A Bench Alternative
Built to Outlast the News Cycle
Bench's abrupt December 2024 shutdown stranded thousands of businesses mid-close. If you are choosing your next provider, choose on the things that episode exposed: portable data, standard ledgers, CPA oversight, and taxes under the same roof. Vecty is built on all four.
Everything Bench did, plus the things it didn't
Monthly bookkeeping is the floor. The ceiling is a full back office with taxes and compliance included.
Automated monthly bookkeeping
Bank, credit card, Stripe, and payroll feeds categorized daily by AI trained on real ledgers, closed monthly, reviewed by licensed CPAs.
Tax filing in the same system
Federal and state returns, franchise tax, and R&D credits prepared from your live books. No handoff between a bookkeeping vendor and a tax vendor.
Your data, exportable anytime
Your complete ledger, chart of accounts, and documents export on demand in standard formats any accountant can open. No proprietary lock-in.
Compliance calendar
Franchise tax, annual reports, 1099s, and state registrations tracked and prepared before their deadlines, in every state you touch.
What the Bench shutdown should change about how you buy
The service was popular for good reasons. The failure mode is what to protect against next time.
Demand data portability up front
The scramble in December 2024 was about access to books, not just service continuity. Before signing with any provider - including us - confirm you can export your full ledger at any time. With Vecty you can, in standard formats.
Standard ledgers survive provider changes
Books kept on a conventional double-entry chart of accounts can be picked up by any CPA in an afternoon. Books kept in a proprietary system are only as durable as that system. Vecty keeps the former.
Books and taxes should not live in different companies
A bookkeeping provider disappearing mid-year is painful; it is far worse when a separate tax preparer is waiting on those books for a filing deadline. One platform owning both removes the seam.
CPA review is your continuity plan
Licensed CPAs review Vecty's books and sign every return. Professional accountability - a person with a license attached to your filings - is the strongest guarantee that your books mean something outside the tool that produced them.
Moving your books takes hours, not weeks
Bring what you have
Exports, spreadsheets, or PDFs from Bench or any provider. We rebuild your history on a standard chart of accounts and reconcile it against your bank records.
Connect your accounts
Banks, payroll, Stripe, and expense tools link in one session. Daily categorization and the compliance calendar start immediately.
CPAs take ownership
Licensed CPAs review the migrated books, flag anything that needs cleanup, and sign your filings from then on.
Bench alternative questions, answered
What founders leaving Bench - or vetting any provider - ask us.
Bench Accounting announced an abrupt shutdown in December 2024, leaving customers temporarily without access to their books, and was subsequently acquired by Employer.com, which restored the service. Whatever you think of the outcome, the episode taught thousands of founders the same lesson: know how you would get your data out, and know who stands behind your books.
Three things the shutdown exposed: (1) data portability - you should be able to export your full ledger, not just PDF reports; (2) real accounting rails - books kept on a standard double-entry ledger a CPA can pick up, not a proprietary format; (3) tax filing under the same roof, so a provider change never strands a half-finished return.
Yes. We take your historical books in whatever export you have - spreadsheets, PDFs, or a ledger file - rebuild them on a standard chart of accounts, and reconcile against your bank history so nothing is lost in the move. Migration is included in onboarding.
Both, in one platform: monthly books, federal and state returns, Delaware franchise tax, R&D credit, 1099s, and a compliance calendar. One provider owning both sides is exactly what prevents the "my bookkeeper closed and my tax preparer has no data" problem.
Yes. Your ledger is yours: you can export your complete books and supporting documents at any time, and we will hand them to your next accountant in a standard format. We would rather earn your renewal than lock you in.
Stop managing your books. Let Vecty manage them for you.
Bookkeeping, taxes, compliance, and optimization - handled end-to-end. Talk to us and see the system in action.