When the pandemic forced accounting firms to go remote in March 2020, most scrambled. They shipped monitors to people's homes, figured out VPN access on the fly, and hoped for the best. At CleanBooks, it was just another Monday. We'd been operating as a fully distributed team from day one, and what the rest of the industry experienced as a crisis was simply our normal operating model proving itself at scale.
This isn't a humble brag — it's a case study. The questions we get most often from other firm owners aren't about our technical capabilities; they're about how remote accounting actually works in practice. How do you maintain quality without looking over someone's shoulder? How do you collaborate on complex reconciliations? How do you build trust with clients you've never met in person?
The Tech Stack That Makes It Work
Remote accounting is only possible because of cloud-based tools that give every team member real-time access to the same data, regardless of location. Here's what we use daily:
- QuickBooks Online: Our primary accounting platform. Cloud-native, multi-user, accessible from anywhere. We standardize on QBO across clients for consistency and efficiency.
- Slack: Our communication hub. Organized by client channels, internal channels, and direct messages. We enforce a strict "no email for internal communication" policy.
- Loom: The secret weapon of remote accounting. Instead of scheduling a call to walk someone through a complex reconciliation, we record a 5-minute Loom video. The recipient watches when ready, can rewatch as needed, and we've both saved 15 minutes of scheduling overhead.
- Google Workspace: Shared drives for client documents, Sheets for collaborative workpapers, and Meet for the occasional video call when real-time discussion is necessary.
- Zapier: Connects everything with automated workflows that eliminate manual handoffs between systems.
- Karbon: Our practice management platform. Every client engagement has a workflow with tasks, deadlines, and assigned owners. Nothing falls through the cracks because every deliverable is tracked.
Process Over Proximity
The biggest misconception about remote work is that proximity equals oversight. In reality, the firms that struggle with remote accounting are the same ones that relied on hallway conversations and shoulder-taps for quality control in the office. That was never a process — it was a crutch.
At CleanBooks, every client engagement follows a documented workflow with clear handoffs, review checkpoints, and deadlines. Here's what our monthly close process looks like:
- Week 1 (Days 1-3): Staff accountant completes transaction categorization, bank reconciliation, and initial close adjustments
- Week 1 (Days 3-5): Senior reviewer checks all reconciliations, reviews journal entries, and flags questions
- Week 2 (Days 6-8): Controller reviews financial statements, prepares variance analysis and commentary
- Week 2 (Days 8-10): Client receives financial package with statements, KPI dashboard, and controller notes
Every step has a clear owner, a defined deliverable, and a deadline. The review process catches errors regardless of whether the reviewer is sitting next to the preparer or across the country. In fact, our error rates are lower than industry averages precisely because our review process is formalized rather than informal.
Async Communication Is a Superpower
One of the biggest advantages of remote accounting isn't just about location — it's about time. Asynchronous communication (Slack messages, Loom videos, documented notes) is fundamentally more efficient than synchronous communication (meetings, phone calls, shoulder-taps) for most accounting work.
Here's why: accounting work requires deep focus. Categorizing 400 transactions, reconciling a complex trust account, or building a cash flow forecast — these tasks require uninterrupted concentration. Every meeting, every phone call, every "quick question" breaks that concentration and costs 15-20 minutes of context-switching overhead.
Our team structures their days with long blocks of focus time for production work and designated windows for communication. Questions go into Slack and get answered within hours, not minutes — and that's a feature, not a bug. The person answering can do so thoughtfully, after finishing their current task, rather than being interrupted mid-reconciliation.
Building Client Trust Remotely
The most common objection we hear from prospective clients is: "But I want to meet my accountant in person." We understand the instinct — handing over your financial operations to someone you've never shared a conference room with feels risky. But here's what we've found after years of remote client relationships:
- Responsiveness matters more than proximity. Clients care about getting their questions answered quickly and their deliverables on time. A remote team that responds within hours beats an in-person team that's always "in a meeting."
- Transparency builds trust faster than face time. We give clients real-time access to their books, shared dashboards they can check anytime, and monthly Loom walkthroughs of their financials. They have more visibility into their finances than they would with most in-person firms.
- Video calls fill the relationship gap. We schedule monthly video calls with every client to review financials and discuss strategy. These 30-minute calls, combined with always-available Slack access, create stronger relationships than quarterly in-person meetings ever did.
The Talent Advantage
Perhaps the most underappreciated benefit of being fully remote is access to talent. When you're limited to hiring within commuting distance of an office, you're competing for the same small pool of local candidates as every other firm in town. When you can hire anywhere, you can find the best person for every role — and you can offer the flexibility that top talent increasingly demands.
Our team spans multiple time zones, which actually works in our favor. West Coast team members can handle end-of-day tasks that East Coast members have already moved past, creating an extended working day without anyone working overtime. Client deliverables move through our pipeline faster because the work doesn't stop when one person logs off.
What Doesn't Work Remotely
We're honest about the limitations. Some things are genuinely harder in a remote environment:
- Onboarding new team members takes more intentional effort. We pair every new hire with a mentor for their first 90 days and front-load video calls during the first two weeks.
- Brainstorming and creative problem-solving benefit from real-time interaction. We schedule occasional virtual workshops for strategic planning and process improvement.
- Social bonding requires deliberate investment. We budget for annual team retreats and regular virtual social events to maintain the human connections that make work enjoyable.
The Future Is Already Here
Remote accounting isn't an experiment anymore — it's a proven model that delivers better results, attracts better talent, and serves clients more effectively than traditional in-office operations. The pandemic didn't create this future; it simply accelerated it by five years.
If you're a firm owner still on the fence about remote financial operations — whether that means building your own distributed team or partnering with an outsourced provider like CleanBooks — the data is clear. Remote works. And for accounting specifically, where the work is largely digital, collaborative tools are mature, and deep focus is essential, it might work better than the alternative.
At CleanBooks, we've been proving this model since day one. If you want to see what a fully distributed finance team can do for your firm, we'd love to show you.