Straight answers, before you pick up the phone.
What each service costs, how long it takes, what you need to provide and what you get at the end.
About working with Wickham Advisory
What does Wickham Advisory do?
Wickham Advisory is a Brisbane-based financial modelling and advisory practice. It builds financial models and decision-ready reports for Queensland councils, body corporates and growing businesses: financial health checks, fees and charges reviews, long-term financial plans, business cases, procurement spend analysis, tender pricing, finance-ready packs for lenders, sinking fund forecasts and business operating reviews.
Where do you work?
The practice is based in Brisbane and works with clients across Queensland. Most work is done from your documents, so regional councils and schemes are served the same way as those in South East Queensland.
Where does the name Wickham come from?
From Wickham Terrace, the street running from Brisbane’s city centre up to Spring Hill that has long been home to the city’s specialists. The name is a statement of the standard we work to. The practice is situated in Brisbane.
Are your fees fixed?
Yes. Every engagement is a fixed fee for a written scope, agreed before work starts. Half is invoiced on signing and the balance on delivery, payable within 14 days. Anything outside the scope is quoted in writing before it starts.
Do your prices include GST?
Fees are quoted plus GST, and the website shows the GST-inclusive amount next to each one. Every tax invoice shows the GST separately.
Who does the work?
Every engagement is delivered personally by the principal, Rhury McDonough: the person on the first call builds the model and presents the findings.
Do we keep the model?
Yes. You receive the model unlocked, formula-driven and documented, with no macros and no licence fee, so your team can run the scenarios after the engagement ends.
Is this financial advice?
No. Wickham Advisory provides financial modelling and advisory services to organisations. It does not provide personal financial product advice, legal or tax advice, audit, building inspection or valuation services.
Do you use AI tools?
Yes, to help read and organise the documents you send and to draft working papers. Every figure is checked against its source document, the model's own checks must pass, and every deliverable is reviewed and signed off by the principal before it is issued.
How do we get started?
Book a 20-minute call through the contact page. You will receive a fixed-fee proposal within three business days, setting out the scope, deliverables, timetable and exclusions.
Financial Health Check
How much does a council financial health check cost?
From $4,500 plus GST ($4,950 including GST), fixed for the agreed scope, delivered in about 10 business days from complete information.
Which measures do you use?
The financial sustainability measures and targets in the Queensland Government's Financial Management (Sustainability) Guideline for your council's tier, which are also the measures the Queensland Audit Office reports on, with peer benchmarking where comparable data is available.
What do we need to provide?
Recent audited financial statements, the current budget and long-term forecast, and the asset management plan or asset register summary. A one-page checklist sets out the full list.
Is it an audit?
No. It is an independent assessment of financial position and sustainability. It is not audit or assurance and is not an opinion on the financial statements.
Fees, Charges and Cost Recovery Review
How much does a fees and charges review cost?
From $12,000 plus GST ($13,200 including GST), usually over six to eight weeks.
What does it produce?
A costing of every fee line against its cost centre with a documented overhead allocation, a recovery rate for each fee, a recommended schedule with any phase-in, and a cost-recovery policy council can adopt.
Can councils charge full cost recovery?
Councils set cost-recovery fees under their own legislation and policy, and many deliberately subsidise some services. The review shows what each fee actually recovers so council can decide, line by line, where it wants to recover cost and where it intends a subsidy.
Long Term Financial Planning
How much does a long-term financial plan cost?
From $20,000 plus GST ($22,000 including GST), scoped to the council's size and data, usually over eight to twelve weeks.
What is in the model?
A three-statement model (operating result, cash and balance sheet) over ten years, linked to the asset management plan, with scenario switches for rates, grants, the capital program and borrowing, and the sustainability ratios projected for each scenario.
Can our finance team update it later?
Yes. The model is handed over unlocked and documented. An annual refresh is available if you would rather it was rolled forward for you.
Business Cases and Feasibility Studies
How much does a business case cost?
From $15,000 plus GST ($16,500 including GST), scoped to the project and the funder's requirements, usually over six to ten weeks.
Do you write to the funder's template?
Yes. Where a funding program or approval body specifies a business case framework or template, the case is structured to it.
What does the analysis cover?
Options analysis, whole-of-life costs, funding and affordability, and risks, with a clear recommendation.
Procurement Spend Analysis
How much does a procurement spend analysis cost?
From $10,000 plus GST ($11,000 including GST), usually over four to six weeks.
What data do you need?
Around three years of accounts payable transactions exported from the finance system, and the contract register.
What do we get?
Spend classified into categories and matched to contracts, off-contract spend, supplier concentration and the consolidation opportunities quantified in dollars.
Tender Pricing and Commercial Response
How much does tender pricing support cost?
From $2,500 plus GST ($2,750 including GST) per bid, timed to the tender close.
Do you write the whole tender?
No. The service covers the cost build-up, margin and risk pricing, the pricing schedule in the tender's format and the commercial response. Technical and methodology sections stay with your team.
How quickly can you turn a bid around?
Work is aligned to the tender close date. The earlier you get in touch after the tender is released, the more options there are to test the price.
Finance Ready Pack
How much does a finance-ready pack cost?
$3,000 to $8,000 plus GST ($3,300 to $8,800 including GST), depending on the size of the business and the facility, over three to four weeks.
What does a lender want to see?
A three-way forecast (profit, cash flow and balance sheet), evidence the business can service the debt, the covenant tests the lender will apply, and a clear explanation of the assumptions. The pack presents them in the order a credit analyst reads them.
Do you arrange the loan?
No. Wickham Advisory prepares the financial information; the lending decision and any credit products are between you and your lender or broker.
Body Corporate Sinking Fund Forecast
How much does a sinking fund forecast cost in Queensland?
From $6,000 plus GST ($6,600 including GST) for a standard residential scheme, over four to six weeks from receiving the quantity surveyor's report and the scheme's records.
Does the forecast meet the nine-year requirement?
Yes. Under the Standard Module, the sinking fund budget must provide for major expenditure reasonably anticipated over at least the next nine years. The forecast is built to that requirement and holds the full 20-year detail regardless of the horizon you choose. Your body corporate manager can confirm the requirements of your scheme's regulation module.
Do we need a quantity surveyor's report?
Yes. The forecast is built on an asset register with condition, remaining life and replacement cost, normally from a quantity surveyor's report dated within the last three years. Wickham Advisory does not inspect buildings or estimate replacement costs.
Can it help us avoid a special levy?
It shows, years in advance, whether current contributions will cover the major works coming up, and gives the committee a contribution schedule that funds them without a shock, so a special levy can usually be avoided or planned for.
Annual Refresh (Sinking Fund or LTFP)
What is an annual refresh?
Rolling an existing sinking fund forecast or long-term financial plan forward a year with actual results, with a change log against last year's version and a two-page summary for the AGM or budget meeting. It is available for models Wickham Advisory has built.
How much does it cost?
From $2,000 plus GST ($2,200 including GST), over about two weeks.
Business Operating Review
How much does a business operating review cost?
$5,500 plus GST ($6,050 including GST), or $8,500 plus GST ($9,350 including GST) for the extended version, over about three weeks from complete information.
Who is it for?
Owners of established businesses with roughly $1m to $20m turnover and 5 to 100 staff who are busy, growing or stuck and not sure which.
What do we get?
A one-page scorecard across six areas, compared with the ATO's industry benchmarks, the three improvements worth most in dollars, a 90-day plan and a 90-minute debrief workshop.
What happens afterwards?
An optional Quarterly Pulse ($1,650 plus GST a quarter, $1,815 including GST) re-scores the business and tracks progress on the plan.