Fractional CFO jobs · remote, hybrid and London
Fractional CFO jobs involve finance leadership for agreed working days: helping the business make decisions about cash, planning and financial risk. Compare each brief by its reporting line, decision authority and the team maintaining the accounts. For remote or London roles, confirm systems access and required attendance.
Browse the fractional CFO jobs below: part-time chief financial officer roles, 1–3 days a week, typically £700–£1,400 a day (specialists to £1,600, FD Capital).
To hire a fractional CFO, bring a brief and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5.
Part 01 / 04
Inputs
Part 02 / 04
Judgement
Part 03 / 04
Authority
Part 04 / 04
Continuity
In the press
FM Magazine (AICPA & CIMA) How to make the fractional CFO-client relationship effective · 20 May 2026
FM Magazine, the AICPA & CIMA title, asked practitioners what makes a fractional CFO engagement work: agreed scope, real access to the numbers and a set rhythm of communication. It is the checklist to bring to your first call with us.
15 minutes · video or phone
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with fractional CFO candidates, their day rates and availability.
Pick a day that suits · live availability
Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency: send a brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
Fractional CFO jobs · last 3 months
CivSec Group · London
fin-house · London
KeelCFO · England
Global Digital Group · United Kingdom
Amitours · United Kingdom
Also on the board: finance leadership roles (9).
Motorway · London
Marks & Spencer · Salford
LRO Financial Consultancy · Worcester
PHIX · United Kingdom
Fermtech · Oxford
fin-house · London
Cyber Chain Alliance · United Kingdom
Juro · United Kingdom
GDPRLocal · England
Full-time · permanent as posted · last 3 months
Full-time CFO roles, posted by the employer as full-time and listed as the posting states them. We recruit permanent CFOs as well as fractional and interim. Hiring a permanent CFO: CFO headhunter.
01/ the cross
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 4.7 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 £176,500 Robert Half 2026 median salary. The full calculator below adds the months, the totals and the currency tabs.
Our arithmetic, cumulative. Permanent = the salary’s 30% search fee in month 0, then salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI each month. Interim = the midpoint of the published interim band (£1,100 a day, FD Capital 2026) × 5 days × 4.33 weeks. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each month.
02/ the route
Four taps. The answer names the route for the seat and the page that covers it.
The route · Fractional
A fractional CFO.The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.
A fractional CFO 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 CFO.The work fills the week, and it has an end: a programme, a cover, a transaction.
An interim CFO 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 CFO after.The seat is full time and long term, and the need is now.
An interim CFO holds it while the permanent search runs, so the seat is not left empty.
The route · Permanent
A permanent CFO.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 board
A read of the roles on the board above, 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 · 14 roles · fractional CFO · finance leadership
Engagement
Seat
Days a week
Day rate
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
Newest posting on the board: 21 Oct 2026.
Postings per week on this board, last 90 days
14 postings on this board in the last 90 days, counted by the week each was published.
04/ the shape
The seat’s roles, open now and closed in the last 90 days, split two ways: the days a week each posting asks for, and the IR35 position it gives.
5 open (0 confirmed open, 5 not confirmed still open), 10 closed in the last 90 days · fractional CFO · as of 22 Oct 2026
Days a week
IR35, as the posting states it
IR35 status is decided by how an engagement runs, not by the posting; this is what each posting says.
05/ the asks
The skills and tools the seat’s job descriptions name most, open now and closed in the last 90 days, matched to our skills list.
A term that is not on the list is left out.
5 open (0 confirmed open, 5 not confirmed still open), 10 closed in the last 90 days · fractional CFO · as of 22 Oct 2026
Named in the job descriptions of 15 roles (open now, or closed in the last 90 days), matched to our skills list. A skill counts once per role.
06/ one brief, four routes
A fractional CFO is not a smaller CFO, and not a bigger bookkeeper.
It is the same seat — the forecast, the runway, the board pack, the raise — bought by the day instead of by the year.
The difference that matters most is who actually does the work: an outsourced or virtual CFO service is delivered by analysts with a named CFO overseeing, while a fractional CFO is personally in the seat.
FRACTIONAL
1–3 days a week, sustained. Owns the forecast, the cash runway, the board pack and the fundraise, alongside your existing bookkeeper or finance team.
INTERIM
Cover for a departure, a restructure or a transaction. See hire an interim CFO.
