Zeni: The top Bench Accounting alternative for startups

Bench customers received notice in late December that the accounting service provider would be abruptly shutting down. With the 2024 tax year winding to a close, that sent thousands scrambling for another source for accounting support.

However, only days later, another press release went out. It contradicted Bench’s previous statement and announced the platform would continue to operate as an arm of Employer.com, thanks to a last-minute deal.

Understandably, the short-notice Bench shutdown and abrupt reversal left many with a bad taste in their mouth, and with the future of the company now somewhat uncertain, many are considering Bench alternatives.

If you're looking at other options, here’s why you should make the switch to Zeni, especially if you’re a startup founder.

Zeni: The best bench accounting alternative

Bench is an accounting platform that offers bookkeeping and tax services under one convenient roof, including expense tracking, monthly financial statements, tax planning, and annual return preparation.

As you can read about in our Bench accounting review, the ability to satisfy both needs at once is a significant advantage. Juggling multiple providers can often cause additional stress, increased costs, and inefficiency in communications and workflows.

However, Zeni takes the concept of unified financial services to the next level. It’s a truly comprehensive financial operations platform that aims to provide everything your business needs to manage its finances in one place.

That includes bookkeeping, business tax preparation, fractional CFO advisory, and payroll management services, plus a full suite of supporting financial products. Here’s how they work.

AI-powered bookkeeping

Bookkeeping is a critical foundation for all of the financial processes involved in your business. Clean financial records and accurate financial statements are essential for everything from strategic financial planning to tax prep.

As a result, you need a dedicated bookkeeper you can trust to consistently deliver, even as your business grows and complexities arise. Thanks to a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and a dedicated team of human experts, that’s where Zeni excels.

Our platform uses various technologies to automate routine accounting tasks, streamlining many that are beyond the capabilities of standard accounting software. For example, in addition to categorizing transactions, Zeni can automatically:

• Process and reconcile data from an invoice, receipt, or bank account statement.
• Calculate critical business metrics and key performance indicators, like burn rate.
• Learn from the historical treatment of transactions and record new ones accordingly.

Not only does this increase the efficiency of our bookkeeping service, facilitating real-time financial reporting and a timely month-end close, but it also helps eliminate human-related errors related to data entry, improving accuracy.

That frees up our bookkeepers, allowing them to focus on the areas where their human touch is most valuable: understanding your business’s unique needs and providing personalized support.

As a result, our bookkeeping service is also uniquely capable of growing with you. 

Unlike Bench, we can even provide continued support once you outgrow the cash basis of accounting and adopt the accrual basis in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), which is often required for startups.

Business taxes

Tax planning and compliance is one of the most complex financial challenges business owners face. Making quarterly estimated tax payments, minimizing annual tax liabilities, and preparing accurate returns requires significant time and expertise.

Like Bench’s, Zeni’s business tax services take all of these concerns off your plate. Our experienced accountants handle all of the day-to-day tax responsibilities, even working directly with your bookkeeping team so you don’t have to serve as an intermediary.

However, while Bench’s tax subscriptions focus strictly on these core requirements, you can customize your tax services with Zeni to accommodate a variety of additional needs. For example, that includes:

• Filing an application for a change in accounting method
• Foreign subsidiary, shareholder, and intercompany transaction reporting
• Incentive Stock Options exercise reporting and Form 3921 filing

Our tax team also sets itself apart with its unique startup expertise rooted in decades of industry experience. That can be invaluable since startups often face unique tax challenges as they scale through equity rounds.

For example, our experts make sure you benefit fully from opportunities like research and development (R&D) tax credits, which you may be able to use to claim up to $250K in annual payroll tax credits for up to five years.

Fractional CFO advisory

In addition to the accounting services that Bench provides, which are limited to bookkeeping and tax assistance, Zeni offers fractional CFO advisory services. They’re designed to help you navigate more sophisticated financial challenges, such as:

• Creating a financial model and forecasting cash flow growth
• Negotiating fundraising terms with a prospective lender or investor
• Using insights from financial analysis to inform critical strategic decisions

Many small business owners and startup founders lack the financial expertise necessary to manage these high-level tasks, but hiring a full-time professional who does have the experience can be prohibitively expensive.

That’s when our fractional CFO services come in handy. They allow you to access the expert advice you need without having to take on such a significant financial burden. Plans start as low as $1,275 per month, while a CFO’s salary is roughly $324K per year.

And since our CFOs operate under the Zeni umbrella and are already familiar with our bookkeeping and tax providers, they can integrate even more smoothly into your processes than an external hire.

Supporting financial solutions

Zeni’s flagship financial services—bookkeeping, taxes, and CFO advisory—already provide far more under one roof than most competitors do. However, our supporting solutions are what makes our platform so exceptionally comprehensive.

Here’s an overview of everything else Zeni brings to the table:

• Payroll management: Get support for everything from employee onboarding to termination, including compliance assurance across all states and local jurisdictions. You can also add on additional services, like 1099 filing or payroll system setup.
• Business checking: Store your capital reserves in a business checking account that generates up to 3.73% on your deposits and uses automatic insured cash sweep services to provide $3M in FDIC insurance coverage.
• Business credit cards: Unlock an unlimited number of business credit cards for your employees that can help you automate expense tracking, control spending, and earn 1.75% cashback on monthly expenses.
• Bill pay and employee reimbursements: Automate your invoicing and reimbursement processes alike with a tool that can capture payment requests, implement customized approval workflows, and process $0 domestic and international ACH payments in 160 currencies.

With the exception of the payroll management services—which only cost $199 per month—all of these solutions are completely free with a subscription to the Zeni bookkeeping software and services.

Save on a seamless switch to Zeni

If you’re feeling frustrated in the wake of the Bench accounting shutdown, navigating the transition to a new accounting firm may sound like the last thing you want to do, even if it results in a better experience on the back end.

We understand, and we want to make the process as painless as possible for you. Here’s what we recommend to all Bench clients:

• Agree to Bench’s terms: Employer.com needs your consent to take ownership of your data from Bench. It may be tempting to opt out, but that will prevent you from logging into your account, which could limit your access to your own data.
• Download your financial data: Log into your account and download copies of your most important financial reports, including your balance sheet, P&L, cash flow statement, general ledger, bills and invoices, and supporting schedules.
• Schedule a meeting with Zeni: Once you have your personal information safely in hand, you’re free to explore Bench accounting alternatives. Our representatives are happy to talk you through your options and help you determine what makes the most sense.

If you like what we have to offer, not only will we transfer your data from Bench to Zeni for free, but we’ll also provide a 50% discount for your first three months. We hope that will help make up for Bench’s inability to offer any refunds.

Fill out our contact form to get in touch.