Finance manager salary · base pay by city, sector and size, 2026
What a finance manager earns, in London, the cities and the sectors
A finance manager salary in 2026 runs from £51,500 to £67,000, with a median of £59,500, on Robert Half’s national figures for a permanent finance manager.
In London, Robert Half puts the median at £81,000.
Job ads tracked by IT Jobs Watch over the six months to 5 October 2026 quoted a median of £65,000.
City, sector and the size of the finance team move the number more than the title does.
When you hire a finance manager through us, we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
How a brief runswhat we undertake
- 01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
- 02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
- 03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
- 04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
- 05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief
Shortlist3–5
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a finance manager
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with finance manager candidates, their day rates and availability.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02We scope the role and the days a week
- 03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
- 04Fractional, interim and permanent briefs
Pick a day that suits · live availability
On the board · last 3 months
Senior finance roles jobs on the board
No Senior finance roles roles on the board in the last three months. Showing finance leadership roles instead.
- FractionalSyndicatedFractional Finance Director
Signature Associates · England
est £750/dayEngland - InterimSyndicatedInterim Finance Director
Pragmatic Semiconductor · Cambridge
est £1,400/day5 d/wk - InterimSyndicatedInterim Finance Director
Juro · United Kingdom
£800–£1,000/dayUnited Kingdom - FractionalSyndicatedFractional Finance Directors
PWF Associates Limited · Manchester
est £750/dayManchester
Senior finance roles on the board
Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency: send a finance manager brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the role
What a finance manager does, and what sets the pay
A finance manager runs the day-to-day finance function.
Robert Half’s description of the seat lists overseeing management accountants, analysts and financial accountants; reporting on budgets, expenses, payables and receivables; managing and monitoring the budget; and advising senior stakeholders on financial issues.
Most hold a professional qualification.
Robert Half says the role should begin with a specialist qualification such as CIMA, ACA or ACCA: the CIMA Professional Qualification, the ICAEW’s ACA or the ACCA Qualification.
It adds that being qualified by experience also counts.
Place sets the pay first.
Robert Half’s London median, £81,000, is £21,500 above its national median of £59,500.
Its city medians run from £61,250 in Glasgow to £71,500 in Birmingham and Bristol.
Sector and size come next.
Robert Half’s median for a financial services finance manager is £61,250 nationally and £83,250 in London.
Morgan McKinley’s 2026 London bands reach £80,000–£90,000 at a large corporate and £90,000–£120,000 in banking, in the bands it heads “5+ years”.
02/ scope
How to set the pay when you hire a finance manager
1. Write down what the seat owns
List the outputs: management accounts by a set working day, reconciled balance sheet, budget and forecast, VAT and payroll checks, a team to manage.
A seat that also owns controls and the audit is a financial controller’s, and is paid as one; see financial controller salary.
2. Benchmark on the right city and sector
Use the band for where the person will work and the sector you are in.
A Leeds finance manager in a mid-sized business and a London one in a bank are different markets, and the published figures show it.
3. Choose the route
A permanent hire suits a business that needs the monthly numbers run every week.
If the work fits into a day or two, a part-week arrangement may suit better: see fractional finance manager jobs for how that works.
What we do on a finance brief
We recruit permanent, fractional, interim, part-time and temporary finance people, and non-executive directors.
We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, and every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
03/ the board
What the board holds.
A read of the roles on the board on this page, counted as they stand: how each is engaged, whether the posting gives the days and the rate, and where the work happens.
On this board, last 90 days · 4 roles · finance leadership
Engagement
- Fractional2
- Interim2
Days a week
- Stated in the posting1
- Not stated3
Day rate
- Verified rate1
- Estimated (est)3
- Rate not stated0
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
- Remote1
- Hybrid1
- On-site2
Newest posting on the board: 5 Oct 2026.
Postings per week on this board, last 90 days
4 postings on this board in the last 90 days, counted by the week each was published.
04/ rates by stage
Finance manager salary by source, place and sector
Permanent finance manager pay as each publisher states it. Robert Half publishes 2026 starting-salary projections (base). Morgan McKinley publishes 2026 bands under three headings, 0–3, 3–5 and 5+ years; the table gives the lowest and highest figure across them. IT Jobs Watch reports salaries quoted in job ads in its IT-market sample over the six months to 5 October 2026. The ONS figure is for the wider group of financial managers and directors. Robert Half and Morgan McKinley are recruiters.
05/ economics
What the salary costs the business, beyond the base
A salary is not the whole cost of an employee.
For 2026 to 2027, employer’s National Insurance is 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year (HMRC rates and thresholds).
On Robert Half’s £59,500 median, that is £8,175 a year (our arithmetic: £54,500 × 15%).
Under automatic enrolment, the employer must pay at least 3% into a workplace pension on qualifying earnings (GOV.UK).
Many schemes pay more.
A cash bonus is earnings too, with PAYE and Class 1 National Insurance deducted through payroll, so budget employer’s National Insurance on it as well.
06/ vetting
How we vet finance managers
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify finance manager tenure, sector context and stage fit.
SOURCING - 02
Mandate fit
Match to your situation — stage, board dynamics, timing.
MATCHING - 03
Reference deep-dive
We take references ourselves, from recent past clients — real outcomes, not titles.
VERIFY - 04
Shortlist
Three to five candidates with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5
07/ finance manager salary uk
Finance manager salary UK: the national benchmarks side by side
The national figures measure different things.
Robert Half’s finance manager salary UK range, £51,500–£67,000 with a median of £59,500, is a starting-salary projection built from its own placements and checked against job-posting data.
IT Jobs Watch’s £65,000 is the median salary quoted in 379 job ads with “Finance Manager” in the title over the six months to 5 October 2026, down from £75,000 in the same period of 2025.
IT Jobs Watch tracks the IT jobs market, so its sample leans to finance managers in technology-heavy roles: in those ads, ERP, ACCA and CIMA were among the most-cited requirements.
Read it as what employers advertised, not what people were paid.
For an official view, the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings puts the 2025 median for full-time financial managers and directors at £76,447.
That SOC 2020 group, code 1131, includes finance directors, so it sits above a finance manager’s pay rather than measuring it.
08/ finance manager salary london
Finance manager salary London, and the other cities
The finance manager salary London employers pay sits at the top of every source.
Robert Half puts it at £70,000–£91,000, with a median of £81,000, and £83,250 in financial services.
Job ads tracked by IT Jobs Watch quoted a London median of £90,000, against £60,000 outside London.
Morgan McKinley’s 2026 London bands run from £55,000–£65,000 at an SME in its 0–3 years band, to £90,000–£120,000 in banking and investment banking in its 5+ years band.
Outside London, Robert Half’s 2026 medians are £71,500 in Birmingham and Bristol, £70,750 in Manchester, £69,000 in Edinburgh, £67,750 in Leeds and £61,250 in Glasgow.
Its national median of £59,500 sits below every city figure it publishes, so compare a city with a city.
09/ the other routes
Salary, day rate or part-week: the other ways to pay for the seat
A permanent salary buys a finance manager every working day, with notice on both sides.
An interim is paid by the day for full-time cover over a fixed period; see interim finance manager salary for the day rates.
A fractional finance manager works one or two days a week on a day rate or retainer; see fractional finance manager salary.
Compare the total cost for the days you need, not the headline numbers.
10/ questions
Finance manager salary FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a finance manager.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
Bring the brief. We architect the team.
A shortlist of 3–5 with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting.
