The modern accounting and finance landscape demands one thing: integration. For founders and business owners, the biggest risk in finance is the traditional model where your bookkeeper, tax agent, and CFO operate in separate, uninformed silos.

At Stewart & Smith Advisory, we are deliberately structured to eliminate those silos. Our outsourced service model is built around a single, integrated team where expertise flows instantly, turning your finance function from a fragmented, risky compliance unit into a unified strategic asset.

The Stewart & Smith Integrated Model: One Team, One Client

The core difference between us and traditional service providers is simple: We centralise expertise around you. Your outsourced team is not a solo bookkeeper; it is a multi-disciplinary unit where technical questions are resolved instantly, mitigating risk and driving higher quality advice.

The Power of Side-by-Side Expertise

Shift 1: Automation and the Rise of the Strategic Bookkeeper

The last five years have seen the manual tasks of bookkeeping entirely automated, driving the need for an integrated model.

• AI for Data Integrity: Tools like Dext and Hubdoc use AI and OCR technology to instantly extract and categorise financial data (e.g., GST, supplier, amount) with near-perfect accuracy. This eliminates human error in data entry.
• Time Shift: Our Bookkeeping Specialists spend less time typing and more time on review and exception handling. This time saving is immediately deployed to higher-value activities: verifying complex expense codes or flagging transactions that require senior tax input.

Shift 2: Eliminating Cyber and Compliance Risk

Siloed firms are cyber liabilities. If one person handles payments, they become a single point of failure for hackers using Business Email Compromise (BEC).

Cyber-Hardened Protocols:We eliminate this risk through our integrated, multi-layered security:

• Segregation of Duties: Our Bookkeeping Specialists prepare the payment run; the Fractional CFO (or a director) authorisesthe final payment. No single person controls the movement of funds.
• Bank Verification Protocols:Every request to change bank details (a prime BEC tactic) is subject to an immediate cross-channel verification – an email request is followed by a mandatory phone call to a pre-verified contact, not the email sender.
• Data Security: All sensitive client data is stored on encrypted, cloud-native platforms with strict Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) across our entire team.

Shift 3: Proactive Tax Management vs. Year-End Shock

Traditional firms only look at your profit and loss once a year. An integrated team manages tax in real-time, ensuring the decisions you make today are correctly positioned for future compliance.

• AASB & Transactional Integrity: Complex accounting issues, such as applying AASB 15 Revenue Recognition (e.g., determining if a recurring subscription fee is revenue today or deferred over 12 months), are handled by specialists as the transaction occurs. This ensures your profit figures are not misleading.
• Proactive FBT and Deductions: Why wait until June 30 to discover a cost isn’t deductible? Our Payroll and Tax teams collaborate to ensure all employment-related benefits (like car use or meal entertainment) are correctly documented and, where possible, structured to minimise or utilise FBT exemptions.

Why Stewart & Smith Advisory is the Integrated Solution

We are a tech-enabled finance and accounting firm led by former senior executives (like Founder Kim Stewart-Smith, who has ASX-level governance experience). Our structure guarantees that you always receive a seamless flow of expertise, from the transactional level up to the boardroom.

If you are a founder who needs more than just historical reporting. If you need a partner who protects your cash, enhances your profitability, and uses cutting-edge technology. You need a modern finance and accounting team where there are no gaps and no silos.

Would you like to schedule an initial consultation to review your current finance structure and see how an integrated team can reduce your business risk?