from Hacker News

Bench to be acquired after abruptly shutting down

by Nelkins on 12/30/24, 2:04 PM with 80 comments

• by nathancahill on 12/30/24, 2:20 PM

  Seems like a last second deal. Doesn't inspire confidence. For context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42523061

  And former CEO's post: https://x.com/ianwcrosby/status/1872724231999381790

• by wdaher on 12/30/24, 8:07 PM

  For Bench customers that want to look elsewhere, Pilot is doing free migrations from Bench to QBO, even if you don't want to use Pilot. (So you can even take advantage of it if you want to instead DIY or work with some local firm.)

  https://pilot.com/bench-qbo-migration

  (Disclaimer is that I'm one of Pilot's founders.)

• by mikebonnell on 12/30/24, 2:46 PM

  Would you trust Employer when their "About" page looks like this? https://www.employer.com/about

  "Our Story There are many variations of passages of available, but the majority have suffered alteration in some form, by injected humour, or randomised words which don't look even..."

• by jbeard4 on 12/30/24, 9:14 PM

  Has anyone figured out how to download your data from Bench? In the original email they sent out that announced they were shutting down, they said data would be available to download from http://data.bench.co. But right now, this domain appears to be inactive. When I logged back in, they gave me the option to: give employer.com permission to access my data, or download my data. I selected the former option so that I could access the dashboard, but I'd still like to download my data in case it turns out I would like to migrate to a competing service.

• by kidhastings on 12/30/24, 9:38 PM

  Former Bench user here - I selected to opt-out and download my financial data over an hour ago. I still haven't received it and am getting concerned. Has anyone actually received their data from Bench yet?

• by bagelss on 12/30/24, 9:43 AM

  Let's wait and see. This is a case study in how not to shut down a company. I, like many business owners, will have already started looking at alternatives. With an estimated 35,000 businesses you would have thought Bench would have some acquisition offers on the table before they chose to close.

• by Nelkins on 12/30/24, 3:00 PM

  As someone who was affected by this, I opted to go ahead and try and get my money's worth (although I have another service doing this in parallel). Also they were supposed to file an S Corp election for me, so hopefully I'll be able to find out the latest status of that. This whole thing is such a mess.

• by jbeard4 on 12/31/24, 4:07 PM

  I created a subreddit in case any current/former Bench users would like to continue talking to one another and compare notes: https://www.reddit.com/r/BenchUsers

• by dotty- on 12/30/24, 2:19 PM

  lol, well, the companies who have already started a migration away from Bench are probably not going to stop their migration. Ouch.

• by thinkingemote on 12/30/24, 10:21 AM

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42523061 "bench accounting services shutting down". 3 days ago, 300 comments

• by dang on 12/30/24, 6:38 PM

  (We changed the URL from https://www.bench.co/ to an article that gives more background.)

• by JoshTriplett on 12/31/24, 8:07 AM

  In addition to all the other weirdness about this, their email announcing this had a fascinating bug in it:

  I received an email with subject "Bench is Back — Here’s What You Need to Know". The contents looked like a copy of the previous mail: "We regret to inform you that we will be shutting down Bench services. Effective immediately, [...]".

  On a hunch, I checked the HTML version rather than the plain text. "<p>Bench has been acquired by Employer.com and we’re thrilled to share with you that as of today, December 30, 2024, we’re back in action.<br /><br /></p> [...]"

  Somehow, they managed to send out an HTML mail that has the plain-text of a completely different mail. How does that even happen? What possible steps would lead to sending such a mail?

  -----

  For anyone curious about the complete contents of the mail sent to Bench customers (the HTML one they seem to have actually intended to send):

  Dear Bench customer,

  We wanted to get in touch with you to give you an update on Bench Accounting.

  Bench has been acquired by Employer.com and we’re thrilled to share with you that as of today, December 30, 2024, we’re back in action.

  What You Should Know

  Is anything changing?

  No, you will continue to work with the same great team, platform, and service. We’re preparing to wrap up your year-end financials and get you set for a smooth tax season in Q1 2025.

  Who will be doing my books?

  The same great Bench team will continue to be supporting you with your books using the Bench.co platform, ensuring that you have a seamless experience moving forward.

  Next Steps

  To continue working with the Bench team and platform, simply login to your account, and click “I Consent.”

  This gives us the permission to continue supporting your account, and transfers your data ownership from Bench to Employer.com

  If you do not wish to provide consent, you will have the option to opt out. Please note that once opted out, we cannot reverse the action nor can we provide any refunds.

  We know the sudden shutdown of Bench disrupted things, and for that, we’re truly sorry. This acquisition is about turning things around and making sure your bookkeeping needs are met — better than ever. We look forward to working with you for a successful tax season ahead.

  Thank you for your patience and understanding, and please reach out if you have any questions.

  The Bench Team

• by codegeek on 12/30/24, 2:47 PM

  What a comedy of errors. So they screw over their paying customers without any notice and now suddenly they are acquired ? I love capitalism but the way Bench handled this is a disaster and left so many customers unsure of what to do. Especially at year end when accounting becomes even more critical. Shameful.

• by dang on 12/30/24, 6:37 PM

  Recent and related:

  Bench accounting services shutting down - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42523061 - Dec 2024 (304 comments)

• by tleichli on 12/30/24, 3:22 PM

  how long does it take for you to get the secure link that has your data from Bench when you opt out of Employer.com

• by jsheard on 12/30/24, 2:18 PM

  > Your service will continue seamlessly with the platform you’ve always trusted.

  Uh, I think that trust may be a bit compromised until they explain what the hell happened.

• by cmac123 on 12/30/24, 10:54 PM

  The new Bench site asks us to click a button saying we "consent to continue using Bench as part of employer.com." Has anyone clicked that? I'm hesitant, since it does not state clearly what I am "consenting" to.

• by GiorgioG on 12/30/24, 2:18 PM

  [flagged]