Virtual CFO for Hospitality in Sydney

Your numbers in 90 days. Fixed scope, fixed price, then it stops.

Hospitality runs on thin margins and tight cash, where labour and food cost decide whether a busy venue actually makes money, and a quiet stretch can wipe out a strong month.

The 90-Day Number builds the forward view that runs venue by venue, and hands it over on day 90.
See if you're a fitBook a 30-min intro
Senior finance for $2m-$15m Sydney businesses. The work is led by Chartered Accountants, with experience across public, private, and owner-led businesses.

Every virtual CFO sells a retainer. We sell a deliverable.

$17,850

+ GST
That is $5,950 a month for three months, then it stops. Fixed. No retainer pressure after day 90.
what's included

Four deliverables. Two modules. One fixed price.

Everything that lands in your hands by day 90, built around how a hospitality group actually runs. No more, no less. Scope-creep proof.
1
A simple 13-week cashflow model
Tied to weekly takings, supplier runs, rent, and wage runs, the rhythm a venue actually lives on. Five minutes every Monday and you know what is in the bank across the quarter.
2
Three KPIs that drive the week
Usually labour and food cost as a share of sales, plus covers or sales per head, set to your venues. The three numbers your operating week runs on, reviewed every Friday.
3
A 12-month budget
The plan you run the year by, with the next venue or hire costed against the run rate and the season built in. Assumptions you can defend to a bank or a partner. Updated monthly.
4
A one-page board readout you want to read
Revenue, margin, cash, KPIs, headcount, on a single page, consolidated and by venue. The page you would hand a bank, a partner, or yourself in twelve months. No eighty-slide pageantry.
5
Headcount & Capacity Planning
Maps your rostering and hiring plan to sales, cash, and output. Whether covers support the next venue, or sales support the next salaried hire. Trigger logic for when you commit.
6
Margin & Pricing
Contribution by venue and by menu, after labour, COGS, and wastage. Menu and pricing scenarios modelled. The numbers that tell you whether you have a real business or a busy one.
who it's for

Built for $2M to $15M hospitality owners past instinct, short of a CFO.

Three profiles where the 90-Day Number consistently lands here.

The multi-venue restaurant or bar group.

You run two or three venues. Revenue $5M to $10M, with margins decided by labour and food cost, and cash that swings week to week with covers, rosters, and supplier terms.

You need site-level numbers, not a quarterly P&L that arrives after the quarter is gone.

The cafe or quick-service group.

You run a group of high-volume, low-ticket venues.

Revenue $3M to $6M on thin margins, where a one or two point move in labour or wastage is the difference between profit and break-even, and nobody is watching it weekly across sites.

The single-to-multi operator.

You run one strong venue and you are weighing the next.

Revenue past $3M and profitable, but you cannot say cleanly whether the current site can fund the build, the bond, and the ramp-up of a second without putting the first at risk.

why owners pick this

Why hospitality owners pick this over an indefinite retainer.

Four reasons the structure of the 90-Day Number works where the standard virtual CFO retainer does not.
A 90-day decision point
The standard offer is an open-ended retainer at $4K to $8K a month with no end date. You sign on in March, cannot tell if it is working by July, feel awkward cancelling by September. This ends on day 90 by design. You decide what is next: continue, project work, or wrap with the four deliverables.
One fixed price, on the page
$5,950 a month for three months. $17,850 total, fixed. Not "from $X", not "$300 an hour", not "scoped after a discovery call". You price your range to a margin and a landed cost. You should expect a CFO to price their own work.
One named CFO, every week
Same person on day one, day forty-five, day ninety. Not a roster, not an account manager between you and the senior. You meet your CFO on the intro call and they run the engagement. Founder-direct, no layers.
Four documents, not eighty slides
We hand over the cashflow model, the three KPIs, the budget, and the one-page board readout. If it does not fit in those four documents, it is not strategic finance. It is theatre.
If your virtual CFO can't tell you the deliverable on day 90, you don't have a virtual CFO. You have a retainer.
how to start

Four weeks to a finance function. Twelve more to operate it.

Book a 30-minute intro. We talk through your stage, your numbers, and what you are trying to work out. We can meet in person around Sydney, or over a call.

If the 90-Day Number is a fit, we send a scoping doc within 48 hours and start the following Monday.

The diagnostic lands at the end of week one. The model is working by week four. The board readout is in your hands on day 90.
Book a 30-min intro

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Frequently Asked Questions

The questions founders ask before signing. Plain-English answers.
Do you work with restaurants, bars, and hospitality groups?
Yes, they are a core part of the work. The pattern repeats across Sydney hospitality groups between $2M and $15M: thin margins, cash that swings with the week, and labour and food cost as the levers that decide whether a busy venue actually makes money. That forward view, venue by venue, is what a virtual CFO builds.
What KPIs make sense for a hospitality business?
Usually labour and food cost as a share of sales, plus covers or sales per head, though we set them to your venues in week one. The test is three numbers that move revenue, margin, or cash, reviewed every Friday, not a thirty-metric dashboard.
What does $17,850 +GST buy a hospitality group?
Three months of senior virtual CFO work and four named deliverables: a 13-week cashflow model, three KPIs, a 12-month budget, and a one-page board readout. Plus two modules, headcount and capacity, and margin and pricing. Fixed price, billed as three monthly payments of $5,950, then it stops.
How is this different from my accountant?
Your accountant handles the backward view: tax, structuring, compliance, year-end. We handle the forward view: cashflow, budget, KPIs, the decisions in front of you this quarter. Most operators need both. We work alongside your accountant, not instead of them.
Our cash swings hard week to week. Can a 13-week cashflow handle that?
That is the case it is built for. A venue lives on weekly takings against weekly wages, rent, and supplier runs. The 13-week model maps that rhythm, so a quiet week or a quarterly rent and insurance hit is planned for, not survived.
Our biggest costs are labour and food. How do you track and control them?
They are your core KPIs, tracked as a share of sales by venue and week. A point or two of drift in either is the whole margin in hospitality, so we make it visible weekly rather than discovered at year-end.
We run several venues. Can you give us site-level numbers?
Yes. We build the budget and cashflow as a consolidated view plus each venue, so you can see which sites carry the group and which one is quietly losing money, and confirm the structure in week one.
We are opening another venue. Can you tell us if we can afford it?
Yes, that is the core of the headcount and capacity module. We cost the build, the bond, and the ramp-up against your current venues' cash and margins, so you can see whether the group can fund the next site without putting the first at risk.
Our trade is seasonal. Does the model plan for the quiet months?
Yes. We build your peaks and troughs into the 13-week cashflow and the budget, so the slow stretch is funded from the strong months by design, rather than catching you short.
What happens after day 90?
You have the four deliverables and a working operating rhythm. We have a short conversation about what is next, with three honest options: continue on an optional monthly retainer with no lock-in, take on a scoped project, or wrap with the deliverables and stay in touch.
We have outgrown the bookkeeper but cannot justify a finance hire. Is this the in-between step?
Yes, that is the exact gap. A full-time finance lead at this stage is a $200K to $300K commitment with super, leave, and recruitment on top. This builds the layer that hire would own, hands it over documented, and leaves you running it for a fixed $17,850.
Is there a lock-in or minimum term?
No. The 90-Day Number is fixed at $17,850 +GST and ends on day 90. It does not auto-renew. If you continue afterwards, that is month to month with no lock-in either. You decide what is next, not a contract.
Pitt Street, Sydney
Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand Member
hello@sydneyvirtualcfo.com
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