Bench Reviews

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 Enterprise

Reasons 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!

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

I loved the idea of having a bookkeeper but it wasn't as user-friendly as using quickbooks.

Cons

I disliked how my bank accounts didn't really play nice with the Bench software the same way they do with QBO. I felt like I was paying a premium price and still having to do a bulk of the work.

Pros

Very Easy To Use. Has many features & functionality.

Cons

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

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

QBank

Reasons for Choosing Bench

We were looking for a more simple experience, something with a personal touch by CS. Price was of course a consideration and Bench is competitive.

Switched From

QBank

Reasons for Switching to Bench

The customer service team did a great job selling it and they've kept their promises over the course of our time. We appreciate a vendor who actually delivers what they promise and Bench does just this.

Pros

It's easy to use and understand. Makes our business run smoothly.

Cons

Having an accountant that will answer any question you may have with a real explanation is really a dream come true. For anyone who doesn't have accounting background this really is a must have.

Pros

It is easy to use. It is smart and captures transactions in categories once I have categorized them once which saves me a TON of time.

Cons

So, far I haven't found anything I don't like.

Pros

I love everything about BENCH. The ease of reading the reports each month and having them at my fingertips to being about to chat with our bookkeeper about any and all things. Our organization is much more put together on the paperwork end now which helps with filing taxes each year.

Cons

As a non-profit, it would be amazing to have BENCH handle our taxes too. But the referral we got is doing a great job so not really a con.

Pros

Very good staff all friendly and helped to sort things out quickly.It also did everything very quickly and I got a response quickly

Cons

One downside to logging out of a bank account when you need to log in again takes a long time

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

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

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

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

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

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise and Wave Accounting

Reasons for Choosing Bench

I wanted more assistance with bookkeeping. I'd attempted to use Quickbooks on my own with no success.

Switched From

Wave Accounting

Reasons for Switching to Bench

The bookkeeping support was well worth the extra expense.

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

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

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 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

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

FreshBooks

Reasons for Switching to Bench

Deeper analytics and reconciliation of accounts

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

QuickBooks Online Advanced

Reasons for Switching to Bench

We had a decent amount of historical data that needed to be tracked and entered. This felt like a huge undertaking and we needed the assistance. Doing that was a good experience and the bookkeeper that we worked with was really helpful. I am not sure that we will continue to use the service for future months, especially once our business is open and the books become more complex.

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

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

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

Reasons for Choosing Bench

I thought having a real person handle my bookkeeping would be faster than doing it myself.

Reasons for Switching to Bench

I chose Bench, because I was hearing good things about them from Ash Ambirge of the Middle Finger Project whom I adore & trust. I liked the idea of a real person on my books, not software I had to manage.

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!