Interim finance director salary · day rates, 2026
What an interim finance director earns, by the day and by the assignment
An interim finance director salary is really a day rate.
FD Capital’s 2026 guide puts interim FD day rates at £650–£950 for SME and mid-market mandates and £950–£1,500 for complex PE-backed, listed or turnaround work.
Exec Capital’s 2026 guide gives £500–£1,200 a day, depending on complexity and urgency.
The rate covers full-time work for a fixed period, with no salary, pension or paid holiday behind it.
When you hire an interim FD through us, we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with 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 an interim finance director
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Interim 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
Pick a day that suits · live availability
On the board · last 3 months
Interim finance director jobs on the board
Interim finance roles on the board
Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency: send a Interim finance director brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the role
How an interim FD is paid, and why the unit is the day
An interim finance director holds the finance seat full-time for a defined period: a departure, a refinancing, an acquisition, a turnaround or the run-up to a sale.
The ICAEW describes the FD as the most senior role in the finance function, so the seat cannot sit empty for long.
FD Capital says interim engagements typically run 3–12 months, through a personal service company.
That makes the day rate the real unit of pay.
There is no salary, no employer pension and no paid holiday, and the interim carries the gaps between assignments.
Across all functions, the Institute of Interim Management’s 2026 survey puts the average assignment at 10.0 months, the average gap between assignments at 3.2 months and the average days billed in a year at 148.
An interim who works through their own company pays themselves through salary and dividends from what the company earns, after its costs and Corporation Tax.
The day rate is the company’s income, not the interim’s take-home pay.
02/ scope
How to hire an interim FD
1. Define the mandate and its end
Say what the interim must deliver and by when: a clean month-end, an audit, a refinancing, a sale process, a handover to a permanent hire.
The mandate sets the rate: FD Capital’s bands run from £400–£650 a day for an owner-managed SME to £900–£1,500 for a listed company or complex group.
2. Decide IR35 status at the start
If your business is medium or large, you make the status determination for the engagement and give the interim your reasons.
Settle it before you go to market, because it changes the rate candidates quote.
3. Match the record to the mandate
Ask for outcomes from comparable assignments: cash position on arrival and on exit, the first close, the deal that completed.
A turnaround needs someone who has run one.
Roles on the board are on interim finance director jobs.
What we do on an interim brief
We recruit interim, fractional, part-time, temporary and permanent finance leaders, and non-executive directors.
We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, and every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
If the seat needs a permanent owner after the interim, hire a finance director on that basis.
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 · 2 roles · Interim finance director
Engagement
- Interim2
Days a week
- Stated in the posting1
- Not stated1
Day rate
- Verified rate1
- Estimated (est)1
- Rate not stated0
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
- Remote1
- Hybrid0
- On-site1
Newest posting on the board: 12 Sept 2026.
04/ rates by stage
Interim finance director salary day rates by mandate and source
Day rates as each publisher states them, all 2026. FD Capital publishes two sets: one in its finance director salary guide and one, “as at Q1 2026” and on an outside-IR35 basis, on its interim FD page. Morgan McKinley publishes contract day rates by years (0–3, 3–5, 5+). FD Capital, Exec Capital and Morgan McKinley are recruiters. The IIM figures cover every interim function, not finance alone.
05/ economics
Interim pay and IR35: who decides, and what it changes
Tax status turns on how the engagement runs, not on the title or the contract alone.
Under the off-payroll working rules (IR35), a medium or large client makes the status determination; for a small client outside the public sector, the interim’s own company decides.
The rules apply contract by contract, so one interim can have engagements on both sides.
It shows in the rates.
The IIM’s 2026 survey puts the average interim day rate at £949 outside IR35 and £830 inside, across all functions, and FD Capital’s mandate bands assume an outside-IR35 engagement.
HMRC’s CEST tool gives its view on a specific engagement.
Our IR35 guide sets out the tests.
06/ vetting
How we vet interim finance directors
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Interim 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
07/ interim finance director day rate
Interim finance director day rate by mandate and region
The interim finance director day rate rises with the risk of the mandate.
FD Capital’s interim FD page, as at Q1 2026, puts an owner-managed SME (up to £20m revenue) at £400–£650 a day and a mid-market private company (£20m–£75m) at £550–£850.
A PE-backed business pays £700–£1,050, a turnaround £800–£1,400 and a listed company or complex group £900–£1,500.
FD Capital’s finance director salary guide gives higher bands for the same kinds of work: £650–£950 a day for SME and mid-market mandates and £950–£1,500 for complex ones.
The two pages disagree, so ask which one a quote is built on.
Place and sector move the rate too.
Morgan McKinley’s 2026 contract rates put a finance director in a London SME at £500–£550 a day at 0–3 years and £850–£1,200+ at 5+ years, and in a South West SME at £450–£650 across all three bands.
08/ the year
Interim finance director salary, annualised
No interim is paid a salary.
To compare, multiply the day rate by the days worked.
At FD Capital’s £650–£950 band, 220 days would bill £143,000–£209,000.
At the IIM’s all-function average of 148 days billed in a year, the same band bills £96,200–£140,600.
Both are day rate × days, our arithmetic: a comparison, not a salary.
A full month of interim cover, at about 22 working days, comes to £14,300–£20,900 on the same band (our arithmetic).
That is the client’s cost.
The interim pays their own pension, holidays, insurance and the gaps between assignments out of it.
For scale, Robert Half’s 2026 median for a permanent finance director is £109,500 in base salary, before bonus, pension and employer’s National Insurance.
See finance director salary for the permanent benchmarks in full.
09/ the other routes
Interim, permanent or fractional: which pay basis fits
Interim cover buys a full-time FD for a fixed period.
A permanent hire is paid a salary and package; see finance director salary.
If the work fits into part of the week, a fractional FD on a day rate or retainer may cost less over the same months; see fractional finance director salary.
For what an interim holds the seat to do, see interim finance director.
10/ questions
Interim finance director salary FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in an interim finance director.
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.
