Our process

How we vet finance talent

Every bookkeeper, accountant, controller, and CFO on our bench passes five gates before we'll place them: credential verification, a role-specific technical assessment, a live case interview, reference checks, and ongoing performance review after placement.

The five gates

Application & screening. We recruit deliberately — referrals from talent already on the bench, alumni networks of strong finance teams, and targeted outreach. Resume claims are treated as claims, not facts.
Credential verification. CPA and CMA licenses checked against state boards. Degrees and employment history verified. Anyone whose story doesn't survive verification is out — no exceptions, no second version.
Role-specific technical assessment. Bookkeepers reconcile a deliberately messy set of accounts. Controller candidates get a close package with errors planted in it — find them or fail. CFO candidates build and defend a 13-week cash-flow position from raw financials. The tests mirror the first month of real work, not trivia.
Live case interview. A working session on a real (anonymized) company scenario with one of our senior reviewers. We're testing judgment and communication — can they explain a variance to a founder who isn't a finance person? Would you want them in your Monday meeting?
Reference checks that ask hard questions. Former managers, and for CFO candidates former CEOs or board members. We ask what they'd hire this person for again — and what they wouldn't.

After placement: the sixth gate

Vetting doesn't stop at placement. Every engagement gets a 30-day check-in on both sides, and clients rate work quality quarterly. Talent that slips below the bar comes off the bench — which is also your replacement guarantee working as designed: if a fit isn't right, we re-match you at no cost.

How matching works

Your intro call produces a short brief: scope, software stack, industry, volume, and working-style notes. We shortlist two or three people from the bench whose background actually matches it — a SaaS company gets a CFO who has owned ARR models; an ecommerce brand gets a bookkeeper fluent in Shopify payouts and COGS. You interview, you choose, they start. Typical elapsed time: one to two weeks.

What disqualifies a candidate

Any credential or employment claim that fails verification — integrity is binary
Technical work that's fast but sloppy — errors in finance compound silently
Inability to explain their work in plain English — remote roles live and die on communication
Overcommitment — a bench member juggling too many clients stops getting matched

See who we'd match you with

The vetting is done before you ever get a name. One intro call and you'll meet two or three people who already cleared every gate.

Book an intro call

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