Professional Services Advisory

Firms commonly operate through partnerships, companies, or trusts, often with a service entity alongside. The right structure depends on the firm’s size, profession, and succession plans, and professional or regulatory rules can restrict the options in some professions. An Ascentium adviser can review which structure fits your firm.

The ATO has published practical compliance guidance on how profits from professional firms are allocated between practitioners and related entities.

Arrangements that fall outside that guidance can attract review, so profit allocation should be assessed against the current settings rather than set and forgotten.

It typically covers banking and reconciliations, accounts payable and receivable, payroll, and management reporting built around practice metrics such as utilisation, recovery, and lockup, with finance leader-level support added as the firm scales.

They can, where the firm develops its own technology, methods, or products through genuine experimental activity aimed at resolving technical unknowns.

Routine client delivery does not qualify. Ascentium has supported consulting firms through this distinction, including streamlining claims for a technology consulting firm.

Yes. We provide structuring, tax, and due diligence support for partner admissions and retirements, mergers, and acquisitions, so equity transitions are orderly and tax aware.

Yes. We work with practices at every stage, from sole practitioners and boutique firms through to multi-partner groups professionalising their operations as they grow.