OUTSOURCED / VIRTUAL
Analysts do the work and a named CFO oversees it. Suits routine reporting at volume.
FULL-TIME
Salary plus employer NI, pension and bonus. Suits sustained scale and complexity.
Owns finance — not a bookkeeper.
A fractional CFO owns the forecast, the cash runway, the board pack and the fundraise.
The company defines the outcome; the CFO decides how the finance function gets there.
07/ the four ideas
A fractional CFO — a fractional chief financial officer — is a part-time CFO who owns the finance function at board level, 1–3 days a week: with the authority, accounting support and planning responsibilities set out in the brief.
Fractional CFO jobs are how finance leaders hold more than one of these seats at once.
Four ideas define the model.
01 · cadence
Senior, proven CFO capability across a defined slice of the week, without a full-time salary.
02 · role
Owns the forecast, the runway, the board pack and the fundraise.
03 · structure
The engagement names the outcome, the days a week and the deliverables — often starting with a 1–3 month engagement. IR35 status depends on how the engagement runs in practice.
04 · horizon
Engagements run through clean-up, fundraising and early scale-up, often ending when the company appoints a full-time CFO — and the CFO usually holds more than one client.
08/ rates
Day rates and monthly retainers scale with company complexity, and the band, not the person, is what usually moves.
Fundraising-heavy mandates command the top of each band because the work compresses into a short window.
Published UK day-rate bands · £ a day · the marker is the calculator’s day rate
The permanent band is the published salary ÷ 220 working days — our arithmetic, for comparison only.
Two FD Capital pages, two cuts of the market: the pricing guide’s experience tiers and the CFO guide’s typical and specialist bands. No source publishes regional CFO day rates, so none are shown.
09/ comparison
How the fractional model compares to interim, outsourced/virtual CFO services and a full-time appointment.
Read the “who does the work” row first — it is the row that decides the other four.
→ Interim covers the whole seat for a period; fractional covers part of it for as long as you need.
→ A service gives you a capability; a fractional CFO gives you a person accountable for the number.
→ Either way, the number has an owner. A full-time package, or two days a week.
10/ the choice
A fractional CFO takes responsibility for an agreed part-week share of the role.
Confirm its duration, review point and continuity; the label does not determine when it ends.
An interim CFO covers the seat for a defined period of absence or change, such as a vacancy, transaction or turnaround.
Agree the hours, authority and handover for the actual assignment.
Agree responsibility, hours, duration and between-day cover separately.
Fractional and interim describe different aspects of a brief and can overlap.
The calculator illustrates fees at the stated days and assumptions.
Confirm employment, tax and benefit obligations before using it as a total-cost comparison.
11/ the contract
A fractional CFO engagement is written around a scope — the outcome, the days a week, the deliverables and the notice.
IR35 status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, and a medium or large client makes the status determination.
CFO office-holder duties need specific care — take advice before accepting a statutory directorship.
Consult a tax adviser · gov.uk/CEST · off-payroll rules: HMRC IR35 guidance.
01 / CONTROL
HMRC looks at who decides how, when and where the work is done — whether the company sets the outcome or directs the method.
✓ In the contract02 / SUBSTITUTION
HMRC looks at whether the CFO could send a suitably qualified substitute, and whether that right is genuine in practice.
✓ In the contract03 / MUTUALITY
HMRC looks at whether the company must offer work beyond the agreed scope, and whether the CFO must accept it.
✓ In the contract12/ the maths
What a fractional CFO costs a hiring company against a permanent hire over the same months — or, switched to “I’m a CFO”, what one mandate bills.
The slider runs across the published band for a fractional CFO: £700–£1,400 a day (FD Capital 2026).
Cost over 12 months
£109,200
104 working days · 2 d/wk · 12 mo · before tax
Fractional costs less over 12 months£146,725
Fractional CFO, 12 months£109,200
Fractional CFO, a month at 2 d/wk£9,093
Permanent CFO, same period£255,925
Fractional CFO, 12 months$144,679
Fractional CFO, a month at 2 d/wk$12,047
Permanent CFO, same period$339,075
Converted from £ at $1.3249 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a US market rate. Source ↗
Fractional CFO, 12 months€128,266
Fractional CFO, a month at 2 d/wk€10,681
Permanent CFO, same period€300,610
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 £176,500 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.
