251–260 of 399 posts
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Ian Crosby here. If you don't believe me, believe the CEO of Shopify who was an investor and partner: https://x.com/tobi/status/1872753436116332994
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You're seriously claiming a bad leader can't destroy a company/organization/project/country?
Perhaps I'm old school, but how hard is it to hire a bookkeeper part time, a CPA a few times a year, and use Quickbooks? Was there some special value that Bench provided?
Founder/Former CEO Ian Crosby's post about the Bench closure: https://x.com/ianwcrosby/status/1872724231999381790
I advise caution in believing his statements to be true, particularly about Bench’s board and investors. The truth will live in their financial statements, which no doubt will be revealed in bankruptcy proceedings in the coming months.
However I can, albeit anecdotally from my perspective, say that I felt there was a marked difference in Bench's quality/service/responsiveness/performance/etc about 3yrs ago. This aligns with the timeline given by the former CEO in his post for his departure.
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Definitely a local CPA. Building that relationship will pay off, even if it's just peace of mind.
My local CPA had previously guided me to using Bench. "Accountant" and "bookkeeper" are separate disciplines. My accountant manages my tax filings and other complicated transactions. The bookkeeper makes sure all our ledgers balance out.
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How could this kind of ‘hiding’ comply with GAAP standards in any scenario? What sort of accounting books were being prepared where such a function is even needed?
When I was using Bench, they were only doing cash accounting (not GAAP). We had to switch to a different service when we switched over to accrual accounting.
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When I was using Bench, they were only doing cash accounting (not GAAP). We had to switch to a different service when we switched over to accrual accounting.
Quick note that cash vs accrual basis accounting is orthogonal to whether the balances are correct or not. IANAA but afaik GAAP does not preclude cash basis accounting, provided the conditions where cash accounting is permitted pertain.
I can’t imagine the frustration you’re going through if you’re a Bench user. Paying for a service and not getting what you expect, especially when it comes to your taxes is no joke. Instead of having to start from scratch, our team at Kick is moved quickly to build these resources to help prior Bench customers: 1. Free Bench migration 2. Free 2024 Bookkeeping review calls 3. Free Daily Live Q&As (coming soon) We’re m…
Strange that kick seems to know and had time to build all this but customers didn't get any heads up?!
They didn't need a heads up to build this. It takes between half an hour and half a day.
The cloud is someone else's computer, including SaaS and when they suddenly go away. If there's an opportunity to open-source this code so people who can't simply migrate to one option after considering many, self-hosting might be an option at least in the interim.
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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…
I would expect this was the kind of thing an accountant should see coming though.
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Ian Crosby here. If you don't believe me, believe the CEO of Shopify who was an investor and partner: https://x.com/tobi/status/1872753436116332994
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