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Bench accounting services shutting down

bench.co

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Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#341

Post by adastra22 »

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.

Running out of money right at year end, just when accounting revenue is likely to pick up is a bit sus.

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#342

Post by nervous_jessica »

conradwa wrote: post #145

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…

I tried to sign up for Kick and received an email that you don’t support my industry. Were an artist studio that makes and retails physical goods. Do you expect to support more industries soon?

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#343

Post by KomoD »

Tanoc wrote: post #313
ckrailo wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Swap the domain of the URL with nitter.poast.org https://nitter.poast.org/ianwcrosby/status/18727242319993817... More about nitter: https://github.com/zedeus/nitter

Nitter's been dead for about a year at this point. I'm pretty sure any Nitter instance still running is using some abstract method and not the actual Nitter system.

It's the same Nitter, but using real accounts instead of the "guest accounts" that were used previously.

"Guest accounts" were accounts you could generate to access Twitter without actually signing up, but then Elon Musk killed them so then Nitter was basically declared dead because most people don't want to spend time making tons of actual accounts to run a Nitter instance and then Elon Musk also made the ratelimits stricter so you needed even more accounts.

Some of the bigger Nitter instances used thousands of guest accounts.

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#345

Post by conductr »

theanonymousone wrote: post #328
beepbopboopp wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im betting secured debt was called. Given the "instant" nature, it likely means a debt covenant was broken, that is one of the few things that can shut a company down in 24 hours. Doubley so if the business isnt really profitable.

Sorry but is there some source about this for a lame person?

I’m a CFO and was a layperson on this until I started having to deal with it. I don’t have any resources other than my work experience with a few companies that have debt covenants. First, they can be rather arbitrary as they’re literally made up for each deal and meant to align somewhat to the growth story that’s being “sold” to the lender during the debt issuance; they’re negotiated between lender/borrower so take a lot of different shapes. The ones I’ve seen are usually 1) a reporting requirement 2) monthly/quarterly/annually frequency is negotiable 3) usually have some financial metric or growth metric that the company should be hitting by a certain time. So, I’ve seen EBITDA margin, gross margin, cash flow, and revenue growth stats as these metrics. But again, it could be anything.

As GP said, usually if the covenant isn’t being met but the company is profitable or has a good excuse the lender will not call the debt. They’ll work with you. I’ve seen tons of flexibility here from lenders. Usually the lender will start having more questions about the strategy and current forecasts if the metrics are underperforming and you’ll (CEO/CFO) will have to start being a bit more transparent than required or maybe just more frequent check in meetings to discuss status. In most cases, if you actually have a good story and have a healthy partnership the lender doesn’t want to call the loan and wants to see how they can help (within tolerance) get you back on track.

The moment the lender calls the loan typically, in startup land, there’s no cash reserves to pay off the debt and so the company is instantly insolvent and operations cease. This is why the lender is flexible, calling is typically a nuke for the business. But also, it can be a bit of a stop/loss. Meaning the cash in the bank can at least be recouped.

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#346

Post by rohan_shah »

oxidant wrote: post #247
claudiogodoyb wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of mine mentioned Taxfyle as an alternative to Bench. They offer free bookkeeping migration, a free Xero subscription, dedicated bookkeeper to do your books and professional tax support where they handle your taxes too. They seem like a good fit for you! Check them out here: https://www.taxfyle.com/

I used Bench in the past and they partnered with Taxfyle up until ~November 2023 (date of the email I received stating the partnership was ending). The service was fine, interesting that their relationship ended just over a year ago.

I run a accountancy business in India for local customers and we are a team of more than ~10 CPA Indian equivalents. A few CFAs as well.

Let me know if anyone requires our services for Bookkeeping/Accounting.

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#347

Post by mbrameld »

boxed wrote: post #251
edoceo wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> every good ship can get a new captain and sail on. If not, the problem isn't the sailors it's the captain (who set the ship before the fall). You're seriously claiming a bad leader can't destroy a company/organization/project/country?

You're arguing a different point. The old CEO claims it's his absence that caused the failure, not the presence of the new CEO. You're arguing that it's the presence of the new CEO that caused the failure. GP is pointing out that if the absence of the old CEO is what caused the company to fail as the old CEO claims, and not the actions of the new CEO, then it wasn't in good shape to start with.

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#348

Post by datavirtue »

BehindBlueEyes wrote: post #265
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but most of the accountants probably didn't see this coming either. I would expect this was the kind of thing an accountant should see coming though.

Not sure if sarcasm, but in case it is not: in theory accountants could see this coming but most benchmates were junior book keepers, with no visibility into their employer's financials.

If I can't see the books I move on. The only reason people hide books is because they are bad. You can't expect a bunch of mushrooms to help you grow a company. Employees deserve to keep tabs on the financial health of the company.

Last company I was at was an ESOP. Talk about a scam. They are under no obligation to let employees monitor the health of their "retirement plan." It's a tax shelter for business owners who want to retire. Coming from a company that had open books I had assumed that ESOP members would have some rights, nope.

Having left that shit show for a startup I'm getting regular financial health and funding updates constantly.

Don't be a mushroom.

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#349

Post by Banditoz »

LightBug1 wrote: post #333
cebert wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I'll re-sign up to that shithole when hell freezes over. You're welcome.

Nitter also offers better UX for those who just want to read a Twitter thread and not interact with it. It's been like that even before the Musk acquisition.

Re: Bench accounting services shutting down

#350

Post by datavirtue »

Kwpolska wrote: post #324

This thread is full of accounting service founders promoting their product, often with a discount for Bench refugees. Why are there so many of those accounting startups and how do they manage to survive in such a crowded market? Or are they also going to do a last-minute shutdown when the VC money runs out?

Because literally no one knows how to keep books and manage a double entry system. We had a family business for 40+ years and most of the revenue was from fixing bookkeeping and accounting mistakes made by untrained individuals trying to use software (QuickBooks). "If the software lets me do it then it must be correct."
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