Accountants and advisers · Newcastle and Lake Macquarie
Numbers you can run a business on.
For owner-run businesses turning over $2 million to $30 million. Tax done properly, management accounts you'll actually read, and a partner who knows your numbers as well as you do.
- 142 clients on monthly reporting
- Day 8 accounts closed
- Fixed monthly fees
Why Pellbrook
Most accountants tell you what happened last year. We tell you what's coming, while you can still act on it.
A tax return is a history lesson. It arrives months after the year it describes, and by then every decision it could have shaped has already been made.
We do the compliance properly, on time and without drama. Then we put most of our effort into the part that changes outcomes: accounts closed by the eighth working day, a cash forecast rebuilt every quarter, and a partner in the room when you're deciding something that matters.
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142
owner-run businesses on monthly reporting
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Day 8
the working day your management accounts land
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19
years advising Hunter businesses, since 2007
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96%
of clients renew with us each year
Services
Five things, done very well.
We don't do audits of listed companies or personal returns on their own. We look after owner-run businesses and the families behind them, and that focus is why the work is quick and the advice is specific.
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01
Tax and compliance
Company, trust and personal returns, BAS and IAS, payroll tax, FBT and the year-end accounts your bank asks for. Lodged early, reviewed by a partner and explained in a ten-minute call, not a forty-page pack.
- Returns across every entity in the group
- BAS, IAS and payroll tax lodgements
- A tax planning meeting every May
Typical for Every client
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02
Monthly management reporting
A profit and loss you can read in five minutes, cash flow, debtor and creditor days and margin by product line or job. Delivered by working day 8 and walked through with you.
- Month-end close and reconciliations
- A two-page report with commentary
- A 30-minute review call
Typical for From $3m turnover
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03
Virtual CFO
Budgets, rolling 13-week cash forecasts, pricing and margin work, lender negotiations and a seat at your quarterly leadership meeting. The finance director you'd hire if you were twice the size.
- Annual budget and forecast
- Quarterly strategy session
- Bank and lender liaison
Typical for From $8m turnover
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04
Structuring
Company, trust and holding structures set up so the business, the property and the family's wealth each sit in the right place. Done before you buy, sell, expand or bring in a partner, not after.
- Group structure review
- Division 7A and asset protection
- Succession and sale readiness
Typical for Before a big decision
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05
SMSF
Set-up, annual accounts, audit coordination, investment strategy reviews and the paperwork for buying your business premises through super. A fixed fee and no surprises at year end.
- Annual accounts and returns
- Independent audit arranged for you
- Contribution and pension planning
Typical for Owners holding property
The first year
What changes when the numbers are right.
A typical first year, shown with a sample client: a craft brewery in Carrington turning over $6.8 million.
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Month 1
The books are a mess.
Three months of unreconciled transactions, a gross margin nobody trusts and a bank balance that's the only number anyone checks. We clean up the ledger, rebuild the chart of accounts and set up a month-end routine.
- Ledger cleaned and reconciled
- Chart of accounts rebuilt around how you trade
- Payroll, stock and debtors brought up to date
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Month 3
Reporting you can read.
Your accounts now close by working day 8. You get two pages: what happened, why it happened and what we'd look at next. For the first time, margin by product line is a number, not a guess.
- Closed by working day 8, every month
- Margin by product line and channel
- Debtor days down from 67 to 41
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Month 12
A forecast you trust.
With a year of clean numbers behind it, the 13-week cash forecast stops being a spreadsheet exercise and starts making decisions: when to hire, when to buy the new fermenter and what to tell the bank.
- Rolling 13-week cash forecast
- Budget against actual, every month
- Finance approved for a $420,000 expansion
Management reportSample client · Craft brewery, Carrington
Unreconciled · 3 months behind Closed by working day 8 Rolling 13-week forecast
Month 12
- Cash at bank
- $286,900
- Gross margin
- 51.8%
- Debtor days
- 29
Fees
Fixed monthly fees. No timesheets.
You'll know what the year costs before it starts. We quote from your last two years of financials, agree the scope in writing and never bill in six-minute units. If the work changes, we'll talk about it before the invoice does.
