Most businesses reach a point where they need more than an accountant. They need someone who can see the whole picture: strategy, operations, finances, people, and the path forward.
All at once. All connected.
That's what Atramentum's Fractional C-Suite service delivers. You engage one experienced operator who has done all three jobs, and every seat's perspective comes with the engagement. Senior leadership that shows up the way a full-time executive would, without the full-time salary, the on-costs, and the overhead.
Start a confidential conversationMore than the numbers
A C-Suite engagement puts a senior executive inside your business, without putting one on your payroll.
Here's what you get:
- Direction set and the big calls made alongside you
- The numbers owned: cash flow, forecasts, margins, funding and reporting
- Strategy, money and operations kept aligned, so decisions hold up on the floor
- A senior voice in the board meetings, the bank meetings and the hard conversations
- Managers built up, not worked around
- Every decision explained in plain language, so you always know why
Not just reporting what happened. Shaping what happens next.
Engaged as one. Working as three.
Titles describe seats, they don't describe how good decisions get made.
Every decision worth making crosses all three lanes at once:
- A growth plan is a funding question and a resourcing question
- A pricing change is a strategy call and an operational one
- A workforce problem is a culture issue, a cost issue and a delivery risk
So while you engage one seat, CEO or CFO, what you get is an executive who has sat in all three, reading every decision through all three lenses at once.
Strategy, money, delivery.One view, no lanes, nothing falling between them.
Chief Executive Officer
As your CEO, I set direction, align the organisation around clear priorities, and make the big calls when they need to be made. Every strategic decision gets tested commercially before it's made: what it costs, what it returns, and whether the operation can actually deliver it.
- Strategic planning and execution
- Organisational design and restructuring
- Board and stakeholder management
- Culture and leadership development
- Governance and risk oversight
Chief Financial Officer
As your CFO (what some firms call a virtual CFO), I bring financial rigour well beyond compliance: your position in real time, forecasts that drive decisions, and finances structured for what's coming next. The operational view comes with it, because that's where the numbers come from.
- Financial strategy and long-term planning
- Cash flow management and forecasting
- Budgets, monitoring and variance analysis
- Capital structure and funding
- Reporting for boards, banks and funders
Chief Operating Officer
The COO perspective is hard-wired into how I work. Whichever seat you engage me in, decisions, strategy and execution get viewed from the operations floor as a matter of course.
- Operational review and process improvement
- Systems and technology implementation
- Workforce planning and people management
- Performance frameworks and KPI design
- Compliance and quality assurance
The common thread is alignment. Strategy, capital and operations never move independently in a real business, so I never look at them separately. That is the whole point of engaging one person instead of three.
There's more than one way to do this
The seat you engage is the starting point, not the whole story. Engagements combine, and every combination is scoped to what your business actually needs.
Start with the seat you need. Bolt on what makes sense. Every engagement is scoped and priced to fit, and the full CFO Stack is broken down below.
The CFO Stack
Some businesses need one seat. Others need the lot. The CFO Stack is Atramentum's most complete engagement: three layers of your back office, carried by one executive.
- CFO: the seat you engage, senior financial leadership beyond compliance
- + Corporate Services: executive leadership of every function behind the frontline
- + Company Secretary: the formal statutory role, held in-house as a registered ASIC agent
The CFO seat is the anchor. Everything else bolts on.
Chief Financial Officer
Financial leadership beyond compliance: cash flow, forecasting, margins, funding, and reporting your board and bank can rely on. The COO lens built in.
Corporate Services
Executive leadership of everything that keeps the organisation running behind the frontline.
Company Secretary
A formal statutory role under the Corporations Act, held in-house as a registered ASIC agent. A different service, added on when your structure calls for it.
- Named Company Secretary for your organisation
- ASIC annual reviews and solvency resolutions
- Officeholder, shareholding and company detail changes
- Statutory registers, minutes and resolutions
- Incorporations, restructures and deregistrations
You choose what's in it
A full-time executive carrying this seat costs $200,000 to $400,000 a year before super and on-costs. This engagement works the other way around: take the CFO seat on its own, bolt on the full Corporate Services portfolio or just the functions that hurt the most, and add the Company Secretary role if you need it. Scale up when things get busy and back when they don't.
One person, one engagement, one fee you understand, covering exactly what you chose and nothing you didn't.
Is this right for your business?
