Bench

Bench is the easiest way to manage our books online. It's been a huge time and money saver over the last few years.

In the wake of COVID I left the agency I was at to do my own agency. While I had my business as a side-agency for a number of years and applications like Freshbooks and then Quickbooks Self-Employed helped me manage things I dreaded tax season and all the work I needed to do every year.

During COVID I had to get my business up and going, get clients, execute projects, and get things done. I had zero time for managing my books. When the end of the year came up I dreaded the work that was ahead of me with several big projects in progress. Then, through the service I use to pay my contractors, I found out about Bench and it has changed my business AND my life.

Bench took 15 months' worth of books that needed to be done and assigned them to a "catch-up" accountant. He went through everything, classified all my expenses, and had a simple way to ask me to review anything they need clarification on. They pulled difficult things to deal with like my processing fees from Stripe and instantly accounted for them. On top of that, having an honest to goodness accountant and accounting team to know how to PROPERLY set up a Chart of Accounts and classify expenses was game-changing. This service easily pays for itself in the time it saves me and the peace of mind it gives me.

Bit of a bumpy onboarding with aggressive trials clearly operated by a different team, but so much smoother once you start a subscription and are assigned your bookkeeper.

tldr; terrible - incompetent, will not support client if there are missed filing deadlines, penalties and fees.

During my sales onboarding call, I talked about my 10 years of doing business in NYC as a sole owner of an s-corp. I have to file extensions from time to time. Bench assured me this would be no problem. They missed the deadline to file my business return with NYC. When I asked Bench about this, they replied that they don't do municipal filings. I asked why didn't my tax preparer notify me - the short answer: he didn't even know NYC requires a seperate business filing. It took several intense phone calls to get a refund. My personal returns were the same. They didn't calculate my estimated tax liability when the filed my extension. I got hit with hundreds in penalties and interest. Again I asked why they didn't notify me. Answer: it was in our disclaimer.

If you look at what Bench offers, they are charging a premium for essentially googling information for you. The actual issues you will need guidance on, they don't offer. Furthermore, they will not advise you of critical filing necessities because it's in their list of "disclaimers".

Find a local tax accountant who understands your business and will have your best interests in mind.

The sales and onboarding team was amazing. [SENSITIVE CONTENT] is a champion.