Late and inaccurate books

This goes against everything Bench promotes. Many long-time users describe a big shift in the quality of the books they received in the past year (if they even arrive), and new users have expressed dismay about Bench’s big but empty promises.

Exhibit A:
A 6-year Bench client is still waiting for 2023 year-end financials (6 months late and counting). Another example is a loyal 4-year clientwho, as of early June 2024, had not received financials for any months of 2024.Reddit thread

Exhibit B:
Several Bench customers report having books labeled incorrectly- multiple companies who are C-corp say they continuously received S-corp documents even after they reached out multiple times to fix the mistake. They say other basic details were not done right such as personal accounts being merged with business transactions. Because ex-Bench clients’ say their books were either error-ridden or not completed on time, many wrote that they were forced to file for tax extensions and incurred IRS penalties.Reddit thread

Automation gone wrong

While AI-powered bookkeeping theoretically has benefits (for Bench at least, since it is cheaper than using a real person), lapses can go undetected if not caught by a human bookkeeper.

Bench says their services consist of human touch plus automation. That’s true to some extent, though at least one client theorized that roughly 90% of their books are done through automation and others say they are pretty much entirely done by AI. From reading their clients’ experiences, one may draw the conclusion that their “dedicated bookkeeping team” consists mostly of their software and a handful of Bench representatives that pass the accounts around.

Their bookkeepers face a nearly impossible challenge, though, because many past users report that their bookkeepers handle 70 clients and above at once.

Proprietary Software Better for Bench Than Your Business?

Bench boasts that they use proprietary software, meaning its users don’t have full control over their data. A user who wishes to cancel their subscription to Bench could have difficulty exporting data to new software, which could potentially lead to costly and time-intensive manual entry of historicals, creating a nightmare for long-standing businesses.

Beware of being locked into this setup. This extra hassle is not apparent when signing up, especially when the “intuitive” software is advertised as purely advantageous, but it may be a major problem down the road. It’s already a major issue for some Bench customers.

Accountability is nowhere to be found

Some past clients state that in their experience, Bench’s claim of having unlimited expert support and direct access to a bookkeeper proved unfounded.

Acustomer who signed up with Bench in January of 2024 stated that booking an appointment is a pain and is usually scheduled weeks out. Then, when the call does connect, the issue was not resolved right away, prompting another tedious appointment booking. Paying Bench’s monthly bill, however, is always streamlined.

Another point is that our researchers found many complained about the accessibility of Bench’s service. The real-time financials they advertise don’t always hold up; many report not being able to access their financial data upon logging into their software. The cause, whether a glitch or not, remained unknown in those instances. They could only guess as it was getting harder and harder to get in touch with Bench.