[chrismaeda]

It seems to me that this is the key takeaway for founders:

Your accounting stack is

  1. accounting software
  2. bookkeeping  (ie operating the accounting software)
  3. cpa / cfo    (ie for tax and financial planning)

The benefit and problem with "nextgen" solutions like bench, kick, etc is that they provide a proprietary solution for the entire stack. This could be better/faster/cheaper but also comes with risk, as we are seeing in real time.

In contrast, the minimal risk approach is to source your accounting stack from different vendors:

  1. accounting software (eg quickbooks, xero, wave)
  2. bookkeeping   (hire a person or use a service)
  3. cpa / cfo     (hire a person or use a service)

If you use "standard" accounting software, you can change the other layers of your accounting stack at will. The total cost of layers 1 and 2 might be $6k-$8k per year for a company with revenue, which looks more expensive than the nextgen solutions. But the reduced risk and increased flexibility may be worth it.

[smathur3312]

Look into Paro.ai. They are a marketplace with good and reliable bookkeeper, accountants, CFOs. My AI startup got a CFO from them 3 years ago and the relationship is still going strong. They haven't hiked up my rates over 3 years. CPA firms increase rates every year, or dump you if you don't make enough money for them

[Amfy]

Agreed, but how do you protect yourself against quickbooks/xero/wave going under? Especially with Wave being mostly(?) free

[chrismaeda]

Good question. Quickbooks, Xero, and Wave are all owned by publicly traded companies.

(H&R Block owns Wave.)