Cathy Brown, Advisory
Cathy Brown ACA (Founder)
Growing businesses tend to reach a point where the finance function that served them well initially starts showing its limits in ways that are genuinely costly - month-ends that take longer than they should, management accounts assembled by hand, cashflow forecasting that amounts to educated guesswork, and board packs that depend entirely on one person knowing where everything is.I work with UK SMEs and mid-market businesses, typically £2m to £100m revenue, to diagnose what is holding the finance function back, rebuild the processes that need rebuilding, and automate what has been running manually for longer than it should have been, using low code automation platforms, and AI agents to build finance operations that run without the manual overhead.
Why this matters now
I have watched this pattern repeat since the dotcom era. A new capability arrives, vendors rush to sell it, and businesses spend money before anyone has properly diagnosed the problem. This wave is bigger than all of those combined, and getting it right matters more than ever.The question is never simply what will this cost to run - it is what problem does this solve, how will we know if it is working, and what happens if it does not. Cathy Brown Advisory exists for businesses that want someone in their corner who understands the technology, the financials, and the operational reality.
About
Twenty years in finance across a range of industries, from audit at KPMG through to senior finance roles in private equity-backed and listed groups with revenues up to £1.3bn, including multi-entity groups with over 100 legal entities.A chemistry degree means I see businesses as process flows naturally, with inputs, outputs, dependencies, and reaction points. An ACA qualification means rigour and integrity are non-negotiable. An IBM Data Science Professional Certificate means I understand the technical layer well enough to build what I am recommending rather than just describe it.
The Finance AI Maturity Framework: a clear sequence for finance leaders who want to know where to start.
Every finance leadership event asks the same question in different words: where do I even start with AI? There is no shortage of tools, only a shortage of a clear, honest sequence to follow.This framework gives you that sequence, built specifically for finance leaders. Two things make it different from a typical tool list: it separates build capability (levels 1 to 5, what you can operate) from deployment posture (level 6, what risk you accept once a system can act on its own) rather than treating them as one ladder. And it treats data literacy and governance as foundational, not optional - a discipline that runs underneath every level rather than a stage you complete and move past.
Pilot clients
From September 2026, I am working with a small number of businesses to diagnose their finance function, identify where AI and automation would genuinely add value, and build the first automations - at a reduced rate in exchange for honest feedback and a case study.If your finance function has outgrown its current processes and you want to be considered for a pilot engagement, register your interest below. I will be in touch ahead of September.
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