Once you have these insights, you can categorize them into areas that need urgent attention versus those that require gradual improvement. We’re here to help you explore whether our cash basis bookkeeping is a good fit for your business. Reach out anytime — we’d love to learn more about your business needs and see how Bench can support you. Keeping up with your accounting helps you stay on top of your business finances.

• In this post, we’ll cover the basics of accounting, from budgets to other accounting functions.
• Or, let us handle the year end prep and filing for you with BenchTax.
• The coaches often sat in on meetings with executives and encouraged them to dig into their issues with each other.
• Was your Canadian business impacted by the recent announcement from Bench Accounting about the service shutdown?
• Others have offered to assist people in finding new jobs through introductions and support.

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I’ve given the major players a chance to respond to the facts that I’m laying out here. According to a bench accounting recent report, Canadian businesses are shutting their doors at a rate the country hasn’t seen since the start of the pandemic. The Vancouver-based company posted a “Notice of Service Closure” on its website on Friday. Its Instagram and Facebook pages appear to have been taken down overnight. Our mission is to help every business owner thrive, by providing financial insight and peace of mind in one seamless platform.

• When your bookkeeping has been completed for the month, you’ll receive a message inviting you to view your financial statements and account information online.
• At that point, you can view your financial statements and account information online.
• One of the key frustrations reported by Bench clients was a misalignment between the services Bench offered and their actual needs.
• In this situation, a company can measure the performance of each location and use these results to rank the locations.
• From creatives to chiropractors, Bench supports thousands of small business owners across the United States.

Automation features

• This enables you and your Bench team to work together seamlessly from the start.
• Once you’ve found a good accounting partner, communicate regularly with them about your concerns relating to their service quality, timeliness of work, or other areas.
• If you’re in Canada, you’ll use a different system called International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS.
• One proposal was to provide bookkeepers support staff so that they could serve more clients at once.
• “As you saw on the website, we’re moving fast and are available to support many of Bench’s customers with their bookkeeping needs,” he told TechCrunch.

It also shows all your bank account balances so you can reference both at the same time. It’s the perfect report to review to make sure you have the cash available to tend to your debts and plan future payments. If your business owes debts to a variety of sources, like credit cards, loans, and accounts payable, you’ll have to jump into multiple accounts to check what you’re left owing. We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. When you’re evaluating a service provider, look beyond their marketing claims and focus on their history of results.

Financial accounting

As is the case for most things, the Bench story is more nuanced and complicated than can be summed up in a short social media post. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that Bench board members have been privately frustrated by Crosby’s account. But you may not be aware that some former Bench executives have been angry about Crosby’s social media posts. On Dec. 27, 2024, the founder of a suddenly defunct Canadian bookkeeping startup took to social media. This piece also has the unfortunate distinction of sparking the first express legal threat that I’ve received in the course of my reporting since bookkeeping for cleaning business I started this newsletter over four years ago.

Bench Accounting Pricing Structure

Automated bank reconciliation will import all transactions from your business bank accounts, but you will have to review and categorize each one. Their time-tracking functionality also makes it easy for freelancers who bill by the hour. Freshbooks is a good fit for someone generating a lot of invoices with a low number of transactions. Cost accounting is often a prerequisite of managerial accounting because managers use cost accounting reports to make better business decisions. It also feeds into financial accounting since costing data is often required when compiling a balance sheet.

How to navigate the Bench Tax App

• Staying on top of this ensures a stress-free tax season and gives you access to current financial insights, empowering you to make informed, impactful decisions for your business.
• For an additional fee, Bench provides overdue bookkeeping services and can finish a year's worth of bookkeeping in about two to four weeks.
• This is why you shouldn’t shop service providers based on price alone.
• Finally, because it operates on proprietary software, it doesn’t sync with commonly used accounting solutions like QuickBooks Online and Xero.
• The human touch sets Bench apart from purely software-based solutions.

The management team of a business may choose to engage in benchmarking when it has no basis of comparison for determining where there are potential improvements within the entity. And unlike other services, we never limit support based on business size. No waiting for hours on hold—just helpful customer service from real people. The company’s entire website is currently What is bookkeeping offline except for the notice, leaving thousands of businesses in the lurch. Bench touted having more than 35,000 U.S. customers just hours before it was shut down, according to a snapshot saved by the Internet Archive. Sign up today and we’ll do one prior month of your bookkeeping and prepare a set of financial statements for free.

To make taxes more hassle-free, you can upgrade to the Premium tier, which includes unlimited bookkeeping and tax support. Premium also has filing for sole proprietors, contractors, and businesses (S-corps, C-corps, and partnerships). Bench could’ve earned higher marks in this criterion if it offered video meetings or a direct number to call for customer support; you must schedule a meeting through the Bench platform. However, one of the most appealing features of the provider is that you have access to unlimited support, no matter which plan you choose. Also, it doesn’t have financial planning services like investment and business expansion.

Top Picks for Ecommerce Accounting Software

➤ Operational Efficiency – Streamlining workflows, automating processes, or investing in technology to increase productivity. Automating manual tasks can free up staff time and reduce errors, ultimately improving profit margins. ➤ Revenue Growth – Refining pricing strategies, exploring new revenue streams, or improving sales processes.

The Limits of Founder Friendly: What Happened at Bench & Why Its Board Pushed Out Its Founder

Sustainable providers won cut corners or compromise service standards to manage financial pressures. Stable companies will be able to navigate economic downturns or market disruptions without jeopardizing client support. Plus, they’ll be less likely to disappear overnight, leaving you in the lurch.