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Compliance
from $1,450
a month, including GST
Everything lodged properly and on time, with a partner reviewing it.
- Returns for up to four entities
- BAS, IAS and payroll tax
- Annual tax planning meeting
- Unlimited phone and email questions
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Where most clients sit
Reporting
from $2,900
a month, including GST
Compliance, plus monthly management accounts you'll actually use.
- Everything in Compliance
- Month-end close by working day 8
- Two-page report and review call
- Quarterly cash forecast
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CFO
from $5,500
a month, including GST
A finance director on call, for businesses making bigger moves.
- Everything in Reporting
- Rolling 13-week cash forecast
- Budgets, pricing and margin work
- Quarterly leadership meeting
- Structuring review
- from $4,400, once
- SMSF accounts and audit coordination
- from $3,300 a year
- Buying or selling a business
- quoted per job
- Onboarding and ledger clean-up
- included in the first three months
Clients
Owner-run, and mostly within an hour of Newcastle.
Brewers, joiners, builders, manufacturers, allied health groups and Hunter families on the land. Most have between 12 and 120 staff and an owner who still signs off the big purchases.
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For six years I got a tax return and a bill. Now I get a report on the eighth of every month and I actually read it.
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They found $86,000 in debtors I'd stopped chasing. That paid for the year inside a fortnight.
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Our forecast said we could afford the second clinic eight months before the bank agreed.
People
A partner on every file. Every year.
Twenty-two people across our Newcastle and Warners Bay offices. Your partner and your client manager are the same people from the first meeting on, not a different graduate each tax season.
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Joanna Merritt
Managing partner
Registered tax agent · B.Com
Founded Pellbrook in 2007 after eleven years at a large national firm. Looks after most of our hospitality and manufacturing clients and still reviews every group return herself.
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Tom Alcott
Partner, CFO services
Master of Applied Finance
Ran finance for a Hunter manufacturer for nine years before joining in 2015. Builds the forecasts, sits in the board meetings and talks to the banks.
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Anika Sood
Senior manager, structuring and SMSF
Registered tax agent · LLB
Trained as a lawyer before moving into tax. Handles group structures, Division 7A, succession planning and the SMSF side of the practice.
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Callum Reid
Client manager, reporting
B.Bus (Accounting)
Runs the month-end close for thirty clients and writes most of the commentary you'll read on day 8. Answers his phone.
FAQs
Questions owners ask us first.
Something else on your mind? Call 0491 570 158 and you'll get a partner or a client manager, not a switchboard.
Will we need to change accounting software?
If you're on a mainstream cloud accounting system, almost certainly not. If you're still on a desktop file or spreadsheets, we'll move you across in the first month. It's part of onboarding and there's no extra charge.
We already have an accountant. How does switching work?
We write to your current accountant and ask for your files. It's a standard professional courtesy, so there's no awkward conversation for you. Most handovers take two to three weeks, and we time them around your BAS dates.
What does a fixed monthly fee actually cover?
Everything in the scope letter we agree before we start: the lodgements, the reports, the meetings and your questions in between. If something outside it comes up, like a business purchase, we quote it separately before we begin. You'll never find it on an invoice first.
What does a virtual CFO do that our bookkeeper doesn't?
Your bookkeeper records what happened. A CFO decides what should happen next: the budget, the cash forecast, pricing, when to hire and how to fund growth. Tom spends a day or two a month on your business and joins your leadership meeting each quarter.
Are we the right size for you?
Most of our clients turn over between $2 million and $30 million and have 12 to 120 staff. If you're smaller, our Compliance package is usually all you need, and we'll say so rather than sell you more.
Can you look after the family side too?
Yes. Family trusts, the SMSF, investment properties and the next generation's first returns. Keeping the business and the family's affairs in one place is usually where the best tax planning happens.
Get in touch
Bring last year's numbers. We'll talk.
A first meeting is 45 minutes, free and with a partner. Bring your last two years of financials and a recent BAS. You'll leave with three things we'd change and a fixed quote for doing it.
- Phone
- 0491 570 158
- Offices
- Newcastle and Warners Bay, or at your site
- Hours
- Monday to Friday, 8am to 5.30pm