34 days ▲ 16 days since April
For professional services
Firms that sell expertise deserve numbers they can act on.
Visory runs bookkeeping, payroll, accounts payable and accounts receivable for Australian agencies, architecture practices, consulting firms and law firms, with a dedicated team and Delphi AI under their oversight. Once a month, Visory Insights shows which work makes money and what to do next.
- Every invoice raised and followed up in your name, from retainers, milestones, and time billed, so debtor days are known at every month-end.
- Every pay run owned by a named Payroll Officer, checked by Delphi AI before it is paid: salaried staff against their award, contractor super where it applies, and super inside seven business days.
- Margin by client and project every month, briefed by your Business Performance Partner, in plain English, with one move to make.
Who this is for
Built for firms whose product is their people’s time.
If your fees come from hours, retainers, and milestones, and your biggest cost is the team that delivers the work, this is the finance function for it.
- 5 to 100 people and roughly $750k to $20m in fees, led by a founder, managing director, or managing partner who answers for the result.
- Fees from retainers, fixed-fee projects, milestone claims, and time and materials, often in the same month.
- A team of salaried professionals, with freelancers and contractors brought in as the work demands.
- Time kept in a practice management or project tool, and a ledger that has never quite agreed with it.
Anywhere in Australia. Your books stay in your own Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks file, and your team works with you remotely.
The pressure
Three rules shape your month. All three are about people.
In a firm, most of the cost is people, so the rules that bite are people rules: who counts as staff, when their super is due, and what a salary actually covers. Each one lands in the pay run or the bills, and each one changes what a project really cost.
An ABN on the invoice settles nothing.
A freelancer who works set hours on your projects, under your direction, month after month, can be an employee in law. The books should show who you rely on, for how long, and what they would cost on the payroll.
Set by Fair Work Act 2009, section 15AA
Whether a worker is an employee or a contractor turns on the real substance, practical reality, and true nature of the relationship, including how the contract works in practice, not only what it says. To defend a sham contracting claim, a business must show it reasonably believed the worker was a contractor.
Fair Work Act 2009, section 15AA, effective 26 August 2024; section 357 defence, effective 27 February 2024.A paid contractor bill can start a super clock.
Freelancer invoices need the same check as the pay run, so super on the labour part is worked out and paid inside the week, not found at year-end.
Set by Payday Super; SG Administration Act
Super guarantee contributions must reach the fund within seven business days of each payday. A contractor paid wholly or principally for their own labour is an employee for super purposes, whether or not they quote an ABN, and for a contractor paid by invoice, the payday is the day the invoice is paid.
Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992, section 12(3); Australian Taxation Office, Payday Super guidance, effective 1 July 2026.The timesheet is a payroll record, not only a billing one.
The hours that build work in progress are the hours an award can turn into overtime, so long weeks on a fixed salary are checked as they happen, not discovered at the annual reconciliation.
Set by Modern awards and the Fair Work Act
Under the Professional Employees Award, full-time staff are paid for hours over 38 a week unless their salary is at least 25% above the award minimum. The Architects Award pays overtime at 150%. Where the Clerks or Legal Services award applies, an annualised salary is checked against the award every 12 months and any shortfall paid within 14 days. Time and wages records are kept for seven years.
Professional Employees Award 2020 (MA000065), clause 18, effective 16 September 2023; Architects Award 2020 (MA000079), clause 17; Clerks award (MA000002), clause 18; Legal Services Award 2020 (MA000116), clause 17.Every instrument named here is listed with its effective date at the foot of this page.
What the leadership team sees each month
Four numbers that say whether the work is paying.
Fees, July to September $1.51m In line with plan By service line and by client
Billable utilisation 76% Within the 75 to 80% target Billable hours against hours available
Unbilled work in progress 34 days ▲ above the 20-day target Work done but not yet invoiced, in days of fees
Debtor days 41 days Within the 45-day target Average time from invoice to cash
Would every contractor you paid last quarter pass the whole-relationship test? A senior member of the Visory team can walk through your pay run and contractor bills with you, before anything is agreed.
Book a discovery callWhat we run for professional services firms
From accurate processing to leadership confidence.
