Aura Art
From post-facto accounting to real-time financial clarity — building the financial backbone of India's leading art infrastructure company.
01 The Client
Brand: Aura Art Development Pvt Ltd
Industry: Art Valuation & Art Infrastructure Solutions
Clients: Big 4 firms, family offices, insurers, lawyers, insolvency professionals, HNI collectors
Brego Solutions: Accounts, Finance, MIS & Compliance
Expert-Led, High-Trust Business Aura Art is India's leading art valuation and infrastructure company, founded by Rishiraj Sethi — a Chartered Accountant and CFA by training. Since 2008, Aura Art has valued fine art and collectibles across paintings, sculptures, photographs, stamps, antiques, and more — for insurance, taxation, restructuring, and insolvency purposes. They co-developed the IIMA-AuraArt Indian Art Index and have published jointly with Ernst & Young, working closely with Big 4 firms and leading family offices across India. Ironically, the founder's own financial function was the last piece of the wheel to get the attention it deserved.
02 The Problem
Post-Facto Financial Visibility
Rishiraj built Aura Art on deep expertise — in art, in valuation, in the economics of collections. But the finance function, by his own account, was always treated as something to catch up on later. Data went to the accounting team after the project was done. Compliance deadlines meant late nights and lost weekends. The focus was always on delivery first, numbers second. The gaps were structural:
No Proper Project-Level Accounting: There was no clear way to track project-wise costs — making it difficult to understand actual cost structures or build a consistent pricing approach.
Limited Visibility into Cost & Pricing Logic: Without structured financial data, pricing decisions were based on estimates rather than a repeatable, data-backed approach.
The real cost of this showed up in pricing. Because there was no structured project-level accounting, Aura Art had no reliable way to know what a project actually cost until it was over. For years, the team would estimate hours, quote a number, deliver the work, and reconcile later.
As the business evolved, clients began returning more frequently — annually, even bi-annually — making it critical to price each engagement based on past data. Without that visibility, every proposal continued to rely on approximation.
Regulatory changes added another layer. GST revisions and TCS provisions were often discovered after the fact, leaving little room to prepare.
The gap wasn't expertise. It was infrastructure.
03 The Solution
Finance Integrated Into Execution
The shift Brego proposed — and that Aura Art eventually made — was structural: stop treating finance as a post-facto function and bring it closer to how the business operates day to day.
1. Project-Wise Accounting & MIS
Built a structured accounting system aligned to Aura Art’s project flow. Leadership now gets project-level P&L — by project type and client type — enabling better evaluation of performance across engagements.
2. Pricing Clarity Through Data
By analysing historical project data through our MIS reports and project-wise accounting, Aura Art was able to understand cost structures more clearly — including effort, resource allocation, and service-level costs. Pricing decisions are now informed by actual tracked data, not estimates.
3. Compliance Without the Fire Drills
GST filings, company law requirements, and recurring compliance moved from reactive execution to a structured, managed system. The founder is now free to focus on other business aspects as well.
4. Proactive Regulatory Advisory
Regulatory updates — including GST and TCS changes — are now flagged in advance, along with their business implications, allowing the team to adapt before they become issues.
04 The Results
Data-Backed Clarity
“That shift, I wish we had done it much earlier. It has worked magic in making the entire function streamlined — and in getting a better sense of what P&L we are achieving on each project, each type of project, each type of client.” — Rishiraj Sethi
1. Pricing with Greater Confidence
With access to structured project-level data, pricing decisions are now based on historical cost and effort patterns — reducing reliance on estimation.
2. Clearer Visibility Across Projects
Project-level MIS gives leadership a consistent view of performance — across client types, project categories, and internal effort — helping identify where margins are strong and where they need attention.
3. Compliance That Runs on Schedule
Filings and regulatory requirements are handled through a defined system — eliminating last-minute scrambles and reducing dependency on the founder.
4. Fewer Surprises, Better Preparedness
Regulatory changes are now anticipated and understood in advance, allowing the business to respond proactively rather than reactively.
Your books should be working better for you.
If your financial infrastructure hasn't kept pace with your growth, let's change that. At Brego Business, we start with what's broken, and start building what's next.
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