AI and automation · Post-merger integration · Fractional CFO · Canberra
I help SMEs reduce manual work and improve operations with practical AI.
I’m a Chartered Accountant (CA ANZ) with an MBA and 16 years across finance, operations and systems, leading finance and operations since 2018. That is why the numbers and the controls hold. I work with growing businesses, typically A$5M to A$100M in revenue. I build the systems myself. AI agents and automation do the routine work, a person approves every money decision, and the business scales without losing control.
16 yearsin finance, from the ledger to the boardroom
CFO and Head of Financereporting to boards
Hands-on builderof the systems I recommend
Proof
A result and something I built.
Both are real and already published on this site, with the detail behind each.
The result · CFO, then Head of Finance
21→5
Days to close the month, then 10 to 5 at the next business. The board used the reporting for capital allocation. That is time, not cash: no dollar saving is claimed.
Automated tests behind the finance fleet, where each agent has a narrow job: consolidation, live unit reporting, the close and supplier bills. 87% of scheduled steps run as pure code, with a person approving every money decision.
This site is consulting and transformation: where AI, automation and systems pay off across the whole business, the roadmap, the change and the board. Works Better is implementation: one workflow at a time, at a fixed price. Start with whichever fits.
Where I help
When a business reaches a turning point.
Each one shows up in the numbers before anyone names it.
Sales up. The numbers arrive later.01
Growth is creating complexity.
Sales are up, but the way the business runs hasn’t kept pace. Decisions slow down, the numbers arrive late, and the founder is still the bottleneck.
Two ledgers, mapped into one chart of accounts.02
An acquisition has to become one organisation.
The deal is signed. Now two sets of systems, teams and habits have to work as one, without losing the people or the value you paid for.
Typed once, carried through. Not keyed three times.03
Manual work is holding the team back.
Good people spend their week re-keying, checking and chasing. You want that time back for growth, without adding headcount or changing every system.
Fewer handovers, nothing keyed in twice.04
Ways of working need to change.
The business has outgrown its processes, spreadsheets and handovers. Something has to change, and it has to stick.
Swipe
Track record
The career is the case study.
What the business faced, what I did and what changed. The full career is on the About page.
CFO
A$40M
Revenue in four years, from under A$10M. EBIT doubled, capacity tripled, staff grew from 60 to 150.
Situation
A window-furnishings manufacturer and retailer, reporting to the board.
What I did
Overhauled pricing, repositioned the brand as premium, redesigned the sales funnel and lifted throughput. Modelled and acquired a 6,500 m² facility.
CFO
5×
Its A$500K purchase price, returned in EBIT within 18 months.
Situation
An acquisition under pressure: the vendor tried to renegotiate at the last minute.
What I did
Saved the deal, then completed and integrated the regional business.
Head of Finance
A$300K
Profit in 12 months from a loss, at a 6% EBIT margin.
Situation
An A$40M renewable-energy retailer with a loss-making commercial division.
What I did
Re-engineered the division’s P&L.
Head of Finance
A$100K
A year in cost synergies, plus expansion into Southern NSW.
Situation
A regional acquisition to bring into the business.
What I did
Led the financial due diligence and the post-merger integration.
CFO, then Head of Finance
21→5
Days to close the month, then 10 to 5 at the next business. The board used the reporting for capital allocation.
Situation
A slow month-end close, at two businesses in a row.
What I did
Rebuilt the reporting and the close process.
Financial Controller, current
One
Finance person through the year the group grew fastest.
Situation
A large independent Australian group, growing fast.
What I did
Funded the growth and kept working capital under control.
Most problems in a growing business sit between strategy, operations, finance and technology. I follow the work across all of them: where a sale becomes a job, a job becomes an invoice, an invoice becomes cash, and cash becomes a board decision.
01 Strategy
A short, fixed-scope review, usually one to two weeks, that ends in clear priorities: what to fix first, what it’s worth and who should own it.
I’ve run finance and operations through growth and acquisitions, reporting to boards. I know what it takes to make a change hold on a Monday morning.
Chartered Accountant.
I know where the numbers come from, and what they have to survive: an audit, a lender, a due-diligence team.
Builder.
I build the systems myself, with the people who will run them beside me, so they understand every touchpoint the systems connect.
Swipe
Advisory firms advise. Agencies build. With me, the person who designs it is the person who builds it.
Systems
No slide deck in a drawer.
I’ve built the systems I recommend since 2012. The most complete is an agentic finance fleet I designed and built, and run inside the group where I lead finance.
Everymoney decision approved by a person
~10Kautomated tests
87%of scheduled steps run as pure code, with no model involved
I’m a Chartered Accountant and finance executive: 16 years in finance, from the ledger to the boardroom, and leading finance and operations since 2018. Along the way I’ve worked every level of the finance function, in accounting firms, in industry and in my own practice. As CFO of a window-furnishings manufacturer I helped take revenue from under A$10M to A$40M, and integrated an acquisition that returned five times its price in EBIT. As Head of Finance at a renewable-energy retailer I took a loss-making division to profit in 12 months.
I’m most useful at a turning point: when growth outpaces the way a business runs, manual work holds it back, or a deal has to become one organisation. I set the priorities, fix the numbers and build the systems myself, so the change holds after I’ve gone. I’m based in Canberra and work across Australia.
Renzo Demartini