Hiring a finance manager: which role do you need?

Start with the missing document or decision

Replace “make finance more reliable” with a problem you can show and explain.

Which work is delayed: monthly close, cash forecasting, budgeting or margin analysis? Specify the entities, deadline, available data and intended user. Distinguish missing information from a figure that exists but is disputed.

Example: sales and finance calculate margin differently. A new dashboard alone will not settle disagreements about discounts, transport or cost allocation. The need may be to agree a common definition with operational teams, then organise its ongoing production.

Describe what the team, head office and external providers already do. Separately identify the work of external accountants, statutory auditors and legal advisers. Recruiting a finance manager is distinct from commissioning statutory audit or legal advice.

Choose a permanent hire, specialist support or interim leadership

Duration matters, but the responsibility assigned is the main distinction.

A permanent hire suits a responsibility that will remain within the team: management, recurring cycles and work with company leadership. A freelance specialist can handle a defined project, with agreed outputs and someone identified to take over.

If finance leadership is temporarily vacant, discuss an interim CFO role with clear authority and team responsibilities. A close specialist does not automatically replace an absent CFO. Equally, a production backlog alone does not establish a need for a director.

A close specialist does not automatically replace an absent CFO.

Before running several searches, examine what the existing team can cover. Permanent recruitment can proceed alongside temporary support when their responsibilities and handover are clear.

Match the role to its main activity

Choose the role around its core work, then specify any additional responsibilities.

Apec’s profiles for accounting managers, management accounting roles and finance and administration managers provide reference points. The precise scope still needs to be defined for your company.

For several entities, identify who prepares information locally and who reviews it at head office. For ERP-related work, describe the finance cycle and the problems encountered. “Take over post-migration reconciliations with the accounting team” is more specific than “know our software”.

• Accounting manager: organise and review accounting work and the close.
• Management accountant or business controller: budgets, variances and performance analysis with operational teams.
• Finance manager: coordinate finance, cash management and leadership discussions within the assigned scope.

Define an output someone will use

For each expected output, identify the user, the source and the reviewer.

For a close, ask for working papers that make supporting records and unresolved points easy to find. For a cash forecast, distinguish known receipts and payments from assumptions. For margin analysis, explain calculation rules and the variances to discuss with business managers.

Identify the next decision the work should support: revising a forecast, understanding an overspend or preparing a budget. Clear use makes the output more valuable. For temporary work, establish who will update the files and maintain the relationships afterwards.

Clear use makes the output more valuable.

Explore the candidate’s reasoning

Discuss a representative situation and ask what the candidate would check first.

For a late close, ask how they would distinguish missing documents, unfinished work and items needing review. For a margin variance, ask which data they would reconcile and whom they would consult. Look for reasoning suited to your problem.

Then ask about comparable experience: their own contribution, difficulties, decisions and work with the team. A specific account is enough; confidential files from a previous employer are unnecessary.

Assess working relationships alongside technical skill. How do they explain a variance to a non-finance colleague? How do they handle two departments that disagree about a figure? Compare candidates against the same situations and the actual level of autonomy required.

Prepare the first conversation

Bring a short description of the work, the team and the next deadline.

Summarise the finance cycles, systems, relevant workload, external contributions and missing responsibility. Add expected on-site presence, access requirements and leadership availability. List unanswered questions too: they can help refine the search.

Our talent agents identify relevant experience and arrange introductions. The selected professional carries out the work or leads the function with your company. Use the finance and accounting specialism to describe your need; the business controller profile explores the role if your main priority is performance analysis.