Just days after shocking and angering some customers over the manner of its sudden shutdown, the accounting software startup Bench Accounting Inc. says it’s now being acquired by Employer.com Inc.

The acquisition was announced in blog posts on both companies’ websites today, with Bench telling customers that their service will “continue seamlessly with the platform you’ve always trusted.”

TechCrunch, which first reported on the acquisition, said Bench users will be able to keep using the platform or alternatively port their data to a third-party service if they no longer wish to do so.

It remains to be seen how many will want to remain, for Bench upset a lot of users last week when it suddenly, and without any warning, shut down its platform, locking thousands of customers out of their accounts. As a result, those users were left unable to access their vital accounting and tax documents.

Customers told TechCrunch of their shock. Justin Metros, who is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of a company called Radiator Inc., said he had lost access to year’s worth of his company’s accounting documents. “I’ve never seen anyone just shut down like that,” he said. “That’s crazy.”

Matt Palackdharry, founder of a startup called Kinetic Talents Inc., wrote on LinkedIn that he had just signed up to use Bench’s accounting platform a few days prior, paying $5,535.50 in fees. “We didn’t even complete onboarding,” he said. “You’re just stealing money from small businesses with how you are handling your shutdown.”

In a statement on Friday, Bench suggested that its customers could migrate to another accounting platform called Kick, while the company’s employees revealed on LinkedIn that they had been laid off with very little warning.

Bench provides a platform for collecting bookkeeping data and uses a combination of proprietary automation technology and its own, human bookkeepers to perform the manual accounting work normally done by small business owners.

Employer.com’s decision to acquire Bench appears to have been made at the very last moment, and the negotiations were swift. Bench suddenly called its employees “back to work to ensure continuity” this morning, TechCrunch reported.

Employer.com looks to be a suitable parent company for Bench. Based in San Francisco, it offers workforce management software that’s focused on payroll, compliance and more. It can now add accounting to the list of services it provides.

Bench, which previously described itself as the “largest bookkeeping service for small businesses” in the U.S., had raised more than $100 million in venture capital funding since launching back in 2012. Its most recent round closed in 2021, when it received $60 million from investors.

It’s not clear what went wrong at Bench, but former Chief Executive Jean-Philippe Durrios departed from the company in November. It doesn’t appear to have named a replacement following his departure.

Photo: Bench Accounting