Your bookkeeping service is shutting down: what to download first

Recent bookkeeping service shutdowns: Bench, Botkeeper and Finally

Three recent cases show the range, from a platform that went dark overnight to a sale where service carried on.

Bench shows why the first week matters. Before the buyer stepped in, Bench had recommended that customers file a six-month extension with the IRS and look for a new bookkeeper. After the deal, Employer.com said customers could port their data or keep their service under new ownership.

Finally's notice says existing logins stay active while data moves to Inkle. Claims, outstanding balances and Finally's other products go to the estate, PFS Finally Liquidation LLC.

The lesson in all three: your books are yours, but the copy you can reach may sit on someone else's servers.

What to download in the first week

Download everything, for every year the service kept your books, before you deal with anything else. Save it in two places you control.

Get bank and card statements from your banks directly, not from the service. They are the independent record you check everything else against.

How long to keep it all: the IRS says most income tax records should be kept for 3 years, longer in some situations, and employment tax records for at least 4 years after the tax is due or paid, whichever is later.

Questions to ask the service or its buyer, in writing

Ask by email, not by phone. A written answer is one you can hold them to.

1. Through what date are my books complete, and which accounts were reconciled through which statement date?
2. Whose subscription holds my books? If they sit in QuickBooks or Xero under your firm's account, will you make me the owner, and by when?
3. What did you file for me (1099s, sales tax, payroll returns, extensions)? Please send copies and the filing confirmations.
4. Is anything due or in progress that you will not finish?
5. How do I get my receipts and documents, in what format, and until what date?
6. When does my login stop working, and what happens to my data after that?
7. If you were acquired: who holds my contract now, do my price and terms change, and can I cancel?
8. Where do I send a claim for fees I prepaid? (Finally's notice sends claims and balances to its estate.)

Tax deadlines that do not move

A shutdown does not extend a federal deadline. These are the next ones for most small businesses, with the weekend rule applied:

If the service e-filed your 1099s through its own account, plan your own filing route now rather than in late January: how 1099 e-filing works through IRIS covers it. For the January payment, see how to figure estimated tax payments.

How to check the books you got are complete

The test is the bank. For each bank and card account, take the last month the service says it finished and compare the ledger to the statement.

Say a landscaping company's service closed in September 2026 and says the books are done through August 31.

• Checking statement ending balance, Aug 31: $15,040.50
• Less two checks written but not yet cleared ($650.00 and $450.00): $1,100.00
• Plus a deposit made Aug 31 that the bank posted Sept 1: $272.00
• Adjusted bank balance: $15,040.50 minus $1,100.00 plus $272.00 = $14,212.50

The ledger shows $14,212.50 for checking on Aug 31. It ties, and the reconciliation report should list the same two checks and the same deposit.

The credit card does not tie. The ledger shows $2,310.18 owed and the statement shows $2,486.18. The $176.00 difference is one charge on the statement that never made it into the books. A difference you can match to one line is a quick fix. A difference that matches nothing usually means a missing month or a missing account.

Then look past the cutoff. September has no entries at all, so there is one month to catch up before anything else.

Two more checks: the trial balance at each year end should match the figures on the return your CPA filed, and every bank, card and loan account you have should appear in the chart of accounts.

The mistake people make

Waiting. When a buyer announces that service continues, it is tempting to skip the download. Maybe service does continue. But the export you take this week costs nothing, and the one you need in March, mid tax season, may no longer be on offer.

The second mistake is downloading only PDFs. A PDF general ledger is readable, but new software cannot import it cleanly. Ask for CSV or Excel too.

How to choose your next setup without getting locked in again

• Own the subscription. The accounting software should be in your name, with your bookkeeper invited as a user, not the other way round.
• Test the export before you sign. Can you download the general ledger, trial balance and chart of accounts as CSV or Excel yourself, any day, without asking anyone?
• Keep your own copy. After each year end, save the general ledger and trial balance with that year's tax return.
• Reconcile monthly. Every bank and card account should be reconciled to its statement each month, with a report per statement you can download.

BooksGPT, for one, imports books from QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, Wave, Zoho Books, Quicken or a trial balance and checks that they tie out (import). You then reconcile each account against its statement and finish at a $0.00 difference, with a report per statement (reconciliation).

What to do next, in order

1. Today: download every record in the table above, for every year, as CSV or Excel and as PDF.
2. This week: send the written questions, and download statements from each bank and card company.
3. Put the deadlines on your calendar: Nov 2, 2026, Jan 15, 2027 and Feb 1, 2027.
4. Tie each account to its statement for the last month the service finished.
5. Catch up the months after the cutoff, then choose a setup where the login and the exports are yours.