Transformation that sticks.
Built with your people.
Business, digital and AI transformation for owners, CFOs and operating leaders. We work alongside your team and the advisers you already have, and we're still in the room at go-live.
The problem
Most transformations don't fail at the idea. They fail after the handover.
The business gets reviewed, the recommendations get written, the deck gets presented. Then the engagement ends. Six months later the new system is half used, the old spreadsheets are back, and nobody owns the gap between the plan and the way people actually work.
Our measure of success is simple. Not what we hand over on the last day, but what's still running a year later, without us. Advice is easy to give. We stay and operate the change until it holds.
What we do
Your operating partner. In step with the people around you.
We lead the change and work in step with your team and the advisers already around your business. Operating partner in the plainest sense of the words: we operate, alongside you, until the change has landed.
If you lead the finances
A clean ledger, numbers you trust, and a month-end that closes without heroics. You stay the hero. We make the systems worthy of you.
If you own or run the business
Your time back, real visibility, and a business that runs on systems instead of memory. Room to grow, without the growing pains.
If you run the operations
Fewer handoffs, tools that talk to each other, and work that flows without chasing. The process on paper finally matches the process in the room.
How we work
One journey. Six stages. Each one a piece of the picture.
Every engagement runs the same spine, whether it's a targeted fix, a finance function overhaul, a new tech stack, an AI implementation or a custom application. The scale changes. The discipline doesn't. Watch it take shape, stage by stage, from empty block to a building with the lights on.
01Discover
We sit with you and your team, listen to the pain points and watch how the work is actually done today. Not how the manual says it's done. What comes out is a clear picture of the current state and a shortlist of what's worth fixing first.
In this stage
- Current state review, on site
- Pain point mapping with the team
- First process maps
- Quick wins identified early
02Map & Design
Current processes mapped and visualised so everyone can see the same picture. Then we design the future state and choose the tools. We pick the right tool for you, not the one we're paid to push. We don't take referral commissions, so the recommendation is the recommendation.
In this stage
- Process mapping and visualisation
- Vendor assessment and selection
- Future state design
- A practical, sequenced roadmap
03Build
Systems implemented, integrated and connected. Off the shelf where it fits, custom built where it doesn't. Data comes across cleanly and the pieces talk to each other, so nobody is re-keying between tools.
In this stage
- Implementation and configuration
- Integrations between systems
- Data migration
- Custom builds where nothing off the shelf fits
04Test & Refine
Tested with the people who will use it, not in a lab. We run real work through the new system, find where it fights the way your team operates, and refine until it fits. This is where adoption is won or lost.
In this stage
- Testing with real transactions and real users
- Refinement rounds
- Process adjustments where the tool won't bend
05Go-Live
Cutover, training at the desk, and documentation your team will actually use. We're in the room when it goes live, not on the end of a support ticket. The old way is switched off deliberately, not left running in parallel forever.
In this stage
- Cutover planning and execution
- Training, at the desk, in your context
- Documentation people actually use
- Side-by-side support in week one
06Hypercare & Steward
We stay close until it's steady, then step back deliberately. Some clients keep us on as stewards of the system as their business grows. Either way, you'll be able to name the date we stopped touching it, and the system will still be running. That's the point.
In this stage
- Hypercare in the weeks after go-live
- Training refreshers as the team settles
- Ongoing stewardship, if you want it
- Continuous improvement, measured
The thread through every stage: your people. Change management and team engagement run under the whole line. The goal is adoption, not installation. Your team is involved from the first conversation, so what we build together is understood, supported and actually used.
AI, done properly
AI is not a separate service. It's a transformation project.
Most businesses we meet are already using AI, just not on purpose. Four people on ChatGPT with no policy. A clever automation one person built that nobody else understands. A pilot that impressed everyone and never made it into the day job. Client data going somewhere nobody has checked.
None of that is an AI problem. It's the same problem as every other stalled transformation: something got installed, and nothing got adopted.
An AI implementation runs the same six stages as everything else we do. Same discovery, same process mapping, same testing with real users, same go-live, same hypercare. The only thing that changes is what gets built.
Readiness assessment
Where you actually are: data, systems, skills, governance and appetite. Scored, not guessed.
Use case identification
Where AI earns its place in your business, ranked by value and effort into a sequenced action plan. And where it doesn't earn a place, we say so.
Tool and model selection
Vendor neutral, and we take no referral commissions. The recommendation is the recommendation.
Agent and workflow build
Assistants, agents and automations built around your real process, integrated with the systems you already run.
Policy and governance
What's allowed, what isn't, where data goes, who owns which agent, and how you'd know if something went wrong.
Enablement and training
The team taught at the desk, in your context, with the work in front of them. Adoption, not a lunch and learn.
The work a Chief Agent Officer would own
Larger organisations are starting to hire for this: someone accountable for the AI and agent estate, the governance around it, and whether any of it is actually paying for itself. At your scale you don't need the title. You need someone to do the work.
