Best Accounting, Tax and Bookkeeping for Early Stage Startups Comparison 2024
Accounting, bookkeeping, taxes…nobody likes 'em, but it's an unavoidable aspect of running a business for every founder. When considering which bookkeeper and tax partner to choose, we thought about factors like time (how intelligent and automated are their tools, how much input and review do we need to provide), accuracy (accurate and timely financial statements and tax filings), and cost (how will our costs increase as our expenses grow, should we bundle bookkeeping, taxes, and perhaps R&D tax credits all in one place).
As a seed startup, it was also important for us to consider how our bookkeeping and tax partner will scale with us as we grow because ideally we'd like to stay with one partner for as long as it makes sense and put our accounting on autopilot. Factors like accounting method (accrual accounting is typically industry standard), bookkeeping software (Quickbooks is used by many partners and makes it easy for us to move our books if we ever wanted to switch partners or use our own CPA), clients served (founder / entrepreneur friendly), and customer support (responsiveness, ease of onboarding), were criteria we used in our evaluation process that you'll see outlined in the comparison table.
This article breaks down features from key players providing bookkeeping / tax / R&D credits services for startups. Note that this was researched from the perspective of a seed stage with estimated monthly expenses ~$5K (not including payroll). We hope this information is helpful to your team as you choose your bookkeeper and tax preparer.
Comparison table
(We are working on the spacing but wanted to put the content out ASAP for you!)
Bench 1.1 | Pilot | Accountalent | Haven | Fondo | Mesha | Finta | Fincent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| About | Launched in 2013 with 25K clients | Has 300 employees and 2K clients | Has 20 years of experience with 5K+ clients | Launched in March 2020, currently 6 full-time employees, 55 active clients, differentiates on speed and client servicing tailored towards founders | Launched in January 2020, 750 active clients | Mesha has been around for 5 years, started with bookkeeping services, differentiates on customer support | Newest in this list (1.5 years old, YC backed), currently servicing 100+ clients | Launched in December 2020, 300+ active monthly clients |
| Client profile | US-based SME | Small to medium startups (Series C/D) | C-corps only, Seed to Series B/C (majority of clients use Acountalent for tax services) | Majority (80%) of clients are venture backed startups, with over half (60%) using Haven for end-to-end bookkeeping, taxes, and R&D | Mostly servicing early stage startups in B2B, B2C Saas, with most using Fondo for taxes, then tax credits, and bookkeeping, respectively | Client in real estate, law, nonprofits, and education sectors with the majority using bookkeeping services, followed by taxes | Target clients are founders at inception to Series A/B stages | Majority of clients are in real estate, restaurants, investment consulting, and mom and pop shops |
| Pricing | Bookkeeping: $249/month billed annually for Essential package Tax: $399/month billed annually for the Premium package (includes bookkeeping services in Essential plus annual income tax filings for businesses) | Bookkeeping: starter plan is $499/month billed annually based on monthly expense volume + $42/month for Quickbooks subscription Tax: $2,450/year, includes 1 federal, 1 state + $500/additional state R&D tax credit: takes 20% of savings | Bookkeeping: starts at $199/month, based on monthly expense volume (for us, they gave us a quote of $199-299/month) + $45/month Quickbooks subscription + migration/clean up fee may apply Tax: $2,400/year, includes Delaware franchise taxes, 1 federal, 1 state + $500/additional state R&D tax credit: 0.75% of qualifying R&D expenses | Bookkeeping: $300/month based on monthly expense volume + $30/month Quickbooks subscription Tax: $2,000/year, includes 1 federal, 1 state, 1099s + $350/additional state R&D tax credit: takes 10% of savings | Bookkeeping: $1,850/year for expenses <$500K or $154/month, based on monthly expense volume + $20/month Quickbooks subscription Tax: $2,250/year for expenses <$500K, includes Delaware franchise taxes, 1 federal, 1 state + $500/additional state R&D credit: also volume based depending on savings - takes 8% if we get back $50K or less, 15% if we get back >$50K | Bookkeeping: starts at $249/month Tax: $750/year, includes 1 federal, 1 state + $125/additional state R&D credit: currently doesn't support, coming soon | Bookkeeping software: $100/month for seed, next tier is $250/month for post-seed startups Tax: $1,000/year for federal + $250/state R&D credit: takes 15% of savings | Bookkeeping: $3,229/year (10% discount on annual) or $299/month based on monthly expense volume Tax: $1,150/year for federal + $250/state |
