Debbie Brownlie began her bookkeeping career in the 1990s, working on the books for her husband's business while completing a Bachelor of Business through distance education and raising three children. She had quite an aptitude for this sort of work, so much so that her accountant asked her if she would be willing to do processing work for several of his other clients. Things grew from there; Masterpiece Consultants was formed in 1998 as a home-based business, then moved into a one-room office in Pakenham in late 1999. That same year, Debbie completed her Bachelor of Business (Multi-Discipline) from Monash University.

Not content with remaining 'just' a bookkeeper, Debbie began looking for ways to offer more value to her clients: she hired additional bookkeepers to take some of the load, became an MYOB Certified Consultant in 2002 (a qualification she has renewed every year since then), completed a Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment (also in 2002), and moved to an office suitable for holding meetings and conducting training classes. In 2004, she became a Certified Practising Accountant, and in 2005 guided Masterpiece to the status of a Registered Training Organisation.

In 2005, Masterpiece was a finalist in the Cardinia Business Awards - Telstra Country Wide Business & Professional Services Award, an achievement which was repeated in 2006. By this time, the Masterpiece client base had grown from a handful of regulars in 1998 to over one hundred bookkeeping and consultancy clients (in addition to a steady stream of training clients).

2006 also saw two further changes for Masterpiece: the addition of a new service (an in-house bookkeeping service for micro and small businesses) and the move to a new office (which is better suited to training courses and provides room for the inhouse bookkeepers to work comfortably).

2007 saw refinements to Masterpiece's in-house bookkeeping service and Certificate III in Financial Services course. Masterpiece also achieved a personal milestone in May: winning the Business & Professional Services Award at the Cardinia Business Awards. We also added a new qualification to our scope of registration: the Certificate IV in Financial Services (Bookkeeping).