FWO Chartered Accountants

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FWO Chartered Accountants FWO Chartered Accountants are strategic financial partners for SME law firms.

We combine deep legal industry expertise with insight led advisory to help law firms grow with confidence, delivered through our Grow Your Firm program.

26/10/2026

A lot of systems in business get built the same way. Something goes wrong once, someone complains, and a new rule gets added to stop it happening again.

The problem is those systems end up designed around a minority of occurrences that rarely happen, rather than the right strategy and process for producing good quality outcomes across the whole business.

Matt Schlyder explains why chasing the exception instead of the norm quietly holds firms back from the systems that would actually move the needle.

Build systems around what drives results fwoca.com.au

CDI Lawyers grew 500 per cent. Not through more staff or more hours billed, but through a clearer view of the numbers dr...
21/10/2026

CDI Lawyers grew 500 per cent. Not through more staff or more hours billed, but through a clearer view of the numbers driving the firm.
Regular visibility changed how decisions got made, from pricing to resourcing to where the partners spent their time. Growth followed clarity, not the other way around.

Stories like this are why we built the Grow Your Firm pathway the way we did. Clarity must come first.

Hear more from what our clients say about working with us: https://fwoca.com.au/what-our-clients-say/

19/10/2026

Most firms focus their attention on billings and cash received. The trouble is both of those only happen after work in progress has already been entered.

If you want to drive real improvement in revenue, the leverage point is earlier than that. It's how WIP itself is managed, not just how it's billed or collected.

explains why strategies built around the core input of WIP will always outperform strategies that only chase the outputs.

Shift your focus upstream to WIP management fwoca.com.au/growyourfirm/

There are only three numbers a managing partner really needs to review each month. Most firms are drowning in twenty.Ave...
15/10/2026

There are only three numbers a managing partner really needs to review each month. Most firms are drowning in twenty.

Average rate recovered, work in progress ageing, and revenue lock-up. Everything else is detail that supports these three, not a substitute for them. Firms that build a monthly rhythm around these numbers make faster decisions and catch problems while they're still small.

Firms that don't tend to find out about a cash flow issue the same month it becomes a real problem. Worth checking whether these three sit on your desk every month, or only come up when something's gone wrong.

fwoca.com.au

We're delighted to welcome Stephen van Dorp to FWO CA as Associate Director.Stephen has spent almost 20 years in law fir...
08/10/2026

We're delighted to welcome Stephen van Dorp to FWO CA as Associate Director.

Stephen has spent almost 20 years in law firm finance and operations. He has led a law firm as CEO, worked as Regional Finance Manager for a global law firm, and been hands on in CFO and COO roles in SME law firms. He has also been involved with ALPMA for 12 years, including the last four as President.

That experience gives him a deep understanding of finance and operations across professional services, and the legal sector in particular. He knows what it takes to lift profit, and he's done it through a practical mix of financial insight, business development and marketing strategy, and operational improvements.

For the firms we work with, that means another person at the table who understands both sides: what the numbers say, and what it takes to act on them.

Stephen, welcome to the team. We're looking forward to what we'll do together for law firms across Australia.

Great to deliver a webinar with Smokeball Australia . Thank you to the Smokeball team for having us, and to everyone who...
07/10/2026

Great to deliver a webinar with Smokeball Australia . Thank you to the Smokeball team for having us, and to everyone who joined Matt Schlyder for "The billable hour isn't dead: the hidden economics of fixed fees".

Pricing is one of the biggest conversations in law firms right now, and the questions from the session showed just how many practice leaders are working through it.

06/10/2026

If you want to understand where profit and cash flow come from, look at work in progress.

The activities that move time in and out of work in progress, time entry, workflow, and then billing it out, are the exact activities that produce profitability and cash flow. Get those steps right and the numbers tend to follow.

Matt Schlyder explains why work in progress isn't just a reporting line. It's the engine room of a firm's financial performance.

Get a clearer view of your firm's work in progress fwoca.com.au

Some of the numbers that matter most to us have nothing to do with profit.We've committed to raising $2,000 a week for t...
02/10/2026

Some of the numbers that matter most to us have nothing to do with profit.

We've committed to raising $2,000 a week for the Wesley Mission Queensland Brisbane Relief Hub, a place that provides food, medical support and dignity to families doing it tough. It started with a visit to Hummingbird House back in 2019 and has grown into something our whole team shows up for, from Christmas donations to volunteering at the Hub itself.

Just 40 people giving $50 a week gets us there. If you'd like to be one of them, or bring your team along to volunteer, we'd love to hear from you.

Donate now: https://fundraise.wmq.org.au/fundraisers/FWOCharteredAccountants

30/09/2026

It's easy for a leader to set high expectations for a team. It's harder to make sure those expectations are ones you'd meet yourself.

When a principal or team leader asks for a standard, they couldn't hit themselves, people notice. That gap undermines trust faster than almost anything else, and it makes accountability feel one-sided rather than shared.

In this clip, Matt Schlyder talks about why realistic expectations, set from your own standard first, are what make leadership credible.

Lead with expectations your team can trust fwoca.com.au

Another ALPMA Summit down, and another reminder of how much law firm leaders want practical financial guidance, not gene...
27/09/2026

Another ALPMA Summit down, and another reminder of how much law firm leaders want practical financial guidance, not generic advice.

As Official Research and Education Partner, being part of the conversations in Geelong this month reinforced what we hear constantly from managing partners and practice managers alike: the firms that are clear on their numbers make faster, more confident decisions.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the stand and asked genuine questions about lock-up, rate recovery and what "insight" looks like in practice.

If we didn't get to chat, reply here or reach out directly.

ALPMA: Australasian Legal Practice Management Association

Address

Spring Hill, QLD

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 5pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 5pm
Thursday 8:30am - 5pm
Friday 8:30am - 5pm

Telephone

07 3833 3999

Website

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