Bench Accounting Reviews 

If you are a small business stay very far away from Bench Accounting. They are inaccurate and will charge your credit card fraudulently. They are ran by crooks. Then if you dispute a charge, they are impossible to talk to in person. Run! After using them for one year, we had to completely start over with a reputable accountant. The books were a mess. They sent out an email at the end of December saying they would no longer be able to do our books. Then 6 weeks later they start charging our credit card for services they canceled. Then when you try to get a refund, you have to make appointments with a person who cannot do anything. Then you get an email declining to refund because you need 60 days notice. They fired us! Then charged our card twice. Then refused to refund. What crooks!

Bench made a big mistake in our tax numbers, leading to penalties and revocation of our company in the State of Delaware. When confronted, they refused to help correct their mistake. When cancelling, they refused to export our data.

As other reviewers are stating, this company is an actual scam. I log in frequently to categorize my transactions (something they can't do accurately given they switch my accountant ALL THE TIME) and check to see if there are any outstanding action items on my end (i.e. reconnecting a bank account, uploading statements, etc.). Meanwhile, Bench does virtually NOTHING - leaving my books entirely untouched until the end of the year, when they finally advised me they wouldn't be able to finish them on time and I would need to file a tax extension. They are hard-to-impossible to get hold of. DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE - you'll be throwing money away and causing yourself giant headaches come tax time.

I’m not one to leave reviews, but it’s time I start because the fraud and horrible service we’ve endured from so many companies is out of control, and Bench.co is a prime example.
Their collapse is too disastrous not to warn others about. On December 27, 2024, two days after Christmas, they shut down abruptly with no warning, screwing thousands of us. The company went bankrupt due to poor management after their board ousted their CEO in 2021, sending them into a tailspin. Throughout 2024, their services were a total trainwreck, horrible doesn’t even begin to describe it. They were losing employees left and right, staff who didn’t know their own software and had no experience managing company books, leaving our finances in complete disarray. When they finally crashed, we regained access in January 2025, downloaded the disaster they left behind, and closed our account, vowing never to return. We thought we’d escaped lightly by finding a new company to handle our year-end, but getting charged $7,000 over a month later and having to deal with this is beyond belief.
Employer.com acquired the wreckage and ignored our paid-in-full contract, which included our corporate 2024 year-end tax return, and in February 2025, they hit my Capital One card with that $7,000 charge, over double what we paid Bench the prior year, for a renewal we explicitly rejected. Now I’m stuck fighting unauthorized charges and a 25-point credit score drop. After 30 years in business, I’ve never seen it this bad, constantly battling companies that don’t do what they’re paid for. It’s like a cancer spreading, worsening every day, and Bench’s year of incompetence, capped by this bankruptcy mess, is a nightmare. Stay far away from Bench.co and anything tied to it, like Employer.com, they’ll leave you high and dry with no remorse!

We have used Bench for a year, it was a huge mistake, they haven't done anything on our books since closing and you email them or try to talk to your bookkeeper, and they never get back to you. They blame you for not uploading documents, even though all the documents are there. They wont get taxes done or work on the books. They pretty much take your money and leave you hanging. Horrible services. Do not recommend at all.

3 years of relationship ruined by the bankruptcy and employer.com acquisition. I paid for all of 2024, but they won't finish my books for 2024 unless I pay them an incremental $1200 one-time fee or pay ~3K for another year of their service. Not right.

Giving 2 stars instead of 1 out of respect for a once good company.

Employer.com has recently acquired Bench.co, and is reforming the company - however intentionally extorting Bench customers in the process to try and recover revenue from the now defunct and bankrupt operation.

I have been a Bench customer for 6+ years, and have paid a minimum of $14,328.00 to Bench, likely a lot more - and I have already paid for the entire year of bookkeeping for 2024.

However, my books for 2024 are nowhere to be found and were never even completed to begin with, and we are now in February of 2025.

So not only have I not received what I *already* paid for - but they are now trying to hold my books hostage to try and get me onto a new subscription with Employer.com.