13/ the week
Part of a week is the point of the model: 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 CFO’s week can divide at 2 days a week for you. Each block is half a day.
14/ tax
The general position under UK rules, with the HMRC source for each point.
Not tax advice: check your own case with your accountant.
01 · DEDUCTIBLE
A fractional CFO’s fees, like a salary, are deductible against profits when incurred wholly and exclusively for the trade (HMRC BIM37000). At the 25% main rate, each £1,000 of fees costs a profitable company £750 after relief.
02 · EMPLOYER NI
A permanent CFO carries employer National Insurance at 15% above £5,000 a year. A fractional CFO engaged through their own company carries none when the engagement is outside IR35; inside IR35, the fee-payer deducts tax and NI and pays employer NI. Status depends on how the engagement runs in practice.
03 · WHO DECIDES
Medium and large clients determine the status themselves; for a small private-sector client, the fractional CFO’s own company decides (HMRC off-payroll guidance).
15/ london or remote
Most CFO recruitment goes wrong before the first interview, because the brief names a title rather than a seat.
Decide first which Chief Financial Officer the business actually needs: a permanent appointment, an interim CFO holding the seat for a defined period with agreed hours, or a fractional CFO for part of the week.
The recruitment channel follows from that choice, not the other way round.
For a fractional CFO London hire, say in the brief which days need someone in the room.
The close and the modelling can be done remotely.
For a permanent seat, retained executive search is the usual route — CFO headhunters sets out how it works and what it costs.
For a fractional or interim seat the process is shorter: a written brief, a shortlist, interviews built around real board packs and models, then references.
We recruit fractional, interim and permanent CFOs: a shortlist of 3–5, with the IR35 position set out on every brief.
Whichever route you take, assess every candidate against the same criteria.
The CIPD recommends structured interviews — the same questions, in the same order, scored against criteria agreed in advance — and treats references as one check among several rather than the decision.
Verify the qualification at source through ICAEW membership verification or the ACCA member directory.
Two situations change the timetable.
In an FCA-regulated firm the finance seat can be the Chief Finance function (SMF2), and Senior Management Function holders need FCA or PRA approval before they start.
And if the CFO will join the board as a statutory director, they take on directors’ legal responsibilities for the company’s records and accounts — worth discussing before an offer, not after.
16/ the role
A fractional chief financial officer is accountable for the same outputs as a full-time one, delivered in fewer days.
The brief usually covers four areas, and a good engagement letter names each of them.
Cash and the forecast.
A rolling cash flow forecast, checked against actuals, so the board sees a shortfall before it arrives — the discipline the British Business Bank sets out in its guide to building a cash flow forecast.
Management information.
Monthly management accounts the board can act on — KPIs, profit and loss, cash position and balance sheet, as the British Business Bank’s finance management guidance lists them.
Funding readiness.
The business plan, the model and the numbers behind the pitch deck; lenders and investors judge the financial fundamentals first, as the British Business Bank’s guide to getting ready for finance explains.
Governance.
Board papers and controls — and, in a listed company, the reporting the UK Corporate Governance Code expects, which now asks boards to declare on the effectiveness of their material internal controls.
What a fractional CFO does not usually own is the day-to-day ledger, the close or the tax return; those stay with your bookkeeper, accountant or financial controller.
Where the need is more operational, a fractional finance director may fit better; where you want the same days each week with one company, see part-time CFO jobs.
17/ vetting
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches a shortlist.
There is no legal requirement for a chartered qualification, but the UK market expects one — so we check it at source.
Chartered bodies: ICAEW · ACCA · CIMA.
Directorship history: Companies House.
ACA, ACCA or CIMA verified at the institute, plus Companies House directorship history.
QUALIFICATIONOwned board packs, fundraises and audits at CFO or FD level. We read the numbers, not the narrative.
TRACK RECORDTwo references from chairs, investors or auditors who sat across the table — not colleagues.
REFERENCES3–5 candidates, each with day rate, availability, stage fit and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–518/ hiring
Four situations where a part-time chief financial officer is often the right answer.
Which sounds like you?
Series A–B data rooms, the model, the narrative and investor Q&A — compressed, senior work a bookkeeper can’t carry.
Revenue has outgrown the accountant. A fractional CFO builds the function — controls, reporting cadence, runway discipline.
