Business advisory and CFO support Brisbane
Most business owners don’t lack ambition. They lack a clear view of their numbers and someone to plan with. Our business advisory service gives you both: accurate financial insight and an experienced partner in your corner for the decisions that shape your future.
Because we already manage your bookkeeping and tax, our advice is built on clean, current data. We become part of your team, acting as your outsourced CFO, so you can grow with confidence.
Or call 07 2101 9070, 9am to 5pm weekdays.
Who we work with
Who this is for
Established businesses ready to scale but unsure how to get there
Owners who feel their current accountant only looks backwards
Family businesses planning for succession or exit
Businesses that have outgrown gut-feel decision-making
Your bookkeeping tells you what happened. Advisory tells you what happens next.
What we hear
The three questions we get asked
Why am I deciding on numbers that are months old?
Hiring, pricing and capital decisions are being made against a position that closed a quarter ago. By the time the result confirms the decision, the next one has already been made the same way.
Why has growth stalled, and why can nobody explain it?
Revenue has plateaued and every explanation is anecdotal. Without margin analysis by division or job, the ceiling stays invisible and effort goes into the work that is available rather than the work that pays.
Can the business afford what I am about to commit to?
A new hire, a second site or a bigger fitout always looks affordable in the month it is signed. Without a forecast, nobody can say what it does to cash six months out, until the bank balance answers for you.
What is the business actually worth?
Most owners carry a number in their head that nobody has tested. Until the business is independently valued and the drivers behind that value are understood, there is no way to know whether the next five years are building it or eroding it.
Is it time yet
Do you need this yet?
An honest answer costs us nothing and saves you a year. These are the moments that usually start an advisory engagement.
Opening a second site or making a major hire
Can the business carry it, what does it need to earn before it pays for itself, and how long can you fund the gap.
A contract bigger than anything you have taken on
What it does to your cash position long before it does anything to your profit.
A major equipment purchase
Buy, lease or wait, and what each option does to your position over three years.
Profitable on paper, short of cash in the bank
Where it actually went, and how to stop it happening again next year.
Revenue up, profit flat
Why growth has not reached the bottom line, and which parts of the business are carrying the rest.
A bank, investor or buyer asking for forecasts you do not have
Forecasts built on clean, current numbers that will stand up to scrutiny.
Bringing in a partner, or buying one out
An independent valuation arranged, and advice on how the structure and tax position need to change.
Getting ready to sell
What a buyer will look at, and the three years of work that should happen before they look.
If you are making these calls on numbers that are months old, or you are the only person in the business who truly understands them, a free 15-minute consultation will tell you whether this is the right time. If it is not, we will say so.
What we do
We are your Virtual CFO
Budgeting
An annual budget built with you, broken down by month and by division, and used as the measure rather than filed after the meeting.
Forecasting
A rolling forecast that moves with actual trading, so the twelve month view in front of you reflects the business as it is now.
Management reporting
A monthly pack written for a decision maker. Result, variance, commentary and the two or three things that need a response.
KPI tracking
The handful of operational measures that actually move your result, tracked alongside the financials rather than in a separate spreadsheet.
Cash flow analysis
Where cash is held, what the working capital cycle is costing you, and what the next quarter looks like under more than one scenario.
Profitability analysis
Margin by division, job, product or client, so growth is directed at the work that pays rather than the work that is available.
Advisory is quoted within one fixed monthly fee alongside your bookkeeping and tax work, agreed in writing before we start.
Who does what
Bookkeeper, accountant, virtual CFO
Three different jobs that get talked about as though they are one. Most businesses your size are paying for two of them and missing the third.
| Bookkeeper | Accountant | Virtual CFO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What they look at | Transactions that have already happened | The financial year that has already closed | The next twelve months |
| When you hear from them | Weekly or monthly, about data | Once a year, about lodgement | Monthly and quarterly, about decisions |
| What you get | Reconciled accounts and a clean ledger | A compliant tax return, lodged on time | Forecasts, management reporting, KPI tracking and a commercial focused sounding board for decision making. |
| What they cannot do on their own | Tell you what the numbers mean | Change what has already happened | Work reliably if the bookkeeping underpinning the numbers are inaccurate. |
Senior finance leadership
Virtual CFO
A full-time CFO is one of the most expensive appointments a business can make. For most small and medium businesses in Brisbane, it is a role you need well before you can justify the salary. A virtual CFO gives you the function without the appointment.
We take on what a finance chief would own: budgets and forecasts, management reporting, pricing and margin discipline, cash and working capital, funding and lender relationships, and commercial judgement applied to a decision before it is made, not after. You engage us at the level your business needs today, and increase it as the business grows.
When it is the right time
Not every business needs a CFO yet, and we will tell you if yours does not. Early stage businesses are usually better served by sound structuring, clean bookkeeping and tax planning, and that is where we start. A virtual CFO starts to earn its fee once there is a team rather than one owner doing everything, growth is putting pressure on cash, and decisions carry consequences large enough that getting them wrong is expensive. A free 15-minute consultation will show you which stage you are at.
Virtual CFO questions
How does the engagement work?
