Bench Accounting Review 2021

Webgility seamlessly syncs your sales, expenses, fees, and customer data across all sales channels. The developer will be required to provide privacy details when they submit their next app update.

• If you sign up for the ZipBooks Services plan, you receive advanced reports, including a tax savings analysis, along with recommendations.
• You can also come across solutions that support a broad group of users and offer a powerful feature set, however this usually comes at a higher price of such a software.
• Plus, when it comes to QuickBooks, it’s important to note that you always have the option to opt into QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping at a later time if you decide that you’d like that type of service.
• You will receive a 1065, 1120S, or Schedule C for your business along with your personal income tax return.
• So, don’t be shocked if you go through a few bookkeepers during your time spent working with Bench.
• Sign up with Bench, and we’ll do one month of bookkeeping free.

BenchRetro is available for businesses who have over two years’ worth of overdue books. For each year of overdue books, BenchRetro provides a Year End Financial Package so that your business can file overdue taxes and apply for loans.

Historical Bookkeeping & Benchretro

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, . If you’re over $1 million in revenue, it’s almost certainly time to hire a full-time bookkeeper. If you’ve been doing your books in another accounting system, you can’t import the individual transactions into Bench. Your Bench bookkeeper will ask you for your latest reconciled financials, then enter those and start from there (unless you want to pay Bench to do the previous months’ books over again). There are three types of bookkeeping services and one service that combines bookkeeping and tax preparation assistance. NolaPro is an ERP-level accounting, order tracking, inventory, and payroll system that can compete with much more expensive options.

The data is then presented in an easy to digest form showing how many people had positive and negative experience with Bench Accounting. With that information at hand you should be equipped to make an informed buying decision that you won’t regret. Bench bookkeepers also perform receipt management where they attach receipts to the corresponding transactions within the accounting system.

Key Considerations Before Trying Bench

If you ever decide to leave Pilot, any bookkeeper in the world can plug into QuickBooks and all your data is easy to access. In this article, we dive into the features, pricing, and key differences between Bench and Pilot, then recommend who each service is best for. For a quick overview of how Pilot and Bench stack up based on the attributes above, we included a comparison chart. Whether Bench is a good choice for your business depends on what your business needs are. If you’re looking to save time and have your books done quickly and accurately, then Bench will get the job done.

Bench is best suited to a small business owner having trouble managing their financial accounts. However, businesses up to enterprise-level can avail of Bench.co’s services on some level. These applications help you do your own bookkeeping; unlike Bench, they don’t include access to a team of dedicated bookkeepers in the basic price. This affordable bookkeeping service is best for freelancers and small businesses with relatively simple financials. Your bookkeeper automatically imports info from your bank and credit accounts, so your accounting is always on track. You and your client base will receive 24/7 accounting and support as well as incredible insight into financials with beautiful dashboards and unlimited reporting. Working with bench accounting will get you rid of so many expenses, such as office space for an in-house bookkeeper, desk, computer, internet connection fees, huge bookkeeper salaries, allowance etc.

Bench Review Summary

My Bench.co review wouldn’t be complete without talking about all of the features the company has! It takes a lot to run a business, and the financials is just a small part of the big picture. But, your business finances can also make, or break, your business. Rob Clymo has been a tech journalist for more years than he can actually remember, having started out in the wacky world of print magazines before discovering the power of the internet. In the rare moments he’s not working he’s usually out and about on one of numerous e-bikes in his collection. When we signed up for the trial Bench staff were true to their word and got in touch within minutes.

In any case, there are many alternatives to Bench Accounting that you should consider before choosing a solution for your business’ financials. For many other businesses, accrual bookkeeping also makes more sense and in these cases you can’t use the Bench.co solution. Clients at CapForge certainly don’t need to use all of these services. Many use us strictly for bookkeeping, having found a CPA they already work well with and not wanting to change. But if you don’t have these other items covered, or want a second opinion or a quote, we are happy to help.

Again, these are some alternatives to Bench.co, but of course, you should choose the software that best fits your needs and business needs as well. Tax support – Bench.co can refer you to a number of CPA firms that will help you with your taxes .

What Is Bench Accounting?

They ensure that our books are updated within a reasonable timeline. While they tend to be on the slow side, I’m not entirely concerned. Customers can expect an effective and professional engagement with their team. Tax strategy and filing from our small business specialist CPAs.

In fact, Bench shines with third party integration, for example integrating payroll tools like Gusto Payroll or Justworks Payroll. Not an all-in-one type solution for Enterprises in need of accounting functionality as well as ERP, CRM, etc. To stop you from worrying, Bench.co provides 256 bit-SSL/TLS encryption. That’s the same encryption level as used by many banks, and it’s believed to be impossible to hack. Massive names such as Stripe, Shopify, and Bigcommerce all avail of Bench.co’s services.

Because Bench’s Essential plan focuses almost exclusively on bank transactions and doesn’t offer services like invoicing, bill pay, or payroll, it is a very affordable option. You can sign up for a free trial with no credit card required before buying. Bench accounting software tracks financials and partners with a team of bookkeepers to do the books. Every month, the Bench bookkeeping team turns data into tax-ready financial statements. This helps monitor business financial health, allows for the download of financial statements, and allows the ability to chat with the bookkeeping team any time via the Bench mobile app.