Portfolio companies need covenant management and monthly packs to an institutional standard, without a full-time package.
Clean numbers, defensible forecasts and a data room that survives scrutiny, well before a sale process.
19/ the buyer’s guide
Scope the mandate first — board reporting, fundraising support or financial planning — and set the budget against the published retainers: £2,500–£4,000 a month at 1 day a week up to £10,000–£15,000 at 3 or more (FD Capital).
Source through a specialist fractional recruiter, your investors’ networks and referrals; interview on portfolio evidence and scenario planning, and take two or three recent client references.
Then start small: a 1–3 month engagement with clear deliverables — a defined project such as the board pack or fundraising prep — is easier to scope and measure than an open-ended retainer.
For a permanent Chief Financial Officer, see CFO headhunters.
20/ the terms
Five things to settle before a fractional CFO starts, so the days you buy go on the work.
01
Write down what has to be true at three, six and twelve months. Days a week follow from that list, not the other way round.
02
Fix the days a week, which days, and a review point where either side can change them. Most of the value is in the rhythm.
03
Put in writing what the role can see, sign and decide: systems, data, budget and the board. A part-week leader without access is an adviser.
04
Agree notice on both sides and the handover: documents, logins and who inherits each piece of work.
05
Settle how the engagement will run before it starts, because IR35 status follows the working practice. See the IR35 guide.
21/ the broad hire
Plenty of founders who want to hire a CFO have not yet decided which kind of finance leader they are hiring.
Four shapes cover most briefs.
A permanent CFO is an employee, full-time, owning the finance function and the numbers the board signs off.
An interim CFO works for a defined term with agreed hours — a fundraise, a sale, a year-end that has gone wrong, or cover while the permanent seat is filled.
A fractional CFO runs the forecast, the board pack and investor reporting for part of each week, ongoing.
A part-time CFO keeps the seat on a steady weekly pattern with a single company, and an advisory CFO guides the founder and board without running the function.
The question that decides it is how much CFO-level work the business generates each week.
If cash, funding, controls, a finance team to lead and the board conversation fill the week, hire a CFO on a permanent basis — our CFO headhunter page covers the retained search.
If they fill part of it, a fractional hire gives the board a finance lead without a full-time salary: fractional CFO cost sets out the published figures, and fractional CFO services explains what buying the work as a service involves.
However you hire a CFO, the brief covers the same ground: scope, stage, the finance team already in place, days a week, budget and IR35 position.
Send it over and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5, and you interview.
For a CFO engaged through their own company, status turns on how the engagement runs day to day, not on what the contract calls it — test it with HMRC’s CEST tool and read our IR35 guide.
22/ where
The fractional CFO UK market runs on hybrid work: board packs, models and forecasts travel, while the board meeting and the investor pitch need a CFO in the room.
We shortlist fractional CFOs across the UK for hybrid or remote engagements, with each candidate’s availability set out, so on-site days can be agreed before an offer.
Whether it is a fractional CFO Newcastle founders need for a raise or a fractional CFO Nottingham manufacturers want for costing and cash, the brief and the shortlist of 3–5 work the same way as for a London hire.
For a part time CFO, London-based or not, on the same days each week, see part-time CFO jobs.
A fractional CFO London scale-ups bring in need not live there or be there every week: the close and the modelling can be remote, the board and the raise in person.
Say which days you need someone present in the brief.
A fractional CFO for hire is matched on the brief, so make it specific: the trigger (a raise, a lender, an exit, outgrowing the bookkeeper), the days a week, the on-site days and your stage.
A fractional CFO company or fractional CFO group — a firm with a bench of associates and analysts — sells a service rather than a person in the seat, so compare fractional CFO companies on who does the work and who owns the models when it ends.
We recruit fractional, interim, part-time and permanent CFOs; every shortlist sets out day rate or pay, availability and IR35 position.
23/ sector fit
Stage beats sector for CFOs — a “VC-backed, Series A–B” brief is more predictive than a “growth companies” one.
But sector still shapes the work, because the thing the board is anxious about differs.
In fintech and other regulated firms the anxiety is capital adequacy, regulatory reporting and the FCA relationship, so the mandate skews toward controls and permissions.
In SaaS it is unit economics, ARR quality and the metrics an investor will diligence, so the mandate skews toward the model.
