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Bench accounting services shutting down

bench.co

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Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#41

Post by aimazon »

porter wrote: post #38
wdaher wrote: post #29

If you’re a tech startup and previously used Bench, I’d strongly encourage you to check out Pilot.com - we work with literally thousands of startups. (Disclaimer: I’m one of the founders.)

Pilot looks very expensive!

I guess we now know that the price of a bookkeeping and tax preparation service that won’t shut down without warning is the 2x pilot are charging of what bench were charging.

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#42

Post by journal »

ibejoeb wrote: post #17
journal wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://github.com/denys-olleik/accounting Doing my best wish someone would help.

Cool. Looking forward to going through it. >Have CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS postgis; installed. Why is postgis a requirement for an accounting package?

I wanted some features for shipping and receiving and ability to find closest assets. I'll be importing zip codes which have lat lng needs to be stored and queryable.

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#43

Post by pplante »

Bench was a terrible service in my experience. I used it for one of my startups a few years ago. I personally invested a lot into said start-up. I checked my books and everything seemed ok. Eventually I found that they had hidden my Gusto payroll line items from view and they were no longer taken into consideration in my books. This led to a $300k shortfall from where I thought I was vs reality. Their team just shrugged when I brought the issue to their attention. The impact was immediate layoffs affecting real people who depended on me.

Sure ultimately everything falls upon me the founder. But something so common as GUSTO payroll should never be miscategorized and hidden from view.

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#48

Post by aphilbert »

ezekg wrote: post #8

This is really frustrating. I'll admit their services have been going downhill dramatically (all my books Jan-Nov were still open as of last week and usually they would close subsequent month), but I still think shutting down right before the tax year ends is downright scummy. What are the alternatives that handle bookkeeping and tax filing? Maybe I should just get a local CPA...

Local CPA isn't a bad option though it could be pricey. (CPAs don't want to do book keeping either). I think one of the things that makes the bench.co shutdown challenging is that they used "proprietary" software so now you're going to have to migrate soon. Switching to accounting software that CPAs are more likely to be familiar with would be a step in the right direction and working with someone to aid that and help do catch up would be a good idea. I can help with both so that this isn't the catastrophe that it's shaping up to be

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#49

Post by aimazon »

paxys wrote: post #40
aimazon wrote: post #9

The company is over a decade old and was not cheap to use, I don't think they could have suddenly run out of money as customers typically pay upfront and are in long term contracts. Could it be staffing issues? Corporate misbehavior? Data loss? Ransomware? Has a member of their team gone rogue? Misappropriation of funds? We were bench customers until a few months ago, paying thousands of dollars per year for what cou…

Why do you think it wasn't possible for them to run out of money? It's not like a 10 year old business is immune to failure. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one.

Anything is possible and running out of money is the most probable explanation but it seems so hard for this type of business to get itself into this type of situation. Customers pay thousands of dollars per year, usually upfront. That’s the type of revenue predictability that most of us would love for our businesses because it makes forecasting so much easier. They must have known months ago that they were running out of money. Failing to become sustainable and going through layoffs is one thing, shutting down overnight with zero warning is another. But yes, you’re probably right, it’s just hard to imagine how they could have imploded like this.

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#50

Post by porter »

aimazon wrote: post #41
porter wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pilot looks very expensive!

I guess we now know that the price of a bookkeeping and tax preparation service that won’t shut down without warning is the 2x pilot are charging of what bench were charging.

You don't know they won't shut down. And how does this compare to a local accounting firm?
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