Not only unethical, but feels like a full-blown scam to me.

To make matters worse - I have even been a Brand Partner for them. Meaning over the years, they have had me create video content for them, which has associated my brand and my name with Bench. I have shared Bench and their services with my audience of over 250,000 people, my newsletter of 17,000 as well as close personal friends and colleagues.

They are so predatory with their cancelation process READ THE FINE PRINT. They talk you into signing for the year as it's cheaper but if you want to cancel you owe them the full amount for the entire year. They will fight you constantly to cancel services and they use 3rd party for payments who also use a 3rd party so good luck trying to get reimbursement if you don't like their services.

I signed up for historical bookkeeping and ongoing monthly bookkeeping in October 2024. I was scheduled to pay for it over the course of a year in installments. In December, they filed for bankruptcy. They were acquired by employer.com but I opted out of their service because their bookkeeping is absolute trash (I confirmed this in multiple calls with accountants who agree with me).

The service I received was subpar, shoddy at best. AND even though I'm no longer receiving service, I have to pay these montly installments on an ongoing basis.

This is borderline a scam, and this misleading advertising and sales tactic was manipulative and gross.

I hate playing the victim, but this is a really awful way to treat customers.

Bench went under, bought out, but refuses to honor any existing agreed upon work unless you pay the new owners more money. Let it die.

I need to share my recent experience with this company. I've been with them since before the ownership change, and things have gone downhill.

First, the original business suddenly shut down without telling anyone, leaving our books unfinished.

Then the new owners took over and asked us to pay extra for bookkeeping work we'd already paid for in 2024.

When I tried to cancel before my next payment was due, they charged me anyway. Plus, I've noticed our numbers are rarely current - which is pretty frustrating when you're trying to run a business.

I actually used to really like their service, but I've since found several AI bookkeeping tools that do a better job, work faster, and have fewer mistakes. And they cost about a third of what I was paying here.
Save yourself the frustration - there are definitely better options out there these days. The customer service headaches and billing issues just aren't worth it.

Theives.

We signed up at the later part of December for over $2000. No services.
The company declares Bankruptcy and continues to say "Thank you for calling Bench Americas largest bookeeping for small businesses.
Run to Pilot for your accounting.

Bench does one thing well - bait and switch.
 
We signed up for one year with a “Specialized team”. The first team lead quit within 3 months. The second team lead was ok but then totally stopped communicating after 3 months. After that responses came from 7 random people (all not team leads).

Messages are rarely well read and an overwhelming amount of communications are to ask me for details previously provided over and over again, such as statements for accounts someone else confirmed were closed, statements already uploaded, access to external accounts that constantly had to be re-administered, and more. 

Somehow every few months "the team" lost most of what had been setup many times before. The time it took to constantly re-update made the entire service nearly as time consuming and definitely more frustrating than doing books myself. 

It's obvious Bench is trying to automate more and doing a horrible job at it. The AI feature they pushed mid 2024 made tasks take 3 times as long for the client. I'm sure the deplorable communication had something to do with this as well. I would have no faith in them harnessing new technology in a way that benefits their customers.  

Looking back, I wouldn't doubt if they had determined my account couldn't be automated as much as they wanted and decided to gently push me out with terrible service.  

In the end, only 4 of the 12 months of books I paid for got close to finished and I have a cleanup bill from my accountant.

Even before their shutdown, and 3 days later, their acquisition, this service was terrible. Your "dedicated" account manager changed every few months. I stopped last year after they failed to complete my books before taxes were due in April. I kept getting reassurances it would be completed. They have the nerve to keep raising their prices despite their services and website getting worse.

This year, I rejoined in Sept, and they literally did nothing for my two businesses. Kept saying they were working on my books and they were complete up to June (well that's when my last subscription ended). So email after email they said they were working on it, then they shut down, and 3 days later are back in business? They aren't even offering refunds for literally doing zero. The worst business in America. Avoid like the plague. I hope they fail again.

Went out of business overnight and won’t give me access to my data and books from 8 years. The worst….

