How to hire a CFO in the UK, fractional or full time
Hiring a fractional CFO in the UK takes seven steps: write the gap down, set the budget from the published day-rate band, check fractional is the right shape, shortlist people who have held the seat at your stage, interview with the six questions below, agree the day-ninety markers in writing, and contract the days and the IR35 position. Most companies go from brief to signed contract in about two weeks. To skip the reading and meet people, hire a fractional CFO from the seat page.
UK day rates for the seat run £800 to £1,500. All eleven seats compared →
Fractional or full time: which CFO hire you need
A fractional CFO costs £800 to £1,500 a day, usually two days a week, which is £6,133 to £11,500 a month with no employer costs. A full-time CFO is paid a base of £110,000 to £180,000, plus employer costs, and a retained search adds 25 to 33 per cent of first-year earnings. Fractional fits two or three days of judgement; full time fits five days of leadership.
| Route | Cost basis | Time to start | Commitment | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fractional | £800 to £1,500 a day; £6,133 to £11,500 a month at two days | Met within days, starting in one to three weeks | One to three days a week, usually a month's notice | Owning the CFO decisions two or three days a week |
| Interim | £15,333 to £28,750 a month at 5 days | Weeks rather than months | Full time for a fixed term, typically 3 to 9 months | Cover for a departure, a transaction or a turnaround with an end date |
| Full-time search | A base of £110,000 to £180,000, plus 25 to 33 per cent of year one as the search fee | eight to twelve weeks of search, then three to six months of notice | Permanent and employed, five days a week | A five-day seat that is certain to be permanent |
The full-time package is set out on the CFO salary page, and how a permanent search for the seat runs is on CFO executive search. The difference between the three routes is set out in full on fractional versus interim versus full-time, and hiring a full-time executive covers the permanent route.
Hiring a fractional CFO in seven steps
- Write the gap down. Name the two or three things a fractional CFO must own in the first quarter, and how many days a week that is. State the scope and the time honestly: which part of the seat you need first (raise prep, cash control, board reporting) and how many days a month. Two days a month and two days a week are different jobs and attract different operators. Below ↓
- Set the budget from the published band. UK fractional CFO day rates run £800 to £1,500 in 2026. Two days a week is £6,133 to £11,500 a month, with no employer costs on top. Fractional CFO cost →
- Check fractional is the right shape. A fractional CFO is two or three days a week for a year or more. If the need is five days for six months, or the seat is a full-time job already, interim or permanent fits better. Below ↓
- Shortlist people who have held the seat at your stage. Read track records, not titles. The right operator has been the CFO at a company of your size and stage before, and says what happened there in numbers. Browse the bench →
- Interview with the six questions. Every question asks for something that happened. An operator who has held the seat answers from memory; one who has advised from the sidelines answers in the abstract. Below ↓
- Agree the day-ninety markers in writing. Put the day-ninety outcomes in the brief before they start. A rolling 13-week cash forecast that has been reforecast at least twice and tracked against actuals, so you can see how close it runs, not just that it exists. Below ↓
- Contract the days, the notice period and the IR35 position. Fix the days a week, a notice period of a month, who owns the output, and the IR35 determination. Then set the start date and the first ninety-day review. IR35 for fractional executives →
What the seat covers is on the fractional CFO page. The rest of this page is the part that usually goes unwritten: the interview, day ninety, and when this hire is the wrong answer entirely.
Where to find a fractional CFO in the UK
Four routes work, and most companies use two of them at once. Whichever finds the person, the shortlist test is the same: they have held the seat at a company of your size and stage before.
- A platform or bench with the rate on the profile. The day rate is visible before the first call, which settles the budget conversation early. The UK fractional platforms, compared.
- A search against a written brief. Somebody else runs the longlist and the first interviews and puts a shortlist in front of you. How Operator Search works.
- Your investors, accountant or lawyer. They have seen fractional CFOs work at other companies and know which ones they would have back.
