How to hire a finance director · part-time or fractional FD · finance director or CFO

Hire a finance director · part-time to permanent

To hire a finance director, first decide how much of the week the finance work fills and for how long: part-time or fractional for a few days, interim for a fixed term, permanent when it fills every day.

Then scope the seat, test candidates on your own management accounts, and check the qualification and directorships before you make an offer.

We recruit fractional, interim, part-time, temporary and permanent executives, and non-executive directors.

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.

Brief us on a finance director hire →See the roles

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 part-week leadership has moved from a startup stopgap into the mid-market, with finance among the functions leading the shift. Worth reading before you decide between a part-time and a permanent finance director.

3–5

Shortlist · with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 set out

Vetting · stages before a candidate reaches you

£109,500

Finance director salary · national median, 2026

Robert Half, 2026

£600–£1,000

Fractional FD day rate · typical, at one to two days a week

FD Capital, 2026

15 minutes · video or phone

Book 15 minutes to hire a finance director

Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Finance Director 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

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Pick a day that suits · live availability

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On the board · last 3 months

Finance director roles jobs on the board

4 on the board · 0 confirmed open

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Current finance director and finance leadership roles

Fractional recruitment works differently from a permanent search — shorter, scoped by days a week, and priced on the engagement. Send a Finance Director brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.

01/ the role

Hire a finance director: choose the route before the person

A finance director runs the finance function: reporting, cash, budgets, controls, the audit and the banks.

Behind most searches to hire finance director cover sits a choice between four routes, made before anyone is interviewed.

Whether the need reads as a full-time seat or a business finance director for hire by the day, one question sorts it.

How many days of finance-director work does the business generate each week, and for how long?

When should I hire one?

The usual triggers: management accounts arrive late or nobody trusts them, a lender or investor wants a senior finance counterpart, a raise, purchase or sale is coming, or the owner is spending their weeks on the numbers.

A useful test is the monthly pack.

The British Business Bank suggests monthly management accounts with KPIs, a profit and loss statement, the cash position and a balance sheet; if no one produces them, that is the first gap to fill.

What stays with the directors

Every company must keep adequate accounting records that show and explain its transactions and disclose its financial position with reasonable accuracy at any time.

In practice a finance director makes that happen.

Hiring one does not move the legal duty.

Companies House guidance says directors who bring in a professional such as an accountant remain legally responsible for the company’s records, accounts and performance.

02/ scope

How to hire a finance director: route first, then person

1. Count the days the work needs

List the year’s finance work: the monthly close and pack, the budget, the audit, lender reporting, a system change, a raise or a sale.

Then estimate the senior days it takes each week, and when they fall.

Whether the search reads “hire a finance director UK” or “hire finance director London”, the steps are the same; pay is what changes.

Robert Half’s 2026 median for a finance director is £149,000 in London, against £109,500 nationally.

2. Pick the route

A few days a week points to a part-time or fractional finance director (the section below).

A seat that is empty now, or a project with an end date, points to an interim finance director.

Searches to “hire interim finance director” cover, or to “hire interim finance directors” for several sites, usually mean the seat is needed full-time from now; hire an interim finance director sets out that route.

Work that fills every week, with no end date, is a permanent hire: see finance director recruitment.

3. Scope the seat and write the brief

Set out what the finance director will own, what they inherit (team, systems, auditors, lenders), who they report to and whether they join the board.

Add the days, any on-site days and the contract you expect.

4. Test on your own numbers

Give every candidate the same tasks: read last quarter’s management accounts, say what is missing, and rework the cash forecast.

Score the answers against criteria agreed in advance, with a panel rather than one interviewer; our finance director interview questions set out what to ask.

5. Check before the offer

Confirm the accountancy qualification at source, through ICAEW membership verification or the ACCA member directory.

Search past directorships and disqualified directors on the Companies House register, and take references yourself from a CEO and an auditor or lender.

For an employee, you must check their right to work before they start.

For a finance director working through their own company, agree the IR35 position first.

What we do on a finance brief

We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.

Every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.

03/ comparison

Part-time, fractional, interim or permanent?

Four ways to fill the finance seat. Choose by the days the work needs and for how long.

