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Bench accounting services shutting down

bench.co

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Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#171

Post by ShakataGaNai »

josephcsible wrote: post #168
solidgiant wrote: post #149

I was just sold bench.co for my three businesses and the sales person Luc Lewarne made me sign a payment agreement with Capchase. The agreement states that I still owe Capchase the full amount for a year, even if Bench.co shuts down... Does anyone have any contacts or experience with Capchase? I never even started my service, which was supposed to begin January 1st, 2025 and now I will have to pay out 12 months to Ca…

Wouldn't "you have to pay even if we don't deliver the product you're buying" be considered unconscionable?

Yea. That doesn't sound right. I'd say Op should talk to a lawyer ASAP.

I mean, bad to agree to in the first place, but it doesn't seem like a contract where the other party is non-performant, should be enforceable.

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#172

Post by Projectiboga »

pplante wrote: post #58
willcipriano wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

What gave you that impression? I always consulted my financials when making decisions. Unfortunately the books were wrong and I made incorrect choices from that bad data.

This is why you have to do a quick back of the envelope go over of the big numbers and make sure they are at least close. Loosing track of $300K is partly your fault. The scale means you have to be looking at it as part of a big picture summary uncontaminated by technology. With Nuclear Treaties it is called "Trust but Verify" and is applicable to business cash flows. You have to be skeptical of the automated numbers that employees touch as there can be either error or worse fraud.

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#173

Post by caseyohara »

josephcsible wrote: post #168
solidgiant wrote: post #149

I was just sold bench.co for my three businesses and the sales person Luc Lewarne made me sign a payment agreement with Capchase. The agreement states that I still owe Capchase the full amount for a year, even if Bench.co shuts down... Does anyone have any contacts or experience with Capchase? I never even started my service, which was supposed to begin January 1st, 2025 and now I will have to pay out 12 months to Ca…

Wouldn't "you have to pay even if we don't deliver the product you're buying" be considered unconscionable?

I’m guessing Capchase is a financier of sorts. Capchase pays Bench for the full term up front, then the customer pays Capchase in monthly increments.

So Capchase is delivering their product, the financing. Which is why there would be a clause that the customer still owes Capchase even if Bench closes; Capchase has already paid Bench and wants to be made whole.

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#174

Post by claudiogodoyb »

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...

I have a friend who works at Taxfyle and they are a great alternative. They do both taxes and bookkeeping and work with software like Quickbooks and Xero where the pro does everything for you. Definitely worth checking out if you want to check their website: https://www.taxfyle.com/bookkeeping

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#175

Post by benatkin »

neilv wrote: post #165
solidgiant wrote: post #149

I was just sold bench.co for my three businesses and the sales person Luc Lewarne made me sign a payment agreement with Capchase. The agreement states that I still owe Capchase the full amount for a year, even if Bench.co shuts down... Does anyone have any contacts or experience with Capchase? I never even started my service, which was supposed to begin January 1st, 2025 and now I will have to pay out 12 months to Ca…

> I was just sold bench.co [...] made me sign a payment agreement with Capchase. The agreement states that I still owe Capchase the full amount for a year, even if Bench.co shuts down... I might ask a lawyer if that looks like fraud. (And then wouldn't be surprised if the lawyer can quickly make it like the sale never happened, other than your time wasted, and the lawyer fees.) Or maybe ask your state AG's office if…

Do account execs get a heads up about a shutdown? If not, maybe there wasn't a good reason to mention the account exec by name here.

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#177

Post by blakebilliet »

Hey everybody -- I'm the founder and CEO of Afino. We offer all of the same services as Bench and ready to help any founder affected by this sudden shutdown.

Check out our services on our site (www.afino.ai) and book a priority meeting to talk to me and my team (https://app.reclaim.ai/m/afino/priority-intro)

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#179

Post by neilv »

benatkin wrote: post #175
neilv wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was just sold bench.co [...] made me sign a payment agreement with Capchase. The agreement states that I still owe Capchase the full amount for a year, even if Bench.co shuts down... I might ask a lawyer if that looks like fraud. (And then wouldn't be surprised if the lawyer can quickly make it like the sale never happened, other than your time wasted, and the lawyer fees.) Or maybe ask your state AG's office if…

Do account execs get a heads up about a shutdown? If not, maybe there wasn't a good reason to mention the account exec by name here.

Which is part of why I didn't put the name in. The essence was that the company might have signed contracts that they knew they wouldn't fulfill.

Of course, salespeople should have professional reputations (e.g., for honesty, or for dishonesty). But don't let them be a scapegoat for the more likely real culprit or bigger fish.

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#180

Post by toomuchtodo »

BehindBlueEyes wrote: post #130
aimazon wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

And yet, it's as simple as money ran out. They never turned a profit, investors ran out, the last round of funding was a loan with strings attached that led to a bunch of cost cutting and other poor decisions that explain the poor service quality. A few staff guessed it might close 3 weeks ago at best though everything was very uncertain, but most of the accountants probably didn't see this coming either. source: I k…

There’s an accountant shortage, so I imagine it wasn’t hard for those folks to prepare to bail, if they did.
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