Is Bench Bookkeeping Right For You?

That may seem like a small difference, but the software your books live in can make a big difference, for a few reasons. Furthermore, information regarding specific transactions can be communicated on Bench’s platform through labels and notes. In terms of safety, Bench uses bank-grade security and 256-bit encryption to protect your data and personal information.

But doing it through an online platform, well, it’s fair to say it feels like an even bigger security risk. Once your books are complete, your bookkeeper will update the status of the task on Bench’s platform to acknowledge that fact. You’ll then be able to analyze and review accounts via the “reports” section. These calls are centered around reviews, obviously, hence you’ll be connected with your bookkeeper and discuss how things are progressing. From what I gather, there’s no specification as to why you should call. A Business check-in is as good a reason to call as a business inquiry, so don’t be shy. Bench trains all their accountants in-house and each employee undergoes extensive background checks.

If your business requires specialized bookkeeping — such as tracking accounts payable and receivable — there’s an add on starting at only $100 per month. When you reach out for support, Bench will try to connect you with your account manager, though sometimes you’ll be put in touch with one of the other two bookkeepers. Your bookkeeping team will always be up-to-date on your business and financial status.

Bench Vs Pilot Pricing

Larger businesses or businesses with complex accounting needs will need to seek out other services or software. Additionally, there are a few features that Bench doesn’t offer, such as inventory management and invoicing, that you’d typically find in self-service accounting and bookkeeping software. A cool feature of the Bench app is its financial reports, which provide you with both real-time and monthly statistics like expenses.

Here at DarkRoast Digital, we have been working with an online bookkeeping service called Bench Accounting (Bench.co) for over a year now. Traditionally, bookkeeping is one of those services that we always thought required personal relationships and facetime. Regardless, we decided to give Bench.co a shot and see what all of the hype was about. A final consideration is that each plan, regardless of your total expenses, only allows you to manage up to 15 accounts. This includes company bank accounts, credit cards, loans, merchant processors, and so on. If your business has more than 15 accounts, you may receive custom pricing to accomodate for them. One key consideration is that Bench Accounting operates on a “modified cash basis”.

Software

They are a full-service back office accounting solution that can even include HR and payroll. The Bench app has proven to be helpful to business owners that are constantly on the go. It allows you to view financials and message your bookkeeper at any moment. Their preferred payroll service is Gusto, which will integrate with Bench’s proprietary software, and with the popular accounting software QuickBooks and Xero .

• We are able to keep our service free of charge thanks to cooperation with some of the vendors, who are willing to pay us for traffic and sales opportunities provided by our website.
• If your business is between $500,000 to $1 million in annual revenue, you should consider switching to accrual basis and hiring a part-time bookkeeper or accountant, .
• Match invoices and receipts to the corresponding transactions.
• If you are going to be active in your own books and just want support or an occasional review, we can price for that as well.
• Bench’s software provides a feature that acts as a progress tracker so you can gauge where accounts are during the completion process.
• We’ll look at the pros, the cons, pricing, user reviews, and much more to give you an inside look at what to expect before pulling out your wallet.

Massive names such as Stripe, Shopify, and Bigcommerce all avail of Bench.co’s services. Bench has also been featured in the likes of the New York Times, Forbes, and The Huffington Post, so you’re finances are in safe, reputable hands. You’ve got a million and one other things you’d rather be doing, but instead your flicking through ledgers and zipping through excel files. You can’t find your pen and your beginning to tear chunks of hair from your skull in desperation. Patrick McKenzie is driven by a strong work ethic, but not the kind you see touted in business journals and productivity books.

Bench Bookkeeping Review

You’ll be assigned a dedicated financial team, so you’ll only work with someone familiar with you, your business, and your financials. Their experienced CPAs and tax practitioners are well-versed in the accounting and tax requirements that are specific to small businesses and startups like yours. During your first month free trial with them, they’ll evaluate your business monthly expenses volume and recommend you the best plan that fit your business. This service is for business owners who are less than 2 years late on their bookkeeping. Every of their plan includes a dedicated team of small business bookkeeping experts that will work with you day in day out to make sure everything is in order.

We’re in an app-based world these days with software options for just about everything you can imagine, especially when it comes to running a small business. Bench.co offers bookkeeping for clients but no other direct services. And in some ways, sticking to doing one thing well is beneficial. But it also means having to deal with lots of other providers and stitching various solutions together to get the job done. Considering you’ll be connecting to your bank accounts this is therefore reassuring. Bench clearly defines their pricing on their website, which starts at $139 per month and climbs to $349 per month.

What Support Does This Vendor Offer?

And of course you can’t bundle other services together to get a discount, because they don’t offer other services. By using accrual, you match the amount you get paid to the amount the product cost you, so you can see your actual profit. This lets you manage the business according to how your profits are doing, not just by the bank balance. Bench.co has come a long way in a short time in the world of small business bookkeeping. They raised a lot of money from investors and built their own bookkeeping platform from the ground up and are now serving thousands upon thousands of small businesses. The other bonus is that you can carefully pick a version to suit your business needs, so you won’t end up with high monthly bills and lots of features you don’t actually need or use. Conversely, Bench has enough muscle to handle larger companies too, so all things considered it turns out to be a promising all-rounder.

