An agency CFO case study from New Zealand: how numero went from knowing revenue and the bank balance to running every pricing and hiring call against real benchmarks.
In this guide:
- Who Is numero?
- What Was Missing Before Trimline?
- Which Benchmarks Changed the Picture?
- How Does numero Make Decisions Now?
- How Does the Forecast Help With Hiring?
- What Would Richard Tell Another Agency Founder?
Ready to see what your numbers actually look like? Book a call with Trimline.
numero knew its revenue and its bank balance, but not what a healthy agency its size should look like. Once we put real agency benchmarks next to their numbers, Richard could see which service lines made money, price with confidence, and test every hire against the forecast before making it. Now the whole leadership team works to the same scorecard.
This is a real agency with real names. Richard Gilbert is the founder of numero, and he sat down with me on camera to talk about what changed. Every quote below is his, straight from that conversation.
Watch: Richard tells the story (3 min):
1. Who Is numero?
An independent agency in New Zealand, led by founder Richard Gilbert, with a leadership team that wanted to grow on numbers instead of instinct.
Richard is a founder who’s great at the work and great at selling it. What he didn’t have, like most founders, was a yardstick. He could tell you what came in and what was in the bank. He couldn’t tell you whether those numbers were good.
numero is also proof that this works across the Tasman. Everything we do runs remotely, and the benchmarks and monthly meetings work exactly the same over there as they do in Sydney.
2. What Was Missing Before Trimline?
A picture of what good looks like. Richard knew the top line and the bank balance, but had no benchmark to tell him whether his margins, wages or service lines were healthy.
Here’s how Richard put it:
“I knew our revenue and I knew what was in the bank, but I couldn’t have told you with confidence what a healthy agency our size should look like.”
That’s the most common blind spot we see. Your accountant tells you what happened last year. Your bank app tells you what’s there today. Neither tells you whether the agency is shaped right, and that’s the question that decides your profit.
3. Which Benchmarks Changed the Picture?
Gross profit after delivery, revenue per full-time employee, and the share of revenue going to wages. Put next to real agency benchmarks, they showed which service lines were making money and which were just keeping people busy.
Richard said the benchmarks were what got him excited when we first came on board, because they’d been a real unknown. We looked at three things.
The first was gross profit at each layer: after delivery, after wages and after fixed costs. The second was revenue per head, so per full-time employee. The third was the wage ratio, meaning how much of your revenue can go to wages before it starts eating into profit.
Then we broke it down by service line, and that’s where it got interesting:
“For the first time I could see which service lines were profitable and which ones were just keeping people busy.”
Every agency has at least one service like this. It feels busy, the team likes doing it, and it drags the whole margin down. You can’t fix it until you can see it.
4. How Does numero Make Decisions Now?
Against a target, not a hunch. Each month Richard sees gross profit by service line against the benchmark, so pricing, hiring and retainer decisions all start from the same numbers.
“I run numero on numbers, not on gut feel. Each month I can see gross profit by service line against the benchmark. So pricing and hiring and retainer decisions are made against the target, not a hunch.”
The biggest change he noticed was pricing. Richard now feels confident pricing new services, because he knows what margin a service needs to hit and can check whether the price gets there.
It’s changed the room too. We run the monthly finance meeting with Richard and his leadership team, and everyone’s looking at the same thing:
“The conversations with our leadership team have changed as well, because everybody’s working to the same scorecard and the same benchmarks and numbers.”
That’s the part founders usually underestimate. A shared scorecard ends a lot of arguments before they start.
5. How Does the Forecast Help With Hiring?
Richard can test a hire before he makes it. He puts in who, how much and when, and the forecast shows whether it fits the revenue coming in, or whether to hire a month earlier or later.
Every month we update a forecast built for numero. Richard explained how he uses it:
“I can say, right, I want to hire three people. They’re going to be paid this much, there’s going to be an uplift of this much for KiwiSaver or any bonus, and I want to take them on, call it, the 1st of November. And it will let me know: does that fit with the forecasted revenue for that period, or should I hire them a month earlier or later?”
Hiring on a good month is the most expensive habit in agency land. A hire is a commitment of a year or more, so it should be tested against the year ahead, not the last few weeks of sales.
If you want to check your own timing, start with when can I afford to hire someone?
6. What Would Richard Tell Another Agency Founder?
Get someone who tells you what your numbers should be, not just what they were. Without benchmarks you’re guessing, and the cost of a CFO is small next to the cost of guessing wrong.
I asked Richard what he’d say to a founder weighing it up. He started with the difference between an accountant and a CFO:
“An accountant will tell you what’s happened historically. A good fractional CFO is going to tell you what your numbers should be and what to change to get there, rather than just looking at your historic P&L.”
Then he named the gap most founders never get taught:
“No one really teaches you the benchmarks when you’re coming up. So if you can’t say what your gross margin or revenue per head or your wage ratio are, and what they should be, then you’re guessing. And it’s pretty hard to get to 10 mil ARR with guesswork.”
And he finished with the line that made me smile:
“The cost is small next to the cost of one bad hire, or a year of underpriced retainers. The ROI is definitely there to be had.. you should hire Trimline.”
That’s the job of a fractional CFO who knows agencies: put your numbers next to what good looks like, then make the big calls together and make sure they happen.
Want to see other agency stories? Read how a creative agency grew net profit 26% in six months, how a tech agency grew revenue 66%, or how The ID Crowd went from two weeks of cash to a successful sale.
Agency Benchmarks FAQ
Which benchmarks should an agency track?
Start with three: gross profit (after delivery, after wages and after fixed costs), revenue per full-time employee, and the share of revenue going to wages. Then break gross profit down by service line. You can see how Australian agencies compare on our agency benchmarks page.
How does a forecast help with hiring decisions?
It lets you test a hire before you make it. Put in the salary, on-costs and start date, and the forecast shows whether the revenue coming in can carry it, or whether to move the start date a month either way.
Do you work with agencies in New Zealand?
Yes. numero is in New Zealand, and everything runs remotely. The reporting, monthly finance meetings and forecasts work the same in New Zealand as in Australia.
Is an agency CFO worth the cost?
Richard’s view is that the cost is small next to one bad hire or a year of underpriced retainers. If you’re still weighing it up, here’s how to tell if a fractional CFO is worth it.