Visory Insights leads. The basics underneath it make it trustworthy and free your team for the work that matters, run by a dedicated team with Delphi AI under their oversight.Flat monthly fee. No hourly billing.
- 1 Accurate processing Bookkeeping and payroll done right, every month.
- 2 Clean, reliable data The foundation that makes reporting defensible.
- 3 Meaningful insights Cash, margin, and the year ahead, explained.
- 4 Leadership confidence You present numbers you trust. The plan gets backed.
The leading service
Visory Insights
Utilisation, unbilled work, project margin, and debtor days, explained once a month with one move to make. A named partner who walks the leadership team through the numbers before the next hire or the next fee proposal.
See how Visory Insights works- Monthly plain-English report
- Structured session with your leadership team
- Twelve-month forward view of cash
- A named Business Performance Partner
The basics underneath it
Bookkeeping
Fees and costs coded by client, project, and service line, with costs you on-charge tracked until they reach an invoice.
Explore bookkeepingPayroll
Salaried and casual staff paid against the right award, contractor super checked, and super inside seven business days.
See how payroll runsAccounts payable
Freelancer and contractor invoices captured, coded to the project they served, and paid when you say so.
See accounts payableAccounts receivable
Retainer, milestone, and time-based invoices raised on schedule and followed up in your name.
See accounts receivableLaw firms keep trust accounting with their own specialist. Trust money has rules of its own. For every firm in the group, Visory runs the office account: bookkeeping, payroll, payables, and receivables.
Visory Insights for professional services firms
One month of Visory Insights on a firm’s numbers.
Visory Insights reads the month and says what to do about it. Here is September for Corella & Finch, a fictional design and advisory firm at about $6m in fees with 32 people.
Utilisation held at 76%, so the work is being done. It is not being invoiced. Fourteen days of fees past the target is about $230k of cash waiting on an invoice.
Unbilled milestones $140k At Risk $80k past the $60k the firm lets wait on client sign-off: three fixed-fee projects reached a milestone in August and no claim was raised
Unbilled work in progress Claiming the three milestones and billing two projects monthly invoices $197k, about 12 days of fees
Raise the three milestone claims this week, and move the two longest fixed-fee projects to monthly progress billing. The claims are drafted from the signed-off milestones and the billing schedule is set out, ready for your approval at the session.
≈ $197k invoiced sooner Insight session Accepted 9:00 to 9:45am · Video call 
With your Business Performance Partner
With your Business Performance Partner
Prepared by Delphi AI, checked and briefed by your Business Performance Partner, in plain English, ahead of your next session.
- Monthly plain-English report
- Structured insight sessions
- Utilisation, unbilled work, and debtor days, read together
What is sitting unbilled in your firm right now? A discovery call is a conversation about how you bill, who does the work, and what you want the monthly read to show.
Book a discovery callFits your stack
Works with the tools you already use.
Your ledger and your payroll stay where they are. Visory connects to them and keeps the data flowing every day, so your team and Delphi are working from current numbers.
Accounting and books
Where your ledger and reporting live.
Payroll and people
Pay runs, Single Touch Payroll reporting, and the people behind them.
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Xero Payroll
Practice management and timesheets
Time, jobs, and budgets stay in the practice management or project tool your team already runs. Billed and unbilled time is read from it at each month-end, and bank feeds are matched daily.
Resources for professional services firms
Content written for professional services firms by the expert teams at Visory.
Common questions
Straight answers for professional services firms.
The questions managing directors and partners ask before they hand Visory the finance function. The general ones are on the common questions page.
Can you report utilisation and project margin every month?
Yes. Visory reads billable and non-billable hours from your practice management or project tool, matches them to the fees and costs in the ledger, and reports utilisation, margin by project, and margin by client each month. Firms without timesheets can still start: allocating salaries across service lines gives a first read on which work makes money.
How do you handle work in progress and unbilled time?
At each month-end, unbilled time and costs are read from your practice management tool and reported beside the ledger, so the firm sees what has been done but not invoiced, and for how long. Milestones reached and not yet claimed are flagged, and the invoices are raised once you approve them.
Do we have to pay super for contractors?