| A la carte services / pricing | No, must use bookkeeping services to use tax services | No, must use bookkeeping services to use tax services | Yes | No, at least two of the services must be bundled (e.g. Tax + R&D, bookkeeping + tax) | Yes | No, must use bookkeeping services to use tax services | No, must use bookkeeping services to use tax services | No, must use bookkeeping services to use tax services |
| Discounts offered | Yes, free month of bookkeeping | Yes, friends and family rate available e.g. 20% off first 6 months of bookkeeping, 15% rate for R&D (vs 20%) | Yes, $250 discount on tax services | Referral discounts available | n/a | can match prices if lower prices are offered by competitor provider | n/a | 10% discount on annual bookkeeping |
| Accounting method | Cash | Accrual (cash basis available upon request) | Accrual | tbd | tbd | Cash and accrual | Cash and accrual | Accrual |
| Bookkeeping software | Proprietary | Quickbooks | Quickbooks or Puzzle | Quickbooks | Quickbooks or Puzzle | tbd | n/a; Finta's software replaces Quickbooks and team of human managing QB via integrations with financial services providers | Proprietary + Quickbooks |
| Bookkeeping support | Bench team will deliver books by 15th of each month, each client gets a dedicated bookkeeper based in North America | Pilot bookkeeping team are full-time US-based employees mainly based out of their Nashville office | Each client gets one bookkeeper; Bookkeepers are based in Philippines (24-48 hour SLA response time) | Haven team will handle all reconciliation, deliver books by 15th of each month; Minimal involvement from client | Receive support from dedicated team via Slack if bookkeeping is done on a monthly or quarterly basis | Each client gets a dedicated bookkeeper | All aspects of bookkeeping is automated, e.g. categorizing, real time dashboard to monitor burn rate, expenses, etc. | Each client gets a dedicated bookkeeping team that includes bookkeeping manager + 2 associates |
| Tax support | Each client gets a dedicated Tax Coordinator who collect all documents and forms, plus a Bench Tax Advisor who prepares, reviews, and files taxes | Taxes is a Pilot offering that is delivered by a tax firm vetted and selected by Pilot, e.g. Armanino LLP, Baker Tilly | Taxes are done in-house by one of their CPAs, each client gets a dedicated CPA | Taxes are done by CPAs in-house or contractors that Haven loops in depending on complexity of taxes, Haven is passthrough on the tax side, we won't interact with CPA unless we want to | Taxes are done in-house by one of their CPAs, each client gets a dedicated CPA | Taxes are done by CPAs in-house or contractors that Mesha vets, each client gets a dedicated CPA | Taxes are done by Founder, Andy, who has a background in CS and Finance | Taxes are an add-on service, done in-house by one of their CPAs |
| Onboarding timeline | tbd | Typically takes 6-8 weeks from signing | Typically 1 month to onboard for bookkeeping | White glove onboarding: we provide Haven with Read only access to existing bookkeeping software to migrate historical data | Typically a $500 onboarding fee (potential to waive, discuss with sales rep) Self service onboarding that takes ~1 hour to connect all bank accounts, fill out an onboarding questionnaire | Fill out onboarding form and set up onboarding call with Co-Founder to get set up | White glove onboarding; software enables us to integrate quickly with bank accounts being used | Self service onboarding to connect all bank accounts |
| Website | https://www.bench.co | https://pilot.com/hello | https://accountalent.com/ | https://usehaven.com | https://www.tryfondo.com | https://www.mesha.club/ | https://www.finta.com | https://fincent.com/ |
Product snapshots
Bench
Pilot
Mesha
Fincent
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About the author
Danni F. is Head of Strategy and Ops @ PIN. PIN is the easiest way for communities to invest in the best startups together. PIN handles all the boring stuff (aka legal / admin / tax) so people can focus on the fun stuff (i.e. investing in and supporting founders). They use a unique investment club structure that is inclusive of unaccredited investors and has all the benefits of both traditional funds and SPVs, but with a fraction of the hassle.
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