Vertex CPA P.C. is here to help amidst the abrupt shutdown of Bench Accounting. Please contact at 631-708-8140 for a free consultation.

I just received an email today that they will no longer be in business. I have been waiting and complaining for my final 2023 books. I kept getting the run around. Now I can see they were stalling. So now I don't have anything I paid for. I have exceeded the tax extension deadline and now they're out of business. I WANT MY MONEY BACK. THEY WERE ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE AND NOW THEY'RE THIEVES.

AVOID this accounting/bookkeeping firm at ALL costs!!!

As a small business owner this was a DISASTER! They made many promises, had poor communication throughout the process, constant staff turnover and delivered the worst accounting sheets ever seen and my CPA is now having to completely start over, resulting in more costs.

Bench acknowledged their incompetence but refuses to give a refund to allow for the expense of having the entire scope of work completed so I can file taxes.

If there were an option for negative stars I would have chosen that option.

I can not express enough what a terrible company I believe Bench to be. The entire experience has been a nightmare. 3 years lost and catchup work is now being completed from scratch, as their bookkeeping program is a mess and does not transfer to any of the common programs.

Communication is done through online emails and only scheduled phone calls. No updates given throughout the entire process until you have a mess and the CPA tells you all the information provided is such a chaotic mess I can not file my taxes on time.

Buyer beware!!! I wish I had the ability to read this type of review before trying their service. I can not express enough the need to avoid this company! Find anyone else!

About me; I am a contractor who remodels homes. I am a 1 man operation. I never had a bookkeeper before. I want to get caught up on taxes and get ahead of my books for the first time in many years. I could not find a bookkeeper on the streets for none of the other contractors I know have a bookkeeper. Quickbooks and others apps, I thought charged too much! I sign up for the business app called Freshbooks. They allow me to produce estimates and all. Well, they tell me they come with a bookkeeping company! They really hyped up this service. I signed up for $400/mo!! Well.......the 1st year, I did not know what to expect. I wanted to talk to someone so I can learn. This bench only has a portal. If you want to talk to someone you must schedule an appointment for your bookkeeper to call or zoom you. The person is from out of state in some foreign land who barely speak English. Their system is ran by A.I.. Basically, if they just sold us the AI system we can put our info in and allow it to track everything and not have to pay $400/mo!! So, they pull money out of my account every month! Yet, they are always 3 months behind on the bookkeeping! They keep asking me to put my expenses into the correct category. So between AI and me placing the expenses into the right cartegory, it cause me to think....WHY AM I PAYING $400/month!!!??
I wanted to complete a full 1 year so I can have a real P&L statement. I have been with then 1 year and 4 months now. I want my 1 full year P&L statement but I can't retrieve it because they are 3 months backked up!. I requested them to cancel my account. They emailed me telling me that I can not for another 8 months! I have found a lady who is a real person that I can call and text and talk to. She will be doing bookkeeping for me but now this Bench refuse to release my account. So....Im just going to cancel my debit card and lock them out of my bank account. Im sure the last 3 months of bookkeeping I will not be able to retrieve from them since they are always 3 months in rears. So that is $1,200 I just lost ($400/mo).
Do yourself a favor, if you are a small biz like me, just find a real person to do your books. Leave this evil, money grab company alone!

I signed up both of my businesses with Bench for bookkeeping services, paying over $10,000 in advance. Shortly afterward, I decided not to proceed with onboarding or utilize their services due to concerns raised in reviews on Trustpilot and the Better Business Bureau.

When I reached out to cancel, I was informed that “fees are non-refundable,” despite no services being rendered. This stance is highly unethical and indicative of deceptive practices, as Bench.co has retained payment for work that was never initiated.

I have escalated this matter to my credit card company and am actively reaching out to the state attorney general’s office in Delaware, where Bench.co is registered, to report these practices.

Businesses should operate with integrity and respect for their customers. Retaining funds for unrendered services is not just poor practice but raises significant questions about the company’s ethics. I strongly caution potential customers to review Bench’s terms carefully and consider the numerous similar complaints reported by other customers.