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Bench’s user dashboard makes it easy to understand your financial situation and allows you to quickly and easily access financial reports as needed. If your books aren’t up to date, Bench can quickly help you get back on track; in most cases, within two to four weeks. However, they were unhappy with the level of financial statements customization and categorization provided by Bench within these reports. But, the fact that this same reviewer began to see discrepancies in their credit card statements and the figures recorded by Bench is alarming, if this person is actually telling the truth. Bench.co buoys your financial reporting using your income statement, balance sheet, and visual reports . These documents and tools are important when it comes to keeping your accounts in order.
Users should note that because Bench uses proprietary software, it is not compatible with Quickbooks or with any other online bookkeeping software. This isn’t an issue unless you decide to switch bookkeeping services, https://wave-accounting.net/ in which case data transfer could prove to be more of a hassle than if Bench used a common software. Bench offers most of the features of an in-house bookkeeper at a flat price that is well below average.
Along with those methods, there’s a variety of self-help options like the Bench blog and downloadable forms, templates, and other resources. Throughout this review, we’ll discuss Bench’s software and services. We were able to take a look at a demo account, so we’ll provide images of the software to give you a sense of what it’s like to use the tool. Impressively, Bench does not require you to provide payment information to enjoy the free trial. If you decide not to sign on with Bench, you are also free to keep the income statement and balance sheet created for you. Have you ever paid for an insurance policy in one lump sum?
What Your Bookkeeping Team Provides You
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.
Katelyn is a Junior Research Analyst at SoftwarePundit, where she conducts in-depth analyses of technology markets & products and writes software-related content. She graduated summa cum laude with degrees in English and Psychology. Her main areas of interest are content creation, user experience, and search engine optimization. Prices for monthly bookkeeping were outlined above and will range from $159 per month to $419 per month.
There are many of these platforms available online that you can choose from with the promise of making your bookkeeping easier. You just enter your transactions in the system and categorize them yourself. The software then separates the transactions into different sections and can automatically generate financial reports for you. Although it could make your bookkeeping more efficient, it doesn’t handle it for you. Specialized bookkeeping is necessary if your business requires property tracking, third party revenue collection, or cash revenue and cash expense tracking. Specialized bookkeeping starts at $100 per month in addition to your standard plan.
If you need to speak on the phone there is a calendar to check their availability. You do have an assigned book keeper which makes it more personal. The price may seem steep at first but with the time you free up it is completely worth it. Bench pricing begins at $159 per month with an annual plan and the most expensive plan is priced at $419 per month with an annual plan. Bench is a software-enabled bookkeeping service that was founded by Ian Crosby in 2012. The company is based in Vancouver, Canada, and works with clients exclusively in the United States. With just over 10,000 customers, Bench is a growing company that caters their bookkeeping services to SMB owners across a range of industries like law, retail, and ecommerce.
Bookkeeping Only Vs Full Range Of Services Including Cpa
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I’d attempted to use Quickbooks on my own with no success. Our overall experience has been that Bench is personable, intuitative, and user-friendly. I am saving myself hours and hours of handling the bookkeeping.
In addition, if you want to add the Bench Tax feature to your plan, you’ll have to pay $99 per month if you pay annually. If you pay monthly, the price goes up to $229 per month. With this package, you’ll get tax advisory, unlimited state filings, federal income tax filings, quarterly estimates, and year-round tax support from a licensed tax professional.
A year’s worth of bookkeeping can take them less than a month to go through and organize. So, how do you manage accounting and bookkeeping, without spending so much time doing it by yourself? And no worries if you can’t afford an in-house accountant or bookkeeper. Bench bookkeepers also perform receipt management where they attach receipts to the corresponding transactions within the accounting system. All bookkeepers are mandated to ensure that all receipts are accounted for, to generate a complete and spotless record.
If your business requires specialized bookkeeping — such as tracking accounts payable and receivable — there’s an add on starting at only $100 per month. During this call, your bookkeeper will also link your bank accounts, merchant accounts, and credit card accounts with the Bench bookkeeping software. This ensures that each transaction is automatically imported and tracked by the Bench software. You can save on the monthly fee by signing up for an annual plan. Tax services, retroactive bookkeeping, and specialized accounting are available at an additional cost. Having all the data to see my business stats has been really helpful.
