Fractional executive glossary

Fractional executive

Also called: fractional CXO, fractional leader.

A senior leader who holds a real C-suite seat at a company one to three days a week on an ongoing basis, owning the function and its outcomes, and usually doing the same for two or three other companies at once. What is a fractional executive.

Fractional work

Also called: fractional leadership, fractional management.

A senior role held for a fraction of the working week, usually one to three days, with no end date assumed. The person contracts rather than being employed, is paid by the day, and holds similar roles elsewhere. What is fractional work.

Fractional CFO

An experienced chief financial officer who runs a company's finance function part-time, usually one to three days a week, owning the numbers, the runway and the forecasts. In the UK the seat costs £800 to £1,500 a day in 2026. Fractional CFO.

Part-time finance director

Also called: part-time FD, part-time CFO.

The older British name for the seat a fractional CFO holds. The hours overlap exactly; what usually differs is the paperwork, since a part-time finance director has often been on the payroll while a fractional CFO contracts through their own company. Fractional CFO or part-time CFO.

Outsourced CFO

A finance leader provided from outside the company, usually by an accounting or advisory firm, on a monthly retainer. Often the same arrangement as a fractional CFO, and sometimes an accounting service with a senior name attached, so ask how many days it buys. Fractional CFO or outsourced CFO.

Virtual CFO

A CFO service delivered remotely, usually by an accounting firm or a platform, on a monthly subscription. At one end it is a fractional CFO working from elsewhere; at the other it is software with an accountant on a monthly call. Fractional CFO or virtual CFO.

vCISO

Also called: virtual CISO.

A virtual chief information security officer: a senior security leader engaged part-time from outside. Most of the market uses the term interchangeably with fractional CISO, and it is often sold bundled with tooling, assessments or audit preparation. Fractional CISO or vCISO.

Chief of staff

A hire attached to the chief executive, usually full-time, carrying whatever the chief executive cannot carry this quarter rather than owning a function. Fractionally the title is priced as the COO seat, at £700 to £1,300 a day in the UK. Fractional COO or chief of staff.

Interim executive

Also called: interim manager, interim management.

A senior leader who holds the seat full-time, 5 days a week, for a defined stretch, usually 3 to 9 months, covering a departure, a transaction or a crisis. The seat is the same as a fractional one; the shape is full-time with an end date. Interim management.

Consultant

An adviser engaged to deliver a recommendation or a project and then leave, while the function still has to be run by somebody. The test against a fractional executive is who the board asks when the number misses. What a fractional executive is not.

Advisor

Also called: board advisor.

A senior person who gives a few hours a month on a retainer, with no legal duties, no vote and no liability. Below about one day a week nobody can own a function, which is the line between advisory and fractional. What fractional work is not.

Non-executive director

Also called: NED.

A member of a company's board who is not an employee and does not run the company day to day. They attend board meetings, challenge and support the executives, carry the same legal duties as every director, and are paid a fixed annual fee. What is a non-executive director.

NED fee

The fixed annual fee a non-executive director is paid instead of a salary. It varies with the size of the company and the committees the director sits on, and in private companies it is commonly modest or paid partly in equity. Non-executive director fees in the UK.

Portfolio career

The executive's own phrase for holding several seats at once: a fractional CFO with two or three clients, sometimes alongside a board role. It works only for somebody who has held the full-time seat, because judgement earned there is what is being sold. What a portfolio career looks like.

Day rate

What a fractional executive charges for one day in the seat, and the unit the market contracts in. In the UK it runs £600 to £1,500 a day in 2026 depending on the seat, before VAT, with no employer costs on top. UK fractional executive day rates.

Retainer

A fixed monthly fee for a fractional or advisory engagement, used in place of invoicing by the day. A useful retainer states how many days it buys; one that does not cannot be compared on price with a day rate. How fractional work is paid.

Billable weeks

The weeks a year a fractional executive actually invoices, set at 46 on this site to allow for their own time off. Every monthly figure here is the day rate times days a week times 46, divided by twelve. Fractional executive monthly cost.

Employer costs

What an employee costs beyond the salary: employer National Insurance, pension contributions and, for a senior hire, a recruitment fee. A fractional executive invoices through their own company, so none of these sit on top of the day rate. Fractional against full-time cost.

IR35

Also called: off-payroll rules.

The UK off-payroll rules, which catch somebody working through their own company who is in substance the client's employee. Status is decided by the facts of each engagement, chiefly control, substitution and mutuality of obligation, not by the word fractional. IR35 for fractional executives.

Status Determination Statement

Also called: SDS.

The written decision on whether an engagement falls inside or outside IR35, with the reasons behind it. Where the client is medium or large, or in the public sector, the client must produce one; for a small private client the contractor decides. Who decides IR35 status.

Office holder

Somebody appointed to a statutory office, such as a company director. A fractional executive who joins the board becomes one, and the duties of that office are treated differently from contracted services, so it deserves advice before it starts. The directorship point.

1099 contractor

In the United States, an independent contractor paid against invoices and reported on a 1099 form, as against a W-2 employee on the payroll. A US fractional executive is usually a 1099 contractor, and never automatically: the facts decide. 1099 or W-2.

Free zone

In the UAE, one of the many licensing areas outside the mainland, each with its own authority and its own rules about where a company may trade. Whether the client and the executive are free zone or mainland shapes how a fractional arrangement is structured. How fractional work is structured in the UAE.

Executive search

Also called: headhunting.

A process for filling a senior seat: the scope is written down, the market is mapped, people who are not looking are approached directly, and candidates are assessed against a written standard rather than forwarded from a database. C-suite executive search.

Retained search

Executive search where the firm is paid to run the search whether or not the company hires, usually in three instalments, and works the mandate exclusively. In the UK it runs 25 to 33 per cent of first-year salary, plus VAT. What executive search costs.

Contingent search

Also called: contingency recruitment.

Recruitment where the firm is paid only on a placement and is usually working several similar roles at once. In the UK it runs 15 to 25 per cent of first-year salary, and rarely reaches sitting executives who are not looking. Retained against contingency.

Off-limits

An agreement barring a search firm from approaching people at the companies it works for, or the people it has placed, for a set period. The larger the firm's client list, the more of the market it cannot approach on your behalf. Executive search firms compared.

Shortlist

The candidates a search puts in front of the company, each assessed against the written brief. An Operator Search shortlist is five people researched against the brief, with a CV, a confirmed day rate and confirmed availability, inside five business days. Operator Search.

Search fee

The fee paid before a search begins, for the work of running it, whether or not anybody is appointed. For Operator Search it is £2,500 in the UK, and it is not credited against the fee on appointment. Operator Search prices.

Replacement guarantee

A promise to run the search again if the appointment does not hold. On Operator Search it is a six-month guarantee: if the operator leaves or is stood down within six months, the search is rerun with no further search fee. A re-search, not a refund. What the guarantee covers.

Annualised value

Also called: engagement value.

The basis a placement fee is charged on: the day rate times the days committed each week times 46 working weeks, or a monthly retainer times twelve. For a permanent hire it is first-year base salary. The fee here is 15% of it. Terms of Business.

Introduction window

Also called: hire window.

How long an introduction stays live: 12 months from the first time a company opens an operator's full profile, contacts them or receives their details. Engaging that operator inside the window, in any capacity, carries the engagement fee. Terms of Business.

Verified

On this site, a person checked the operator's LinkedIn against the CV on file before the profile went live. Verification is the same for everybody, nothing publishes itself, and nobody can buy it or a place on a shortlist. The rules of the bench.