Sometimes. A contractor paid wholly or principally for their own labour is an employee for super guarantee purposes, even with an ABN, and super is due on the labour part of their invoice. Under Payday Super it must reach the fund within seven business days of the day you pay that invoice. Visory checks contractor bills as they arrive and includes super where it applies. This is general information, not tax advice.
How do we know if a freelancer is really a contractor?
The Fair Work Act looks at the whole relationship and how it works in practice: who controls the work, who carries the risk, whether the person can send someone else, and whether the work is ongoing. That call is yours, with your legal adviser, and nothing here is legal advice. What Visory adds is the record: the books show who you rely on, for how long, and at what cost, which is usually where the question starts.
Do salaried professionals get paid overtime?
It depends on the award. Engineers, scientists, and IT professionals under the Professional Employees Award are paid for hours over 38 a week unless their salary is at least 25% above the award minimum. Employees under the Architects Award are paid overtime at 150%. Staff on an annualised salary under the Clerks or Legal Services award have it checked against the award every 12 months. Your Payroll Officer records which award covers each person and flags the hours that need checking.
Can you invoice our clients and chase late payments?
Yes. Retainers, milestone claims, and time-and-materials invoices are raised on the schedule you set, sent in your name, and followed up on a cadence you agree. Debtor days are reported every month, client by client, so a slow payer becomes a conversation before it becomes a cash problem.
We are a law firm. Do you handle trust accounting?
No. The trust account runs under its own rules and stays with your firm and its trust account specialist. Visory runs the office side of the practice: bookkeeping, payroll, payables, receivables, and the monthly read on billing, work in progress, and cash.
See Visory for law firms Do you work with our practice management software?
Yes, whichever you run. Time, jobs, and budgets stay where they are. Visory reads billed and unbilled time from it at each month-end and keeps the ledger in your own Xero, MYOB, or QuickBooks file.
How much does Visory cost?
Visory charges one flat monthly fee for the scope we agree. No timesheets, no hourly billing, no surprises. The fee reflects the services you take and the volume of work in your firm, from the size of the pay run to the number of invoices and bills each month, so you know the monthly cost before you start.
See how pricing works More questions, longer answers. Every question has its own link. See all common questions
General information for professional services firms, not financial or tax advice.
Getting started
Start with clarity, not a contract.
Three steps, in whatever rhythm suits you. Each one is useful on its own.
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Book a discovery call
An obligation-free conversation about how your firm bills, who does the work, and what you want the numbers to show.
Obligation-free -
Get your free financial health check
A senior member of the Visory team analyses your financials and shows where your finance function can improve. See the clarity before you commit to anything.
Free · your own numbers -
See how Visory works in practice
A walkthrough of Visory running the books and the monthly read for a firm of your shape. If it fits, we agree a flat monthly scope.
Flat monthly fee
Get started
Know which work makes money before you price the next job.
Start with a discovery call. A senior member of the Visory team then runs the free financial health check on your own numbers and shows you where the margin is going.
Sources (7) · rules last checked 8 October 2026
- Fair Work Act 2009, section 15AA: meaning of employee and employer, the real substance, practical reality, and true nature of the relationship, effective 26 August 2024; section 357: sham contracting defence of reasonable belief, effective 27 February 2024.
- Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992, section 12(3): a contract wholly or principally for a person’s labour makes them an employee for super guarantee purposes; Australian Taxation Office, Taxation Ruling TR 2023/4.
- Australian Taxation Office, Payday Super: contributions received within seven business days of payday, and for contractors paid by invoice the payday is the date the invoice is paid, effective 1 July 2026.
- Professional Employees Award 2020 (MA000065), clause 18: overtime above 38 hours a week, and the exemption for salaries 25% or more above the award minimum, effective 16 September 2023.
- Architects Award 2020 (MA000079), clause 17: overtime at 150% of the minimum hourly rate, as varied from 1 August 2023.
- Clerks award (MA000002), clause 18, and Legal Services Award 2020 (MA000116), clause 17: annualised wage arrangements, reconciled every 12 months with any shortfall paid within 14 days; Legal Services clause effective 1 March 2020, Clerks clause as varied from 11 July 2022.
- Fair Work Act 2009 and Fair Work Regulations 2009: time and wages records kept for seven years.