If you don’t need an assisted bookkeeping service, and you want to do your own books with a do-it-yourself accounting tool, check out our guide to the best small business accounting software. BenchTax will take over your entire filing process from start to finish, which should save you a great deal of time and energy. If you’re using anyone other than Bench to manage your books, you can still avail of its tax services. However, you’ll have to give Bench one month’s worth of filing history to ensure your books are up to date.

Choosing Between Bench Accounting Vs Quickbooks For Your Business

This intuitive software lets you connect both your merchant and bank accounts to Bench, which can then be shared between yourself and your allocated advisor. Cash-basis bookkeeping makes sense if you’re not planning to grow, don’t need accounts payable/receivable, or have extremely simple transactions. But accrual-basis is the only method that scales, making it preferable for any business focused on growth. There are two packages to choose from depending if you’d like help with your taxes or not. If your business requires specialized bookkeeping — such as tracking accounts payable and receivable — there’s an add on starting at only $100 per month. Cash-basis bookkeeping is useful for knowing exactly how much money your business actually has on hand.

• While Bench allows you to be hands-on with your accounts and bookkeeping tasks it’s very appealing for people who want to get help from professional advisors.
• The only reason why there are different plans and pricing is that Bench.co breaks down their costs for bookkeeping based on your company’s monthly expenses.
• See how your business is doing, master your spending, and make smarter decisions with your money every step of the way.
• Bench saves you time, not to mention precious hair follicles, by arranging a team of accountants to keep your books.
• The app is a great tool to have on hand when making purchases as you can scan receipts and simplify your expense reporting process.

Highly recommend them all, but Bench is the glue that makes it all worth it. Getting in touch with the Bench support team is very easy given that their website has live chat, where you can correspond with their team in real time. Along with those methods, there’s a variety of self-help options like the Bench blog and downloadable forms, templates, and other resources. The Reports section provides you with a summary of financials, an income statement, and the balance sheet. Within each category, as you can see below, all transactions can be given a category or listed as uncategorized until you or your bookkeeper can assign the transaction to a particular section. Zumzum Financials is an accounting application that’s fully integrated and designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers all the functionality you need in one package for one price.

Compare Bench Accounting To Other Accounting Solutions

Your bookkeepers help categorize transactions, reconcile statements from bank and credit cards, and ensure your books are accurate. Bench is primarily designed to streamline bookkeeping and accounting.

If you want to learn more about bookkeeping before reading this review, check out our article about bookkeeping tips for small businesses. Wave’s simple-to-use accounting program can connect to your bank accounts, sync expenses, balance your books and prepare you for tax time. The bookkeeping team is what makes Bench different from automated online bookkeeping software. With traditional online services users have to log in, set up, and manage their own accounts – Bench bookkeepers will do all this for you.

Wave Accounting

Pilot is not a public accounting firm and does not provide services that would require a license to practice public accountancy. Pilot is a provider of financial back-office services, including bookkeeping, controller services, and CFO services. Another big difference between Pilot and Bench is the method they use for your bookkeeping. Pilot defaults to accrual-basis bookkeeping (though we can do cash-basis upon request). The first difference between the two services is the software each uses to handle your bookkeeping.

Also, should you choose to avail of sole prop filing, business filing and business/personal filing you’ll be paying $600-$1,320 extra. Bench offers a pretty great deal in that they provide one month of bookkeeping service for free upon signing up. However, one drawback people have noted about Bench is that the accounting service turns over a lot of bookkeepers.

You can sign up for the Premium plan and Bench will prepare the tax return for you. Upon enrollment, you’ll bench accounting reviews be paired with your own dedicated bookkeeper. Bench provides a great time-saving service that’s affordable.

• With FinancePal, you get streamlined, trusted financial solution in one place.
• If you’re uncomfortable sharing financials with multiple people, this could potentially be a con for you.
• This is our first full year working with Bench and we are very happy.
• Working with a bookkeeping services provider like bench accounting will grant you a lot of time to focus on growing your business.
• If you want to compare Bench’s prices with other virtual bookkeeping services, check out our comprehensive guide on the top 100+ bookkeeping pricing packages.

That’s what has prompted many SMBs to share their experiences about Bench Accounting online. Here’s a look at what you can expect when you signup to Bench Accounting and some of the things you’ll want to keep in mind before you reach out to Bench Accounting’s sales team. One of the first things that gets sacrificed when companies prioritize growth and scaling up fast is the ability to personalize. It makes sense in that it is hard to create custom solutions and take the time to get to know each client when you are trying to onboard hundreds of them a month (or week!) and you need to move fast. 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.

Tim is a Certified QuickBooks Time Pro, QuickBooks ProAdvisor, and CPA with 25 years of experience. He brings his expertise to Fit Small Business’s accounting content. Part design agency, part online business, GFDA uses profanity and bold design to inspire millions of fans and customers around the world.

All the financial work is handled by Bench’s in-house team of bookkeepers, and small business owners can log onto their dashboard to oversee the process. Bench Accounting is a web-based service that handles your bookkeeping on a monthly basis. Upon enrollment, you will be matched with your own dedicated bookkeeper backed by a team of in-house accountants. You will also have access to an app that allows you to view the status of your financial data and communicate with your bookkeeper.

Author: Emmett Gienapp