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Senior finance for Australian owner-led businesses

Know your numbers. Grow your profit. Sell it well.

The finance and operations muscle that helps small and medium-sized businesses thrive. One operator, not a firm of juniors.

One month in a business

This is how most owners see their business.

A profit and loss, a balance sheet, who owes you what. Hundreds of lines. No picture.

The same month, as one picture

This is how you'll see it.

Where the money came from, where it went, and why profit isn't the same as cash. Read in ten seconds.

What matters most

From noise to clarity.

We turn the noise into simple ways to understand your business, in the ways that matter most.

$238kCafés
$104kOnline store
$70kWholesale
$412kSales this month
$71kProfit
$148kStock & ingredients
$132kWages
$61kRent & running
$39kIn the bank
$32kStill owed to you

We see businesses as…

How we run it

An economic engine.

With clear parts, and parts within them, that need to be carefully managed.

Balfene does itBalfene oversees
Updates made to accommodate board decisions What people see Book · Pay The front doorClean digital touchpointsPolished decks and public reportsBrand strategy and marketing Operations& technology Runs the businessSystems joined up, typed onceHours back from automationYour software, kept to best practice Reporting & compliance Numbers you can trustMonth-end financial reportsTax and compliance, full yearBookkeeping, done to our standard Business intelligence What the numbers meanWhy profit isn't cashProfit by site and serviceCash, twelve months outFull-year profit to free cash Strategy& courses of action Option AOption BOption CRECOMMENDED: B What we recommendOptions costed side by sideThe recommended option Board decisions The board decidesThe monthly board packEvery decision loggedThe decision itself is yours askansweraskanswerBoard queries& special projectsAnswers, on requestSensitivity analysisA discrete project or taskExit strategy& transactionsPlanned, not rushedThe moves before a saleThe sale: IM and data roomWho does whatBalfene does itBalfene oversees ityour team or advisers do it; we keepit to best practice. Done badly, itbecomes a bottleneck or an error.
WHAT PEOPLE SEEThe front doorClean digital touchpointsPolished decks and public reportsBrand strategy and marketingOPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGYRuns the businessSystems joined up, typed onceHours back from automationYour software, kept to best practiceREPORTING & COMPLIANCENumbers you can trustMonth-end financial reportsTax and compliance, full yearBookkeeping, done to our standardBUSINESS INTELLIGENCEWhat the numbers meanWhy profit isn't cashProfit by site and serviceCash, twelve months outFull-year profit to free cashSTRATEGY & COURSES OF ACTIONWhat we recommendOptions costed side by sideThe recommended optionBOARD DECISIONSThe board decidesThe monthly board packEvery decision loggedThe decision itself is yoursUpdates made to accommodate board decisionsBOARD QUERIES &SPECIAL PROJECTSAnswers,on requestSensitivityanalysisA discreteproject or taskaskanswerEXIT STRATEGY &TRANSACTIONSPlanned,not rushedThe moves beforea saleThe sale: IM anddata roomaskanswer

Swipe sideways to see the whole economic engine.

Once the engine is set up and properly calibrated, it produces insight that means something. That is where we do our best work.

Behind the scenes

Once it’s calibrated, this is what you’ll see.

The engine, running: the login for a coffee company, as its manager sees it. Scroll to walk through it, or click around: it is all live.

  1. OverviewEvery part of the business, one status each, every morning.
  2. One-on-one timeA person in your corner: weekly time together, the quarterly reforecast, and a direct line.
  3. Systems & technologyWhat runs the business, what is joined up, and the hours automation saves.
  4. ComplianceEvery tax and compliance date: lodged, paid and coming up.
  5. Month-end reportProfit and loss against budget, with the reports behind it.
  6. Intelligence & forecastingProfit by café, cash ahead, and the monthly packs.
  7. Recommendation & decisionsBalfene’s recommendation for approval, and every decision logged.
  8. Board queries & projectsQuestions you ask and projects you are weighing, answered and costed.
  9. Exit, transactions & capitalCapital ideas to consider, and any live deal with its documents in one place.

Demonstration data only.

The Pareto principle in action (80:20 rule)

A few things, done well. For owners who already run theirs well.

Balfene does not take over your business, and it is not trying to be a specialist in everything. It gets the core of your economic engine firing, so you can run the parts only you can, and it is honest about who should do the rest.

Who we work best with

Brilliant at the business. Not a finance specialist.

  • An owner who knows their field better than anyone, and built the business on it.
  • Grown past a bookkeeper and a spreadsheet, not yet ready for a full-time finance director.
  • Wants the numbers and the big decisions done properly, without handing over the keys.
  • Stays the one running it. Balfene sits beside you, not in your chair.

You keep doing what you do best, the part no one else can do. Balfene takes the part you should not have to. Not the right fit: a business looking for someone to run it day to day.

What Balfene does well

The parts of your engine we get firing

  • Front of house that looks the part: website design, UI and UXFront door
  • A clean, modern tech stack instead of a legacy tangleOperations
  • Automation that cuts admin and errors, so your people do higher-value workOperations
  • Bookkeeping kept to best practice, overseen and checkedReporting
  • Board reporting you can rely on, the same pack every monthReporting
  • Financial modelling and forecasts that hold upIntelligence
  • Business intelligence that shapes the strategyIntelligence
  • Clear recommendations, so the board makes clear decisionsStrategy

A marker for every stage of the engine above. Get these firing and the whole business runs faster, with fewer errors.

What Balfene is not

Said plainly

Not your HR manager, lawyer, tax agent, auditor, IT helpdesk, marketing agency, registered valuer or financial planner. Balfene works alongside them and makes sure what they are given holds up.

  • Your HR manager or recruiterYour people
  • Your lawyerA specialist
  • Your tax agent or auditorA specialist
  • Your IT helpdeskA specialist
  • Your marketing agency. We build the front of house, not the campaignsA specialist
  • A registered valuer or financial plannerA specialist

These still matter, and they still need doing. Your own team or a good specialist does them; Balfene works alongside, makes sure what they are given holds up, and can point you to good people.

How we use technology

Not a software company. Not an AI company. A nimble way to put in the systems that let you thrive.

You are not buying software or a chatbot. Balfene implements, installs and oversees best-practice systems, software and automation, and uses AI only where it gives a clear, secure result you can check. Each tool has a job, and you will know what it is.

What it does

The repeatable work

  • Pulls the numbers from your accounts, so the board pack is current, not three weeks old
  • Runs the reconciliations, reminders and reports nobody should do by hand
  • Drafts a first pass faster, so senior time goes on judgement
What it never does

The calls that matter

  • Make a decision for you
  • Write your information memorandum or ring your buyers. Anthony does that
  • Send your data anywhere you have not agreed to
How you can check

Nothing on trust

  • Every number traces back to its source
  • Every tool used on your account is named up front
  • A person checks everything that leaves the building
What it does, and how you can check

What it does

  • Pulls the numbers from your accounts, so the board pack is current, not three weeks old
  • Runs the reconciliations, reminders and reports nobody should do by hand
  • Drafts a first pass faster, so senior time goes on judgement

How you can check

  • Every number traces back to its source
  • Every tool used on your account is named up front
  • A person checks everything that leaves the building
No pitch, no obligation

Not sure where to start?

That is a normal place to start. Thirty minutes on the phone and you will know, including if the answer is that you do not need me at all.