Third Party Bookkeeping: Bench vs Proper.ai vs Other?

Question

I am in the process of interviewing & comparing third party bookkeeping solutions and have come across a few good ones, but wanted to check here to see if anyone had any input.

Proper.ai and Bench are my two front runners. Proper.ai is definitely more robust with the ability to work with my own software (i.e., Rent Manager) but is also a good bit more expensive. Bench is cheaper but also seems a little more manual, but does have a nice dashboard interface.

Another option would be just to hire someone off upwork, but I have heard mixed reviews and lots of trial and error with that.

Would love to hear pros / cons or details of anyone else's experience.

Thanks!

Kerry Baird · Answer

@Patrick McKenna, what did you end up using for your bookkeeping?  What do you recommend now that a couple of years have passed?

Ben Day · Answer

@Patrick McKenna

This is the stickiest thing with REI software - if you want to do your accounting on it, you need someone that knows it.

Bench and Proper are based (from what I can tell) on technology doing most of the work. This allows their businesses to scale, but can trim out some of the human element.

Hiring on Upwork may be your best bet if you know exactly what you need done and have all accounting procedures documented and in place.

Going with a niche bookkeeping biz that doesn’t depend exclusively on tech would mean not having to create your own systems and maintaining that human element. The biggest issue you’ll run into here is the software. Sometimes the best folks for the job just don’t know the niche software better than they know Quickbooks. If you stick with your systems, you’ll end up having to train them anyway.

I would start thinking through this by figuring out what your budget is, what your systems are like, and whether or not you’re married to rent manager.

BTW - bench and proper are both on track for standard minimum bookkeeping costs. Only go for cheap when you can manage the consequences.