Where Bench Falls Short
At that point, you can view your financial statements and account information online. If you have any questions, it’s easy to get in touch with your Bench bookkeepers by sending them an in-app message or calling them. The trial provides you with a month of completed bookkeeping, which includes an income statement and balance sheet. Trial clients also receive a full tour of the Bench app. The company sets up your accounts and integrations within the app so you get a clear picture of what working with Bench will be like. That said, some small businesses may need aspects of accrual accounting.
- Bench operates as a web-based service designed to help small businesses manage their finances and accounting.
- 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.
- From setup to now, the team has been here with us and is extremely easy to reach out to.
- Bench aims to give business owners more time to focus on what they care about, and less time crunching numbers.
- If you already have an accountant, you can give them access to your Bench account and they will also be able to message your Bench bookkeeper.
They made these price points so clients can choose whether or not to include tax filing, and to make things more transparent for everyone. Did you know that more than 1/4 of small business owners spend 100 hours or more on accounting and bookkeeping every single year? When you need to communicate with your bookkeeping team, the Bench app will instantly connect you with your experts. You can receive and send messages and get notified instantly when developments arise. With Bench, you have access to your finance team in real time.
What Integrations Are Available For Bench Accounting?
So I started looking for options and that’s when I found Bench. And Bench, even back then, had already provided a service ideal for a small business owner like me. I’ve been using Bench since 2013 now, and I can’t imagine running my business without them. It’s allowed me to focus on my clients and design work which are revenue generating tasks, instead of accounting which was an anxiety-generating task. When you sign up with Bench, the company immediately assigns you a dedicated bookkeeping team.
Bench Accounting’s Essential plan costs $299 per month, which includes monthly bookkeeping and year-end reporting. You can sign up for a free 30-day trial before buying, with no credit card required.
Both Offer Peace Of Mind, Done
Some questions up front, then you save time for years AND you can contact someone if you need a human. From the same Upload Document menu, you’ll find an email below the Upload Documents button, such as receipts+ You can send your documents to this email address. Catch-up bookkeeping for small-business owners who are behind on their records. We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. Pretty straight forward and it makes finances look easy. I had good experience with some of the people who work there.
We’re absolutely thrilled to hear that we have been able to give you peace of mind, knowing that your bookkeeping is in great hands! We’re excited to keep providing the support you need so you can continue to grow your businesses. If you don’t like the idea of turning your bookkeeping over to an outside company, there are accounting tools that you can use in collaboration with your accountant.
This lets you manage the business according to how your profits are doing, not just by the bank balance. Need some training, coaching, a deep dive review 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. 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. If you’re not used to doing accounting or banking digitally, but rather doing it in person, and you’re not super comfortable with online services, Bench may not be the right option for you.
The plans include monthly bookkeeping for up to 15 financial accounts and if your business requires more accounts or additional services, it may be necessary to get a custom price from Bench. 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.
Send a message from your computer or the app anytime, and your bookkeeper will reply within one business day. You can also schedule a time for your bookkeeper to call you at no additional charge.
This is not really a con, but should make it clear that if you prefer to stay on Quickbooks, this is bench bookkeeping reviews not the service for you. They will provide your books as spreadsheets for your CPA to work with.
Reports
As a result, bookkeeping makes your business planning smoother and more manageable. In fact, you only need your balance sheet, or your profit and loss statement to show you how strong your business is financially. With this in mind, you’ll be able to plan better and decide what expenses you can afford.
Small Business Bookkeeping Is A Breeze With Bench
The Accounting tab on your dashboard provides you with real-time updates of your financials, showing exactly how much money you have and how you’re spending it. You can access your income statement and balance sheet as well as other reports that are fully customizable. You can tag transactions with labels like products, clients, location, or sales channels to see exactly how your business is performing. For an additional fee, Bench’s bookkeepers can provide overdue bookkeeping services depending on how late you are on your books.
It can finish a year’s worth of bookkeeping in two to four weeks. This could be helpful if you’ve been behind on your books all year and tax deadlines are approaching. This includes monthly bookkeeping, a dedicated bookkeeping team, year-end tax-ready financial statements and unlimited communication with Bench’s in-house research team. As of right now, Bench is unable to offer traditional accrual basis accounting to its clients. Instead, it offers what it calls “modified” cash basis accounting. In general, modified cash basis accounting records long-term assets on an accrual basis and short-term assets on a cash basis. With cash basis accounting, transactions are only recorded when money directly changes hands.