Owners search for the cost of a virtual CFO and find either no numbers at all or a range so wide it is useless. The reason is that a virtual CFO is senior time applied to your business at a cadence you agree, and the fee depends on how much of that time your situation needs. This page explains how the price is built, so you can judge any quote, including ours.
We do not publish virtual CFO figures on this page because they would be wrong for most readers. A single trading company that wants a quarterly cash forecast and a conversation is a very different engagement from a four-entity group planning an acquisition, a bank refinance and a restructure in the same year. The fee follows the work, and the work follows the business.
The useful comparison is not between one virtual CFO and another. It is between the fee and what the absence of the role is costing you: the pricing that has not been reviewed, the hire made too early, the tax bill nobody saw coming, the finance that was declined because the numbers were not ready. Those costs are rarely visible on an invoice, which is why they are so easy to carry for years.
It also helps to know what you are comparing. Some providers include bookkeeping and tax in a bundled fee; others charge CFO work on top of an existing accountant. A fee that looks high may include work you already pay someone else for, and a fee that looks low may exclude the forecast refresh that makes the whole thing useful.
Most virtual CFO work in Australia is priced in one of three ways.
Retainers suit businesses that want the role on an ongoing basis. Projects suit a specific decision. Day rates are the least predictable and the hardest to budget for, and we use them rarely. Whichever model applies, the proposal should state what is delivered, how often, and by whom. We will tell you which model fits before we quote.
Four things move the fee more than anything else. Complexity: a single trading company with one revenue stream is quicker to report on and forecast than a group with four entities, a trust, intercompany loans and stock. Entities: each one needs its own numbers consolidated into a group view. Reporting cadence: monthly reporting and forecasting is roughly three times the work of quarterly. Meetings: a monthly sit-down with the owner, or a quarterly board meeting with directors and a bank present, takes preparation as well as attendance. A group of entities with intercompany loans and a trust at the top often costs more to report on than its revenue suggests, because the consolidated view has to be rebuilt every month.
Two more factors sit underneath. The state of the books: a virtual CFO can only work as fast as the Xero file allows, so a clean, current file keeps the fee down, and we will often fix the bookkeeping first because it is cheaper than forecasting around it. And the questions being asked: a business that wants a cash forecast and a monthly check-in needs less than one that is planning a capital raise.
We price almost everything as a fixed monthly retainer or a fixed project fee. A fixed fee means the owner calls when there is a question instead of worrying about the clock, which is the whole point of having a CFO. Project work is quoted separately so the retainer stays predictable.
A full-time CFO in Australia is a senior executive salary, plus super guarantee at the current rate, payroll tax if you are over the threshold, WorkCover, leave entitlements, equipment and often a bonus or equity. The total cost is well above the headline salary, and the person has to be kept busy fifty-two weeks a year. Most businesses below the tens of millions in revenue do not have that much CFO-level work, so they end up paying executive rates for bookkeeping and administration.
A virtual CFO is a fraction of that. You pay for the CFO-level work and only that work, with the bookkeeping and compliance done by people priced for bookkeeping and compliance. There is no recruitment cost, no notice period, no key-person risk, and the role can scale up before a sale or capital raise and back down afterwards. For most growing Brisbane businesses the virtual model is cheaper by a wide margin and better matched to the actual workload.
The exception is a business that genuinely needs a finance executive every day: a large team, complex funding, daily treasury decisions. At that point we help recruit a CFO and support them with the reporting, tax and structure work.
The return is easier to describe than to promise. A pricing review that lifts gross margin by a few points on a multi-million turnover pays for a year of retainer several times over. A forecast that shows a hire can wait six months avoids a salary paid before the revenue exists. A bank application prepared properly gets approved at a better rate, or gets approved at all, where the same business with a shoebox of statements is declined. Tax planning done in April instead of July changes the bill, not just the surprise.
