We build it with your team, then we leave you with everything you need
There are two normal ways to buy finance work. You hire a consultant who writes a report, or you buy software and pay for it forever. The report goes out of date the month after it lands. The software does 80% of what you need and you cannot change the other 20%.
We work a third way. Your team builds the model with us, learns how it works while it is being built, and owns it when we go.
The co-build method, step by step
Scope, in one conversation. We start with the decision you need to make and the date it needs to be made by, then work backwards. If what you want is not worth what it costs, we say so in this conversation rather than after you have paid for a scoping phase.
On site discovery, usually two to four days. We come to you. We meet the finance team, sit with whoever runs the current process, and pull the data ourselves rather than asking for extracts. This is where we find the things nobody mentions in a briefing call, such as the spreadsheet that actually drives the numbers or the approval step that adds four days.
Structure agreed before anything is built. We agree the shape of the model, the drivers, the outputs and who is going to own each part. One page. Your team signs off the structure, which stops the classic problem of a beautiful model answering the wrong question.
The build, with your team in it. We build in working sessions, usually remote, with your analyst present and doing parts of it. Sessions are short and frequent rather than long and rare, so problems surface early. You see a working version early, not a finished version in the last week.
Testing against reality. Every model gets run against a period that has already happened, or against the actual bank balance, or against a decision already made. If it cannot reproduce what happened, it will not predict what is coming.
Live cycles run by your team. Before we hand over, your team runs the process themselves at least once, with us watching rather than doing. That is where the real gaps show up.
Handover and walkthrough. Files, documentation, a recorded walkthrough, and a short list of what to watch for. We tell you what is fragile and what to do if it breaks.
A check-in later, at no charge. Four to six weeks after handover we come back for an hour to see how it is running. Most models need one small adjustment once real life has been through them.
Your team learns it while it is being built
Training is part of every engagement, not an extra line on the invoice. Your analyst sits in the build sessions and constructs parts of the model, we explain why a structure was chosen rather than only what it does, and we write documentation for the person who will maintain it rather than for a file. By handover, someone on your team has run a full cycle without us. Longer, standalone training for a finance team is something we may offer later. Today it comes attached to work we are already doing.
Handover, and why there is no lock-in
You own everything. Model files, code, queries, documentation and training recordings. Unlocked, unprotected, with no password and no link back to us.
Nothing we build depends on us. No hosted service of ours, no licence key, no proprietary add-in. Everything runs on tools you already pay for, such as Excel, Power BI and your existing database.
We do not hold data hostage. Whatever we extract stays with you, in your systems, in a form you can read.
Calling us again is optional. Some clients come back for the next problem. That is the point. If you never need us again because the model still works and your team runs it, the engagement did its job.
How engagements are structured
Day rate is the default. Most of our work is on live problems where scope moves once the data is open. A day rate keeps that honest and avoids the argument about whether something was in scope. Fixed scope is available by discussion where the deliverable is well defined and the data is known.
Subcontracting for advisory firms is covered on its own page, including delivery under your brand. See how we work with advisory firms.
We do not publish rates, because the sensible number depends on the length of the engagement, how much travel is involved and whether we are working under your brand or direct.
On site first, then remote
The first phase happens in the room with you, and there is a practical reason for that rather than a preference. People tell you different things in person, and finance teams show you the spreadsheet they actually use rather than the one in the process document.
After discovery, the build is remote in most cases. Remote work is faster and cheaper for you, and working sessions over video are perfectly good once the relationship exists. We come back on site for key sessions, board presentations and handover training where it helps.
We are based in Brisbane and travel regularly to Melbourne and Sydney. We work remotely with clients anywhere in Australia.
What we need from your side
One named owner. Someone in your finance team who will own the model afterwards and can give us adequate time during the build. This is the single biggest predictor of whether an engagement works.
Access, not extracts. Read access to the ledger and the reporting systems, so we pull the data ourselves. Waiting on extracts is the most common cause of delay.
Honesty about the mess. Tell us what is broken, what is manual and what nobody trusts. We have seen worse, we are not going to report you, and finding it in week three instead of week one costs you money.
Executive time when it matters. A few hours over the engagement from whoever owns the drivers or has to defend the model. Not a lot, but not zero.
A decision to make. Our best work happens where something actually depends on the answer. If nothing does, a model is an expensive way to feel prepared.
See whether this fits your situation
Tell us what problem you need solved and when. We will tell you how we would approach it, what we would need from your team, and whether it is worth doing at all.
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