Virtual CFO for Multi-Site Service Groups in Sydney

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

Services groups run on labour and contracts, where margins are thin, wages go out before clients pay, and margin per contract is the number nobody watches.

The 90-Day Number builds the forward view that ties contracts, payroll, and entities together, 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 multi-site services group actually runs. No more, no less. Scope-creep proof.
1
A simple 13-week cashflow model
Tied to contract billing, payroll, and the gap between weekly wages and monthly client terms. Five minutes every Monday and you know what is in the bank across the quarter.
2
Three KPIs that drive the week
Usually gross margin per contract, payroll as a share of revenue, and debtor days, set to your group. 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 contract, crew, or site costed against the run rate and entities consolidated. Assumptions you can defend to a lender. Updated monthly.
4
A one-page board readout you want to read
Revenue, margin, cash, KPIs, headcount, on a single page, consolidated across entities. The page you would hand a lender, a partner, or yourself in twelve months. No eighty-slide pageantry.
5
Headcount & Capacity Planning
Maps your hiring and contract plan to revenue, cash, and output. Whether the contract pipeline supports the next site team or crew. Trigger logic for when you commit.
6
Margin & Pricing
Gross margin by contract and client, after labour, on-costs, and overhead. Tender 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 services group owners past instinct, short of a CFO.

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

The facilities, cleaning, or security group.

You run a contract-services business across multiple sites. Revenue around $8M on a thin margin, almost all of it labour, so a single late-paying contract or a wage run can swing your cash hard.

Margin per contract is the number nobody is tracking.

The labour-hire or staffing business.

You place temp and contract workers and carry the wages.

Revenue $6M to $10M, but you pay your people weekly while clients pay you monthly, so every new placement widens the working-capital gap before it ever turns into profit.

The multi-entity services group.

You have grown a group past $5M across a few entities or contracts, on a capable bookkeeper and instinct.

The numbers live in separate files that never consolidate, so you cannot see the group's true cash position or which contracts actually make money.

why owners pick this

Why services group 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 facilities, cleaning, security, and labour-hire businesses?
Yes, they are a core part of the work. The pattern repeats across Sydney services groups between $2M and $15M: thin margins, wages going out before contracts pay, and margin per contract that nobody watches closely. That forward view is what a virtual CFO builds.
What KPIs make sense for a multi-site services group?
Usually gross margin per contract, payroll as a share of revenue, and debtor days, though we set them to your group 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 services 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.
We pay wages before clients pay us. Can a 13-week cashflow handle that?
That is the case it is built for. Paying staff weekly while clients pay monthly is the core reason a profitable services group runs short of cash. The 13-week model maps wage runs against contract billing and debtor timing, so you see the gap before it becomes a missed payroll.
We are payroll-heavy and margins are thin. How do you track and control that?
Payroll as a share of revenue is one of your core KPIs. A point or two of drift, or a contract priced too tight, is the whole margin in a labour business, so we track it by contract and make it visible weekly rather than at year-end.
How do you work out margin per contract?
We load the full cost of labour, on-costs, and overhead against each contract's billing, so you can see which contracts actually make money and which were won on price and now lose it. That usually reshapes how you tender the next one.
We run several entities. Can you consolidate them?
Yes, and for a services group this is often the first job. We build the cashflow and budget as a consolidated view plus the entities that matter, so you can see the group's true cash position rather than a set of files that never add up. We confirm the structure in week one.
We are tendering for a big contract. Can you tell us if we can fund it?
Yes, that is the core of the headcount and capacity module. A big contract means crews and wages before the first invoice is paid, so we model the working capital it needs against your cash, and you can see whether you can fund the ramp-up before you sign.
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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