Part-time (employed)FractionalInterimPermanent

TimeSet days each week, one companyOne or more days a week, often alongside other clientsFull-time, for a fixed termFull-time, open-ended

SuitsSteady finance work that does not fill a weekA business that needs senior finance judgement, not five days of itAn empty seat, a system change, a sale or a turnaroundFinance work that fills every day

Published payA pro-rata share of a full-time salary; set out on each shortlist£600–£1,000 a day typical, at one to two days a week (FD Capital, 2026)£600–£1,000 a day standard (FD Capital, 2026)£109,500 national median (Robert Half, 2026), plus employer NI and benefits

IR35On payrollDecided by how the engagement runsDecided by how the engagement runsOn payroll

04/ vetting

How we vet finance directors

What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.

01
Qualification screen
Verify Finance Director 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/ hire a part-time finance director

Hire a part-time finance director: employed for set days, or fractional

To hire a part-time finance director, first settle the contract.

Searches to “hire part time finance director” or “hire part time FD” cover two arrangements: an employee on set days, or a fractional FD engaged through their own company.

Employed, the FD is protected by the Part-time Workers Regulations 2000: Acas explains that pay and leave are given pro rata, in proportion to hours worked, against a full-time comparator.

Employer National Insurance applies, at 15% above £5,000 a year in 2026/27 (HMRC).

Engaged through a company, the FD invoices a day rate.

FD Capital’s pricing guide says fractional finance directors typically charge £600–£1,000 a day at one to two days a week.

The off-payroll working rules (IR35) may then apply.

Status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, and a medium or large client makes the determination; for a small client outside the public sector, the FD’s own company decides.

What a fractional finance director does week to week is set out on its own page.

To take that route, hire a fractional finance director; for an owner-managed business, see how others frame fractional FD jobs, and for set-days roles, part-time finance director jobs.

06/ finance director or CFO

Finance director or CFO: which hire

Finance director or CFO turns on what the seat must deliver.

A finance director runs the function: the close, the controls, the team and the reporting; a CFO adds strategy, funding, investors and transactions, and usually sits on the board.

In a smaller business one person may hold both, so compare the scope rather than the title.

Robert Half’s 2026 national median is £109,500 for a finance director and £176,500 for a Chief Financial Officer.

If the job is a raise, an acquisition or investor relations, hire a CFO.

If the close, the controls and a team fill the week, a finance director is the better fit.

Scale-ups often ask it the other way round: “should I hire a fractional CFO or a full-time finance director for my scaleup?” If the senior work comes in bursts (a raise, a lender, a monthly board pack), hire a fractional CFO sets out that route; if it fills every day, appoint the finance director.

07/ questions

Hiring a finance director FAQ

The questions people ask before bringing in a finance director.

Count the days the finance work needs each week, then choose part-time, fractional, interim or permanent. Write a brief around what the finance director will own, test every candidate on your own management accounts and cash forecast, verify the qualification at the institute, check directorships and take references yourself.

Robert Half’s 2026 national median for a finance director is £109,500, and £149,000 in London, before employer National Insurance, pension and bonus. FD Capital publishes £600–£1,000 a day for a fractional finance director and for a standard interim FD. On every brief we set out each candidate’s pay or day rate on the shortlist.

Five: count the days the work needs, pick the route, scope the seat and write the brief, test candidates on your own numbers, then check the qualification, directorships, right to work or IR35 position and references before the offer.

When management accounts are late or not trusted, when a lender or investor wants a senior finance counterpart, when a raise, purchase or sale is coming, or when the owner is spending their weeks on the numbers. If the work does not yet fill a week, start part-time or fractional.

When the senior finance work comes to a few days a week: a monthly pack, a budget, lender reporting, the audit. Employed part-time, pay and leave are pro rata; engaged through their own company, FD Capital publishes £600–£1,000 a day for a fractional finance director at one to two days a week.

A finance director if the gap is the function itself: the close, controls, team and reporting. A CFO if the job is strategy, funding, investors and transactions at board level, which the CFO route covers. In a smaller business one person may do both, so compare scope, not title.

Define the phase and what must be done by its end, set the day-rate budget, then brief. FD Capital publishes £600–£1,000 a day for a standard interim FD and £800–£1,300 for PE-backed and transaction-intensive work. An interim FD works full-time for the phase, so agree the end date in the brief.

It can, if the finance director works through their own company. Status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, and a medium or large client makes the determination (HMRC). We set out each candidate’s IR35 position on the shortlist.

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.

Book a call →Submit a brief