Bench
Done-for-you bookkeeping and tax filing for US small businesses
What is Bench?
Bench is an outsourced bookkeeping service that pairs a dedicated human bookkeeper with proprietary software to deliver monthly books, year-end financials, and (optionally) tax filing for US small businesses. It connects to bank, credit card, Stripe, Square, Shopify, and Gusto feeds, categorizes transactions, and produces tax-ready P&L and balance sheets. Following acquisition, Bench is now part of Mainstreet, which also offers banking and entity formation.
Accounting, FP&A, billing, spend management, bookkeeping, and finance automation tools.
See the full Finance & Accounting guide to compare more tools, buyer criteria, and related workflows.
Use cases to evaluate
Solo founder offloading monthly cash-basis bookkeeping and getting tax-ready financials by year-end
Ecommerce shop centralizing Shopify, Stripe, and Square feeds into one monthly P&L
Service business catching up 12+ months of behind books before filing taxes
Small LLC bundling monthly books with annual federal/state tax return filing on Core + Tax
Fit to evaluate
US single-entity small businesses under ~$1M revenue
Owners who explicitly do not want to learn or run accounting software
Founders behind on books who need catch-up plus ongoing service
Shops wanting bookkeeping + tax return from a single vendor
Business fit
Right for you if you're a US-based small business owner who would rather pay for someone else to keep your books than touch a ledger yourself, and you want tax filing rolled into the same vendor. Skip if you need accrual-basis books for investors, multi-entity consolidation, project profitability, or you're outside the US; also skip if you prefer real-time books in your own software (Puzzle or QuickBooks + a fractional bookkeeper fit better).
How to evaluate Bench
Use this category when finance work depends on spreadsheets, manual reconciliation, or slow reporting.
Confirm the exact workflow
Map Bench to one concrete workflow first, such as solo founder offloading monthly cash-basis bookkeeping and getting tax-ready financials by year-end. Avoid buying before the owner, trigger, output, and success metric are clear.
Check category fit
Compare accounting workflows, approvals, reconciliation, reporting, and audit trails.
Compare practical alternatives
Shortlist Bench against CostAllocation Pro, FreshBooks, Wave so the decision is based on fit, effort, and workflow ownership rather than brand recognition alone.
Validate cost and rollout effort
Annual (20% off): Bookkeeping Grow $1,910/yr (under $250K revenue), Core $3,830/yr, Core + Tax $5,750/yr. Monthly: Grow from $199/mo, Core from $399/mo, Core + Tax from $599/mo. QBO Certified Bookkeeper option: $55/hr plus $1,200 onboarding. All plans include a dedicated bookkeeper and tax-ready financials; tax-tier adds licensed tax pro filing federal returns. Also confirm implementation time, support needs, and whether the medium setup matches your team.
Compare Bench with alternatives
Use this quick comparison before booking demos or moving data into a new system.
| Primary workflow | Solo founder offloading monthly cash-basis bookkeeping and getting tax-ready financials by year-end, Ecommerce shop centralizing Shopify, Stripe, and Square feeds into one monthly P&L |
|---|---|
| Best-fit team | US single-entity small businesses under ~$1M revenue, Owners who explicitly do not want to learn or run accounting software |
| Implementation effort | Medium setup and maintenance profile |
| Pricing check | Published pricing |
| Closest alternatives | CostAllocation ProFreshBooksWaveSage |
Bench pricing
| Model | Published pricing |
|---|---|
| Snapshot | Annual (20% off): Bookkeeping Grow $1,910/yr (under $250K revenue), Core $3,830/yr, Core + Tax $5,750/yr. Monthly: Grow from $199/mo, Core from $399/mo, Core + Tax from $599/mo. QBO Certified Bookkeeper option: $55/hr plus $1,200 onboarding. All plans include a dedicated bookkeeper and tax-ready financials; tax-tier adds licensed tax pro filing federal returns. |
| Checked |
Common questions about Bench
What is Bench?
Bench is an outsourced bookkeeping service that pairs a dedicated human bookkeeper with proprietary software to deliver monthly books, year-end financials, and (optionally) tax filing for US small businesses. It connects to bank, credit card, Stripe, Square, Shopify, and Gusto feeds, categorizes transactions, and produces tax-ready P&L and balance sheets. Following acquisition, Bench is now part of Mainstreet, which also offers banking and entity formation.
What is Bench used for?
Common use cases: Solo founder offloading monthly cash-basis bookkeeping and getting tax-ready financials by year-end; Ecommerce shop centralizing Shopify, Stripe, and Square feeds into one monthly P&L; Service business catching up 12+ months of behind books before filing taxes; Small LLC bundling monthly books with annual federal/state tax return filing on Core + Tax.
How much does Bench cost?
Annual (20% off): Bookkeeping Grow $1,910/yr (under $250K revenue), Core $3,830/yr, Core + Tax $5,750/yr. Monthly: Grow from $199/mo, Core from $399/mo, Core + Tax from $599/mo. QBO Certified Bookkeeper option: $55/hr plus $1,200 onboarding. All plans include a dedicated bookkeeper and tax-ready financials; tax-tier adds licensed tax pro filing federal returns.
Who is Bench best for?
Bench fits US single-entity small businesses under ~$1M revenue, Owners who explicitly do not want to learn or run accounting software, Founders behind on books who need catch-up plus ongoing service, Shops wanting bookkeeping + tax return from a single vendor. Right for you if you're a US-based small business owner who would rather pay for someone else to keep your books than touch a ledger yourself, and you want tax filing rolled into the same vendor. Skip if you need accrual-basis books for investors, multi-entity consolidation, project profitability, or you're outside the US; also skip if you prefer real-time books in your own software (Puzzle or QuickBooks + a fractional bookkeeper fit better).
What are alternatives to Bench?
Common alternatives to Bench include CostAllocation Pro, FreshBooks, Wave, Sage, Zoho Books, Pilot.