Virtual CFO Brookvale | Sydney Virtual CFO
A virtual CFO for Brookvale consumer brands, breweries and makers: the channel margin split across DTC, wholesale and venue, and production cost per unit.
Brookvale is the northern beaches’ maker belt: consumer brands, breweries, and producers running three sales channels at once, direct to consumer, wholesale, and venue, in a single P&L that hides which one actually pays. Add a production cost per unit few founders have built properly, and margin becomes a mystery. A virtual CFO engagement here untangles the channels and the true cost.
Published: July 2026
Brookvale’s light-industrial estates have become a home for northern beaches consumer brands, breweries, and food and drink producers scaling past $2M. What defines them is a multi-channel model: the same product sold direct to consumers, wholesale to retailers, and through the brand’s own or partner venues, each channel with its own economics.
This distinguishes the Brookvale maker from the Marrickville producer nearby. Both make a physical product, but Brookvale’s beaches consumer brands lean harder into the mix of retail wholesale and venue sales, and the finance work is untangling those channels rather than any single one.
The first is the channel margin split: what direct-to-consumer, wholesale, and venue sales each contribute once their real costs, fulfilment and acquisition for direct, distributor margin and freight for wholesale, are counted. The blended margin hides which channel funds the business and which merely adds volume.
The second is production cost per unit, built properly, ingredients or materials, packaging, labour, wastage, and a fair share of fixed production overhead, because pricing across three channels is guesswork without it. The third, where alcohol is involved, is excise as a cost line to be modelled into unit economics; the compliance mechanics themselves sit with your accountant.
For a Brookvale founder the natural deliverable is a channel margin and production cost build showing true contribution by channel and true cost per unit. Take a consumer brand at $3.5M revenue across direct, wholesale, and venue: the model rebuilds cost per unit and reveals that wholesale, once distributor margin and freight are counted, contributes far less than the direct channel, while venue sales carry the best margin but the least volume. The founder can now weight the channel mix toward what pays. This is a fixed 90-Day Number engagement at $17,850 plus GST, yours to run. The channel benchmarks connect to DTC margin benchmarks and the sector view to the ecommerce industry page.
Scoped, fixed, finite: one deliverable, ninety days, handed over with a working session, no retainer or auto-renewal. The same approach serves founders nearby in Manly and makers in Marrickville.
A useful virtual CFO engagement in this postcode does not end with a thicker reporting pack. It ends with one artefact the founder can run without us: usually a 13-week cashflow tied to real pipeline and payroll, a unit economics or margin view that changes pricing or hiring, a fundraise-ready model if a raise is inside a year, or a board pack that replaces slide theatre with two or three decisions. The commercial wrapper is fixed: the 90-Day Number is $17,850 plus GST, paid in three instalments, one named deliverable by day 90. No open-ended retainer required to get a finished tool.
If you already have a bookkeeper, keep them. This work sits on top of clean actuals; it does not replace bank reconciliation. If your actuals are not trustworthy, fix the ledger first, then build the decision layer. Nearby founders in linked suburbs face the same shape of problem with different industry textures, use the internal links in this article to compare, then choose the deliverable that answers the question that is actually expensive right now.
Sydney Virtual CFO’s front-door product is the 90-Day Number: one named deliverable in ninety days for $17,850 plus GST, typically paid as three instalments of $5,950. That is deliberately different from the common Australian virtual CFO retainer band often quoted around $3,000-$8,000+ per month open-ended. Project pricing fits founders who need a finished cashflow, model, unit-economics build or board pack they can run, not an indefinite meeting cadence. If you need ongoing fractional CFO after day 90, that is a separate, scoped decision, not an automatic rollover. If you only need bookkeeping, this is the wrong product; keep a bookkeeper and use virtual CFO work for decisions on top of clean actuals.
“We will fix the books after the busy season.” Busy seasons are when bad books cost the most: wrong roster cost, wrong stock margin, wrong tax cash. Fix the system during the busy period in a light-touch way (weekly recs, payroll checks), or the backlog becomes the next crisis.
“Our accountant already does this.” Accountants and bookkeepers do different jobs. Year-end accounts and tax advice are not the same as weekly operational bookkeeping, payroll, and decision-ready monthly packs. Many businesses need both, coordinated.
“We are not big enough.” Payday Super, BAS, GST and employee entitlements do not wait for a headcount milestone. Complexity arrives with staff, inventory, contractors or multiple channels, not with a round number of revenue.
“We tried outsourcing and it was slow.” That is a provider design problem, not a category law. Fixed-scope work, named response standards, and a single owner for your file are the antidote to outsourced silence.
How different can my channel margins really be?
Often substantially. Direct-to-consumer keeps the full price but carries fulfilment and acquisition costs; wholesale moves volume but gives away distributor margin and freight; venue sales can carry the best margin but the least volume. Once each is costed, the blended figure that hides which channel funds the business gives way to a clear picture you can act on.
Why don’t I know my true cost per unit?
Because makers scale on recipes and instinct, and full cost per unit, materials, packaging, labour, wastage, and a fair share of fixed overhead, is rarely built until someone sits down to do it. Pricing across three channels off a rough materials cost is guesswork, which is why margin feels like a mystery even when sales are strong.
How is Brookvale different from Marrickville for this work?
Both are maker suburbs, but Brookvale’s beaches consumer brands lean harder into the mix of direct, wholesale, and venue channels, so the work centres on untangling that channel margin. The Marrickville focus is more on the production and wholesale economics of its brewery cluster. The emphasis differs with the founder mix.
Do you handle alcohol excise?
Excise is modelled as a cost line where it applies, because it directly affects your margin. The compliance mechanics, registration, remission, lodgement, sit with your accountant. A virtual CFO ensures excise is correctly reflected in your unit economics, not that it handles the ATO paperwork.
Do you replace my bookkeeper?
No. Your bookkeeper keeps the records; a virtual CFO builds the channel margin and production cost models on top, the decision layer that tells you which channels and products actually pay.
What does it cost?
A fixed $17,850 plus GST for one named deliverable by day 90, no retainer. The common Australian alternative is an open-ended monthly retainer at $3,000 to $8,000; the project-based model is deliberately different and rare in this market.
What happens after ninety days?
You keep the model and run it yourself. There is no default roll-on to a retainer; a further deliverable is scoped separately if needed.
Sydney Virtual CFO is a Sydney-based virtual CFO service for founders running $2M to $15M businesses across SaaS, ecommerce, professional services, construction, and other low-volume, high-value industries. We deliver fixed-scope CFO engagements with a named deliverable on day 90: a 13-week cashflow forecast, a fundraise-ready financial model, a unit economics build, or a board reporting pack you can run on your own.
Our front-door product, the 90-Day Number, is fixed scope at $17,850 plus GST. We are one of the few project-based virtual CFOs in Australia, in a market built almost entirely on monthly retainers. No retainers without a deliverable. No 80-page reports. No theatre.
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This content is general information only, written for Australian founders running businesses in the $2M to $15M revenue range. It does not constitute tax, financial product, investment, or legal advice and should not be relied on as such. The work referenced is led by a Chartered Accountant (CA ANZ), but Sydney Virtual CFO is not a licensed tax agent, not a licensed financial adviser, and not authorised to provide personal financial advice. Tax obligations, accounting treatments, fundraise terms, and statutory requirements depend on your individual circumstances. For advice specific to your business, contact the team directly or consult a registered tax agent, licensed financial adviser, or qualified lawyer. Information was current at the time of publication and may change without notice. We review and update guides periodically.