If your business grows, you may have to switch to accrual-basis accounting system. Bench Accounting offers five expense-based pricing packages for users to choose from. Give the details a look, and select the best plan for your business. Hiring a full-time bookkeeper can be a huge expense for a small business. Bench claims to be able to reduce prices for its bookkeeping software by 10-30% for all clients. One of the first things that gets sacrificed when companies prioritize growth and scaling up fast is the ability to personalize. But that also means that if businesses don’t fit into a neat box it’s easier to say no to them than to try to figure out how to help.

If you also expect to need other services at some point and want to benefit from having it all under one roof and bundled pricing, then CapForge is the way to go. Their system also means there is no allowance for clients to be active in their own books and they have no option for someone who only needs quarterly help or more frequent weekly help.

With your team of professionals, it’s easy to keep your finances up to date and get answers to all of your bookkeeping and tax-related questions. By connecting your accounts and answering a few questions each month, your team will update and keep your records accurate. After adding your accounts and answering any questions from your team, Bench will typically have your bookkeeping completed for the month within 15 business days.

Popular Bench Accounting Alternatives

These metrics combined enable you to paint a picture of how your business is progressing over time. Bench’s online platform does a good job of labeling and categorizing transitions so that you can find things quicker. There’s a degree of human error involved in this process, and sometimes your bookkeeper will mislabel transactions. This mistake can be fixed, however, you’ll just have to log in to Bench.co’s web-based app and do it yourself. In order for your bookkeeper to complete your accounts, you’re going to need to supply them with your financial details. To do so, you are required to link your bank account, debit/credit, and any other payment gateway with Bench.co’s platform. In terms of tax filing, Bench bookkeepers will do all the heavy lifting for you and send you the end product.

Prior to working with Bench, this was our biggest pain point that we were eager. Give your teams an intuitive tool to streamline your procurement process and effortlessly improve compliance and transparency. Sign up for a trial, and get 1 month of bookkeeping done risk-free.

Overview Of Bench Accounting Benefits

We do absolutely LOVE Bench and that’s why we wrote this article; to spread the good word of Bench Accounting, not to try to cash in on the referral program. Regardless of what you may think our intentions were, I still strongly recommend trying out Bench for yourself. But if you appreciate the review and want to contribute to our dog food fund, then go ahead and use our referral link to take advantage of their free trial.

Over a phone call, your bookkeeper will ask questions about you and your business. You’ll also learn about the problems Bench addresses, which features they are best known for, their plans and pricing, all about their integrations and add-on services, and where they fall short. It can offer complete CPA support, and catch-up bookkeeping .

Sage Accounting software aims at providing information, insight and tools to small and medium… Reset Password mail sent, please check your inbox for further processing. The developer will be required to provide privacy details when they submit their next app update. Shift4Shop does not endorse or guarantee the work or performance of any individual partner. Shift4Shop provides a list of partners and this website as a courtesy. Should you choose to work with any third party vendor, your business relationship is between you and the third part vendor. You’ll be able to download all information from reports, both from desktop and from the mobile application.

It’s generally the same experience you would get from your friendly local bookkeeper, except all communication is managed online through their software, which includes a real-time chat feature. FreshBooks- The ideal accounting software for small business owners.

Bench is not suited for larger businesses with complex accounting needs. Businesses that prefer to handle their books with self-service software will need to seek out other options.

At CapForge, although we have come up with some general price guidelines, we still quote every project separately. We can go lower than our “bottom” price listed and often do. We can bundle different services together for lower pricing or provide a group price if you have two or more businesses you need to bring over at once. If you are going to be active in your own books and just want support or an occasional review, we can price for that as well. Check this list out for some of the most popular QuickBooks add-on apps for small businesses. Currently, there are over 500 apps in the QuickBooks app store that serve all of these functions.

This affordable bookkeeping service is best for freelancers and small businesses with relatively simple financials. Priced per month based on the number of monthly expenses, and accounts and add-ons . Punch Financial is a U.S. based team of accountants, bookkeepers and CFO’s, who specialize in Quickbooks Online and working with high-growth companies. Botkeeper provides bookkeeping and pre-accounting services to their clients. Veryfi software automates construction bookkeeping and allows for real-time field intelligence. Automate time and materials by digitizing and you can eliminate 90% of the time spent manually searching for records and trying to track them down.

Youre Our First Priority Every Time

It also doesn’t make sense if you have two or three companies nested together, since you’d have to pay the base rate for each one even if one or two of them have virtually no activity. Need some training, coaching, a deep dive review bench accounting of your books, or just some general business advice? Our Advisory service department can field all those questions, from one-off cash flow or projection projects to ongoing engagements to help you drive growth and profits.

Cash Basis accounting is a method of recording accounting transactions as they come through your bank account. A good way to think of Bench’s service offering is to look at it as a basic checkbook reconciliation. Money moving in and out of your bank account will get entered on the date they clear your account. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.