Financial controller salary · 2026
What a financial controller earns, nationally, in London and at group level
A financial controller salary in 2026 runs from £63,000 to £92,500, with a median of £76,750, on Robert Half’s national figures for a permanent controller.
In London, Robert Half puts the median at £104,500.
The ONS median for the wider occupation group, financial managers and directors, is £76,447 for full-time employees.
Salary is not the whole cost: employer’s National Insurance, pension and benefits come on top.
When you hire a financial controller 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 financial controller
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Financial Controller 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
Financial controller jobs on the board
Financial controller roles on the board
Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency: send a Financial Controller brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the cross
Where a permanent hire becomes cheaper.
Move the day rate and the days a week: the rising line is a month of part-week cost, the flat line a permanent hire’s month. Where they cross, the seat should go full-time.
At 3.9 days a week a permanent hire costs less.
Our arithmetic. Permanent a month = the salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI, plus the 30% search fee spread over 12 months — the calculator’s inputs. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each step.
Permanent = the £76,750 Robert Half 2026 median salary. The full calculator below adds the months, the totals and the currency tabs.
- The fractional financial controller at 2 days a week never passes permanent inside 24 months.
Our arithmetic, cumulative. Permanent = the salary’s 30% search fee in month 0, then salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI each month. No published interim band for this seat, so no interim line. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each month.
02/ the route
Fractional, interim or permanent?
Four taps. The answer names the route for the seat and the page that covers it.
The route · Fractional
A fractional financial controller.The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.
A fractional financial controller holds the seat on agreed days for as long as the seat is needed, and works for other clients on the rest.
The route · Interim
An interim financial controller.The work fills the week, and it has an end: a programme, a cover, a transaction.
An interim financial controller takes the seat full time for that stretch and hands it over when it is done.
The route · Interim, then permanent
Interim now, a permanent financial controller after.The seat is full time and long term, and the need is now.
An interim financial controller holds it while the permanent search runs, so the seat is not left empty.
The route · Permanent
A permanent financial controller.A full-time seat that sits at the table for years is a permanent hire.
There is time to run a search, so run one.
03/ the role
What a financial controller does, and what sets the pay
A financial controller owns the numbers and the controls around them: the month-end close, the management accounts, the balance sheet, statutory reporting, the audit and the team that does the processing.
The finance director or CFO decides what the numbers mean for strategy and funding.
The controller makes sure the numbers are right.
For the full remit, see what a financial controller does.
That puts the role at the centre of a legal duty.
Under section 386 of the Companies Act 2006, every company must keep adequate accounting records.
The directors stay responsible for that; the controller is usually the person who makes it true.
Pay follows the size and shape of the job.
A group with several entities, a regulated firm, or a business preparing for audit or investment asks for more than a single-entity company with a steady close.
Robert Half’s 2026 median for a group financial controller is £85,000 nationally, and for a financial controller in financial services £89,250, against £76,750 for the role as a whole.
Location matters too.
Robert Half’s London median for the role is £104,500, against £76,750 nationally.
04/ scope
How to set the pay when you hire a financial controller
1. Scope the seat
Write down the close timetable you want, the reports the board needs, the systems in place, the number of entities, the size of the team and the audit calendar.
Say whether the job is to run a working function or to fix one.
The second needs someone who has done it before, and the salary has to reach them.
2. Choose the route
A permanent controller suits a business whose close, controls and team fill a full week: hire a financial controller on that basis, or read how financial controller recruitment runs.
If the need is senior ownership of the numbers for part of the week, see the fractional financial controller model.
If the seat is empty mid-audit or mid-system change, an interim financial controller covers it for a fixed term.
3. Check the qualification at source
Most controllers hold ACA, ACCA or CIMA.
Confirm it rather than read it from the CV: ICAEW’s status confirmation shows a member’s standing, ACCA’s member directory finds its members by name, and CIMA’s qualification leads to the CGMA designation.
Then ask the candidate to walk through the last month-end close they owned and what they changed.
4. Set the whole package
Salary is the start.
Employer’s National Insurance and pension contributions come on top, and so do any bonus and benefits.
Agree the package before the offer, not after it.
What we do on a financial controller brief
We recruit permanent, fractional, interim, part-time and temporary finance leaders, 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.
Roles on the board are listed on financial controller jobs.
05/ the maths
What the seat costs, by the days a week
Move the day rate, the days a week and the months: the totals and the permanent comparison for the period. The curve above shows where a permanent hire becomes the cheaper seat.
The slider runs across the published band for a fractional financial controller: £400–£650 a day (Accountancy Capital 2026).
