Qualified Finance Recruitment

Accountancy Capital recruits qualified finance professionals at £50,000 and above across the UK. By qualified finance we mean ACA, ACCA or CIMA-qualified accountants working in-house at commercial and regulated businesses, in the roles that run a finance function below director level: Financial Controllers and Group Financial Controllers, Heads of Finance, Finance Managers, Finance Business Partners, FP&A Managers, Management Accountants, Financial Accountants and in-house Tax Managers. These roles need a professional qualification, post-qualification experience and sound commercial judgement.

This is our primary market, and this page is the hub for it. It sets out the roles we place, typical salary ranges, how the roles fit together and how we run searches, and links to the dedicated service page for each role. We do not cover transactional finance such as purchase ledger, payroll or accounts assistant roles. Finance Director and CFO appointments are handled by our sister firm FD Capital, and non-executive roles by NED Capital — all part of FD Capital Group — so a business building out its whole finance team can work with one group.

Qualified Finance Roles We Place

Ranges are typical London base salaries for permanent roles. Regional salaries are typically 15–25% below London at equivalent experience. For detailed benchmarks by region, business size and sector, see our salary guides, including the UK Financial Controller salary guide and the London Financial Controller salary guide.

Our Qualified Finance Recruitment Services by Role

Financial Controllers and Group Financial Controllers

The Financial Controller owns the accuracy of the numbers: the close, the audit, the statutory accounts, the controls and usually the team. It is the role we are asked to fill most often. Our Financial Controller recruitment page covers the candidate specification and search process, and Group Financial Controller recruitment covers multi-entity and international groups where consolidation and intercompany are the core of the job.

Heads of Finance

Many growing businesses appoint a Head of Finance before, or instead of, a Finance Director: someone who runs the whole function and works closely with the CEO, without a board seat. See Head of Finance recruitment. Where the role needs a statutory director or board-level CFO, we pass it to FD Capital.

Finance Managers

The Finance Manager runs the day-to-day operation: the month-end, the management accounts, the junior team and often the year-end. In a smaller business it can be the most senior finance role. Our Finance Manager recruitment service covers permanent, interim and fractional appointments, with salary data in the Finance Manager salary guide.

Finance Business Partners and FP&A

Business partners and FP&A professionals look forward rather than back: budgets, forecasts, scenario models and the financial challenge behind commercial decisions. The two roles overlap but are not the same — partners sit with operational leaders, FP&A builds the planning engine. See Finance Business Partner recruitment and FP&A recruitment.

Management and Financial Accountants

At the entry point of our market, the Management Accountant produces the monthly management accounts, variance analysis and costing, while the Financial Accountant owns statutory accounts, technical accounting and the external audit. In groups these become Group Financial Accountant and Group Finance Manager roles, with consolidation added.

In-house tax and public sector finance

We place in-house tax professionals, usually holding the CTA alongside an accounting qualification, through our tax recruitment practice, and CPFA-qualified finance professionals for public sector, housing and education bodies through CIPFA accountant recruitment.

What “Qualified Finance” Means and Why It Matters

A professional accounting qualification — the ACA from the ICAEW, the ACCA, or CIMA with the CGMA designation — is the common foundation of every role in this market. It provides technical depth, a commitment to professional standards and verified competence. It is what separates an in-house accountant who can make complex accounting judgements independently from one who cannot, and that matters directly to the reliability of the finance function’s output.

The three qualifications differ mainly in training route and emphasis rather than market value at equivalent experience. The ACA trains mainly through practice and gives the strongest grounding in statutory accounts, audit and complex technical accounting. The ACCA is a globally recognised qualification suited to a wide range of businesses and sectors. CIMA is the most management-accounting oriented, and is strongly represented in Financial Controller, Finance Manager and FP&A roles where the main need is management information and decision support. All three are respected at every level. Our ACA vs ACCA vs CIMA guide compares them in detail.

Post-qualification experience matters as much as the qualification itself. A Financial Controller with two years of PQE and one with eight may hold the same letters, but they are in different markets, with different salaries, scope and candidate availability. Our role pages and salary guides give benchmarks by PQE and business context.

