Fractional CFO · Turnaround Advisory · SEQ Construction & Trades

Working harder than ever — and the bank balance doesn't show it?

reSolvent Advisory provides fractional CFO and turnaround advisory for construction and trades businesses across South East Queensland. Whatever the situation — we make businesses solvent.

Book a confidential Financial Health Check See how it works ↓

Free, and without obligation.

In before it's too late Job-by-job margins 13-week cash flow South East Queensland
The feeling

You know the feeling.

Most owners feel it before the numbers show it.

CASH

The jobs keep coming, the crews are flat out — but every month the cash gets tighter.

MARGIN

A project quoted at 22% margin finished at 6% — and nobody can tell you where the 16 points went.

PAPER vs BANK

The jobs make money on paper but not in the bank.

TIMING

Progress claims go out late, retentions sit unclaimed, and the BAS is due before the next drawdown lands.

If that's your desk right now, keep reading — this page was built for you.

Where we sit

The empty seat in the middle.

When a good business starts bleeding, the market offers two doors: a strategic plan that's too light, or a liquidator that's too final. reSolvent fills the seat between them.

Beside us

Your accountant

Tax, BAS and compliance — that stays exactly where it belongs: with them. We work alongside your accountant, not instead of them.

The turnaround seat

reSolvent

In while it can still be fixed. Embedded financial leadership that steadies the cash, rebuilds the margins, and works until the business doesn't need us.

The last resort

Formal insolvency

Administrators and liquidators do necessary work — when it's over. Our job is to make sure it never gets that far.

We're not insolvency practitioners, and we're not a generic growth partner — we're the financial leadership that keeps you from ever needing one.

The patterns

We've met your business before.

Every drifting business is one of three: lost, stuck or stretched. The trades and names change — the patterns don't. Open the one that sounds like yours.

Lost

The builder in the fog

The ground moved — and the map's out of date.

 +

A second-generation building company, solid book of work, revenue up every year — which is exactly why it took so long to notice the profit wasn't. QBCC requirements changed, material costs moved, contracts got tougher. The reports still track the same numbers they did ten years ago, and none of them are the ones that decide the result: crew utilisation, quotes converted, margin per job.

The turn

Map the three or four drivers that actually run the business — then build reporting the owner can steer by, not just look back at.

Starts with Clarity
Stuck

The trade with the leak

Effort going in. Nothing moving.

 +

A family trade business where everyone works harder every year and the cash gets tighter every month. The ERP is paid for and barely used — costing lives in a spreadsheet and the foreman's head, so nobody can say which jobs make money. Clients quietly stretched to 45-day payments; suppliers still get paid in 14. Bonuses reward being busy, not being profitable.

The turn

Find the leak job by job, fix the terms mismatch, and rebuild cash around the next progress claim — then make the numbers a weekly habit.

Starts with Clarity → Control
Stretched

The owner who became the system

The business outgrew its systems — and you're the bottleneck.

 +

A maintenance contractor that doubled in three years. Every process lives in the owner's head, five apps don't talk to each other, and the admin follows him home every night. The business grew; the systems didn't — so the owner became the system, and the family got what was left over.

The turn

Document it, connect it, then put automation and AI to work on the admin — so growth gives back time instead of taking it.

Starts with Foundation → Growth

Composite sketches drawn from real engagements — no single business described.

Three states. One method. Whichever one is yours, the way through starts in the same place — a confidential conversation.

The method CLARITY → CONTROL → FOUNDATION → GROWTH

Four phases. One direction: up.

Every engagement runs the same proven sequence — because a turnaround has an order, and skipping steps is how businesses crack. And if the business isn't bleeding, Control simply steps aside.

PHASE 01

Clarity

Know exactly where you stand.

A forensic deep dive into how the business really runs — where the cash goes, which jobs and divisions make money, and where the costing, systems and reporting are letting the truth slip through. No more guessing which projects make money — and which are quietly eating the ones that do.

Our Approach+
Start here — free Confidential Financial Health Check A confidential 30-minute conversation: what’s happening, how urgent it is, what comes next.
Then, if it’s needed Clarity Diagnostic — ten business days Where the cash is going, which jobs make money, how much runway you have, and what to decide first.
PHASE 02 · WHEN NEEDED

Control

Stop the bleeding. Steady the job.

