In an exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Marietjie MacMillan, CPA, CMA and Founder & CEO of MacMillan Consulting, shares her innovative approach to finance for founder-led and mid-market businesses. With nearly three decades of executive finance experience, MacMillan champions “humanized finance” — a model where numbers serve people, not the other way around.
Interview By SK Uddin
Marietjie MacMillan, CPA, CMA, is the Founder & CEO of MacMillan Consulting, a finance back office partner that gives founder-led and mid-market businesses executive-level finance strategy and execution without the full-time cost. With nearly three decades in executive finance, she champions “humanized finance” — the belief that numbers exist to serve people, not the other way around. Through fractional leadership, on-demand specialist talent, and AI-enhanced workflows, she helps growing companies build the financial structure to scale with clarity and confidence.
You describe MacMillan Consulting as a “finance back-office partner,” not a traditional financial services firm. What gap in the market did you set out to close when you founded the company, and why does that distinction matter for founder-led and mid market businesses?
When I founded MacMillan Consulting, the gap was obvious: world-class finance leadership was priced for large enterprises, and everyone else made do. Founder-led and mid market businesses were handed bookkeeping and compliance, then left to make their biggest decisions alone. I built MacMillan Consulting to close that gap — permanently. We call ourselves a finance back-office partner, not a financial services firm, and the distinction matters. “Financial services” makes people think of banking, lending, or wealth management — products we don’t sell. We’re the team behind your numbers: the strategy, the controls, the forecasting, the execution. We are your finance function, scaled to what you actually need. For a founder, that difference is everything. You’re not buying a product; you’re gaining a partner who owns the engine while you drive the business. We’re not a staffing agency and not a referral network — we own our talent, stay embedded, and are accountable for the outcome. That’s what growing businesses have been missing, and exactly what we set out to provide.
You champion the idea of “humanized finance,” where numbers exist to serve people, not the other way around. In practical terms, what does humanized finance look like inside a growing business, and how is it different from the purely transactional bookkeeping or compliance support many SMEs are used to?
Humanized finance starts from a simple belief: numbers exist to serve people, not the other way around. Inside a growing business, it means we begin with the founder’s goals — where they want the company to go — and work backwards into the numbers, instead of handing over a report and walking away. Transactional bookkeeping tells you what already happened. It’s necessary, but it’s the rear-view mirror. Humanized finance is the windshield. It turns the same data into decisions: Can we afford this hire? What does expansion actually cost? Where is cash really going? In practice it looks like calmer conversations and clearer choices.
One client had clean books for years but no one steering. Within weeks of bringing in a Fractional CFO, the conversation shifted from “what happened last month” to “where are we headed, and what will it take to get there.” That’s the difference. Compliance keeps you safe. Humanized finance helps a real person make a better decision about a real business — with confidence instead of guesswork.
Your model blends Talent-as-a-Service, Fractional CFO support, and fixed-term consulting projects, all backed by a vertically integrated talent pool across Canada and South Africa and a 24-hour execution cycle. How does that human-plus-AI, follow-the sun approach change what smaller businesses can afford and what they can realistically achieve?
Most smaller businesses assume top-tier finance is out of reach. Our model proves otherwise by combining three things.Talent-as-a-Service gives you a credentialed specialist — accountant, controller, FP&A analyst — deployed in weeks, not months.
Fractional CFO Support puts seasoned C-suite leadership in your business a few days a week, at a fraction of a full-time cost. Fixed-term Consulting Projects handle the big lifts: market entry, M&A readiness, operations redesign. What makes it work is how it’s delivered. We own our talent across Canada and our sister company, MacMillan Mzansi Accountancy, in South Africa. Strategy set during the Canadian day is executed overnight, so clients often wake up to work already in motion — a genuine follow-the-sun advantage. AI amplifies that: used well, it compresses the time between a question and an answer — reconciliations in hours, scenario planning as a live conversation. But it never replaces judgment; a forecast is only as good as the strategist reading it. Pairing AI with globally credentialed people, trained in IFRS, US GAAP and ASPE, is how a smaller business finally gets speed and senior judgment together.
Many founders feel they “can’t afford” senior finance leadership and end up making big decisions with only historical reports in hand. What do you tell those leaders, and what is one common mistake you see growing SMEs make with their finances when they delay bringing strategic finance into the room?
I tell them they don’t have a budget problem — they have a structure problem. You don’t need a full-time CFO to get CFO-level thinking. With fractional and on-demand models, you bring in exactly the expertise you need, exactly when you need it. The seat doesn’t have to be full-time to be world-class, and your budget shouldn’t define the quality of advice you get. The most common mistake I see is hiring for the org chart instead of the decision.
A founder adds a junior to “do the finances,” then wonders why no one is steering the ship — while the biggest calls on pricing, expansion, hiring and cash get made on gut feel and last quarter’s reports. Historical reports tell you where you’ve been. They can’t tell you whether the next move is the right one. Bring strategic finance into the room early, even part-time, and build your finance function around the decisions that move the business forward. Strategy should be standard from the start — not a luxury you finally afford once you’ve already made the costly mistakes.
You’re working with clients navigating Canadian and U.S. expansion, M&A readiness, and operations redesign in a very uncertain 2026 environment. What advice would you offer Canadian SMEs on structuring their finance function around decisions rather than headcount—and how can they start using finance as a lever for sustainable growth instead of just a cost centre?
In an uncertain year, the instinct is to cut and wait. I’d argue the opposite: get your structure right so you can move with confidence. Build your finance function around decisions, not headcount. Ask what choices are coming — a US expansion, an acquisition, a process overhaul — and put the right expertise against each one, even on a fractional or project basis. You don’t need a big team; you need the right thinking at the right moment. For cross-border growth specifically, model it before you commit.
Market-entry economics, tax and regulatory realities, M&A readiness — these belong in a forecast and a plan, not in a hopeful conversation. That’s where finance stops being a cost centre and becomes a lever: it tells you which opportunities are real, what they cost, and how to fund them. Sustainable growth isn’t about doing more. It’s about being built right — human judgment at the centre, technology accelerating it, and senior expertise finally within reach. The businesses that structure for clarity now will be the ones still growing when the uncertainty clears.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CanadianSME Small Business Magazine. Our platform is dedicated to fostering dialogue and sharing insights that inspire and empower small and medium-sized businesses across Canada.