Cost over 12 months
£57,200
104 working days · 2 d/wk · 12 mo · before tax
Fractional costs less over 12 months£54,088
Fractional financial controller, 12 months£57,200
Fractional financial controller, a month at 2 d/wk£4,763
Permanent financial controller, same period£111,288
Fractional financial controller, 12 months$75,784
Fractional financial controller, a month at 2 d/wk$6,310
Permanent financial controller, same period$147,445
Converted from £ at $1.3249 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a US market rate. Source ↗
Fractional financial controller, 12 months€67,187
Fractional financial controller, a month at 2 d/wk€5,595
Permanent financial controller, same period€130,718
Converted from £ at €1.1746 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a EU market rate. Source ↗
Our arithmetic, indicative. Permanent = the £76,750 Robert Half 2026 median salary pro rata for the same months, plus 15% employer NI, plus a 30% search fee on the annual base (UK retained search runs 25–35%, Headhunters.co.uk). Excludes pension, bonus and equity.
06/ the week
How a week divides.
The days you buy are yours; the rest of the week goes to other clients. Move the days a week in the calculator above and the week redraws.
Illustration only: one way a fractional financial controller’s week can divide at 2 days a week for you. Each block is half a day.
07/ 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 · 1 role · Financial controller
Engagement
- Fractional1
Days a week
- Stated in the posting0
- Not stated1
Day rate
- Verified rate0
- Estimated (est)1
- Rate not stated0
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
- Remote0
- Hybrid1
- On-site0
Newest posting on the board: 8 Oct 2026.
08/ rates by stage
Financial controller salary national, London, group and financial services
Permanent pay as each publisher states it, all for 2026 except the ONS figure (April 2025, provisional). Robert Half publishes starting-salary projections from its placements and vacancy data; it is a recruiter. The ONS row covers the whole occupation group, financial managers and directors, not the controller title alone. Finance Director rows are for comparison.
09/ 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).
Under automatic enrolment, the employer must pay at least 3% into a workplace pension on qualifying earnings, which in most schemes run from £6,240 to £50,270 a year (GOV.UK).
Many schemes pay more.
On Robert Half’s £76,750 median, employer’s National Insurance comes to about £10,760 and the minimum pension contribution to about £1,320, for a total of about £88,830 before any bonus or benefits (our arithmetic).
Accountancy Capital, a finance recruiter, puts a £90,000 permanent financial controller at roughly £108,000 to the employer once National Insurance, pension and benefits are added, before recruitment cost or notice period.
Use it as a check on your own budget, not as a rule.
10/ vetting
How we vet financial controllers
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Financial Controller 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
11/ financial controller salary uk
Financial controller salary UK: the national benchmarks side by side
Two national figures sit close together.
Robert Half’s financial controller salary UK range runs from £63,000 to £92,500, with a median of £76,750: a starting-salary projection built from its own placements and checked against vacancy data.
The ONS median for full-time financial managers and directors is £76,447.
The ONS figure comes from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2025 provisional, occupation code 1131.
That group is broader than the controller title: it covers financial managers and finance directors too, and it measures what employees were paid in April 2025, not what a new hire is offered.
Its range runs from £50,000 to £120,417, median £76,447, for full-time employees.
On Robert Half’s figures, the average financial controller salary, read as its median, is £76,750.
Read either source as one view of the market.
The useful question is which band your business sits in: its size, its sector, its entities and where the controller will work.
12/ london
Financial controller salary London: the premium over national pay
On Robert Half’s 2026 London figures, the financial controller salary London employers pay runs from £85,750 to £125,750, median £104,500.
Nationally the same range runs from £63,000 to £92,500, median £76,750.
The pattern holds one level up.
Robert Half’s 2026 median for a finance director is £149,000 in London against £109,500 nationally.
In financial services, its London median for a financial controller is £121,500.
Whether the seat is in London or not, the shortlist we send sets out each candidate’s pay, so you can compare a London hire with a hybrid or regional one on the same page.
13/ group
Group financial controller salary: what several entities add
A group financial controller runs consolidated reporting across several entities or subsidiaries, often with controllers reporting in from each.
On Robert Half’s 2026 figures, the group financial controller salary runs from £76,250 to £106,500 nationally, median £85,000.
In London it runs from £103,750 to £144,750, median £115,500.
That puts the group band above the single-entity controller at every point, and below the finance director.
Pay the complexity: the number of entities, currencies and reporting standards, and whether the consolidation already works.
14/ the other routes
Salary, day rate or retainer: the other ways to pay for the seat
Read this sectionClose this section
A permanent salary buys a controller every day, with notice on both sides.
An interim is paid by the day for full-time cover over a fixed period; see interim financial controller salary for the day rates.
A fractional controller works part of the week on a day rate or monthly retainer; see fractional financial controller salary.
The three are paid on different bases, so compare the total cost for the days you need, not the headline numbers.
15/ questions
Financial controller salary FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a financial controller.
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.
