FAQ

We start with a free consultation — a 30-minute conversation where we understand your business, your data, and what decisions you need to make. From there we send a clear scope and fixed-price quote. Once you approve it, we get to work. Delivery includes a walkthrough so you can use and maintain the output going forward.

No. The initial consultation is always free, with no obligation. It's a conversation — we want to understand your problem properly before recommending anything, and you should be comfortable with our approach before committing to anything.

You work directly with our founder and principal consultant throughout the engagement. For larger projects, a bigger team or specialist contractors may be brought in, but the lead analyst, your main point of contact, and accountability for quality remain with our founder.

We're fully remote, which means we can serve clients anywhere across Australia — Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, or regional. All meetings are via video call, and all deliverables are shared digitally. If you're based in Sydney and prefer an in-person meeting, we're happy to arrange that too.

Not much at first. For the initial consultation, just a plain-language description of what you're trying to understand or decide, and if you have it, a rough idea of the data you're working with. We'll ask follow-up questions from there. A full data handover only happens once a scope is agreed and you're ready to proceed.

Yes, and this is one of the most common situations we work through. Bring us your problem, not a product brief. Tell us what decision you're trying to make, what data you have, or what question you can't answer from your current reports. We'll help you work out what the right output is.

Yes. Most of our clients are small to medium businesses who want analysis that used to require a large firm but couldn't justify the cost. Fixed pricing means you know what you're committing to before work starts, and our outputs are built for teams without a dedicated data team to maintain them.

We work across a range of industries including retail, professional services, technology, finance, property, and more. The analytical fundamentals apply broadly, and we adapt to the specifics of your business. The one constant is that we work with quantitative data; if numbers drive your decisions, we can help.

All engagements are fixed-price — we scope the work first, agree a number, and that is what you pay. For ongoing engagements like monthly reporting retainers, we offer monthly retainer arrangements at a fixed monthly fee. For analytical projects where the full scope isn't clear upfront, we will discuss it with you and agree a fixed price before starting.

Project cost varies depending on scope and complexity — anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. A focused piece of work such as a single financial model or a reporting automation sits at the lower end; complex investor-ready models or multi-dataset reporting systems will be priced accordingly. We'll give you a clear, itemised quote after the initial consultation so you can make an informed decision.

For most fixed-price projects we typically require a 20% deposit before work begins, with the remainder due on delivery. We may increase, reduce, or waive this depending on the engagement — milestone-based payments are also available for larger projects. Everything is outlined in the engagement agreement you'll receive before any work starts.

Fixed-price quotes are binding on our side. If a project turns out to be more complex than scoped, we absorb that — you won't be charged more than the quoted amount unless you ask us to expand the scope. If you do request additional work, we'll provide a separate written quote before proceeding. There are no surprise invoices.

We work in Python, R, Excel, and Google Sheets — whichever best fits your needs and what your team will actually maintain. For dashboards we use tools that your team already has access to. We don't push particular software stacks; we match the tool to the job.

Turnaround depends on scope and complexity. Focused projects — a single model or a reporting automation — typically take one to two weeks. More complex engagements such as multi-scenario investor models or full data pipelines may take three to six weeks. We'll give you a realistic timeline in the scoping document before work begins.

We offer monthly retainer arrangements for clients who want ongoing analytical support — model updates, new reports, ad-hoc analysis, or simply someone to call when a data question comes up. We can discuss this at the end of a project or from the outset if you know ongoing support will be needed.

Yes — we work with whatever data you have, in whatever format it's in. Part of our job is cleaning and structuring data before the analysis begins. If your data is messy, incomplete, or spread across multiple sources, that's not a problem — it's something we handle routinely.

Yes, and that's intentional. Every deliverable is documented and handed over with a walkthrough so you can make routine updates without needing to come back to us. Models are structured to be readable and maintainable by a non-technical user. If you ever want us to make updates or add functionality later, we're available for that — but the goal is that you're not dependent on us for day-to-day use.

Commercial questions with a quantitative answer. The most common requests are customer and product profitability analysis — finding where margin is concentrated and where it is leaking — and sales and performance analysis — understanding what is driving growth, what is declining, and why. If the answer is likely to be in your data, bring us the question and we will tell you honestly what is possible.

A cash flow model focuses on the timing and movement of cash — what's coming in, what's going out, and what your bank balance will look like at any point in time. A financial model is broader: it typically includes a profit and loss projection, balance sheet, and cash flow statement, along with scenario analysis and assumptions. Most businesses start by needing one or the other; we'll help you identify which fits your situation.

We treat all client data as strictly confidential. We are happy to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) before any data is shared, and we include confidentiality provisions in our standard engagement agreement. Data is handled securely and is not shared with any third parties.

All sample work shown on our website is fully desensitised — any client identity, real entities, and actual data are completely removed and replaced. What you see reflects real work in terms of methodology and output structure, but it is entirely unrecognisable from the original. No client data, IP, or identifying information is ever uploaded or displayed.

No. Arkfield Analytics provides financial analysis and modelling services, not regulated financial advice or accounting services. Our deliverables are analytical tools and forecasts to support your decision-making — they do not constitute financial advice, tax advice, or actuarial certification. We always recommend engaging a registered accountant or financial adviser for decisions that require regulated advice, and our work is often designed to sit alongside, not replace, that advice.