Bench alternative
The Bench Alternative for Owners Who Want to Do the Books Themselves
Bench was a done-for-you service: you handed over your accounts and human bookkeepers kept the books. Then, in late December 2024, it abruptly shut down, before being acquired by Employer.com and restarted under the Bench brand in early 2025. Whether or not you stay, the episode made a lot of owners want more control and a lower bill. Auritrack is the opposite model — you keep the books yourself, but an AI does the heavy lifting.
- Pricing verified:
- Jul 2026
What the Bench shutdown taught people
When Bench went dark just after Christmas 2024, clients scrambled to get their historical data out. It has since resumed under new ownership, but the scare left a clear lesson: outsourcing your books to a single service means your records and your continuity depend on that company staying up. At $299 a month and rising, some owners decided they would rather hold the reins.
Auritrack is a different bargain. Instead of paying a team to keep your books, you keep them with an AI doing the work: upload a bank statement and it reads and categorises every transaction, or log things in a line of chat. Your data lives in your account, and you can export it as PDF or CSV whenever you want. See how it works on the AI bookkeeping page.
Auritrack vs Bench, side by side
Feature comparison of Auritrack and Bench
| Feature | Auritrack | Bench |
|---|---|---|
| AI chat expense tracking | Yes | No |
| AI bookkeeping & categorization | Yes | Software-assisted, but humans do the books |
| Automatic bank sync | On the roadmap; statement import today | YesConnects accounts for the bookkeeping team |
| Bank-statement import (PDF/CSV/Excel) | YesPDF, CSV or Excel, read by AI | YesYou upload statements for the team |
| Budgeting | Yes | NoBookkeeping and reports, not budgeting |
| Savings goals | Yes | No |
| Invoicing | Small-business records and reports | NoBookkeeping, not invoicing |
| Receipt scanning | Yes | Document upload |
| All currencies with live conversion | YesLive exchange rates | No |
| Data export (PDF/CSV) | YesPDF and CSV anytime | Reports; portability concerns reported after restart |
| Telegram tracking | Yes@auritrack_bot | No |
| Investment tracking | No | No |
| Shared / household accounts | Yes | No |
| Sells your data to advertisers | No | No |
| Price | Free tier + AI from $3/mo | From $299/mo |
Bench: honest strengths and limitations
Bench: strengths
- real human bookkeepers do the work
- monthly financial statements delivered
- year-end tax-ready books
- hands-off for business owners
Limitations
- expensive at $299+/mo
- abrupt 2024 shutdown history
- post-restart service and data concerns
- US only, no self-serve budgeting
Who should stay with Bench
Auritrack is a tool, not a service. Bench’s whole value is that a person does your bookkeeping and hands you finished monthly statements and year-end, tax-ready books. If you do not want to touch the books at all — if paying someone to make bookkeeping disappear is the point — a staffed service like Bench (or another human bookkeeper) is the right choice, and an AI app does not replace that hand-holding.
So if you want done-for-you and you are comfortable with the current Bench, stay. This page is for the owner who, partly after the shutdown, would rather do it themselves cheaply and keep full control of their data.
A fraction of the price, and your data stays yours
The gap in cost is large. Bench starts around $299 a month; Auritrack’s AI features run from $3 a month or on pay-as-you-go Auricoins, on top of a free tier for manual tracking and storage. You do the reviewing the AI does the categorising, and because everything sits in your own account you are never waiting on a service to release your records. It works in every currency with live conversion, and you can log from the web, Android, iOS or Telegram with the @auritrack_bot.
Set up DIY bookkeeping in Auritrack
Copy this prompt, create a free account, and paste it into the Auritrack AI chat. It sets up small-business categories so you can keep your own books with AI doing the categorising.
- 1
Copy the prompt
Grab the ready-made setup prompt below.
- 2
Create a free account
Sign up on the web app or mobile.
- 3
Paste into AI chat
Auritrack sets up your budget from it.
The honest verdict
Pick Bench, or another staffed bookkeeping service, if you want humans to do the books for you and you are willing to pay for hands-off convenience. Pick Auritrack if you would rather do the bookkeeping yourself with an AI doing the grunt work, pay a fraction of the price, and keep your data firmly in your own hands. After the 2024 shutdown, a lot of owners have leaned toward the second.
Where Bench still wins
- real human bookkeepers do the work for you
- done-for-you monthly financial statements
- year-end tax-ready books
Frequently Asked Questions
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After the shutdown
Do the books yourself, for a fraction of the price.
Auritrack does AI bookkeeping you control — upload a statement or log by chat, in any currency, from $3/mo instead of $299. Your data stays yours. Start on the free tier.
Comparisons reflect our understanding of each product at the time of writing and may change; check each provider’s site for current pricing and features. Product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. This page is general information, not financial advice. AI bookkeeping.