- Other founders. A CFO who has done it at a company like yours is usually two introductions away. Ask what they would hire them for again, not whether they were good.
Six questions to ask, and what a strong answer sounds like
Every question here asks for something that happened, not something they believe. An operator who has genuinely held the seat answers from memory; one who has advised from the sidelines answers in the abstract, and the difference is audible within a minute.
1. Walk me through the last runway conversation you had to force. What triggered it, and what changed afterwards?
Listen for: A strong answer names the trigger (burn creeping up, a raise slipping a quarter) and the decision that followed: a cut, a bridge, a price rise, with rough numbers attached. A weak answer is abstract, or the conversation somehow never needed forcing.
2. An investor asks for the data room on Friday and wants it Monday. What is in it by Monday, and what do you refuse to rush?
Listen for: Strong candidates list the contents from memory: the model with assumptions stated, cap table, key contracts, filed accounts, and they flag the gaps honestly rather than papering over them. Weak ones talk about making it look polished, or claim everything is always ready.
3. Tell me about a forecast of yours that was badly wrong. What broke, and what did you change in the model?
Listen for: You want a named assumption that failed, such as collection timing or churn, and a structural fix to how they forecast, not just a corrected number. Blaming the market, or claiming their forecasts always land, is the weak answer.
4. We want to make two hires next quarter. How do you decide whether we can afford them?
Listen for: Strong answers work through cash timing, contribution margin and what happens if the hires do not perform, and they ask what the hires are for before answering. Weak answers reach for a rule of thumb about revenue multiples and stop there.
5. What does month-end look like when you run it, and how fast should a company our size close?
Listen for: A good operator has a working close of five to ten working days in mind, knows which parts they would automate, and can describe the mechanics even if the bookkeeper does the typing. Someone who says close speed does not matter, or who clearly has never run one hands-on, will struggle at this stage of company.
6. Tell me about a pricing or margin change you pushed through against resistance. What happened to the number?
Listen for: The strong version has a specific change, who resisted it and why, and the result measured months later. If every story they have is about reporting and none is about a commercial intervention, they have been a controller, not a CFO.
Red flags
- They lead with the reporting pack they will build instead of asking about your cash position in the first conversation. Reporting is the output; cash is the job.
- They cannot name a single assumption their last model got wrong. Every experienced CFO has been wrong in a way they can describe precisely.
- They want to hire a finance team before they have looked at whether the bookkeeper and the existing stack can carry the load. Headcount first is an employee's instinct, not an operator's.
- They pitch fundraising as introductions to investors. The CFO's contribution to a raise is the model, the data room and surviving diligence; a contact book is a different, and usually oversold, service.
What day ninety should look like
Agree these before they start, in writing, in the brief. A fractional engagement without a ninety-day marker drifts into a retainer nobody remembers the point of.
- A rolling 13-week cash forecast that has been reforecast at least twice and tracked against actuals, so you can see how close it runs, not just that it exists.
- One agreed set of numbers. The competing spreadsheets are retired, the board pack comes from that set, and the board has actually engaged with it rather than filed it.
- A written view of unit economics: what a customer costs to acquire, what one is worth, and the two or three changes that would move margin, each with a number against it.
When a fractional CFO is the wrong answer
- The books are months behind, VAT is late and the bank feed has not been reconciled since spring. That is a bookkeeping problem, and paying £1,000 a day to fix it is the wrong use of the seat. Get the books current first, then hire the judgement.
- The business is in or near a formal distress process and needs someone on it every day. That is full-time interim turnaround work, and two days a week will not hold it.
- What you actually want is warm introductions to investors. That is not what the seat is, and a candidate who sells it that way is telling you something.
If one of those is you, say so in a brief anyway and we will tell you straight. Sometimes the honest answer is interim or full-time.
What to put in a fractional CFO brief
- State the scope and the time honestly: which part of the seat you need first (raise prep, cash control, board reporting) and how many days a month. Two days a month and two days a week are different jobs and attract different operators.
