Finaloop is an accounting services company that delivers real-time bookkeeping for DTC, multichannel, and wholesale brands across the United States. They leverage data and automation to provide their clients with the best service, but unreliable networking was plaguing a majority of their team, causing disconnects and frustrations for nearly their entire staff.

Zeev Shteiman, Team Lead of Data Engineering and DevOps, discusses his company’s adoption of Tailscale for convenient and dependable networking that supports the backbone of their business.

Smarter business accounting in a new era

The businesses Finaloop serves could go to a traditional accountant, but Finaloop leverages data and automation for fast, reliable, and accurate services that set them apart.

As Zeev explains, “Many times, traditional accountants struggle to complete the work on time or rarely complete it. Our accountants use automations that collect the data from different integrations, whether it's Shopify, Amazon, or their banking transactions, to build whatever reports businesses need from a financial perspective.”

Finaloop’s operations are cloud-based on AWS servers, so secure and reliable networking is crucial for their substantial data needs. However, their networking solution before Tailscale created endless usability and connectivity issues for its staff. “From the end user perspective, usability-wise, it just wasn't convenient,” explains Zeev. “Our old solution would suddenly disconnect, and you didn't understand what was going on. It wasn't a nice experience.”

“Years ago, people had email inboxes with storage issues, then Gmail came and gave you a gigabyte of storage, and immediately, the problem just disappeared. Tailscale for networking is the same as Gmail for email. People complained about their network: they had to tinker, it disconnected, it didn’t connect. But since we’ve had Tailscale, I never hear that it's an issue anymore.”

Discovering and implementing Tailscale

Finaloop didn’t bother crunching numbers on the cost of unreliable connectivity. The overwhelming sentiment of frustration from staff was enough for Zeev and his team to consider adopting Tailscale.

Zeev shares, “It was just a general frustration that came from many places, including R&D and end users. It was mainly: we're getting the same functionality from Tailscale, the experience is much better, and the pricing is more or less the same. So why not?”

To qualify this cost-benefit analysis and get Tailscale approved, Zeev’s team drafted a proposal for leadership and tested it with a few members of their staff.

“We had to get approval for this,” explains Zeev. “We had to demonstrate that it has the same capabilities as before. We tried it for some time, and we just went for it.”

Upgrading to reliable access

Now, more than 100 people use Tailscale at Finaloop, which is the vast majority of their 120+ employees. This includes staff from engineering, operations, analysts, data teams, and more. As Zeev explains, “We have a subnet router sitting in front of our VPC on AWS, and basically everyone connects via this router to our internal resources.”

Beyond achieving reliable and straightforward access, Finaloop also makes use of Tailscale’s exit nodes. This helps staff members who work from machines in different countries and need their networking to “behave as if they're coming from the US.”

Zeev shares, “For marketing, using the exit nodes in the US was helpful. The marketing team was conducting tests, and they had to appear as if they were coming from the United States for the marketing platforms. One option was to go and buy a VPN, but I told them, ‘There's no need. You can just use the exit node, and it will have the same effect.’”

Far fewer complaints

Finaloop has used Tailscale for over a year, and since its implementation, Zeev reports a significant improvement in user experience. “It’s been smooth,” he says, sharing that Tailscale’s ability to just work in the background without the user noticing is a benefit.

He equates it to the industry’s shared experience with email when Gmail came onto the scene. “Years ago, people had email inboxes with storage issues, then Gmail came and gave you a gigabyte of storage, and immediately, the problem just disappeared,” Zeev recalled. “Tailscale for networking is the same as Gmail for email. People complained about their network: they had to tinker, it disconnected, it didn’t connect. But since we’ve had Tailscale, I never hear that it's an issue anymore.”

Zeev also notes the steep drop in complaints since Finaloop has implemented Tailscale. “There are far fewer complaints and connectivity issues across all teams. This is a much smoother experience.”

Overall, adopting Tailscale has been a clear win for Finaloop, and Zeev is pleased with the seamless networking their staff now enjoys.

Meet the end of networking hassles

Don’t assume that staying connected requires hassles, headaches, or an IT burden. Tailscale gives Finaloop reliable, seamless, and frustration-free networking that just works.

Chat with our team for a demo and experience connectivity you can depend on.