Bench

Love Bench!

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

Pluspunten:

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.

Minpunten:

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.

Life and Business Changing

Opmerkingen: 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.

Pluspunten:

- 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.

Minpunten:

- 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.

Warning: Do Not Use Bench Tax Services

Opmerkingen: I use it because I've already paid for the tax return to be filed with them for 2022 and don't want to have to pay twice to have it filed. I will never use them again for a tax return and feel their ability to offer this service should be revoked as I have never worked with a more unprofessional tax service.

Pluspunten:

After months of back and forth with their accounting team I was finally put with an account manager who knows what they are doing and can communicate effectively

Minpunten:

They are incapable of filing an accurate tax return. It is now August and they are still figuring out how to file my 2022 return. Each time they send anything over there are multiple errors they need to fix. Their response times are abysmal and their team has little to no knowledge about actual tax compliance and filling.

Good Quality; Probably too Much for a Smaller Company

Opmerkingen: I like the product, but am unsure of the value for smaller firms with fewer expenses.

Pluspunten:

I like the ease of use. There is a lot of info that is consolidated well, and the customer service is quick.

Minpunten:

Overall the service works well, but for a small company with relatively few expenses, the $300/mo pricing is a bit steep. I feel that a tiered rate based on expense quantities would be valuable to smaller companies wishing to offload the accounting work, but can't justify the cost.

Very Happy

Pluspunten:

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.

Minpunten:

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.