Sydney and Greater NSW · Owner led businesses · $1M to $20M
Virtual CFO Sydney
Institutional grade financial leadership for Sydney 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.
Hire a senior CFO for your Sydney business without a full-time salary. We work with owner led businesses across Greater Sydney, from the CBD and North Sydney to Parramatta and the Sutherland Shire, 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.
A senior commercial lens, without the Sydney overhead
Sydney is the deepest market in the country for senior financial talent, and also the most expensive. Most owner led businesses do not need a full time CFO at a Sydney salary, but they do need the same thinking and outputs. You can see revenue and expenses, and you likely have a bookkeeper or accountant handling compliance. The questions that shape the next five years sit somewhere else: how to price for value, where cash is trapped, which clients are profitable after the true cost to serve, when to hire, and what to change today if a sale or raise is on the horizon.
A fractional CFO gives you that lens at a fraction of the cost. ProfitPulse is Brisbane based and works with a select number of Sydney 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 Sydney businesses.
How we work with Sydney businesses
Most of an engagement runs through secure, modern digital systems that let us exchange your financial and operational information safely and work through it together in real time. As a first pass that handles the great majority of the work well, which means a Sydney business is never paying for travel an engagement does not need.
Time on the ground still matters, so we build it in. Each interstate client gets regular on-site visits, agreed in the scope of each engagement, so the relationship stays close and we understand the operation in context rather than only through the numbers. We genuinely value being there, and it is one of the parts of the work we enjoy most.
Beyond that rhythm, whenever a particular decision or piece of work calls for it, we are glad to fly down between visits. The default is remote because the systems make it genuinely efficient.
Virtual or fractional CFO: the same help, described two ways
Sydney owners search for a virtual CFO, a fractional CFO, an outsourced CFO and a CFO for hire, and with ProfitPulse all four 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 at a Sydney rate.
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 Sydney 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 NSW
A forecast for a Sydney business runs on New South Wales settings, not Queensland's: payroll tax through Revenue NSW, with its own threshold and rate, and workers compensation insurance, which most NSW employers hold with icare, with premiums set for the industry and the wages declared.
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 Sydney
Owner led Sydney and Greater New South Wales businesses turning over between $1M and $20M. That includes professional services firms across law, consulting, marketing and design, technology and software businesses, property and development with episodic cash flow, construction and trades, allied health and medical practices, retail and e-commerce managing inventory and channel mix, and creative and media businesses preparing for a raise or exit. Below $1M the fractional model is usually more than you need, and the pricing page shows where each engagement sits.
A Sydney engagement, anonymised
Professional services firm · 12 month engagement
A $6.5M Sydney professional services firm with 40 staff had strong utilisation but flat margins. The partners were busy and the pipeline was healthy, yet the cash never quite reflected the effort going in.
Three issues surfaced early. Realisation, the share of work performed that actually converted to collected revenue, was sitting at 82%, so close to one dollar in five of effort was leaking. Pricing had not been reviewed in two years while salaries had climbed. And lock up, the combination of unbilled work and debtor days, had stretched to 95 days, tying up roughly $700k. Over the year, scope and pricing were reset, billing was tightened and brought forward, and senior time was redirected to the work that actually built margin.
82 to 91%
Realisation rate
$450k
Released from lock up
14 to 20%
Net margin
~$1.6M
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 Sydney 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, every interstate client gets regular on-site visits, agreed in the scope of each engagement, and we are glad to fly down between visits whenever a decision calls for it. Remote is simply the most efficient default, and we love 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 Sydney?
A virtual CFO in Sydney 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.
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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. Sydney 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 Sydney 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.