Cash rebuilt around the next progress claim. The hard calls made early — suppliers, pricing, and the jobs that need to stop.

Our Approach+
The engagement 30-Day Cash & Margin Control Sprint In 30 days: a live 13-week cash view, job-by-job margins, and a weekly rhythm that turns numbers into decisions.
When it’s more serious 90-Day Turnaround Partnership Embedded turnaround leadership — stabilise, repair, and hand back a business you can control.
PHASE 03

Foundation

Get the footings right.

Systems that hold: an ERP that tells the truth, reporting the bank believes, and a weekly rhythm the team can run without you chasing it.

Our Approach+
The engagement Foundation rebuild Job costing, ERP, reporting and accountabilities repaired — inside the Sprint or Partnership, so the improvement holds.
PHASE 04

Growth

Grow without the cracks.

Take on bigger work knowing the margin, the cash and the capacity are real — because growing too fast is exactly what cracks an undercapitalised builder. And a business that grows without you standing over it gives you back your time, not just more turnover.

Our Approach+
The engagement Financial Control Partner Ongoing financial leadership — cash controlled, margins protected, growth decisions honest. Without a full-time CFO.

You wouldn't run a site from the office. We don't run a turnaround from a spreadsheet.

In the trenches

Embedded in the business, not reviewing it from a distance — sleeves rolled up, working alongside you. On site, in the ERP, on the creditor calls.

Straight answers

You'll always know exactly where you stand — plain English, no jargon, no spin. Even when the news is bad. Especially then.

Fast moves

In a turnaround, weeks matter. Inside your first 30 days: a live 13-week cash flow forecast, a full project margin audit, and a one-page 90-day plan. That's a commitment, not a target.

Case Study Zero

It started with one.

A family friend's construction business — I spent four months inside it, helping them turn it around: identifying the margin creep, chasing down the uncaptured costs, and pulling the data out of their system so they were looking at leading indicators, not trailing ones.

And the whole time I kept thinking — every accountant has a client like this, and there's nowhere good to send them. It's either a strategic plan that's too light, or a liquidator that's too final. That empty seat in the middle is what reSolvent was built to fill.

WALTER LOMAX — FOUNDER, RESOLVENT ADVISORY

4 months
Inside the business
+20–30%
Margin improvement
−80%
Reduction in losses

A family-owned SEQ construction business. Details anonymised.

Walter Lomax, founder of reSolvent Advisory
The founder

"Most people with my background arrive when it's over. I arrive while it can still be fixed."

Walter Lomax is a Chartered Accountant with a decade in Big Four restructuring — Deloitte, PwC and EY — and more than a hundred engagements across construction and trades, including a QBCC review of 50 failed construction businesses. Few people have seen more ways a good builder goes broke. Fewer still have caught more of them in time.

Chartered Accountant ARITA Advanced — National Top Mark Young Accountant of the Year 2020 30 Under 30 — Restructuring & Insolvency
For accountants & bookkeepers

You've felt it about a client before the numbers showed it too.

Trouble isn't the only reason to bring us in. Whether a client is drifting or taking off faster than their systems can keep up, that's the seat we fill — alongside you, not instead of you.

When a client has a problem

Somewhere to send them that isn't final.

You've seen the signs before the numbers confirm them. Instead of a strategic plan that's too light or a liquidator that's too final, there's a turnaround seat — in early enough that it's still fixable, with you in the loop the whole way.

When a client's taking off

Sophistication to match the growth.

Fast-growing clients need more than generic board reports — they need funding-ready numbers, forecasting a bank believes, and systems that scale: the tools the big end of town takes for granted. Most owners can't see that need coming. You can. Bring that CFO layer in alongside your work, and your seat at the client's table gets stronger, not smaller.

Tax and compliance stays with you.

We don't do tax, BAS or compliance work — ever. Your client relationship stays exactly where it belongs: with you. We take the turnaround seat, keep you in the loop at every step, and hand back a healthier client. Every introduction starts with a confidential 30-minute Health Check — and sometimes the right next step is sending the client straight back to you.

Let's have a coffee →
Next step

Let's resolve it, together.

Book a confidential Financial Health Check — a straight conversation about where the business stands and what the next 90 days should look like. Free, no obligation, no jargon — and you'll leave knowing more than you came with.

Email walter@resolvent.com.au Direct +61 438 836 793 LinkedIn Walter Lomax