Clients who come to us from a plateau or a cash crisis usually describe the value as sleeping better, which sounds soft but reflects something real: knowing the number before the decision rather than after it. For a business heading toward a sale, the discipline of monthly management accounts also shows up in the price a buyer will pay, because clean numbers reduce the discount a buyer applies for risk.
The return is usually highest in businesses in the low millions of revenue, where decisions are large relative to the margin for error and there is no finance function at all. A single avoided mistake, a bad hire, an underpriced contract, a tax bill that drained the cash before a busy season, typically covers the fee for a year or more.
At minimum a virtual CFO engagement should include a forecast that is actually updated against actuals, management reporting tailored to the business rather than a Xero print-out, a regular meeting where decisions are made, and someone senior who answers the phone between meetings. If the engagement also includes bookkeeping or tax, the engagement letter should say so. Watch for these signs that you are paying for a title rather than the work.
The engagement should also name the person. A virtual CFO is a relationship with someone who knows the business, not a subscription to a reporting template. If the proposal does not say who will attend the meetings and answer the phone, ask. Ask also who covers for them when they are away, and how the handover of knowledge works if the person changes.
Ask who will do the work and who you will speak to. Ask how often the forecast is refreshed, what the report will contain and whether you can see an example. Ask how the fee changes if you add an entity or a project, what happens between meetings, and how they work with your existing accountant or bookkeeper. Ask what they would look at first in your business, and listen to whether the answer is specific. Then ask for the fee in writing, with the scope beside it, so the two can be compared with any other proposal on equal terms.
The last red flag above matters most. A forecast built on numbers the tax agent has not seen, or a tax plan that ignores the forecast, produces two versions of the truth. That is why our virtual CFO team works from the same file as our accounting and tax team, from Victoria Point and Jimboomba and by video for clients across Australia. If you want to put those questions to us, book a call. We will tell you what we would do, what it would cost, and if we think you do not need a virtual CFO yet, we will say that too.
It depends on scope. Most virtual CFO services are priced as a fixed monthly retainer covering a management report, a forecast refresh, a meeting and access between meetings, with projects such as a funding application or an acquisition model quoted separately. The fee rises with the number of entities, the complexity of the business and how often you report and meet. We quote a fixed fee after looking at the business, and we tell you before anything changes.
For almost every business below the tens of millions in revenue, yes, by a wide margin. A full-time CFO is a senior salary plus super, payroll tax, leave, WorkCover and often a bonus, and they need enough CFO-level work to fill a week. A virtual CFO charges only for the senior work your business actually needs, with bookkeeping and compliance done by people priced for those tasks, and it scales up or down with the business.
At minimum, a cash flow forecast that is updated regularly, management reporting tailored to the business, a scheduled meeting where decisions are made and a senior person available between meetings. Depending on scope it can also include budgets, financial modelling for hires, sites or acquisitions, bank and broker liaison, board reporting and tax planning. The engagement letter should list exactly what is included and how often, so there is no ambiguity about what you are paying for.
The accountant prepares financial statements and tax returns and advises on structure and tax; that is looking back. The virtual CFO uses the same numbers to look forward: forecasts, pricing, hiring, funding and the monthly conversation about what to do next. At Acquire the same team does both from the same Xero file, which means the forecast and the tax plan agree with each other, and you do not pay twice for anyone to understand the business.
It is worth it when the business is making decisions that would change with better numbers: whether to hire, what to charge, whether the bank will lend, how much tax is coming. If the business is small, stable and the owner knows the numbers, it may not be yet, and we will say so. A scoped project for a specific decision is often the right first step rather than a monthly retainer.
Yes. Scoped engagements are common: a forecast and information pack for a finance application, a three-year model for an acquisition or a new site, a pricing and margin review, or the financial side of a restructure. These are quoted as a fixed fee with a defined deliverable and timeframe. Many clients start with a project and move to a retainer once they see what the ongoing view is worth.
