ParoReviews of paro.ai

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.