Insights
The work, written down.
Guides and analysis from the engagements we actually run — how to build the forecast, what diligence tests, which term sheet clauses cost more than valuation, and where AI belongs in a finance function. Written by Chartered Accountants doing the work, not a marketing team.
The library
Six pieces, no filler.
Guide · Capital
What a Series A data room actually contains
The full index, section by section, with what each document is testing — and the six gaps that most often derail a process.
Read10 min
Analysis · Capital
The clauses that cost more than valuation
Liquidation preference, the option pool shuffle, anti-dilution and control terms — modelled across the exits that actually happen.
Read11 min
Practice · Operations
Closing the books in five days without a bigger team
The sequence, the substantiation standard, five bottlenecks and what to automate first — in the order that actually returns time.
Read10 min
Practice · AI
Where AI belongs in a finance function — and where it does not
What supervised agents do reliably today, what still requires a Chartered Accountant, and the four-part test that tells you which is which.
Read11 min
Guide · International
Expanding into Australia: the finance checklist
Entity choice, registrations in order, why payroll is the biggest difference, transfer pricing, and the state tax nobody expects.
Read11 min
Guide · FP&A
The 13-week cash forecast, properly built
Direct versus indirect, the line-by-line structure, where each line is sourced, and the four errors that kill it by week five.
Read9 minThe XL Brief
Finance intelligence for founders, fortnightly.
One email every second Tuesday. What changed in New Zealand and Australian tax and reporting, what investors are actually pricing right now, and one practical finance play you can run this fortnight. Free, about a four-minute read, unsubscribe in one click.
Every issue
Four sections, four minutes.
What changed
Tax, reporting and regulatory movements in New Zealand and Australia that affect a growing company — in plain language, with the action item.
What's being priced
Observed valuation, term and structure trends across the raises and transactions we and our network are seeing.
The play
One practical finance move you can implement in a fortnight — with the template, the calculation or the checklist attached.
Machine notes
What is actually working in AI-assisted finance, what is overhyped, and what we have broken in production so you do not have to.
Rather talk than read?
Book thirty minutes and put the question directly to a Chartered Accountant.