How to Brief a Finance Recruitment Agency

The quality of the shortlist a finance recruitment agency produces is largely determined by the quality of the brief it is given. A detailed, honest brief from a hiring manager who has thought carefully about what they need will consistently produce a better shortlist than a vague note sent to five agencies at once.

This guide covers what a good agency brief contains, whether to use one agency or several, how to choose a recruiter, how to work with them during the search, and a template you can use. When you are ready, our brief form follows the same structure.

Why the Brief Is the Most Important Document in the Search

Most hiring managers underestimate how much the brief shapes the shortlist. An agency working from a clear, detailed brief (one that explains what the business does, what the role involves, what the candidate must have done, what the salary is and why this is a good opportunity) approaches the search with precision. It knows which candidates are right, and it can write an approach that gets a response from people who are not actively looking.

An agency working from a generic job description and a note that says “ideally ACA qualified, 5+ years’ experience, competitive salary” is guessing. The shortlist will be broader and more variable, more candidates will turn out to be wrong at interview, and the process will take longer.

Investing thirty minutes in a proper briefing conversation before the search starts is consistently the highest-return activity in a senior finance search. The conversation almost always surfaces something that was not in the written brief: a constraint the hiring manager had not thought to mention, a background that was implied but not stated, or a detail about the finance function that changes the candidate profile.

What a Good Brief Contains

The business context

Candidates at Financial Controller and Finance Manager level assess the business they are joining, not just the role. A strong brief gives the agency enough context to sell the opportunity credibly: revenue and growth trajectory; ownership structure (founder-owned, PE-backed, listed, family-owned); sector; headcount; location and working arrangements; and the business’s stage of development.

Do not limit this to dry facts. If the business has a compelling story (revenue doubled in three years, a first PE investment just completed, a new market opening up), include it. That context is what persuades a settled professional to take the call.

The finance function

Describe the current state of the finance function honestly. How many people are in the team, and who does the role report to? What is the team’s composition and quality? Is the function performing well and this is a growth hire, or is the hire meant to fix a function that has underperformed? What systems does the business use, and what is the current close timetable?

Honesty about a function in a difficult state (late management accounts, reconciliation problems, a team that needs rebuilding) is far more useful than presenting it as better than it is. Candidates who discover the reality in week two will leave. Candidates told the honest picture in advance who still take the role are buying into fixing it, which greatly improves the chances of success.

The specific requirements

Separate your requirements into must-haves and nice-to-haves, and be disciplined about it. Most hiring managers list more must-haves than they need, which produces an unnecessarily narrow shortlist. Test each one: if a candidate met every requirement except this one, would you rule them out? If the answer is “probably not”, it is a nice-to-have.

Genuine must-haves for senior finance roles usually include full professional qualification (ACA, ACCA or CIMA); post-qualification experience at the right level; experience in a business of comparable size or complexity; and technical requirements specific to your business, such as group consolidation, IFRS or regulatory reporting. Common pseudo-must-haves that narrow the field for little benefit include specific software experience, when a good candidate will learn a new system quickly; specific sector experience, when the core finance skills transfer; and a preference for a particular training firm. Our Financial Controller job description and Finance Manager job description templates help separate the two.

The salary and benefits

Tell the agency the salary range. If you do not want it published in an advert, instruct the agency to leave it out of advertising while still using it in candidate conversations. A recruiter who does not know the salary cannot manage expectations, which leads to candidates who are disappointed by the offer or decline it. If you are unsure what the role should pay, check our salary guides before you brief; the UK Financial Controller salary guide covers the role we are briefed on most often.

Include every material element of the package: base salary, bonus structure and realistic achievement levels, pension contribution, car allowance, private healthcare, share options or equity where relevant, and working arrangements (days in the office, flexibility). Senior finance candidates compare total packages, not just base salary.

The timeline

Give the agency a realistic timeline and say if there is a hard deadline. If you need someone in post by a specific date (a year-end, a system go-live, a deal completion), the agency needs to know so it can plan the process around it. Be honest about your own availability: if you can only interview on certain days or in certain weeks, say so. A process that stretches over six weeks because the hiring manager is unavailable consistently loses candidates to competing offers. Remember to allow for notice periods, commonly one to three months at this level; our guide to notice periods in finance covers what to expect.

Exclusive vs Multi-Agency: Which Produces Better Results?

The instinct of many hiring managers is to brief several agencies at once, on the logic that more agencies means more candidates and a faster process. For senior finance roles that logic rarely holds, and it often produces the opposite result.

The multi-agency model creates two problems. First, many of the best candidates at Financial Controller level are not applying to advertised roles and can only be reached through a recruiter who knows them. A recruiter who knows it is one of five agencies on the same brief is unlikely to invest the same time in approaching those people as one working exclusively. It becomes rational to send whoever responds to an advert, rather than headhunt candidates who need time and persuasion.

