Fractional CFO Services for South African SMEs
Helping businesses navigate financial complexity and achieve enduring success.
Three signs it's time for financial leadership
Managing business finances has become your day job. You're distracted and frustrated because you can't find time to just focus on what your business really needs to do.
Read moreStatements, recons and management accounts that you don't really understand make no difference in your decisions, planning or preparations. It's admin, necessary but mostly pointless. When decisions come around you're left with gut feel and best guesses.
Cash flow pressures catch you by surprise. Last-minute scrambles to cover a critical payment. Too much money tied up in stock or debtors. You're unsure about buying new equipment or making the next hire.
Read moreManaging your finances is always after the fact. Financial statements and recons are necessary disciplines, but they only show you what already happened. You don't have a reliable way to use your financial data when the decisions must be made.
You feel like finances stand in the way of achieving your vision. You know what your business needs, but you're just not getting there.
Read moreYour turnover is good, profits might even be growing, but the bank balance doesn't show it? When your finances and your strategy are not in sync, it's always strategy that suffers.
Senior financial leadership, on a fractional basis.
Your accountant keeps the books accurate. Your tax adviser keeps you compliant. You're not ready for a full-time Finance Director but you need someone to manage the finances while you manage the business.
The real value isn't a monthly report.
Brightstar Advisory provides professionally qualified financial leadership for growing companies: proactive cash flow management, working capital optimisation, and financial risk management. We implement financial management best practices, coordinate with finance service providers, extract insights that support your business decisions and deliver projects and initiatives to accelerate your success. Finance becomes an input to your decisions, not just output after the fact.
We call it Fractional CFO; you may have heard of virtual CFO, outsourced CFO or part-time CFO. It's financial expertise without the fixed cost of a permanent executive. You get a finance business partner who knows your business and brings you the details you need to be a better leader.
We also bring modern financial tools and AI-enabled automations into your finance function: less manual work, faster reporting, systems that improve over time.
We don't offer bookkeeping, payroll, accounts receivable/payable management, or tax administration services. We work with the staff or service providers that perform these functions to maximise their value to your business.
Financial leadership tailored to your business needs.
Core
Know your numbers. Run your business.
Starting from R30,000/month
Core
Financial management fundamentals and best practice: proactive cash flow management, performance analysis, risk management, budgets with review. Core is the foundation of a finance function that enables growth.
Starting from R30,000/month
Premium
Where financial discipline turns into business results.
Starting from R50,000/month
Premium
Beyond the fundamentals. Premium integrates finance into the rest of your business: helping you define and execute your strategy, improving strategic alignment across business areas and delivering finance projects each year.
Starting from R50,000/month
Executive
In the boardroom, at the table.
Starting from R90,000/month
Executive
Handing finance over to a trusted professional is necessary, you lead with the right people to support you. Executive is the last step before a full-time hire, now finance becomes a flywheel for growth.
Starting from R90,000/month
I had the pleasure of working with Jean-Pierre Theron while developing the business plan for Ilco Farming, and I can confidently say his support was invaluable. From the very beginning, he demonstrated a clear understanding of our industry and helped turn our vision into a solid, professional, and investor-ready plan.
Jean-Pierre guided us through each step of the process — from market analysis to financial projections — always ensuring that the plan remained realistic, compliant, and aligned with our goals. Thanks to his expertise, we now have a roadmap that not only reflects our mission but also sets us up for growth and long-term success.
I highly recommend Jean-Pierre to anyone looking for guidance in building a strategic, well-structured business plan. His insight, dedication, and professionalism made all the difference.
Finance expertise, built for SMEs.
JP Theron is a Chartered Accountant and CFA® charterholder. He spent his career in corporate banking, supporting executives at large multinational companies. He founded Brightstar Advisory to bring that same level of financial leadership to South African SMEs.
Still managing without dedicated financial leadership?
One conversation about where your business is and where you want it to be. No obligation, no charge.