Melbourne and Greater VIC · Owner led businesses · $1M to $20M
Virtual CFO Melbourne
Institutional grade financial leadership for Melbourne businesses ready to move beyond compliance reporting. Senior decision support delivered through a secure remote model, backed by regular on site visits, with transparent monthly pricing, month to month on 30 days notice.
CFO services for Melbourne businesses, without a full-time salary. We work with owner led businesses across Melbourne, from the CBD, Southbank and South Melbourne to St Kilda Road, as a fractional, virtual or outsourced CFO.
Across Australia
Serving clients from Cairns to Adelaide
Beyond South East Queensland, we serve owner led businesses in the major cities from Cairns to Adelaide remotely, and we visit you at your premises monthly, quarterly or annually, as your business needs. We are a relationship first firm and we strive for excellence in client care and service. Working remotely between visits keeps your spend efficient, and every engagement receives the same high standard, in every industry and every city.
We also work with clients in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
- Our Brisbane base
- Cities we serve remotely, with visits at your premises
- Clients welcome
How often we visit is agreed in the scope of each engagement.
The thinking, scaled to your business
Melbourne has a broad base of ambitious owner led businesses, from manufacturing and trade through to technology, retail and professional services. Most have plenty of financial information and a capable bookkeeper or accountant handling compliance. What they are missing is interpretation and a senior voice in the room when the decisions matter: how to price for value, where cash is trapped, which products or customers are profitable after the true cost to serve, when to hire, and what to change today if a sale or raise is ahead.
A fractional CFO gives you that lens without the cost of a full time hire. ProfitPulse is Brisbane based and works with a select number of Melbourne businesses, and you can see exactly how the partnership works on the service page. You can also benchmark your own numbers first with our free business benchmarking tools for Melbourne businesses.
How we work with Melbourne businesses
The bulk of an engagement happens online, through secure digital systems that let us share and review your financial information safely and work on it together as it updates. For most of what a Melbourne engagement needs, that first pass is more than enough, and it keeps your costs on the work rather than on flights.
Time in person still matters, so we schedule it deliberately. Each interstate client gets regular on site visits, agreed in the scope of each engagement, which keeps the relationship strong and lets us see how the business actually runs, not just how it reads on a report. It is genuinely one of our favourite parts of the work.
And when a specific decision or project warrants it, we are happy to fly down in between. Remote is simply the most efficient default given the systems we use. It has nothing to do with a reluctance to travel.
Virtual or fractional CFO: the same help, described two ways
Melbourne owners search for a virtual CFO, a fractional CFO and an outsourced CFO, and with ProfitPulse all three describe the same partnership. Virtual describes how the work is delivered: through shared, secure systems rather than a desk in your office. Fractional describes how you pay for it: a share of a senior CFO, rather than a full-time salary.
Either way, the work is led by our Brisbane team, the same senior partner works with you from the first call, and the price is the same in Melbourne as it is in Brisbane.
What a month with a virtual CFO looks like
Each month starts with your management pack: the profit and loss, cash and the measures that matter for your business, read for what they mean rather than what they say. We update your rolling cash flow forecast, meet you by video to work through the numbers and the decisions in front of you, and stay on hand between meetings for the calls that cannot wait, such as a price change, a hire or a large order. Budgets, planning and board or investor reporting fit around that rhythm, while your accountant or bookkeeper keeps compliance, tax and lodgements.
Working with a business in Victoria
A forecast for a Melbourne business runs on Victoria's settings, not Queensland's: payroll tax through the State Revenue Office Victoria, WorkCover premiums through WorkSafe Victoria, and Victoria's own public holidays, Melbourne Cup Day and the Friday before the AFL Grand Final among them, which move rosters, wages and takings for hospitality and retail businesses.
Rules and rates are stated in general terms. Your legal adviser or tax adviser can confirm how they apply to your business.
Who we work with in Melbourne
Owner led Melbourne and Greater Victoria businesses turning over between $1M and $20M. That includes manufacturing and engineering with complex working capital, consumer brands across wholesale and e-commerce, technology and software businesses, professional services, property and development, construction and trades, allied health, and logistics and distribution. Below $1M the fractional model is usually more than you need, and the pricing page shows where each engagement sits.
A Melbourne engagement, anonymised
Consumer brand, wholesale and e-commerce · 12 month engagement
A $7M Melbourne consumer brand selling through both wholesale and its own online store, with 25 staff, was scaling fast and always short of cash despite strong sales. The owner could not see why growth kept consuming money rather than creating it.
Three issues surfaced early. Inventory was overstocked and turning only 5 times a year, well below where it should sit, locking up cash on the shelf. Discounting across channels had crept up and was quietly eroding gross margin, with no view of profitability by channel. Wholesale debtor days had stretched as the customer base grew. Over the year, ranging and reorder points were rebuilt, channel level margin was made visible and discounting brought under control, and wholesale terms and collection were tightened.
38 to 46%
Gross margin
$420k
Working capital released
5 to 8
Inventory turns per year
~$1.7M
Valuation uplift
Anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Outcomes vary depending on business circumstances, available data and implementation.
The full scope, and why ProfitPulse
The engagement covers monthly performance reviews, rolling cash flow forecasting, pricing and margin analysis, budgeting and scenario modelling, capital and funding strategy, KPI design, board and investor reporting, and strategic decision support. The full detail sits on the Fractional CFO page.
The difference is the lens. ProfitPulse was founded by a Chartered Accountant whose career was built structuring debt, mezzanine and equity finance across more than 50 large scale infrastructure transactions in Australia, Asia and Africa, with pricing published openly, from $2,950 a month plus GST for our next five new clients (not available to existing clients), rather than hidden until you are in a meeting. If a sale or raise is ahead, the guides on business valuation, investor readiness and exit readiness are a good starting point.
Common questions
You are based in Brisbane. How does that work for a Melbourne business?
Day-to-day work runs through secure digital systems that let us share and review your financials and operations safely and work on them together, which covers the great majority of an engagement as a first pass. On top of that, each interstate client gets regular on-site visits, agreed in the scope of each engagement, and we are happy to come down between visits whenever a decision calls for it. Remote is simply the most effective default, and we genuinely enjoy being on the ground.
Is a virtual CFO the same as a fractional CFO?
Yes, with ProfitPulse. Virtual describes how the work is delivered, remotely through shared systems, and fractional describes how you pay for it, a share of a senior CFO rather than a full-time salary. Either way you get the same partnership, the same partner and the same price.
What does a virtual CFO cost in Melbourne?
A virtual CFO in Melbourne with ProfitPulse costs from $2,950 a month plus GST for our next five new clients (not available to existing clients), held for 24 months, then from $3,750, with no interstate loading and no hidden fees. One fixed monthly fee covers your management pack, cash flow forecast and decision support between meetings, and the pricing page shows every package.
Every business is different, so these prices are a guide. Most of our engagements are tailored to what the client needs.
Not sure what help you need? See how we can help →
How often will I actually see you?
In person as often as the work needs, agreed in your scope, with regular contact through our shared systems between visits. Melbourne clients get the same close partnership our Brisbane clients enjoy.
Can you work alongside my accountant?
Yes. Your accountant or bookkeeper keeps compliance, tax and lodgements, and we work with them on the numbers that drive your decisions: margin, cash, pricing and value. We add to your compliance team and never replace it.
Bring senior financial thinking into your Melbourne business
You choose a time that suits you. We talk through where your business is and what you want to sort out first, with no charge and no obligation. Not sure where to start? Answer a few quick questions and see the help you need, priced to your business's complexity.