Fractional accountant jobs · Management accountant · Bookkeeper
Fractional accountant jobs · hire a fractional accountant, or hire one for good
Fractional accountant jobs are accountancy roles held for part of the week: a qualified accountant who keeps one business’s numbers for agreed days, often alongside other clients and sometimes from their own practice. To hire a fractional accountant, decide which accounts must come out each month, then whether the seat is a bookkeeper, a management accountant or a controller.
We recruit fractional, interim, part-time, temporary and permanent finance people. On every brief we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting. Our board lists financial controller and FP&A roles, below.
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
In the press
International Finance Renting the C-suite, and why the fractional executive era has arrived · 17 Sep 2026
Argues that fractional leadership has moved from a start-up stopgap into the mid-market, with finance leading the shift. Part-week accountants are the first step of that same model in many smaller businesses.
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a fractional accountant
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with accountant 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
Finance roles jobs on the board
Current financial controller and FP&A roles
Fractional recruitment works differently from a permanent search — shorter, scoped by days a week, and priced on the engagement. Send a accountant brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the role
Fractional accountant jobs: who takes them, and on what terms
A fractional accountant works inside your business for set days, on your systems and to your month-end timetable. Some are practice-qualified: they run a small accountancy practice of their own, or left a firm to work this way, and hold a seat in two or three businesses at once. Others work in-house on a part-time contract. The work is the same; the terms are not, and it pays to know which one you hire.
When the accountant has a practice
An ICAEW member needs a practising certificate when they engage in public practice, which typically means becoming a principal in an accountancy firm or independently offering accountancy services to the public. The ICAEW member directory shows whether a member holds one. An accountant or bookkeeper who provides accountancy services to clients also needs anti-money laundering supervision, from a professional body such as ICAEW, ACCA, CIMA, AAT or ICB, or from HMRC. Work done within your own organisation rather than for a third party is outside that rule, which is why an employed accountant does not register. Ask a fractional accountant which body supervises them, and check it.
What our board lists
Our board lists senior finance roles: financial controller and FP&A, with finance leadership roles when there are few. Accountant and bookkeeper posts are not listed there. For the in-house finance manager seat, see fractional finance manager jobs; for every senior finance role, fractional finance jobs.
02/ scope
How to hire a fractional accountant
1. Name the outputs
Write down what must exist at the end of each month: reconciled bank accounts, the ledgers up to date, VAT returns filed, a set of management accounts by a fixed working day, a year-end file your external accountant can use. The outputs tell you the level to hire and the days.
2. Pick the level of the seat
Day-to-day records are bookkeeping. Monthly numbers for decisions are management accounting. Owning the close, the controls and a team is a controller’s job: hire a fractional financial controller. A finance voice with the bank and the board is an FD: hire a fractional finance director. The table below sets out the three senior steps.
3. Check the register, not the CV
Confirm membership at source: the ICAEW directory and the ACCA member directory both let you search by name. For a practitioner, ask for the practising certificate and the name of their anti-money laundering supervisor. Then ask for a set of management accounts they produced, redacted, and take references from the owners they reported to.
4. Settle the engagement
A practitioner will usually send an engagement letter; read what it includes and what it leaves to you. Agree the days, system access and who approves payments. Where the accountant works through their own company, the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply: in most cases the client decides the status, while for a small client outside the public sector the accountant’s own company decides. Status turns on how the engagement runs in practice. Our IR35 guide sets out the tests.
What we do on a finance brief
We send a shortlist of 3–5 candidates, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out. Every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
03/ comparison
Fractional accountant vs financial controller vs finance director
Three steps in the same finance function. In a small business one person may cover two; choose by the work.
04/ vetting
How we vet fractional accountants
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify accountant 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
05/ fractional management accountant
Fractional management accountant and fractional bookkeeper
A fractional management accountant produces the numbers a business runs on, for part of the week: the monthly management accounts, budget against actual, product and job costing, margin analysis and the rolling forecast. Current listings for fractional accountants include management accounting seats of this kind. The test of the work is whether the owner can make a decision from it.
CIMA is the body built around this work. Its CGMA Professional Qualification runs from an operational level covering management accounting and financial reporting to a strategic level covering strategy, risk and financial strategy. Robert Half’s financial controller profile names management accountant among the common roles held before a controller post, which is the usual next step for the seat.
A fractional bookkeeper keeps the day-to-day records that everything else rests on: sales and purchase ledgers, bank reconciliations, receipts, payroll inputs and the VAT records. The AAT offers short bookkeeping qualifications that lead on to AAT Licensed Bookkeeper, and the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers certifies bookkeepers and lists self-employed ones. Professional bookkeeping for clients is an accountancy service under the money laundering rules, so the same supervision question applies.
If the bookkeeping is sound and what is missing is someone to own the close and the controls, hire a controller instead. See part-time financial controller jobs for a controller on fixed days.
06/ accountant vs FC vs FD
Fractional accountant vs financial controller vs finance director which seat you are hiring
The three titles describe how far the job reaches. A fractional accountant produces the records and the monthly numbers. A financial controller owns how those numbers are produced and checked, and manages the people who produce them. A finance director decides what the numbers mean for the business and answers for them to the bank and the board.
Robert Half’s financial controller profile lists the controller’s work as managing day-to-day finances, leading reporting under UK GAAP or IFRS, overseeing budgeting, forecasting and month-end, and managing internal controls, audits and risk. Its 2026 guide puts a full-time financial controller at £63,000 to £92,500 (25th to 75th percentile), median £76,750. A finance director sits above that: Robert Half gives £89,750 to £138,000, median £109,500.
No source we trust publishes a salary or day rate for a fractional accountant, so we do not quote one. Before you hire, compare the seats: for the controller in full, see fractional financial controller; for an FD in an owner-managed business, fractional FD jobs; for the in-house finance manager, fractional finance manager.
07/ questions
Fractional accountant jobs FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a fractional accountant.
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.