A defined monthly and quarterly rhythm with a named Chartered Accountant. We close the month, publish the reporting pack, meet on it, and attend the meetings where decisions are made. Board attendance can be included where you have a board.
What does it cost?
One fixed monthly fee, scoped against the reporting depth and meeting cadence you need, and agreed in writing before we start. It sits well below the cost of the equivalent salaried appointment.
What size business does it suit?
It depends less on size than on stage. A virtual CFO suits established businesses that are growing, have a team rather than one owner doing everything, and are facing decisions where getting it wrong is expensive. We scale the depth of the engagement to match, with a monthly meeting at its core. If it is too early, a free 15-minute consultation will make that clear, and we will tell you so.
Where we earn our fee
The decisions we get called in for
These are the conversations that start most advisory engagements.
Opening a second site
Can the business carry it, what does it need to earn before it does, and how long can you fund the gap.
A contract bigger than anything you have taken
What it does to your cash position long before it does anything to your profit.
A major equipment purchase
Buy, lease or wait, and what each option does to your position over three years.
A profitable year with no cash in the bank
Where it actually went, and how to stop it happening again next year.
Bringing in a partner, or buying one out
What the business is genuinely worth, and how the structure needs to change.
Getting ready to sell
What a buyer will look at, and the three years of work that should happen before they look.
Process
The monthly and quarterly rhythm
Monthly close
Books closed to a reporting standard, reconciliations complete, accruals in. Nothing further is discussed until the numbers are right.
Monthly reporting pack
Result against budget and forecast, cash position, KPI movement and written commentary. Delivered before the meeting so you read it first.
Monthly review
A working session on the pack. What moved, why, and what we do about it this month. Actions recorded with an owner and a date.
Quarterly strategy
A longer session away from the detail. Forecast reset, capital and hiring decisions, structure, and progress against the twelve month plan.
What we need from you
Getting started
The first ninety days
Advisory work is only as good as the numbers underneath it, so the first month is spent making sure those are right.
Days 1 to 14
We get the numbers straight
Books reconciled to a reporting standard. Forecasting on unreliable data is worse than not forecasting at all.
Days 15 to 45
Your baseline
Management reporting pack built around your business, KPIs agreed with you rather than handed to you, and the first forecast on the table.
Days 46 to 90
The rhythm starts
Monthly reporting and meetings running, the first quarterly meeting held, and the first real decision made on numbers you can trust.
Long view
Structure, succession and exit
The structure that suited your business when it started may now be limiting growth, exposing assets to risk or costing you tax. We review the structure you hold, model the alternatives and put any change through properly, with the tax and duty consequences understood before anything moves.
Restructure options
Where the conditions are met, the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 allows a business to be restructured with tax deferred or reduced. Options we assess include:
- Small business restructure rollover (Subdivision 328-G)
- Transfer of assets to a wholly owned company (Subdivisions 122-A and 122-B)
- Interposing a holding company (Division 615)
- Scrip-for-scrip rollover (Subdivision 124-M)
- Demerger relief (Division 125)
Small business CGT concessions
When you sell a business or an active asset, the small business CGT concessions (Division 152) can significantly reduce, defer or eliminate the tax payable:
- 15-year exemption (Subdivision 152-B)
- 50% active asset reduction (Subdivision 152-C)
- Retirement exemption (Subdivision 152-D)
- Small business rollover (Subdivision 152-E)
Strict eligibility tests apply, so we plan a sale years in advance to make sure the concessions are available when you need them.
Succession and exit
We arrange an independent valuation of your business and advise on the tax consequences of a sale, including how the CGT concessions apply. Where there is a gap between what you believe the business is worth and what a buyer will pay, we work with you over the years leading up to exit to close it, so you leave with maximum value.
See how business structure reviews and ASIC compliance are handled
Social proof
What clients say when the decision was the problem
Questions
Questions we get about advisory
Do we have to move our bookkeeping to you?
No, although the reporting is faster and cheaper to produce when it comes from a file we control. Where you keep an in house finance function, we work with it.
Will you attend our board or leadership meetings?
Yes. We present the pack, answer to it, and stay for the decisions that follow from it.
What happens if the forecast turns out to be wrong?
It gets revised. A forecast is a decision tool, not a prediction. What matters is that the variance is explained early enough to act on.
How long before the reporting is useful?
Within the first month. Once the books are reconciled to a reporting standard, your first management pack and forecast are in place by around day 30, and the budget is refined over the first quarter as we learn the shape of your trading year.
Can you work alongside our existing accountant?
For business advisory, we need to be your tax agent. Advice is only as good as the picture behind it, and we cannot plan your growth, structure or exit without full visibility of your tax affairs. We manage the transfer from your current accountant, so your part is one signature.
Insights
Things worth knowing before they cost you
Practical answers to the questions business owners ask us most.
Accounting, Bookkeeping & Internal finance
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Fifteen minutes to work out whether the forward view is worth having
A direct conversation with a Chartered Accountant about where your reporting sits today, what decisions it is failing to support, and what the engagement would need to cover.
138 Juliette Street, Greenslopes QLD 4120. Open 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.