- Write down the decision rights. Can they change payment runs, renegotiate supplier terms, replace the bookkeeper, or does everything route back to you? Senior operators decline seats where nothing is theirs to decide.
- The thing founders always leave out: the state of the books and the stack. Say whether it is Xero or Sage, who reconciles it, and when the last accounts were filed. It is the first thing a good CFO asks, and putting it in the brief lets the right one say yes quickly.
Hiring the seat full-time instead? The CFO job description sets out the permanent version of the brief, with the 2026 salary band.
What the contract should cover
General guidance rather than legal advice: have the engagement letter read by somebody who acts for you. These are the clauses that cause the arguments when they are missing.
- The days. How many a week or a month, whether they roll over, and the day rate or monthly figure that pays for them.
- Notice. A month either way is the usual term, long enough to hand over and short enough that neither side is trapped.
- Intellectual property. Who owns the models, documents and code the CFO produces. It should be the company, said in writing, because without a clause it may not be.
- IR35. Whether the engagement is inside or outside, who made the determination, and the reasons. IR35 for fractional executives explains who carries the decision.
The rest, from confidentiality to conversion terms, is in what a fractional executive contract should say.
Common questions about hiring a fractional CFO
How quickly can a company hire a fractional CFO?
Faster than any other way of filling the seat. A request to a fractional CFO on the bench is accepted or declined within three days, and a brief to Operator Search returns a shortlist in five business days. A permanent CFO search runs eight to twelve weeks to an accepted offer and then a notice period of three to six months, which is why fractional cover is the normal bridge.
How many days a week should a fractional CFO be hired for?
Two is the most common arrangement and one to three is the working range. Below a day a week nobody can own a function; above three the seat has usually become a full-time one and the honest conversation is about converting. Start at the lower end and add a day when decisions begin queueing for the CFO's days.
What is the monthly cost of a fractional CFO two days a week?
At the 2026 UK band of £800 to £1,500 a day, two days a week over 46 working weeks comes to £6,133 to £11,500 a month, invoiced by the operator's own company with no employer National Insurance, pension or recruitment fee on top. Higher end for fundraise or exit work, and for regulated sectors.
Can a fractional CFO later become the full-time CFO?
Yes, and it is one of the better routes to a permanent hire because both sides have had months of working interview. Raise the possibility early so the operator can plan their other clients, agree a start date around their notice to those clients, and check the engagement letter for any conversion terms before the conversation.
What should a brief for a fractional CFO say?
The three outcomes the seat owns in the first ninety days, the days a week and whether on site matters, who the CFO reports to and who reports to them, the systems and data they will inherit, and the budget as a day rate or a monthly figure. A brief that lists tasks rather than outcomes attracts people who want a to-do list, and the fractional CFOs worth hiring decline it.
When should a company hire a full-time CFO?
When the seat needs five days, not two: a team of leaders to run, a transaction to carry, or a board that wants the CFO in every room. A full-time CFO in a UK company of twenty to two hundred people is paid a base of £110,000 to £180,000 in 2026, and a retained search adds 25 to 33 per cent of first-year earnings. Until the days are queueing, fractional is the cheaper test.
How long does it take to hire a CFO, fractional or full time?
A fractional CFO is usually met within days and starts in one to three weeks: Operator Search returns a shortlist in 5 business days, and a request on the bench is answered within three. A permanent CFO takes eight to twelve weeks of search to an accepted offer, then a notice period of three to six months, so a first day is usually six months or more away.
How do I find a part-time CFO?
Four routes work in the UK: a fractional platform or bench where the day rate is published before you speak to anybody, a search run against a written brief, a referral from an investor, accountant or another founder, and the CFO's own network of former colleagues. Whichever route, shortlist people who have held the seat at your stage, and agree the days, the notice period and the IR35 position in writing.
Two ways in
Browse verified fractional CFOs on the bench and book direct, or brief Operator Search and we run the interviews above for you.