SMB Platform Bench Acquired by Employer.com 3 Days After Shutdown

After announcing an “abrupt” shutdown of its online bookkeeping and tax filing platform on Friday (Dec. 27), Bench Accounting said Monday (Dec. 30) that it is being acquired by Employer.com.

“Your service will continue seamlessly with the platform you’ve always trusted,” Bench said in an announcement on the home page of its website.

Employer.com announced its acquisition of Bench in a banner on its own home page, together with a link to an article by TechCrunch.

In that article, Employer.com said that it will revive the Bench platform and that Bench customers will be allowed to keep their service under the new ownership or port their data.

Employer.com is a new company that focuses on human resources (HR) tech, including payroll and onboarding, and is acquiring other companies in the HR space, according to the report.

Bench’s bookkeeping services and tax advisory platform had more than 12,000 small business customers, according to a press release issued by Bench in September.

When announcing a Series B-1 funding round in 2018, the company said it aimed to help small business owners and accountants build and grow their companies.

In its Friday notice of service closure, Bench said it recommended that customers contact modern accounting software provider Kick for support with their bookkeeping.

“We know this news is abrupt and may cause disruption to our customers, so we’re committed to helping them navigate through the transition,” Bench said in the notice.

The notice included a link to a Kick web page that described services to help customers migrate from Bench to Kick, including free Bench migration, daily live Q&As and a free 2024 bookkeeping review. With the code “BENCH,” customers can get 20% off the Kick Plus Plan and free Bench migration.

Kick founder Conrad Wadowski wrote in a Friday post on LinkedIn that Kick is moving fast to offer these services so that Bench customers don’t have to start from scratch and so that Kick can “get your financials back in your hands.”

“You may have just heard Bench has abruptly closed down,” Wadowski wrote in the post. “If you’re a customer, I can’t imagine the frustration you’re going through. Paying for a service and not getting what you expect, especially when it comes to your taxes, is no joke.”

As this was written Monday, the Kick website was still offering those migration services and discount.

Wadowski wrote in an Oct. 17 blog post that Kick raised $9 million in a seed round with participation from OpenAI Startup Fund and General Catalyst.

He added in the post that about a year after its September 2023 launch, Kick was serving more than 1,000 businesses and had seen 50% monthly growth over the previous three months.

Kick is built for entrepreneurs and the accounting and bookkeeping firms that support them, Wadowski wrote.

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