This service is built for organisations that:
- Are growing faster than their leadership structure can keep up with
- Are navigating significant change: restructure, funding transition, regulatory reform, or market shift
- Have hit a ceiling and aren't sure why, or what to do next
- Are in crisis and need experienced leadership immediately
- Need senior strategic support but can't justify a full-time executive salary
- Want an independent, experienced voice in the room, without the politics of a permanent hire
It's particularly well suited to mid-sized businesses, NFPs, health and community service providers, and resource-sector operators who need genuine executive depth without the overhead of a full C-suite.
This is not a threat to your management team. It's the opposite.
Some of the most effective engagements I've been part of are with organisations that already have strong managers and capable teams. People who are excellent at what they do, but who are operating without the senior strategic layer above them that they deserve. They're making good decisions with limited information and carrying more than they should.
Engaging a Fractional C-Suite gives your people access to experience that works with them: not over them, not around them, and certainly not instead of them. No competition, no agenda, no office politics. Just someone who has been in the room where the hard decisions get made, sitting alongside your team and helping them do their best work.
Where I've done this work
NDIS & disability services
One of the most demanding operating environments in the country: constant regulatory change, complex funding, workforce pressure, and quality frameworks that demand rigorous governance. I understand how providers are funded, what the NDIA expects, and what it takes to build a sustainable, compliant, genuinely person-centred organisation.
Aged care
Generational change: the Royal Commission, the Strengthened Standards, AN-ACC, workforce reform. I bring senior-level experience in aged care governance, compliance, financial management and organisational transformation, across residential, home care and community programs.
Not-for-profit & community services
Funding cycles, grant compliance, board governance, and the constant tension between mission and margin. I've worked with community services organisations at board and executive level, building financially sustainable organisations without losing sight of purpose.
Hospitality & tourism
Our team brings over 100 years of hands-on hospitality experience: front of house, back of house, venues and events. I understand how hospitality businesses are structured, how they fail, and what it takes to turn them around or scale them up.
Resources & mining
WA's resources sector runs at a different pace and scale. Project economics, FIFO workforce management, contractor relationships, cost control in remote environments, and complex regulatory governance. I understand the demands.
Organisational transformation & crisis management
Some engagements start in calm water. Others don't.
If your organisation is in crisis, whether that's financial distress, leadership breakdown, regulatory action, reputational damage, workforce collapse, or a situation that has simply outrun your capacity to manage it, this is where fractional C-suite engagement makes the most immediate difference.
I've led organisations through:
- Financial restructuring and turnaround
- Regulatory investigations and compliance remediation
- Leadership transitions and executive exits
- Rapid workforce change and enterprise restructuring
- Merger, acquisition and integration processes
- Service delivery failure and recovery
Crisis management requires someone who can assess the situation quickly, make clear decisions under pressure, communicate with confidence, and hold the organisation steady while the hard work gets done. That's what I bring.
Transformation is the longer arc: taking an organisation from where it is to where it needs to be. Redesigning the operating model, rebuilding culture, implementing new systems, restructuring finances, or repositioning services in the market. Transformation done well is methodical, collaborative, and people-centred. It doesn't happen to an organisation. It happens with it.
How it works
Every engagement starts with a confidential conversation. No pressure, no obligation. Just an honest discussion about where your organisation is, where it needs to go, and whether this is the right fit.
From there, engagements typically take one of three shapes:
Defined project
A scoped piece of work with clear deliverables and a finish line: a restructure, a funding round, a systems implementation, a turnaround plan.
Retained arrangement
Ongoing senior leadership on a fractional basis: a set commitment each month, in the room and across the numbers, for as long as the business needs it.
Intensive intervention
Short-term, high-focus engagement when something has gone wrong and it can't wait. Assess fast, decide clearly, stabilise, then hand back.
What you can expect in every case:
- A direct, no-jargon working relationship
- Clear deliverables and honest timelines
- Full confidentiality
- One person, genuinely invested in your outcome, not the hours
I work with a small number of C-suite clients at any one time, so each engagement gets the focus it deserves.
“For managers ready to grow, it's an accelerant. For teams navigating uncertainty, it's an anchor. For organisations that want to punch above their weight, it's how you do it.”
Michael Jones | Atramentum
Let's have a conversation
If you're reading this page, something in your business is telling you it needs more than it currently has. That's worth acting on.
Start a confidential conversation📍 136 Stirling Hwy, Nedlands WA 6009
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