How Qualified Finance Roles Relate to Each Other

Understanding the hierarchy helps employers structure a finance team and helps candidates plan their next move. In a UK business of £10m–£100m revenue, the in-house structure typically looks like this:

• Finance Director / CFO — board-level accountability, investors and strategic financial planning. Recruited through FD Capital.
• Financial Controller / Group FC / Head of Finance — owns the integrity of the numbers: the close, the audit, the statutory accounts and the team.
• Finance Manager — runs the day-to-day operation and the month-end, and is accountable for the quality of the management accounts.
• Finance Business Partner / FP&A Manager — supports operational leaders; owns the budget, the forecast and the models behind decisions.
• Management Accountant — produces the monthly management accounts at entity level.
• Financial Accountant — owns the statutory accounts, the external audit and technical accounting compliance.

In smaller businesses one person may cover several of these roles: a Finance Manager at a £5m business may produce the management accounts, run the year-end, present to the board and manage the junior team. In larger businesses each level is a separate person or team. The boundaries are often blurred, and one of the most common causes of underpayment is benchmarking a Finance Manager doing FC-level work against Finance Manager data. Our Financial Controller vs Finance Manager guide explains the distinction, and how to structure a finance team covers team design.

Permanent, Interim and Fractional

We place qualified finance professionals on all three engagement models, from Management Accountant to Head of Finance. The right model depends on the situation.

Permanent is right when the business needs someone full-time on an ongoing basis, with the continuity and commitment of employment. Most searches at £50,000 and above are permanent; a shortlist typically follows within one to two weeks of an agreed brief.

Interim suits urgent, time-defined needs — a sudden departure, an approaching audit, a transaction or a systems change. Candidates can usually be put forward within days and work full-time for the engagement. See our interim accountancy recruitment hub and the interim finance day rates guide.

Fractional fits a business that needs qualified finance leadership one to three days a week. The most common requirement is a fractional Financial Controller for a growing SME of roughly £3m–£15m revenue; fractional Finance Managers and management accountants are also common. See our fractional finance hub and fractional Financial Controller page. Fractional CFO work is handled with FD Capital.

Qualified Finance for FCA-Regulated Businesses

Finance professionals in FCA-regulated businesses — asset and wealth managers, fintechs, investment firms, payments firms and insurance intermediaries — face extra demands: regulatory capital, CASS client money, returns submitted through RegData, and the reporting regimes that apply to each firm type. These roles typically pay a premium over equivalent roles in non-regulated businesses, often in the region of 15–25%, reflecting a genuine skill difference. See our FCA-regulated firms recruitment hub, plus specialist pages for regulatory reporting and CASS accountant recruitment. Approved SMF16 and SMF17 appointments go through sister firm SMF Capital.

Why We Work From £50,000

The £50,000 threshold is where a qualified finance professional’s market becomes specialist. The candidate pool is small enough that advertising alone tends to produce thin shortlists, the cost of a poor hire is material relative to the salary, and the combination of qualification, sector experience and judgement an employer needs cannot be reliably judged from a CV. Below that level, a well-written advert on the right job board will often produce a reasonable shortlist. Above it, many of the strongest candidates are not actively looking and are best reached through direct approach by a consultant who understands their background. Fees are agreed in writing before a search starts.

Qualified Finance Recruitment: FAQs

Do you recruit Finance Directors and CFOs?

Those searches are run by our sister firm FD Capital, which specialises in Finance Director and CFO appointments, including interim and fractional. Accountancy Capital focuses on the qualified roles below director level.

Do candidates need to be fully qualified?

For most roles we fill, yes — ACA, ACCA, CIMA or CPFA, with CTA common for tax. Some management accountant and FP&A roles accept qualified-by-experience candidates where the employer is comfortable with that.

Do you cover roles outside London?

Yes. We recruit across the UK from offices in London and the West Midlands, and our locations page lists regional services.

How quickly will you respond?

The same working day. For permanent roles a shortlist typically follows within one to two weeks of an agreed brief; for interim and fractional cover, within days.