag and drop upload each month.

Alternatives Considered

Quickbooks Online

Reasons for Switching to Bench

I found quickbooks to be frustrating and required far too many manual adjustments - and I never did completely understand the chart of accounts on QB. It was simply too complicated to use and I was exhausted trying to keep up with everything that I needed to do to get a good set of financials.

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

FreshBooks and Wave Accounting

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-Employed

Reasons 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.

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

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

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise and Wave Accounting

Reasons for Switching to Bench

All in one pricing

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

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.

Pros

I like the ease of having my bookkeeping done on a timely basis and not having to think about it until I get a message to review the month. I can then easily go in and make notes of any changes to be made or answer their questions to me. The customer service is excellent as well. They integrate with my payroll company too which saves time.

Cons

They don't integrate with my Customer Management System and they don't use QuickBooks which I also use. I process invoices through my CMS which also provides my scheduling, customer profiles, employee payroll reports, etc. I would love it if Bench would integrate their system to it so I can better track invoices. Instead I have to do that through QuickBooks but am only using a small portion of what QB offers since Bench does my bank reconciliation and they don't use QB. So I'm still paying for QB for this part of what I need. I have a daily service company and I process client credit cards daily in addition to tracking some clients that still write checks and a few who pay via ACH. I do that within QB. At this point I'm not aware of a better way if I want to continue using Bench for bookkeeping.

Pros

The pros are beside the point because the cons are so overwhelming.

Cons

I had Bench do a full year of bookkeeping for my company and consulted them on aspects of the PPP loan program.

I found them shockingly incompetent. Many mistakes. Much flat-out wrong technical information about the PPP program.

They should not represent themselves as PPP experts.

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

What I love the most is the customer service. Despite this being a "bookkeeping software/tool", you get a dedicated accountant. Executives are so responsive. Every time I have a question, I get a response that same day. The platform is also easy to use, and the interface makes it really easy to upload documents, download reports, etc. Really recommend!

Cons

One small issue is the capabilities. If you have highly complex bookkeeping needs (a unique situation or business model), this may not work for you. This doesn't matter for 99% of businesses.

Pros

Very Easy To Use. Has many features & functionality.

Cons

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

Pros

Bench makes work simple.
The interface is very user friendly and instinctive, reports are clear and accurate. Our accountant can log in easily and the customer service is stellar.

Cons

There is literally nothing I don't like about Bench.

Pros

The software is very user-friendly. I like how you can isolate your search to specific months or quarters or the whole year. Uploading documents is very simple. Overall using this software is a pleasant experience.

Cons

Sometimes it will not pull my bank statements and I have to submit them manually.

Pros

The accounting team took our records for the past three years and was able to give us clear understanding of the numbers to move forward with confidence.

Cons

Overall experience has been excellent, even when I am overwhelmed with the numbers, the professionalism of the staff is calming and clear.

Pros

The support team is really helpful and are quick to respond. They’ve allowed me to focus on running a business and no longer have to focus on the accounting portions of my business.

Cons

The only thing I don’t like is the bank integrations. They don’t have all the banks or even if tech companies like cash app or venmo.

Pros

1. Easy to use
2. Does not take too much time
3. Affordable

Cons

There are no cons. I love this product and all that if offers.