A Bench Accounting alternative: your options for monthly bookkeeping

What happened to Bench

Bench Accounting told customers on December 27, 2024 that it was ending operations immediately. Three days later it was reported that Employer.com would acquire it, and it resumed operations in January 2025 as a subsidiary. Reports of the customer count differ. Customers were given a window to retrieve their data. We do not know how the Bench service is today: check Bench or Employer.com directly. This page is about choosing a service on its merits.

The options

Prices come from third-party guides and vendor blogs, not from the providers own pages, so confirm before relying on them.

The lesson from the shutdown

The common advice in post-shutdown guides is to keep your books in software you own and control (QuickBooks, Xero and similar), so you can switch providers without losing history. That is how MyClawn Books works: you keep your own accounting file and get a CSV to import. We do not hold your books and do not connect to your accounts, so there is nothing to lock you in. Download your own copies, keep your ledger exports, and avoid a setup where all of your history lives inside one vendor.

Where we fit, and where we do not

• Fit: you want each month categorized, a P&L and a to-do list of questions, at a price below a bookkeeper, and your accountant handles tax.
• Fit: you lost your bookkeeper and want a stopgap while you decide what to do next.
• Not a fit: you need payroll, sales tax, tax filing, live reconciliation inside your software, or someone to call you. Hire a bookkeeper or a firm for that.

Moving from a former provider

1. Export whatever you can: ledgers, reports, bank statements, chart of accounts.
2. Decide where your books will live (QuickBooks Online or Xero, or keep the workbook).
3. Upload the statements for months that are not closed. See bank reconciliation and catch-up.
4. Have your accountant review before filing.

Do the export step first: it is the one that cannot be done after a provider disappears.

Cost expectations for each route

A bundled full-service firm is the most like Bench was: someone does the monthly work for you. Published figures in vendor blogs start around $75 a month for human-led bookkeeping in your own software and run to $295 or $395 a month for bundled services, and general guides put typical small-business bookkeeping at $300 to $1,500 a month. Those ranges include live work we do not do: answering your questions, posting in your software, sometimes payroll or tax. A prep service is a smaller thing at a smaller price. Choose by what you need done, not by price alone.

What to avoid when switching

• Do not move everything into a new vendor platform with no export route.
• Do not pay for a year upfront before you have seen one month of output.
• Do not assume tax filing is included. Ask.
• Do not skip your accountant: a new bookkeeping source is a good moment to tell them where the books now live.

Questions to ask any bookkeeping provider

1. Is my data in software I own?
2. Can I leave in a day with my files?
3. What happens to my files if you shut down?
4. What is not included (tax, payroll, sales tax)?

Ours: the files we return are yours to keep, uploads are deleted after 30 days, we hold no books for you, and tax, payroll and sales tax are not included.

Upload this month's statements. Bookkeeping prep only, not tax advice. 14-day refund if it misses, two rounds of changes, cancel any time.

More about Books

Sources (checked 2026-11-09): techstartups.com/2024/12/31/bench-a-popular-accounting-platform-startu · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bench_Accounting · www.eisneramper.com/insights/outsourced-finance-accounting/bench-accou · beancount.io/blog/2026/10/05/how-much-does-a-bookkeeper-cost-2026-pric · tgg-accounting.com/how-much-does-bookkeeper-cost/