Karbon is the leading practice management platform purpose-built for accounting firms. Used by 1,000+ firms across the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, Karbon handles workflow, email triage, client communication, time tracking, and team coordination. Our Karbon-trained offshore accountants and coordinators work inside Karbon alongside your firm team.
Karbon was founded in 2014 to solve a specific problem: accounting firms running operations through a mix of email, spreadsheets, generic project management tools, and dated firm software. Karbon unified these into a single platform designed around how accounting firms actually work – recurring client work, engagement-based delivery, email as the primary communication channel, team collaboration across complex workflows.
Karbon's core features: shared email triage with full team visibility, engagement/work templates, recurring work scheduling, time tracking, client portal, team chat, and workflow automation. The goal is keeping the entire firm working from one system rather than fragmenting across tools.
For firms that have adopted Karbon, offshore accounting staff work inside Karbon like any other team member – assigned work, collaborating on emails, tracking time, completing engagement tasks. Our Karbon-trained staff know the platform's workflow model and integrate smoothly into your existing setup.
Capabilities
Offshore staff get Karbon user licenses (firm pays) and appear as team members in assignments, email triage, time tracking. Workflow routes work to them like any other team member. US firm team remains in client-facing roles and partner review; offshore staff handle preparation and execution.
Use cases
Offshore staff as additional team members in Karbon; work assignments, email coordination, engagement completion through Karbon.
Recurring monthly bookkeeping engagements managed in Karbon; offshore bookkeepers execute monthly close per Karbon workflow templates; US managers review in Karbon.
Tax engagement workflow in Karbon; offshore preparers pick up assigned returns, complete preparation tasks, hand off to US senior/partner review via Karbon workflow.
Related engagements grouped in Karbon; offshore staff work across entity books with coordinated view firm partners maintain.
FAQ
Yes. Each offshore accountant working in your Karbon needs a Karbon user license under your firm's subscription. Pricing per user depends on your Karbon tier.
Yes. Karbon supports user roles and permissions. You can restrict which clients offshore staff access, which email inboxes they can view, and what actions they can take. Standard setup: offshore staff see only clients they work on; don't see firm-wide communication.
First week: offshore accountant gets Karbon access, reviews firm workflow templates, shadows US team on 1–2 clients. Week 2: starts executing assigned work with US review. Week 3: full-scale execution. Same cadence as non-Karbon firms; Karbon reduces ambiguity about workflow.
Yes, with firm permission. Many firms prefer US staff handle initial email triage, with offshore staff drafting responses for US review. Some firms allow offshore staff to triage non-sensitive operational emails directly. Depends on your policies.
Offshore staff track time in Karbon per engagement. Hours feed your WIP and billing normally. Some firms bill offshore time to clients at offshore cost + markup; some bill at firm standard rates (realization higher). Your economic model, not Karbon's.
Yes. Karbon is most common in our book, but we have staff familiar with Canopy (especially for firms with heavy tax resolution work), TaxDome, Jetpack Workflow, FirmFlow. Specific experience varies by staff member.
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