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Spend control & procurement discipline
Get a real handle on operational and capital spend — approval thresholds, commitment controls, and supplier discipline that hold as you scale.
Corporate Advisory · Financial Control & Governance
You scaled fast. Now make the financials keep up.
When a business grows quickly, the financial controls and governance rarely keep pace. We help you get a real handle on spend, clear visibility into performance, and the policies and processes that let the business run — without bottlenecks.
The challenge of fast growth
The systems and habits that got the business off the ground rarely survive the scale-up. Spend creeps. Approvals live in someone’s inbox. The numbers arrive late and nobody quite trusts them. Decisions bottleneck around the few people who hold it all in their heads.
None of it is a crisis — until a board, an investor, or a bad month makes it one. The fix isn’t more reporting. It’s the right controls, set at the right level, so the business can move quickly and stay in control at the same time.
“Strong controls aren’t a brake on the business. They’re what lets you put your foot down.”
What we put in place
Where purchasing and contractor spend is the main leak, see our procurement work.
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Get a real handle on operational and capital spend — approval thresholds, commitment controls, and supplier discipline that hold as you scale.
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Reporting that gives the board and executive a clear, timely view of performance — not a month-end scramble for numbers nobody trusts.
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The policies, procedures and delegations of authority that let the business run without bottlenecks — and without everything routing through one person.
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Decision rights, controls and reporting cadences that stand up to a board, an investor, a lender, or a buyer.
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A planning rhythm that reflects operational reality — so the budget is a tool you steer with, not a document you file.
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Structure, roles and systems sized for where the business is going — so finance scales with you, not behind you.
Sound familiar?
If two or three of these ring true, it’s time to put the foundations in place before the next stage of growth.
Questions we get asked
Businesses that have grown past the point where the owner or one finance person can see everything. Most clients are mining and civil contractors and mining services businesses between $20 million and $200 million in revenue.
Spend approved on trust rather than against a budget, month-end reporting arriving late or not at all, decisions bottlenecking through one or two people, and no real-time view of committed spend. If two of those apply, the controls are behind the business.
No. We do not prepare tax returns, BAS or statutory accounts. We design the controls, reporting, delegations and planning rhythm, and we work alongside your existing accountant or bookkeeper.
Yes. Where a business needs senior finance leadership before it can justify a full-time hire, we provide a fractional financial controller or CFO on an agreed number of days per month.
A controls and governance build typically runs eight to twelve weeks. Fractional roles are usually six to twelve months with a monthly review.
It is the work of putting the right controls, reporting and decision rights in place so a business can scale without losing visibility or control. StratumCore helps fast-grown businesses get a real handle on operational spend, clear visibility into performance, and the policies and processes that remove bottlenecks. We stay involved so the changes land and hold.
Start with approval thresholds, commitment controls and procurement discipline that hold as volumes rise, rather than spend approved on trust. We then make sure reporting gives the board and executive a timely, trusted view of where the money is going. The aim is to move quickly and stay in control at the same time.
Usually when decisions bottleneck around one or two people, month-end is a scramble, or a board, investor or lender starts asking for rigour you do not yet have. If two or three of those ring true, it is time to put the foundations in place before the next stage of growth.
Spend controls and procurement discipline, financial reporting and visibility, policies, processes and delegations of authority, board-grade governance, a practical planning and forecasting rhythm, and a finance function sized for where the business is going. Each engagement is scoped to the few changes that will matter most first.
wen@stratumcore.com.au · Brisbane, QLD, Australia