Cypher Consulting
Request a Quote
A consulting partner — not just an accountant. Strategy-led, technology-augmented, obsessed with the small decisions that compound into outsized results for your business.
I'm AJ Barnard — a SAIPA-registered Professional Accountant, and the founder of Cypher Consulting. Most firms I worked at had the same shape: systematic, old-school, and advised by people who had never actually run a business. Clients were boxes to be ticked — tax filed, compliance done, invoice sent.
While I was in practice I ran my own ventures on the side, kept my own books, and learned from both the wins and the failures. Somewhere in that, my thinking shifted — from the university student who memorised every section of the Act, to an entrepreneur hunting for the legal loopholes, the expense structures, the operating decisions that actually move the number at the bottom.
That's the lens I bring to my clients now. I don't only want to be your accountant. I want to be the person who adds real value — who cares about the company, sees through the line items, and helps you pay the least tax that's legal to pay.
— AJ Barnard, Founder
Clean books, on time, every month — built around how your business actually operates, not a generic template.
Income, provisional, VAT, PAYE, EMP501. Verifications and audits handled end-to-end.
The full CIPC, UIF and COIDA stack — registrations, returns and changes, kept current.
The reason most clients stay. Structure, restructure, automate, plan — and meet monthly to keep it sharp.
Defensible valuations for sale, acquisition, restructuring and internal decisions.
Holding companies, trusts, group structures — built for tax efficiency and growth.
I've run my own ventures. I read your accounts the way you do — with skin in the game, not as a checklist.
Compliance is the floor, not the ceiling. The real work is structuring decisions that compound over years.
Modern tooling does the repetitive work so I can spend time on what actually changes your outcome.
The cleanest, lowest-tax position the law allows — pursued deliberately, documented properly.
Standing strategy meetings keep us on top of what's changing — in your business and in the law.
Based in Lynnwood Ridge, working with clients across South Africa. The office is wherever the work is.
Three short stories from clients who came to Cypher when something wasn't working — and what changed after we got involved.
I'd been with my previous accountant for years, but I always felt like I was just a number — they had bigger clients who clearly mattered more. When I reached out to AJ, he actually listened. He spoke to my previous accountants directly, restructured both my personal and company tax position, and I walked away with more than R200,000 back in my pocket.
That's what happens when your accountant treats you like the only client that matters.
My industry required VAT registration for the tenders we go after. After that I just lost track — VAT returns slipped, income tax piled up, and I was sitting on years of non-compliance. AJ stepped in, fixed every prior period, got me fully tax compliant, and saved me R80,000 in the process.
He didn't just clean up the mess — he made sure it would never happen again.
I started as a sole proprietor and the business took off faster than I expected. I had no accounting, no reports, no idea where I really stood. By the time we caught everything up, SARS said I owed R140,000 in income tax.
AJ went through every transaction, used every legal lever available, and we settled it at R12,000. He didn't just save me money — he gave me a structure I can actually run a business on.
Yes — Cypher operates remote-first from Lynnwood Ridge, Pretoria, and we take on clients from anywhere in South Africa. The majority of work happens digitally, with monthly strategy meetings on video or in person depending on what suits you. Distance has never been the deciding factor in the quality of advice you receive.
The simplest path is to fill in the Request a Quote form, or contact me directly via email or phone. We'll set up an introductory call — free, no obligation — to understand your business, your current setup, and where you'd like to get to. From there I send a tailored quote. If you go ahead, I handle the full handover from your current accountant, pull your CIPC and SARS records, and we set up a clean monthly rhythm.
Submit the Request a Quote form with a few details about your business, or call 082 774 3822 directly. I respond within 24 hours, and after a short intro call you receive a written, customised quote — usually within the same working day. Every quote is tailored to the specific business; there are no off-the-shelf packages priced for the lowest common denominator.
Yes — I do this often. I'll communicate with your previous accountant directly, request the handover pack (trial balance, prior returns, tax records), and review everything before we start. You don't need to manage the awkward conversation; that's part of the service.
Especially. A large part of what I do is catching clients up — overdue VAT returns, missing EMP501s, CIPC annual returns, beneficial ownership filings, prior-period income tax. The longer it's left, the more it costs, so the sooner we start the better. There's no judgement — most clients arrive in some version of this state.
For accounting, I work across Sage Accounting, Xero and QuickBooks — whichever fits your business best. For payroll, the firm runs on Sage Payroll and PaySpace. If you're not on cloud accounting yet, migration is part of onboarding. I also lean on AI and automation tools to remove the repetitive bookkeeping work, so the time I bill goes into strategy, not data entry.
We walk through your management accounts together — what changed, why, and what it means for decisions you're making now. We track progress against the strategy we set, surface any tax or compliance items on the horizon, and decide what we're doing differently next month. The point is that the numbers actively inform how you run the business.
Yes — SAIPA registered Professional Accountant, SARS registered Tax Practitioner, and CIPC authorised filer. All work falls under SAIPA's professional standards and code of conduct.
Every quote is customised — there are no packages priced for the lowest common denominator. Share a few details and I'll get back to you within 24 hours.