Customers lost platform access the same day the shutdown was announced, with financial and tax documents temporarily unreachable. Bench told customers to file IRS extensions. After the acquisition, some customers reported being asked to consent to a data transfer to Employer.com or risk losing access, with a no-refund notice that TechCrunch reported was later removed. Prepayment and pre-sale error claims sit inside the court-supervised Canadian insolvency process.

The original download window ran from December 30, 2024 to March 7, 2025 and has closed. Bench's current pricing page states it does not remove login access after a subscription ends, so existing customers should try logging in first. Beyond that, access runs through the Bench and Employer.com platform.

Try your existing Bench login first, since Bench states it does not remove access after cancellation.

Export your financial statements, general ledger with transaction detail, and any prior tax filings, and store copies outside any single vendor's platform.

Confirm which tax years were actually filed and which were not, since late filings are a recurring theme in public reviews.

If a year is unfiled, file an extension and engage a preparer promptly.

Questions about prepayments or pre-sale errors run through the court-supervised Canadian insolvency process, not a direct refund request.

Once your records are secured, evaluate whether to stay or move to a different provider before your next filing deadline.

Verified August 4, 2026. Bench is mid-transition between the Bench and Mainstreet brands under Employer.com; pricing, service scope, and brand presentation may change. Recheck against bench.co and mainstreet.com before relying on any figure here.

Bench's original data download window ran from December 30, 2024 to March 7, 2025 and is now closed. Bench's current pricing page states it does not remove login access after a subscription ends, so try your existing login before assuming records are gone. Export formats and ledger-ownership terms were not published on any page reviewed.

Bench is not the only bookkeeping provider, and other firms serve the same range of businesses with different service models and pricing. The right choice depends on your entity type, filing history, and how much continuity risk you are willing to accept from a provider still consolidating multiple acquisitions.

Yes. Bench shut down on December 27, 2024, was acquired by Employer.com on December 30, 2024, and resumed operations in January 2025 as an Employer.com subsidiary. On August 11, 2025, Employer.com consolidated Bench under the Mainstreet brand together with Mainstreet Tax Credits and Dough. As of August 4, 2026, bench.co remains live and Bench-branded, so the brand a customer sees may appear as either Bench or Mainstreet. Separately, the original Canadian legal entity, Bench Accounting Inc., filed for bankruptcy on January 7, 2025, and that insolvency proceeding is court-supervised.

The original data download window ran from December 30, 2024 to March 7, 2025 and has closed. Bench states on its current pricing page that it does not remove login access when a subscription ends, so the first step is to try your existing Bench login. If that does not work, support and access run through the Bench and Employer.com platform. Once you regain access, export what you need and keep a copy outside the platform, since no specific export file format is published.

Bench Accounting Inc. filed for bankruptcy in Canada on January 7, 2025, with filings showing $2.8 million in cash against $65.4 million in liabilities. Employer.com's head of corporate development told TechCrunch that the Canadian court overseeing the insolvency will supervise distribution of proceeds to creditors, which is where prepayment claims sit. TechCrunch also reported in January 2025 that some customers were presented with a consent screen to transfer their data to Employer.com, that the screen initially stated consenting meant no refunds, and that this language was later removed. A reviewer on Bench's BBB profile states they were told the post-rebrand company assumed no liability for work performed before the change.

That's common, and it's a solved problem. Uplinq's Catch Up service rebuilds past months or years of books as part of onboarding, scoped to how far behind you are and the state of your records. You start clean, not from wherever your last provider left off.

No. Uplinq offers month-to-month agreements as well as annual plans, which carry a discount. If you prepay annually and choose not to renew, you simply give notice 30 days before the term ends.

Yes. Business and personal tax filings are available on every Uplinq plan, and tax strategy packages are available for businesses that want proactive planning. Because the same system holds your books and prepares your filings, year end is a handoff, not a project.