In e-commerce it is working capital, stock and cash conversion — the fastest way to run out of money while growing.
In agencies and professional services it is utilisation and project profitability rather than gross margin.
In manufacturing and family-owned mid-market businesses it is costing, capex discipline and succession.
And in deep tech and life sciences it is grant and milestone accounting alongside an institutional round.
The common thread is that a fractional CFO is bought when the finance question has become a board question — which is why the trigger is usually a raise, a lender, or an exit, and rarely the size of the ledger.
This is our reading of the market, not a published survey.
24/ guide
The path from permanent to portfolio, in five steps.
ACA, ACCA or CIMA plus substantial post-qualification experience, including CFO or FD tenure with owned board reporting. Buyers pay for pattern recognition.
BEFORE YOU STARTStage beats sector for CFOs — “VC-backed, Series A–B” or “PE portfolio” beats “growth companies”. Your first mandates come from your network.
WEEK 1Anchor to the published band: £700–£1,400 typical, £1,200–£1,600 for PE, VC and fundraising specialists (FD Capital). Quote a range, hold the floor, price retainers off days per month.
WEEK 1–2Form a limited company, understand what HMRC looks at — control, substitution, mutuality of obligation — and check each engagement against CEST on its own facts; take advice on statutory-officer edge cases before accepting a directorship.
WEEK 2–4Register with fractional specialists, keep your availability current, and work your network — it is where most first mandates come from.
ONGOING
25/ the map
The seat’s roles by region, open now and closed in the last 90 days, London first, from each posting’s location.
Remote roles are counted on their own.
5 open (0 confirmed open, 5 not confirmed still open), 10 closed in the last 90 days · fractional CFO · as of 22 Oct 2026
By region
Remote (as the job feed classifies it)
26/ the latest
The seat’s open roles added in the last 7 and 30 days, and the newest three open roles.
The stamp is when this page last read the board.
Board read 22 Oct 2026, 23:31 London time
5 open (0 confirmed open, 5 not confirmed still open), 10 closed in the last 90 days · fractional CFO · as of 22 Oct 2026
Newest open roles on the board
Counted from the date each role was published on the board. Closed roles are counted above and never listed.
27/ coverage
Fractional CFO roles follow the UK’s finance and scale-up hubs, and much of the work is remote or hybrid.
No source publishes regional CFO day rates, so none are shown.
Remote is not a fallback in finance.
The work is board packs, models, forecasts and investor conversations, which can often be delivered remotely; confirm the permitted working country, meeting hours and attendance.
Most mandates settle into a hybrid rhythm: remote for the monthly close and the modelling, in the room for the board meeting and the raise.
That is why a fractional CFO outside London can hold a London mandate, and why remote fractional roles across every function are worth watching alongside the CFO board.
Looking for a fractional CFO near me rather than a remote one?
The city cards above link to each local hub, and the UK-wide board carries every role regardless of location.
Practical guide · Updated
The working brief · 01
A brief should name the financial decision and the quality of the information behind it.
Identify the decision
Say whether the business needs help with cash planning, investment choices, reporting or finance leadership. List the people who prepare the underlying information. A CFO brief should explain how the leader will reach a decision, not merely request a better dashboard.
Trace the inputs
Name the systems, reconciliation owners and assumptions behind each important report. Ask what is known, what is incomplete and what requires specialist advice. Give candidates a truthful view of the finance function rather than presenting untested forecasts as settled facts.
Allocate authority
Separate preparation, review and approval. Identify who can commit spending, accept a forecast and report to the board. FRC governance guidance is a useful reference for discussing proportionate controls; its Code requirements are not automatically requirements for every private company.
The working brief · 02
Fictional worked example, not a client case study: a business wants to expand but cannot agree which forecast to use.
Describe the gap
In this fictional business, sales expects new orders while operations has a different view of delivery capacity. The finance brief asks for a shared account of assumptions and cash commitments. It does not assume that an executive hire will make the plan affordable.
Compare the choices
The leader separates committed activity from uncertain demand and explains how the choices affect cash planning. Sales and operations confirm their inputs; the decision-maker agrees which assumptions to use. Our planning estimate uses the candidate’s proposed day rate multiplied by the agreed working days. Label it as an estimate, record the assumptions and revise it when the brief changes. This calculates the engagement budget; it does not establish a market rate or estimate pay onto a job listing. The workings remain visible rather than collapsing into an unexplained total.
