Virtual CFO in Surry Hills

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

Surry Hills runs on independent studios, creative agencies, and the Crown Street hospitality scene. Profitable on paper, stressed on cash. The 90-Day Number builds the forward view your bookkeeper was never meant to own, 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 Surry Hills studio or venue actually runs. No more, no less.
1
A simple 13-week cashflow model
Tied to project milestones and debtor days for a studio, or weekly takings and supplier runs for a venue. Five minutes every Monday and you know what is in the bank across the quarter.
2
Three KPIs that drive the week
For a studio, usually utilisation, revenue per head, and lock-up days. For a venue, labour and food cost as a share of sales, plus covers. Set to your model, reviewed every Friday.
3
A 12-month budget
The plan you run the year by, with the next hire or the next site costed against the run rate. Assumptions you can defend to a board or a bank. Updated monthly, not filed once.
4
A one-page board readout you want to read
Revenue, margin, cash, KPIs, headcount, on a single page. The page you would hand an investor, a bank, or yourself in twelve months. No eighty-slide pageantry.
5
Headcount & Capacity Planning
Maps your hiring or rostering plan to revenue, cash, and output. Whether the pipeline supports the next account director, or covers support the next venue. Trigger logic for when you commit.
6
Margin & Pricing
Gross margin where it lives: by client and project for a studio, by venue and by menu for hospitality. Pricing scenarios modelled. The numbers behind a real business, not a busy one.
who it's for

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

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

The agency or design studio owner.

You run a branding, creative, or architecture studio, the kind tucked along Marlborough and Reservoir Streets.

Billing $2M to $6M on project work, profitable on paper and tight on cash, because milestones and payroll never line up.

The hospitality group operator.

You run two or three venues on and around Crown Street. Revenue past $5M, margins thin, and cash swinging with covers, rosters, and supplier terms.

You need site-level numbers and a forward view, not a quarterly P&L.

The professionalising group.

You have scaled a studio or product brand past $5M on instinct and a capable bookkeeper. Strong on the work, light on the forward numbers.

Ready to stop guessing on hiring, pricing, and cash.
why owners pick this

Why Surry Hills 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 quote your own projects to a fixed scope and a fixed fee. You should expect the same from a CFO.
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 Surry Hills and the CBD, 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 Surry Hills creative agencies and design studios?
Yes, they are a core part of the work here. The streets around Marlborough, Reservoir, and Crown are thick with branding, design, and architecture studios between $2M and $15M. The recurring gap is the same: good work, real clients, and cash that never quite lines up with payroll. That is the layer a virtual CFO builds.
We run a hospitality group on Crown Street. Is this built for us?
It is. Multi-venue hospitality is the second cluster we see most in Surry Hills. The numbers that matter are site-level: labour and food cost as a share of sales, covers, and the cash swing across the week. The 90-Day Number gives you a 13-week cashflow and a budget you can run venue by venue.
What does $17,850 +GST buy a Surry Hills owner?
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 owners need both. We work alongside your accountant, not instead of them.
Do you meet in person around Surry Hills?
Yes. We can meet around Surry Hills and the CBD for the kickoff and key sessions, and run the weekly cash and KPI reviews remotely. Most of the work between calls is async. The point is the rhythm, not the commute.
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.
Our revenue is lumpy because we are project-based. Can a 13-week cashflow handle that?
That is the case it is built for. Project and retainer revenue landing at different times is the core reason agencies feel tight despite being profitable. The 13-week model maps milestones, invoices, and debtor timing against payroll and supplier runs, so you see the squeeze weeks before it arrives.
We run a couple of venues. Can you do site-level numbers?
Yes. We build the budget and cashflow at the level you run the business, which for a group usually means a consolidated view plus each venue. We confirm the structure in week one so the model matches how you actually make decisions.
What KPIs make sense for a creative studio?
Usually utilisation, revenue per head, and lock-up days, though we set them to your model in week one. The test is three numbers that move revenue, margin, or cash, reviewed every Friday, not a thirty-metric dashboard nobody opens.
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. The engagement is built to stand on its own.
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.
We might raise in the next year. Does the 90-Day Number help with that?
Yes, that is a common reason owners start here. The headcount and capacity module costs the next venue against your current site margins and cash, so the decision is quantified rather than a hunch. If you later need a deeper expansion model, we scope that separately as a project.
Pitt Street, Sydney
Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand Member
hello@sydneyvirtualcfo.com
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