This section contains job description templates for every finance and accountancy role that Accountancy Capital recruits. Each job description covers the typical responsibilities of the role, the qualifications and experience employers normally require, the reporting line and team structure, and how the role connects to adjacent positions in the finance function. They are written for employers who are drafting a brief for an upcoming hire, and for finance professionals who want to understand what a role formally involves before applying or interviewing.
The job descriptions are grouped below by level. The qualified and senior finance roles — Financial Controller, Finance Manager, Finance Business Partner, Financial Accountant and above — are the roles Accountancy Capital places day-to-day at £50,000 and above. The transactional and entry-level roles — Purchase Ledger, Payroll, Accounts Assistant — are included for reference, though these fall below the salary threshold for our recruitment service.
Qualified and Senior Finance Roles
These are the roles Accountancy Capital recruits. Each job description links directly to the corresponding recruitment page so you can brief a search once you have reviewed what the role involves and confirmed the profile you are looking for.
| Role | Typical Salary | Recruitment Page |
|---|---|---|
| Financial Controller Job Description | £65k–£110k | FC Recruitment |
| Finance Manager Job Description | £50k–£80k | FM Recruitment |
| Finance Business Partner Job Description | £58k–£95k | FBP Recruitment |
| Management Accountant Job Description | £48k–£72k | MA Recruitment |
| Financial Accountant Job Description | £50k–£80k | FA Recruitment |
| Commercial Accountant Job Description | £52k–£78k | FBP / Commercial |
| Corporate Finance Executive Job Description | £55k–£90k | FC / Senior Finance |
| Internal Audit Job Description | £50k–£85k | Practice Recruitment |
| Tax Senior Job Description | £45k–£68k | Tax Recruitment |
For current salary benchmarks alongside each job description, see the Accountancy Salary Guides — including the Finance Manager Salary Guide, Finance Business Partner Salary Guide and Management Accountant Salary Guide.
Ready to Brief a Search?
If you have reviewed the job description and are ready to brief Accountancy Capital on a hire, we respond the same day. All roles at £50,000 and above across the UK.
Tell us about your hire → or call 0204 553 8893
Transactional and Entry-Level Finance Roles
The job descriptions below cover transactional and entry-level accountancy roles. Accountancy Capital does not recruit at this level — our minimum threshold is £50,000 and the roles we place are qualified or near-qualified senior roles. We include these job descriptions for reference because employers who are hiring a Financial Controller or Finance Manager often also need to review the scope of the junior roles that sit beneath them, and because candidates at transactional level use these pages to understand what roles they are targeting as they progress through their careers and qualifications.
If you are looking for a recruiter for these roles, there are many strong generalist agencies that cover the full salary range. Once you have reached qualified level and £50,000+, register with Accountancy Capital and we will engage with you directly when we have relevant roles.
| Role | Typical Salary | Career Path |
|---|---|---|
| Assistant Accountant Job Description | £28k–£42k | Management Accountant → Finance Manager |
| Accounts Assistant Job Description | £24k–£34k | Assistant Accountant → Management Accountant |
| Bookkeeper Job Description | £26k–£38k | Assistant Accountant → Management Accountant |
| Purchase Ledger Clerk Job Description | £22k–£32k | Accounts Assistant → Management Accountant |
| Sales Ledger Clerk Job Description | £22k–£32k | Accounts Assistant → Credit Control |
| Credit Controller Job Description | £26k–£40k | Senior Credit Controller → Credit Manager |
| Payroll Clerk Job Description | £24k–£36k | Payroll Manager → Head of Payroll |
| Payroll Manager Job Description | £38k–£58k | Head of Payroll → Finance Manager |
How to Use These Job Descriptions
Each job description on this site is a starting template, not a definitive specification for every business. The Financial Controller job description, for example, covers the responsibilities that the FC role carries in most UK businesses of £10m–£50m revenue — but the specific scope varies considerably depending on whether there is an FD or CFO above the FC, how large and experienced the finance team is, and whether the business has particular reporting obligations such as PE investor covenants, group consolidation requirements or regulated activity. Before using any template as the basis for a recruitment brief, review each section against your specific business context and adjust accordingly.
The most common mistake in writing a finance role job description is over-specifying on systems experience — requiring a named accounting system as a must-have criterion significantly narrows the candidate pool without a proportionate benefit, since a qualified finance professional will learn any system within four to six weeks. Similarly, setting an unrealistically high minimum years of experience requirement — requiring eight or more years of PQE for a Finance Manager role, for example — excludes strong candidates who have developed faster than average and who may be more capable than more experienced candidates in a longer but less challenging career path.
The job description is also a marketing document: it is the first impression many candidates will have of your business and the role. A job description that reads as a list of requirements without any context about the business, the team, the stage of growth or what the opportunity looks like for the right candidate will consistently underperform against one that makes the role sound interesting and the business worth joining. Our Hiring Guide for Financial Controllers and Hiring Guide for Finance Managers cover the briefing process in more detail.
Job Descriptions and Salary Guides Together
Job descriptions define the scope; salary guides define the market rate. The two should always be reviewed together before starting a search. A well-written Financial Controller job description that specifies the right scope and qualifications is of limited value if the salary budget attached to it is £15,000 below what the market currently pays for that profile — which is a common cause of slow, thin-shortlist FC searches. The current salary benchmarks for every role covered by the job descriptions above are available in the Accountancy Capital Salary Guides section.
A Note from Our Founder — Adrian Lawrence FCA
The most useful thing a job description can do is force the hiring manager to think clearly about what they actually need before the search begins. Writing a rigorous FC or FM job description — working through the reporting line, the team structure, the specific technical requirements, the scope of the role on day one versus where it should be in twelve months — is an exercise in defining the hire, not just advertising it. The businesses that complete that exercise properly before briefing us consistently produce better shortlists, faster searches and better hires than those that brief vaguely and try to define the role as the process progresses.
If you have reviewed a job description here and are uncertain whether your specific requirements match the template, or if you want a conversation about what the profile should look like for your particular business at its current stage, call us before you begin the search. That conversation typically takes twenty minutes and saves weeks of wasted process later.
Adrian Lawrence FCA
Founder, Accountancy Capital — Qualified finance recruitment specialists, £50,000 and above. Adrian is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales — verify via ICAEW.
Related Resources
| Hiring Guides Step-by-step employer guides for each major qualified finance hire. | Salary Guides Current UK salary benchmarks for every qualified finance role. | Role Guides What each role actually involves — responsibilities, scope and career path. | Recruitment Brief a search once you have confirmed the role profile. |
Brief a Hire — 0204 553 8893
Accountancy Capital places qualified finance professionals at £50,000 and above across the UK — permanent, interim and fractional. If you have reviewed the relevant job description and are ready to brief a search, call us or submit the brief online. We respond the same day.
Tell us about your hire → Mon–Fri 9am–5:30pm