Building a successful company over the long term is a combined effort – not just one set of transactions after another, say William Buck principals Berrin Daricili and Jeremy Raniti.
**This story originally appeared in the April 2026 edition of AMT Magazine**
Manufacturers tend to see their biggest financial calls as separate moments—a research and development (R&D) application here, a capital expenditure decision there, a restructure when succession becomes unavoidable.
But for William Buck business advisory principal Jeremy Raniti and R&D Tax Incentives & Grants principal Berrin Daricili, these choices should not be made in isolation.
Ahead of the Australian Manufacturing Week workshop entitled “Manufacturing Growth Engine: Funding, Forecasting & Future Wealth”, which they will host alongside William Buck wealth advisory partner Scott Montefiore, the principals say they aim to help businesses structure themselves for the long term.
“We’re not just focusing on the present moment – there’s so much happening, and the economy is dynamic, the landscape is always changing,” Raniti says.
“Whether businesses are in that startup phase, in growth, or they’re mature – at each of those steps, there’s a different set of support and advisory work that comes with that.”
A good example of this need for process is any large piece of capital expenditure, Raniti says – with companies assessing the return on investment and their ability to service a debt.
“If we’re looking to replace machinery with newer, more efficient pieces of equipment, we need to model that out – saying how much can we save, either in time or performance improvements?” he says.
“What’s the cost benefit in doing so? The tax and depreciation, write offs? It’s there as a consideration. But we don’t normally tell people to spend $1 to save 25 cents. We look at things more specifically and ask, do we need this? Is buying it the better option?”
When automation does increase throughput, the same model can be used to understand staffing and scheduling effects before committing, he says.
“You do want to ask why you are making this investment, by coming back to your business strategy or your business goals – and how this piece of machinery will help you achieve that goal,” Raniti says.
“Just because we have a new piece of equipment, doesn’t mean that we need less staff. Do we need someone on hand to supervise it? Will we be saving downtime against our existing piece of equipment? There’s a lot of things that come into play when assessing that.”
Raniti says the William Buck business advisory team gets involved when business owners begin developing their own live business models, rather than treating forecasting as a one‑off reporting exercise.
“It’s about getting to that client, making sure they’re working on their business. Through that, we’ll go through business planning –forecasting and basically planning for the future. How does that fit in? What does that look like at a practical level?” he says.
“What we get at the end is a product and an output which can be used for reporting purposes. But taking clients through that process, which I view as an educational one, is getting them to stop and reflect on the business and to understand why things work.”
Background checks
Daricili, of William Buck’s R&D Tax Incentives (R&DTI) & Grants team, says an increase in scrutiny of grant applications has necessitated paying closer attention to them.
While little has changed from a legislative framework perspective, increasing scrutiny from the Department of Science, Industry and Resources as well as the Australian Tax Office is changing expectations.
“The main thing that we’ve seen is more scrutiny around the descriptions of R&D activities and why they’re eligible. They’re really looking at defined hypotheses, understanding experimental methodologies and the distinction between core and supporting activities,” she says.
Changes to the application form made in August 2025 require applicants to provide extra detail of any specialist plant, facilities or equipment that will be used during a project.
A new query has also been included around whether the R&D claimant owns or has the rights to exploit the intellectual property they use, whether they bear the financial risk and control the R&D activities being conducted – which they would need to do to be the appropriate R&D claimant.
Any previous questions with a limit of 1,000 characters (which included the project objectives, new knowledge and supporting activity descriptions) have been increased to 4,000 characters, allowing for greater detail to be provided upfront.
Daricili says this is evidence of how a new focus on experimentation —hypotheses, uncertainty, and systematic testing—has flowed straight into the application process.
“I think that’s really bridging the gap between what the regulator was seeing in terms of how R&D is described and what their expectations are,” she says.
While the program’s self-assessment model hasn’t changed, the way reviews are handled has, she adds.
“They don’t have a discourse with the company first, if they pick up a claim and they think it’s ineligible, they’ll pretty much assess it as such, without giving the company an opportunity to explain. It’s getting a bit more stringent,” she says.
Daricili says that for manufacturers, this heightens the importance of contemporaneous documentation and internal discipline—both to demonstrate eligibility and to remove uncertainty from cashflow planning. “It’s really important to get the documentation right… [that shows] why an R&D project was required.”
Claims that show significant fluctuations in costs from one year to another and a heavy reliance on contractor expenses often attract review, Daricili adds.
“They need to get the documentation in order. It’s all about being able to substantiate the claims that are being made in the R&D application forms,” she says.
“Photos and videos showing R&D out on the factory floor, any kind of plans or specifications, iterations and note taking” can be helpful.
“I think AI is going to be a lot more helpful for businesses that are a bit time poor and not used to taking such notes, to have that around and help with that compliance aspect,” Daricili says.
“Being able to press record on your phone, to be able to record such things, I think is going to be where tech can come in handy for businesses that are usually just physical on the shop floor and not documenting anything as they go.”
Future Bound
For forecasting and governance, Raniti expects forward‑looking advisory to become the norm as data quality and timeliness improve.
“I think in the next couple of years we’ll see another toolkit with an AI perspective around collecting data and reporting it… We’ll have that actual data at our fingertips a lot quicker, and the depth in which we can analyse that data will go further,” he says.
“It’s going to be about interpreting it and making sure you have the right people in the room to assist.”
Raniti says that many of the manufacturers he has worked with over the past couple of years are focused on ensuring their employees are cared for in the business.
“That’s not specifically financial modelling, but the business strategy part of it, making sure that the organisation has a clear vision and goal, and then making sure that each employee feels a part of that – that they’re along for the journey,” he says.
“It gives a sense of commitment to the cause, but then also at an individual level, they can assess how their involvement in the process is leading to a bigger goal.”
Raniti adds that he is also seeing several Australian companies working with international partners – which comes with obligations that stretch beyond tax to corporate secretarial matters, director settings and more.
“When it comes to defence, there’s a whole bunch of clearances, guidelines, policies that need to be taken into consideration. So, working with someone that knows that industry well will pay dividends to set up correctly,” he says.
“There are hosts of things that we are navigating through, and we see that becoming more and more prevalent.”
Another issue Raniti says the business advisory team is often facing is one of succession — both in the absence of obvious successors and in an opportunity set for buyers.
“We’ve seen a couple instances where it’s been successful, where staff have bought into the business. You need to have staff there that are committed to the process and have come through the ranks and understand it,” he says.
“If not, what we’re seeing on a succession basis is a really good opportunity for people looking to buy businesses and bring them together, because there will be a point in time where there’s a lot of older manufacturers with either small to medium run businesses with no one going to take them over,” Raniti says.
Even short of a sale, the combination of documentation discipline and rolling forecasts can remove unpleasant surprises when the time comes – and the structure of a deal becomes a strategy question, not a scramble.
As Raniti puts it: “Is it indoor finance? Do they get a part now and a part later? Do you want a clean break in the future? There’re multiple ways to look at it, and there’s the deal and there’s a structuring and tax that goes alongside it.”
“There’s a whole bunch of things that come out of the process of building a financial model… but the process itself is probably the most important part, and making time within a business to actually do that is where we’re going to get the best results,” he says.