Updated 8 October 2026
Your tax accountant looks backwards once a year to get the return right. A virtual CFO looks forward every month. The job is to turn the bookkeeping into decisions: are we making money on each product or job, how many weeks of cash do we have, what happens if we hire two people, can we afford the new premises, and what will the bank want to see.
Virtual, fractional and outsourced CFO all describe the same thing: senior financial leadership bought by the month rather than hired full time. An in-house CFO makes sense when the business has the complexity and the budget for one. Most owner-managed businesses get the same outcome from a part-time engagement, because the work that matters (the close, the forecast, the monthly conversation) does not need a full-time seat.
What it is not: it is not bookkeeping, although the pack depends on it, and it is not a once-a-year planning meeting with a new name. If the numbers are not current every month, it is not a CFO function.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Within seven days of month end | Month-end close with bank, debtors, creditors, payroll, GST and loan accounts reconciled |
| Monthly | Management report pack: profit and loss against budget, balance sheet, cash position, debtors and creditors ageing, and the agreed KPI set |
| Monthly | Rolling 12-month cash flow forecast, updated for actuals |
| Monthly | A meeting with Jonathan to go through the pack and the decisions in front of you |
| Quarterly | Strategy session, tax position and instalment review, pricing and margin review |
| As needed | Lender packs and finance applications, hiring and capital expenditure decisions, pricing changes, buy or sell due diligence support |
The KPI set is agreed in the first month and kept short: usually gross margin by product or job, labour as a share of revenue, debtor days, weeks of cash cover and one or two measures specific to your industry. The point is a pack you read in ten minutes, not a report you file.
Jonathan Perre, Chartered Accountant, leads every virtual CFO engagement, runs the monthly meeting and signs off every pack. Jonathan is a partner at National Accounts and is the person you call between meetings when a decision cannot wait.
Behind him sits a dedicated team of three, a senior accountant, a junior accountant and a bookkeeper, who do the month-end close, the reconciliations and the report build under Jonathan's review. You get one point of contact who knows your business, a team that keeps the numbers current without slipping, and a fee that stays fixed because the structure is efficient.
The chartered accountant who leads your engagement is the one in the monthly meeting. The team behind him builds the pack; he reads it, questions it and signs it before you see it.
A fixed monthly fee, quoted after a first meeting on your numbers. What sets the fee is the number of entities, the state of the books when we start, how often you want to meet and whether lender or board reporting is part of the brief. The fee does not move during the year unless the scope does, and there is no time-clock billing for the phone calls in between.
Bookkeeping is quoted separately if your books are not already with us. Tax compliance for the group can sit with us or with your existing accountant; we will tell you at the first meeting which makes more sense for you.
You need one when the business has outgrown what the owner can hold in their head: more than one revenue line or entity, staff beyond a handful, debt or a bank relationship, a decision coming (premises, acquisition, sale, a big hire) that depends on the numbers, or simply cash surprises that should not be surprises.
You do not need one if the books are a quarter behind; that is a bookkeeping problem first, and we will say so. You also do not need one if the business is simple enough that the annual accounts and a BAS each quarter tell you everything you want to know. The honest test is whether a decision in the last six months would have gone differently with current numbers in front of you.
The virtual CFO pack is only as good as the ledger underneath it. We run on Xero, and if your bookkeeping is with us the close happens inside the same team. If it is elsewhere, we work with your bookkeeper and set the month-end standard they close to.
The pack also watches the things that bite owners later: the ATO integrated client account and any payment plan, Division 7A loan balances between the company and its owners, payroll tax thresholds, fringe benefits and the super guarantee. See our bookkeeping services, the Division 7A calculator, the SA payroll tax calculator and the FBT calculator. When the business is weighing a sale or a purchase, our business valuation calculator gives a first view before the due diligence starts, and our lending arm prepares the commercial loan application from the same pack the bank will ask for.
We are at Level 2, 70 Hindmarsh Square in the Adelaide CBD, and most Adelaide clients meet in person for the monthly review. Clients elsewhere meet by video. The pack, the forecast and the portal are the same wherever you are, and the business accounting team behind the engagement works the same way for every client.
We quote a fixed monthly fee after a first look at your numbers. The fee is set by the number of entities, the state of the books, how often you want to meet and whether lender or board reporting is included. It is a fraction of a full-time CFO salary, and it stays fixed for the year unless the scope changes.
Closes the month within seven days, produces the management report pack and the rolling cash flow forecast, meets with you to go through the decisions in front of the business, and handles the finance questions that come up in between: pricing, hiring, lenders, tax position.
Nothing of substance. All three mean senior financial leadership bought part-time. Fractional is the US term; virtual and outsourced are more common in Australia. What matters is who leads the work, who does the monthly close and what the pack contains.
Jonathan Perre, Chartered Accountant, leads the engagement, runs the monthly meeting and signs off every pack. A dedicated team of three (senior accountant, junior accountant and bookkeeper) does the month-end close and the report build under his review.
Yes. The close, the pack and the forecast run on Xero and the portal, and the monthly meeting is by video for clients outside Adelaide. Adelaide clients can meet at the office on Hindmarsh Square.
When decisions are being made without current numbers, when cash surprises the owner, when a lender or investor wants reporting, or when a big move is coming. If the books are behind, fix that first.
Send us read-only access to Xero or last year's accounts and we will come to the first meeting with a view on the business and a fixed monthly fee.
Book a first meetingGeneral information only, current at the date of publication, and not personal tax, legal or financial advice. Consider your circumstances or speak with us before acting. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.