Review the assumptions
Set a review trigger when the underlying orders, collections or commitments change. Record which decision remains with the board. No saving, funding result or revenue improvement is promised: the example illustrates how to make a decision inspectable.
The working brief · 03
Match the financial leadership commitment to the work and the team supporting it.
Defined oversight
Fractional leadership can suit recurring judgement and review when a finance team can maintain the underlying records. Confirm access, reporting deadlines and the decisions needing attention between sessions. Limited time should not hide an unfilled preparation role.
Transition or cover
Interim leadership may suit temporary cover or a defined change that needs active attention. Write the inherited reporting obligations and the exit condition into the brief. Explain who owns routine accounting while the transition work takes place.
Ongoing daily ownership
Permanent leadership may suit sustained daily management of a finance function and its business relationships. Describe the lasting responsibilities rather than assuming a fractional role always grows into a permanent one. Commitment and employment arrangements need to be stated separately.
The working brief · 04
For applicants: a useful account distinguishes the problem, the evidence and the responsibility you personally held.
State the starting point
Describe the business stage, reporting quality and decision the organisation faced. Say what you owned and who else was accountable. Use information you are authorised to share; an anonymised explanation is preferable to a confidential board pack.
Explain the work
Show how you checked inputs, challenged assumptions and communicated uncertainty. Separate an observed result from a forecast and from an outcome the wider team delivered. Where financial figures cannot be disclosed, describe the reasoning and review process.
Question the mandate
Ask who maintains the books, who approves spending and what reporting commitments already exist. Confirm whether tax, audit or other specialist support is available. Clarify the expected commitment and deadlines before accepting a title that may conceal several different jobs.
The working brief · 05
Stage the transfer around reproducible information and accepted responsibilities.
Document the basis
Reproduce the work
Accept the responsibilities
The working brief · 06
Remote finance leadership needs reliable inputs, secure access and explicit reporting owners.
Work that can travel
Planning and financial review can be organised remotely when information is available through approved systems. Confirm who maintains it and how questions are resolved. The location label is less useful than knowing whether the leader can inspect the underlying workings.
Work needing presence
Ask whether a site, stock process or operational relationship needs direct observation. Describe the reason and location rather than treating London or office attendance as a proxy for capability. Confirm which colleagues need to be available for that work.
Record the arrangement
Agree reporting deadlines, access owners and availability between sessions. Keep secure handling of financial information within company processes. A remote appointment should not rely on ad hoc sharing of confidential files to compensate for missing access.
The working brief · 07
Use a bounded hypothetical case to assess judgement rather than collect a finished financial plan.
Share the uncertainty
Give candidates the same account of a business decision, its constraints and incomplete inputs. Avoid using confidential live data where a hypothetical will do. Ask which assumptions they would examine before recommending a course of action.
Explore the options
Ask how they would distinguish commitments from forecasts and explain uncertainty to a non-finance decision-maker. Explore what would change their recommendation. The useful evidence is how they connect workings to choices, not the confidence of a presentation.
Clarify the authority
Ask who should prepare, review and approve the work and which specialist advice might be needed. Compare responses with agreed criteria. Keep the assessment bounded so candidates are demonstrating judgement rather than producing unpaid work the business intends to use.
The working brief · 08
A finance leader should know where a decision needs support beyond the appointment’s remit.
Name the support
List the accounting, tax, audit and legal specialists already engaged, with their actual responsibilities. Tell applicants what support exists and where it is absent. A CFO appointment should not silently absorb every specialist obligation of the business.
Define the interface
Identify who briefs advisers, supplies information and accepts their recommendations. Distinguish a specialist opinion from the executive decision made using it. Record unresolved questions so a leader does not treat incomplete advice as a settled basis for action.
Preserve continuity
Keep approved advice and its assumptions available to the appropriate future owner. Confirm when changed circumstances require a fresh review. The handover should make adviser relationships and open matters visible, rather than leaving the successor to reconstruct them from email.
28/ questions
The questions people ask about fractional CFO work — each answer also ships as FAQPage structured data.
A fractional CFO is a chief financial officer who works with a company part-time — typically 1–3 days a week — owning the finance function at board level: forecasting, cash flow, fundraising and investor reporting.
More than a bookkeeper, more strategic than a controller.
