Paro Reviews 243

First of all, Paro as a company has been incredible from the start. They listen to what you need and don't rest until they fight the right freelancer for your job. As a nonprofit E.D. I was looking for someone who knew the ins and outs of the nonprofit world. My sales rep, Devon Moon, made sure that the freelancer I was paired with a fit that mold perfectly. When introduced to Tanita she was friendly, interested, and motivated to work. She was absolutely fantastic. Tanita cleaned up our books and then set best practices for our bookkeeping. It has truly changed the way our organization operates. The Paro team is always there for you-no matter what!

I reached out to this company to assist our non profit. This first contact showed a lack of knowledge or perhaps a tendency to force larger projects than needed onto small organizations. I explained that we have our accounting data for 2 prior years in spreadsheets and ee want produce basic annual financial reports based on it. Then for the current year we would make use of the accounting software to store the data and generate reports; which may or may not include a clean up of past years data in the software given future reports will filter it out. Well I was told flat out that they cannot help me, and it is an all or nothing. Being a software engineer and information systems professional, I know that this is the wrong answer yet the most costly.

Process to get hired went quickly and smoothly. Communication was great. Everyone was very professional and friendly to work with.

Paro connected me with a great accountant that was able to solve my issues. The work was done very quickly by Nikki and under the estimated budget. She went above and beyond her calling by helping us make sure we didn't run into the same issues in the future. Could not have asked for a better experience!

I've been really pleased with Paro. I'm a new freelancer with them and, within days of starting, they had connected me to six new clients and every one of those clients has been terrific to work with. They find the client, they handle all the paperwork, they take care of billing and collections. Basically, they're an off-site marketing and back-office company for financial professionals. For me, that works really well.

They actually do not offer one-time services but advertise as if they do. They push that their employees need to meet certain quotas and criticize client budgets. I’m not going to pay someone to meet their quota, I’m going to pay for my business needs to be met. It’s all just weird. I don’t think your quotas are any of my business.

Great platform! Helpful and engaged team provided support throughout the process. Generating a lot of interesting prospects for my independent consulting business.

We've had a very positive experience w Paro, particularly with Jay, and view them as a true partner!

Joshua -
Josh knows software well and was a joy to work with.

Courtney is an amazing person to work with. He was detailed in what he wanted and was able to provide feedback and answer any questions.

Great service. Conscientious, knowledgeable and happy to talk through the US tax treatment of items for ourselves based in the UK

Paro connected me to a tax professional who I'm very impressed with so far! Dan, my accountant, has been extremely responsive and informative.

Paro aggressively tried to recruit me to be a “freelance auditor” when I did not have a CPA license. I was upfront and forthcoming about my lack of a license, because in my jurisdiction it is illegal and unethical to advertise yourself as a CPA without one. They still tried to recruit me. How did they anticipate doing supervision or Quality Review work on an unlicensed freelancer? Do they provide any support or audit tools to the people they hire? For audit work specifically, are they aware that only a licensed CPA can sign an audit opinion letter? Do they care?

I am just one schlub trying to play by the rules. If Paro is aggressively trying to recruit people who cannot legally do the work they’re hiring for, that gives me pause about their entire business model.

EDIT: They are still trying to recruit me now, and based on their responses I do not think they know or care about the legal and ethical requirements of CPAs. It honestly scares me that this company exists in the form that it does.

Paro is incredible!

I have been a Freelancer with them for almost a year now and it has been the best experience I have had since starting my business. First off, the application process was quite impressive and the onboarding was even better. They are organized and on top of everything! They make client acquisition extremely easy and support not only the client but myself as well throughout projects. I highly recommend working with Paro, whether you are an Expert or a Client in need of services. Paro is an easy choice!

I worked with a VC firm to fix a valuation model for an acquisition. The company was great to work with and has worked with me on multiple projects that are very interesting.

Working with Paro has been a very rewarding experience. The team was able to quickly identify a truly remarkable candidate for a CFO/Comptroller role, onboard her to our team, and deliver on mission-critical budgeting and financial operations. Boris has become a part of our team, provides her insights and expertise, and is a pleasure to work with.

I went through their application process, but I cancelled the day of the actual interview.

I wanted to gain some insight for those real top 2% finance professionals who have seen these Adwords ads all over Google as of late.

My review will focus on the process up to that point, and my general perception of the company based on my interactions.

I'm a local CPA in a mid sized city, just opened my practice last year. So far so good. There is one other CPA in my area, good guy, but we are the only 2 in a 7+ mile radius. I have very little competition in this market and am lucky that I can pick and choose my clients. The other CPA is not accepting new clients.

I like to keep tabs on search to see who if anyone is entering our market. This company Paro.IO kept coming up in Google search results for my area. I am number 1 organically for CPA near me in my area, also number one in organic search for [area + my firm name], so our phone rings every day and we don’t pay a cent for that.

So, I kept seeing ads for Paro come up when searching CPA near me, or some other term in which we rank first organically. These are the expensive AdWords text ads right at the top that cost something like $30+ per click. No other local firms use this type of advertising. For local businesses like ours, direct mail, billboards, local networking, etc. are still king.

I wasn’t quite sure initially what this company was. Their name sounds very intentionally Silicon Valley-esque, but they basically seem to be a middleman Adwords arbitrage type business, lots of these in our industry, none have ever proven to be profitable or successful after they burn through their initial capital (InDinero and TaxFyle come to mind).

Although they are pushing themselves as some type of ‘freelance’ platform, they want you to go through an extensive process, test projects, interviews…pretty much the process you’d go through for a $200k+ salaried job. Again, this is very low paid freelance type stuff with no guarantee of work. I would have went further into the process had it been less time consuming, but not worth the effort really to get a gauge on this company.

This might be a good idea if you are unemployed and desperate, or looking for some side hustle income to supplement a full-time job, but the hoops they want applicants to jump through are unrealistic and will certainly not attract “the top 2% of finance professionals” (their words). Really just looks a lot like Upwork, but instead of taking a 20% cut forever, I was informed they take closer to a 50%+ cut of revenue. No thanks.

In conclusion, if you are a local CPA, Tax Attorney, or EA office, this company is no threat whatsoever. Essentially just another unlicensed accounting company trying to cast a wide net across the entire country by paying for very very very expensive advertising.

Our clients can walk into our office whenever they want. We charge our clients more, pay our bookkeepers are preparers more, double actually from what I’ve heard Paro pays, and we’re actually licensed to provide these services.

But again, if you are currently unemployed, or just want some side hustle cash, it might be good, especially if you’re just out of college. But if you have more than 2 years work experience, this is probably beneath what you’d be willing to accept pay wise and hoops wise.

As for “Top 2% of finance people” they are advertising? Not by a long shot, don’t know many “top 2% finance” professionals who get paid $20/hour.

I had a great initial call with Brett from Paro about helping me with bookkeeping. He scheduled a follow up where he would have candidates lined up. Radio silence from him and the company. I do not recommend.

Paro hooked us up with Louis P in FL. This man is Superman. I am a tech guy and my partner is a builder, neither of us are qualified to manage finances for a company, but Louis is!! He has given us the peace of mind we needed to focus on our own strengths and building our young company. Paro and Louis seriously stepped up for us when our last vendor Scale Factor closed their doors and left us hanging with just a few weeks left to file and a bill. Louis got everything together and helped us meet our deadlines.

Thanks Paro!! Thanks Louis!!

Paro has been a huge help during these slow times. When I find myself looking for clients I go right to Paro to find any opportunities that suit my skill set. I've been paired with several quality clients without having to invest in expensive marketing tools. Paro has been great for my business growth.