Strategic finance for ambitious SMEs
Your finance function,
reimagined.
Code, AI, and a real advisor in place of the headcount you'd otherwise hire. A monthly board pack that tells you what to do — decisions, not dashboards — sized to your own numbers.
The problem
You're not short on numbers. You're short on decisions.
It usually shows up first as cash — the sleepless night, the payroll week. But cash is the symptom. By the time it's tight, the real issues have been compounding for months: margin slipping a point at a time, big calls made on gut, growth adding work faster than it adds profit. Your bookkeeper records what already happened; your accountant turns up after quarter-end. Both look backward — and nobody's turning the numbers into decisions, forward. That's the actual job.
Busier, not richer.
Revenue's up; the balance isn't. Margin slips a point at a time — and you can't see which contracts, customers, or products actually make money.
Big calls, made on gut.
Take the $800k contract? Add the headcount? Fund the expansion? At $5M the decisions get expensive — and they're made weeks before the numbers catch up.
No one looking forward.
Backward-looking books tell you where you've been. Nobody's modelling where you're headed — so you meet the cliff by driving off it.
The evidence
The data agrees — it's rarely just cash. The two most common reasons Australian businesses fail sit side by side:
of company failures cite inadequate cash flow — the No. 1 cause.
ASIC insolvency statistics
cite poor strategic management — the No. 2 cause.
ASIC insolvency statistics
a year the average small business runs cash-flow-negative.
Xero Small Business Insights
businesses don't reach their fourth year of trading.
ABS business counts
Sources: ASIC annual insolvency statistics & REP 645; Xero Small Business Insights; ABS Counts of Australian Businesses (8165.0).
The current plan
So you need finance leadership. The conventional way to get it is expensive.
To get ahead of cash, someone has to turn the numbers into decisions — forward, not after the fact. The standard playbook is to bolt on headcount. But each hire adds cost and an org chart, not clarity.
Growing SME · ~$5M
Today: it's you and a bookkeeper. The real finance thinking happens after hours — in your head, and a spreadsheet you don't fully trust.
On the current plan → hire a financial controller ($120–160K), then reach for a CFO. Headcount and cost climb before the insight does.
Scaling · ~$15M
Today: a bookkeeper, a finance manager or controller, an external accountant. A finance team is forming — and so is its wage bill.
On the current plan → add a Head of Finance or a CFO ($200K+). The team grows, the salary line grows, the org chart grows.
At the top of both sits a CEO still flying blind — more people, more cost, and still no one turning the numbers into decisions. Below ~$10M, a full-time CFO is a six-figure salary for a part-time need.
The finance function, reshaped
Code. AI. Human expertise.
We replace those layers with three that work together — doing the work of a controller, an analyst, and a CFO, for a fraction of the cost. Each does what the others can't.
Code
Your numbers, always right.
Data pulled and reconciled — from your Xero (live) or your monthly export. Forecasts and KPIs computed by formula, not invented. Reconciled to ±1%, or it doesn't ship.
AI
Your decisions, in your language.
Every action sized in dollars and traced to your actuals. Plain-English commentary on what the numbers mean — written for this business, not a template.
Human
Your advisor, in your corner.
Every page reviewed and signed before release. Monthly call. Last month's decisions graded against this month's data — accountability, not amnesia.
The return
Grow the business, not the finance team.
CFO-grade decisions without the CFO hire. Keep your bookkeeper and accountant — we're the decision layer on top, from $30–48K a year.
~$270K
More cash in the business
by getting invoices paid about 10 days sooner
~$100K / year
More profit
from lifting your margin just 1%
~$200K / year
Money saved
by catching overhead creep early (2% of costs)
Illustrative on a $10M business — one targeted move usually covers the year's fee many times over.
Proof, not promise
See a real report.
A monthly board pack built from realistic demo data. Pulse strip, Decision Ledger, an Engagement Scorecard tracking the value added since day one, strategic position, cash forecast scenarios, benchmarks, and the decisions for the month ahead.
Download the sample
Is this something your business needs?
A 20-minute discovery call. No prep needed. You'll leave with a straight answer on whether this is the right next step.
Book a discovery call