Simplify Sales Tax with Xero's Enhanced Avalara Integration
As a small business owner, managing sales tax can be a complex and time-consuming task. However, with the updated integration between Xero and...
Bench is a popular online bookkeeping service that works with clients around the U.S., just like us. We often have potential clients call us and ask, “What is the difference between Bench and Accountingprose?” or “Why should I choose Accountingprose vs. Bench for my small business?”
While on the outside our services may appear to be the same, there are a few key differences in our service offering that may help you make the choice that is right for you.
Bench provides cash-basis bookkeeping services that include receipt management, transaction classification, and financial statement prep. In order to do their work, they ask you for read-only access to your accounts or account statements; something we also do. Cash-basis accounting will work for some businesses, but before you decide to go this route, you should understand what Cash-basis Accounting means.
Cash-basis accounting is a method of recording accounting transactions as they come through your bank account. So, any time money comes in your income is recorded. Any time money goes out, your expenses are recorded. A good way to think of Bench’s service offering is to look at it as a basic checkbook reconciliation. Money moving in and out of your bank account will get entered on the date they clear your account.
Bench offers a Profit and Loss (aka Income Statement) and a Balance Sheet on a cash basis. Your Profit and Loss shows you the income and expenses for a period- which can be a day, a month, a year, etc. Your Balance Sheet is a snapshot of the financial position of your business at a point in time. On your Balance Sheet, you can see your assets (what you own), liabilities (what you owe), and equity (your stake in the business).
Cash-basis financials really only show a part of your financial picture and may not give you the depth that you need. They may lack the ability to analyze your business performance by looking at complete month-over-month financials, allow you to budget accurately, project forward, know who you need to pay and when, and know who owes you money and when their bills are coming due.
Furthermore, if you want to track your budget, and drill down to see profitability by job or customer, you won’t be able to do this in Bench. Essentially, financials drafted by Bench are good to send to your CPA at the end of the year to prep your taxes. You may need to provide additional detail to your CPA, but they will be good conversation starters.
Yes and no. When you get started, Bench will ask you for your last set of completed financial statements. They will enter this summary information, but none of the detail, which is what you want when working with a small business accountant. You cannot import Quickbooks Online, Quickbooks Desktop, or Xero into Bench. You won't even get access to your general ledger, which is unfortunate, but not a deal breaker if you need to migrate from Bench to Xero or another software. So, if you are a business with a lot of transaction history, you may lose crucial detail in the switch if you aren't careful. Be sure to download a full transaction list plus monthly financials to keep on file in case of an audit.
What if you have no history to track? Bench can likely get you set up and start at a point in time, allowing you to skip entries of historical data.
What if you want to go back and rebuild the prior year's accounting history? Bench can do this, for a fee. Sadly, we do not have any information on their fee structure for historical accounting.
Bench is a proprietary accounting software that does not provide an export that is compatible with major accounting software (Intuit or Xero). Should you decide to move from Bench to another accounting platform or to another provider, they will need to either rebuild your file or enter summary information month over month, so that you can budget and project forward.
We have worked with many clients who have switched from Bench to Xero. While we did have to go back and recreate our clients' accounting files, this didn't overburden us with work and we didn't have to stress our clients with additional costs. Thankfully Xero has cash coding, which allows us to enter transactions in bulk- saving us time and effort. Win/Win.
Bench bookkeeping clearly defines its pricing on its website, which starts at $349 per month. Their packages only cover receipt management and account reconciliation. You will need to handle any other accounting, tax, and admin tasks on your own, which may mean that your cost of service ends up being much higher than expected.
Just like Accountingprose is well-suited for a specific audience, so is Bench. Bench should be able to serve Freelancers and Micro Businesses well. If you need a basic, no-frills bookkeeping company- Bench may be the right fit for you.
Accounting is the backbone of your small business and choosing the person or company to handle it shouldn't be taken lightly. Here are a few contenders to consider:
If you are interested in comparing Acccountingprose to Bench, we make it super easy for you.
Feature |
Bench |
Accountingprose |
Accounting Basis |
Cash-Basis |
Accrual-Basis |
Accounting Catch Up |
Up to 2 years |
No Limit |
Account Reconciliation |
Monthly |
Weekly, Biweekly, and Monthly Available |
Accounts Payable |
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Accounts Receivable |
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Income Tax Filing |
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W9 Collection |
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1099-MISC and 1099-NEC Filing |
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Process Payroll |
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Sales Tax Nexus Tracking |
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Sales Tax Filing and Payments |
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Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet |
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Job Costing Reports |
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Cash Flow Forecast |
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Budget |
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Included Software |
Bench |
Xero, Dext Prepare, Dropbox |
Let's chat and walk through your specific use case and determine if we are a good fit. If not, we are happy to make a recommendation for someone who will take care of you.
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