Why connect eligible tools to Bench?
- Automated Inflow of Data: Connecting your financial accounts (Stripe/Square/Shopify/Gusto) to Bench allows the automatic secure inflow of transactions. This streamlines financial tasks, separates your merchant fees from your profits, and speeds up your bookkeeping.
- Real-Time Updates: Automatic synchronization ensures that your financial data is up-to-date in real time. This helps you have a more complete view of your business's financial health at any given moment.
- Efficiency: By eliminating the manual data entry process, it frees up time and resources that you can redirect towards managing your business instead of collecting documents for your books.
- Reduced Errors: Manually entering data increases the likelihood of errors, which can lead to inaccuracies in your financial records. Automatic syncing minimizes the risk and helps maintain the integrity of your financial data.
How to connect your accounts to Bench
- Navigate to the connections page from the main menu.
- Once here, you’ll see a list of connection requests from your bookkeeper.
- You can also scroll down the page to add bank accounts and connect merchant processors and payroll accounts.
- Once you click ‘Add’ this will redirect you to a login page, where you can enter your credentials. You may have to enter additional information to verify any multi-factor authentication codes.
Stripe
Stripe will redirect you to their App marketplace, where you can install the Bench Accounting app directly to your Stripe dashboard.
- Log into your Stripe account
- Log into your Bench account, go to 'Account', then 'Connections'
- Scroll down to the ‘Stripe’ section → Click on the 'ADD +' button (the page will redirected to Stripe Marketplace)
- In the Stripe Marketplace click on ‘Install App’
- Click on the Install button found in the bottom right corner of the side window pop-up
- Connect the Stripe account to Bench →Click on 'Already a Bench client?' and let the window pop-up page load (This can take a couple of minutes)
- The page will be redirected to the Bench login page → Enter the credentials → then be directed back to the Stripe Marketplace
- Click ‘Continue’ (if you have multiple accounts, please select the correct one)
- After the page updates → Click on ‘See more on my Bench account’
- Finally, the page will take you back to your Bench account and you will be able to view your connected Stripe account under Connections.
Note: If you have multiple accounts, please repeat the above steps for each one.
Stripe Troubleshooting
If you previously clicked "Install App" and you now instead see "Manage App" at step 4:
- Click your business name in the top left corner
- Select the Bench logo on the far right of the page (situated vertically underneath the + symbol)
- A panel will pop up on the right hand side. Click 'Already a Bench client?' to be redirected to Bench's sign-in page
- Use your Bench credentials to sign into your account and the connection will be listed on your Connections page
Square
You will be asked to log in with your Square credentials and authorize Bench to collect the data.
Shopify
You can download the Bench app from the Shopify store.
Gusto
You will be asked to log in to your Gusto payroll account and authorize Bench to collect the data.
Amazon
Click ‘Add’ and find your region (for most customers, this will be the United States even if they have foreign currency accounts)
Once selected, sign into your Amazon Seller Central account to authorize access
PayPal
Click “Add” and sign into your PayPal account to authorize access
Examples of What Isn’t Able to be Connected Through Integrations
Bench connects with PayPal, Square, and Shopify to automatically pull in your transaction data. However, the integration does not sync the following:
Square – Square Payroll, Square Banking
PayPal – PayPal Credit Card
Shopify – Shopify Banking
If you process transactions through these services, you may need to manually upload statements or provide additional details to ensure accurate bookkeeping.