Bench

Bench is an online bookkeeping service for small businesses, combining software that automates the record-keeping with professional human bookkeepers, extending into catch-up bookkeeping, income tax filing and advisory, and tax resolution.

Selling a service rather than software is the whole proposition and it targets the real reason small business bookkeeping fails. Accounting software does not do the bookkeeping; it provides a place for someone to do it, and a founder who did not do it last month will not do it this month either. Handing the work to a person solves the problem that a better interface does not.

Catch-up bookkeeping as a named service is the most telling item in the range, because it addresses the state many small businesses are actually in: years behind, facing a filing deadline, and unable to start using any system until the backlog is cleared. Bench states it handles this no matter how far behind a business is, which is the reassurance that matters to someone in that position.

Tax resolution for businesses with IRS problems extends the same logic further into work nobody wants to do themselves. Pricing is published in annual figures: 1,910 dollars for the lean plan aimed at businesses seeking financial clarity as they grow, 3,830 dollars for Bookkeeping Core covering basic financial reporting, and 5,750 dollars for full-service bookkeeping with income tax filing and advisory. Certified bookkeeper support inside an existing QuickBooks account is offered separately at 55 dollars an hour.