Your Bench books are incomplete: how to finish and clean them up

What happened to Bench

Bench told customers on December 27, 2024 that it was shutting down, after a lender demanded repayment of venture debt. It filed for bankruptcy in a Canadian court on January 9, 2025 and was acquired by Employer.com. Customers could not reach their accounts for about 48 hours, but the service continued.

As of September 2026, Bench lists monthly plans from $199, $399 and $599 a month, and a QuickBooks bookkeeper at $55 an hour with a $1,200 onboarding fee. Many customers still left during the disruption, and some are left with books that stop partway through a year.

Step 1: get your data out

Whatever you decide, secure your records first. Download the financial statements and transaction reports you can access, and keep your own copies of every bank, card and loan statement. Your bank statements are the real source of truth; the books only need to match them.

Step 2: find the gaps

Compare the books to the statements account by account.

• Which months were completed and reconciled, and which were not
• Accounts that were never connected, such as a second bank account or a payment processor
• Uncategorized or suspense balances left at the end of the last completed month
• Year-end items that were never booked: depreciation, loan interest, payroll accruals

Step 3: finish in place or move the books

If you stay with Bench, ask them to complete the missing months and confirm in writing when the year will be reconciled and closed. If you move, the new bookkeeper sets up QuickBooks Online or Xero with opening balances taken from the last month that reconciled, then rebuilds the missing months from statements.

Moving is cleaner at a year boundary. If the gaps are mid-year, it is usually faster to rebuild the whole year in the new file than to stitch two systems together.

Stay or switch: a fair view

Staying avoids a migration, and Bench publishes clear monthly pricing. Switching makes sense if you want a named team, a specific accounting platform, or pricing that fits your volume better. Our comparison of Bench alternatives covers the main options with sourced prices.

Where SF Business Solutions fits

SF Business Solutions takes over incomplete books in QuickBooks Online or Xero, rebuilds the missing months from your statements, reconciles every account, and can then prepare and file the tax return. Cleanup starts at $250, and monthly bookkeeping afterwards starts at $250 a month.