That's the role we play. We set the rules, choose the tools, build the things worth building, retire the things that aren't, and hand you an estate you can explain to your board, your insurer and your auditor.
You leave every stage holding the plan. The readiness work and the use case work land as a written AI action plan: what's worth doing in your business, in what order, what it should cost and what it should save. It's yours to keep and act on, whoever does the building.
What that looks like
The capabilities behind the journey.
Apps & tech stack
The right applications selected, implemented and integrated into one connected stack, from your finance apps to the Microsoft 365 suite. Disconnected tools replaced with systems that talk to each other.
Finance function
The general ledger and everything around it in order, with Xero at the core. Reporting you can trust and numbers that mean the same thing to everyone.
Automation & AI
Brought in where they earn their place. Practical automation of the work nobody should be doing by hand, and AI adopted with your team, not around them.
Custom builds
When nothing off the shelf fits, we design and build it. AI-native applications shaped around how your business actually works, maintained by the same people who mapped the process.
WVA BuildBuilt by WVA
We use what we build. And build what we use.
The tools that run our own practice are the same kind we build for clients. You're not buying a promise, you're seeing the product.
Discovery Assistant
Our guided discovery tool. It structures the first conversations, captures how your business runs today, and turns them into a clear, written picture of where the friction is and what's worth doing.
Family Office Diagnostic
A guided diagnostic that takes a family office through a structured conversation and returns a written maturity assessment: where things stand, and what to strengthen next. Part of WVA Atlas.
Client Portal
Clients on engagement get their own WVA portal: their apps, progress and support in one place, so everyone can see where the journey is up to at any moment.
Log in to the Client Portal →My Business Dashboard
The numbers that matter, fed straight from Xero. KPIs, month-end reporting and forecasts, shaped to the way you actually run the business rather than the way the software ships.
Finance function & support
A solid backbone. And a clear view ahead.
Not every engagement is a transformation. Everything in a business flows into the finance function, and when the backbone is solid, everything above it works better. With deep accounting experience and the technology to match, we run the day to day accurately and help you look ahead with confidence: budgets, forecasts, KPIs and the decisions they inform.
Start wherever the need is. Every service here stands on its own, and any of them can grow into something bigger.
Xero conversions. Moving to Xero from MYOB, QuickBooks or spreadsheets is one of our most common projects, and we set up brand new Xero files too. Sometimes it sits inside a bigger transformation, sometimes it's a standalone job. Either way, you start on a clean, reconciled file, with your history intact.
Bookkeeping & finance operations
Outsourced, technology-powered day-to-day finance. Accounts payable, reconciliations and clean, current books.
Financial reporting support
Management reporting, dashboards and month-end support. Numbers the leadership team can act on.
CFO Sidekick
Senior support alongside your CFO or finance lead. Extra capacity and capability, on tap, when the workload calls for it.
Systems-first efficiency
Every service runs on well-set-up systems, with Xero at the core. Less manual effort, fewer errors, faster answers.
Budgets, forecasts & scenarios
Budgeting, cash flow forecasting and scenario planning. Know your position, see what's coming, and test the big decisions before you make them.
KPIs, goals & strategy
Goal setting, the KPIs that tell you whether you're on track, and a planning rhythm that connects the strategy to the month just gone.
Where to start
Not sure what you need yet? Start with discovery.
We built our own tool for it, the WVA Discovery Assistant. It guides the first conversation and turns it into a clear picture of how your business runs today and where the friction sits. You walk away with something useful from the first session, whether or not we go further together.
About West Village Advisory
Founded on experience. Built around people.
West Village Advisory was founded by Karl Schoenmaekers, who brings over 17 years across business advisory, accounting and digital transformation, including more than a decade with a Big 4 firm in Melbourne and New York.
Karl's foundations are in accounting, but the work quickly grew into cloud business applications as platforms like Xero emerged. As an early adopter of Xero in Australia, he worked with businesses and their accountants to implement, convert and get genuine value from cloud systems. That work has since expanded across business applications, reporting, automation and, more recently, AI.
What underpins all of it is people. However well designed a system is, success depends on whether the people using it feel heard, supported and confident in what's being introduced. So we take the time to understand how a business really operates, and who it operates through, before we change anything.
We're intentionally app-agnostic. Deep experience across the Xero ecosystem and the apps around it, reporting tools like Spotlight Reporting, Fathom and Power BI, and AI platforms like Claude. Our role is to align you with the right tools for your business, not to push a particular product. And when nothing off the shelf fits, we build our own.
WVA is based in Torquay, working with businesses across the Surf Coast, Geelong and Melbourne, and wherever the work takes us.
Karl Schoenmaekers Founder & Director, West Village Advisory
Get in touch
Let's talk about what's next.
One pain point, a question about your systems, or a bigger change you've been thinking about. Tell us a little and we'll come back with an honest view of how we can help. And if we work together, you'll have a fixed price in front of you before you commit to anything.
Prefer email? karl@westvillageadvisory.com.au