Virtual CFO in Sydney CBD

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

The Sydney CBD runs on professional services, financial services, and recruitment firms billing $2M to $15M from the towers around Martin Place, Wynyard, and Barangaroo.

Premium cost base, premium ambition, and cash still run on instinct. 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 Sydney CBD firm actually runs. No more, no less.
1
A simple 13-week cashflow model
Tied to WIP and debtors for a firm, recurring and upfront revenue for a financial services business, or contractor pay runs against client terms for a recruiter. Five minutes every Monday and you know what is in the bank across the quarter.
2
Three KPIs that drive the week
For a firm, usually utilisation, realisation, and lock-up days. For financial services or recruitment, the revenue mix, margin, and debtor days that actually move cash. Set to your model, reviewed every Friday.
3
A 12-month budget
The plan you run the year by, with the next fee-earner or consultant costed against the run rate and the premium CBD cost base. 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 a bank, a partner, or yourself in twelve months. No eighty-slide pageantry.
5
Headcount & Capacity Planning
Maps your hiring plan to revenue, cash, and output. Whether utilisation supports the next fee-earner, or the pipeline supports the next consultant. Trigger logic for when you commit.
6
Margin & Pricing
Gross margin where it lives: by client and engagement for a firm, by product or placement for financial services and recruitment. Pricing and rate scenarios modelled. The numbers behind a real business, not a busy one.
who it's for

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

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

The professional services or law firm owner.

You run a law, consulting, or advisory firm in one of the Pitt or Castlereagh Street towers.

Fee revenue $8M to $10M, the work is strong, but utilisation, realisation, and lock-up are not watched closely, and premium CBD rent and salaries leave little room for a cash surprise. Profitable, with the cash story unclear.

The financial services, broking, or fintech business.

You run a financial services, broking, or fintech business in the city core.

Revenue $5M to $8M, split between recurring income and lumpy upfront or transactional fees, which makes a clean forward view hard. You are regulated and sophisticated on product, and still running your own cash on instinct.

The recruitment or executive search firm.

You run a recruitment firm around Martin Place or Market Street. Revenue $6M to $10M, part one-off permanent placements and part temp and contract margin, where you pay contractors weekly and clients pay you monthly.

The working capital gap is the part nobody is modelling.

why owners pick this

Why Sydney CBD 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 across 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 Sydney CBD professional services and law firms?
Yes, they are a core part of the work here. The towers across Pitt, Castlereagh, and Elizabeth Streets are full of law, consulting, and advisory firms between $2M and $15M. The recurring gap is the same: strong fee revenue, premium overheads, and no close watch on utilisation, realisation, or lock-up. That forward view is the layer a virtual CFO builds.
We are a financial services, broking, or fintech business in the city. Is this for us?
It is. The financial district around Martin Place and Barangaroo is dense with these businesses, and the finance shape is distinct: recurring income mixed with lumpy upfront or transactional fees, which makes the forward view genuinely hard to read. We build a 13-week cashflow and KPIs around that revenue mix. Note we are your virtual CFO, not your licensed adviser.
We are a recruitment or executive search firm. Does this fit?
Yes. Recruitment is a signature CBD cluster, and the cash dynamic is specific: permanent placements arrive as one-off fees, while temp and contract desks mean you pay contractors weekly and wait on monthly client terms. The 13-week cashflow maps that working capital gap so a growing contract book does not drain you.
What does $17,850 +GST buy a CBD 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 in the CBD?
Yes. We can meet across 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.
Our cash is tied up in WIP and slow debtors. Can a 13-week cashflow handle that?
That is the case it is built for. For a fee-based CBD firm, cash sits in work you have done but not yet billed or collected, and lock-up quietly stretches. The 13-week model maps WIP, billing, and debtor timing against payroll and your fixed costs, so the squeeze is visible before it bites.
What KPIs make sense for a professional services firm?
Usually utilisation, realisation, and lock-up days, though we set them to your firm in week one. The test is three numbers that move revenue, margin, or cash, reviewed every Friday, not a thirty-metric dashboard nobody opens.
Our CBD overheads are high. Can this tell us if we can afford the next hire?
Yes, that is exactly what the headcount and capacity module does. It costs the next fee-earner or consultant against your revenue, utilisation, and the premium rent and salary base you carry, so the hire is a quantified decision rather than a hopeful one.
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.
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.
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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