Scope the mandate first — board reporting, fundraising support or financial planning, at 1–3 days a week.
Source through a specialist fractional recruiter, investor networks and referrals; take two or three recent client references; and start with a 1–3 month engagement with clear deliverables.
Or bring us a brief and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5.
A fractional CFO typically charges £700–£1,400 a day, averaging about £1,050; PE, VC and fundraising specialists command £1,200–£1,600 (FD Capital).
Retainers run £2,500–£4,000 a month for 1 day a week, £5,000–£8,000 for 2 days and £10,000–£15,000 for 3 or more.
Most engagements are 1–3 days a week.
Two days is the cadence we recommend for a scale-up with a raise or lender on the horizon — a recommendation, not a measured result.
A finance director is typically more operational — the close, the team, the controls.
A fractional CFO is more strategic: forecasting, fundraising, board-level thinking.
In smaller UK businesses the titles are often used interchangeably.
Browse fractional finance director jobs.
No. You would hire an interim CFO for a defined period with agreed hours — cover for a departure, a restructure or a transaction.
A fractional CFO is a sustained part-time engagement, often alongside other clients.
To hire a part-time CFO on consistent days instead, see part-time CFO jobs; for full-time cover, hire an interim CFO.
An outsourced CFO is a delivered service, often through a firm with analysts, where the named CFO oversees rather than does the work.
Virtual CFO (UK usage varies) usually means fractional delivered remotely.
A fractional CFO is personally in the seat.
It depends on how each engagement runs in practice — HMRC looks at control, substitution and mutuality of obligation.
A medium or large client makes the status determination; each engagement can be checked against CEST on its own facts.
A fractional CFO engagement may be ongoing or end at an agreed milestone.
Define the responsibilities, review dates and handover for clean-up, fundraising or scale-up work.
Yes — and outside it.
Much of the work is remote or hybrid, so a London company can hire a fractional CFO based anywhere in the UK, meeting in person for the board and the raise.
The London jobs board and the UK-wide board carry the roles.
Yes.
We recruit fractional, interim and permanent CFOs: a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting.
If you use a retained search firm instead, UK retained search runs 25–35% of approximate first-year base salary, with CFO searches typically 28–33% (Headhunters.co.uk; Executive Recruit).
Start with the brief: the outcome, the days per week and whether the seat is fractional or interim.
We come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
Interview every candidate against the same scored questions, as the CIPD recommends, and verify the qualification with the institute — for example through ICAEW membership verification.
In an FCA-regulated firm, check whether the seat is a Senior Management Function needing FCA or PRA approval before the start date.
An accountant typically prepares the statutory accounts and tax returns, which look back.
A fractional chief financial officer looks forward: the cash flow forecast, monthly management information, funding readiness and board reporting.
Directors stay legally responsible for the company’s records and accounts even when they hire help (GOV.UK), so the CFO’s job is to give the board numbers it can rely on and decide with.
Many businesses keep both.
At £1,000 a day, 2 clients at 2 days a week each across 46 working weeks is £184,000 in gross fees — our arithmetic.
PE, VC and fundraising specialists bill £1,200–£1,600 a day (FD Capital).
Build on a chartered qualification (ACA, ACCA or CIMA) and CFO or FD tenure.
Define a stage niche, set a day-rate band against the published stage table, form a limited company to contract through, and register with fractional specialists.
The five steps above set it out.
There is no legal requirement, but the UK market expects a chartered qualification (ACA, ACCA or CIMA) plus demonstrable CFO or FD experience — fundraising, board reporting and audit ownership carry the most weight.
Across the UK’s finance and scale-up hubs — London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds — and a large share are remote or hybrid.
Remote CFO roles appear on the remote fractional jobs board, and full-time fixed-term roles on the interim CFO jobs board.
When a posting is remote, the card says so.
The board lists fractional CFO roles (UK-wide) from our jobs feed, and each card shows the location the posting gives — remote, hybrid or on site.
Remote CFO jobs across every seat are also on the remote fractional jobs board.
Most CFO work travels, but board meetings and fundraises usually need some days in person.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
A shortlist of 3–5. Five-stage vetting. IR35 position on every brief.
Book a call or submit a CFO brief; we come back with a shortlist of 3–5 candidates.
Browse the CFO and finance leadership roles from our jobs feed, or get in touch about the searches we run.