Second, the same candidate may be submitted by more than one agency, creating confusion and sometimes disputes about who introduced them first.

The approach we recommend for senior finance hires is to give one specialist agency an exclusive period, typically two to three weeks, to produce a shortlist. If the shortlist is strong, proceed. If it is not, open the search to a second agency at that point.

Choosing the Right Agency

Not all recruitment agencies are equally effective at senior finance search. Consider four things.

Specialism. A recruiter that specialises in qualified finance professionals will have a deeper and more current network than a generalist. The consultant should be able to describe relevant candidates they have spoken to recently without reaching for a database search. If they cannot, they are not genuinely specialist in your area.

Consultant quality. The individual consultant matters as much as the agency. A consultant with a strong network in your salary band and sector, who speaks to candidates regularly and is trusted by them, will outperform one with a large brand but a transactional approach. Ask which recent placements they have made that are comparable to your role.

Sector relevance. Some sectors are specialist enough that only a recruiter with sector depth will produce the right shortlist. Financial services, PE-backed businesses and professional services each have technical requirements a generalist may not understand. For FCA-regulated finance roles, see our FCA-regulated firms recruitment page; SMF16 and SMF17 appointments run through our sister firm SMF Capital.

Terms agreed in writing. Fees should be agreed in writing before a search starts. Read the terms before you brief, not after a candidate is offered: how the fee is calculated and when it is payable, whether any part is payable before a shortlist, the replacement or rebate terms if the appointee leaves early, and how candidate introductions are treated if you later hire them directly. The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 require an agency to agree its terms with a hirer, and record them, before providing its services; GOV.UK’s guidance on employment agencies sets out the wider framework. Some Finance Director and CFO searches are run on a retained basis; those we usually run with our sister firm FD Capital.

Briefing an Interim or Fractional Search

An interim or fractional brief needs the same foundations, plus a few extra details: the day rate or retainer budget, the expected days per week, the likely length of the engagement, whether the work can be done remotely, and what must be delivered by the end. The off-payroll rules matter too. If the interim will work through a limited company, you will need to consider IR35 at the outset, and our guide to umbrella, PSC and fixed-term interim finance explains the options. Our guide on how to brief an interim finance search covers the detail, and qualified interims can usually be put forward within days of a complete brief.

How to Work Effectively with Your Recruiter During the Search

Give feedback quickly. When the agency sends a CV, respond within a day or two with a clear decision: interview, pass, or pending. Candidates kept waiting for more than a week without hearing anything will take another offer or lose interest, and an agency that cannot get feedback will struggle to keep strong candidates engaged.

Be specific. “Not quite right” is not actionable. “Their experience is at businesses that are too small; we need someone who has worked at £30m-plus” is something the agency can apply to the next submission immediately. The more specific your feedback on the candidates you pass on, the faster the shortlist improves.

Keep the agency informed of changes. If the scope changes, the reporting line shifts or the salary budget is revised, say so at once.

Be honest about internal candidates. If an internal candidate is being considered alongside the external search, tell the agency. Otherwise you waste everyone’s time and damage your reputation with candidates.

Move quickly at offer stage. Once you have chosen your preferred candidate, make the offer within a day or two. The best candidates are usually in more than one process, and an unexplained week of silence after a final interview consistently leads to the candidate accepting elsewhere. Prepare for a counter-offer from the current employer; our counter-offer guide explains how. If a search has already stalled, why your Financial Controller search has stalled covers the usual causes.

What to Expect After You Brief Us

When you send a brief through our brief form or call the team, a consultant will respond the same working day. We will confirm the scope, test the salary against the current market and agree the interview timetable before any candidate is approached. For a permanent role, a shortlist typically follows within one to two weeks of an agreed brief; for interim or fractional cover, within days. Every candidate we submit has been interviewed by a consultant, and their qualification is checked with the relevant body before their CV reaches you.

The Brief Template: What to Send to the Agency

This structure covers everything a specialist finance recruiter needs to run an effective search:

• Business overview: revenue, growth trajectory, sector, ownership structure, headcount, location.
• Finance function today: team size and composition, systems, close timetable, main challenges.
• Role scope: specific responsibilities and what the person owns from day one.
• Reporting line: who the hire reports to and who reports to them.
• Must-have requirements: qualification, experience level, specific technical requirements.
• Nice-to-have requirements: sector experience, specific systems, additional skills.
• Salary and total package: base, bonus, pension, benefits, equity if applicable.
• Working arrangements: days in the office, flexibility, travel.
• Timeline: when you need someone in post and your availability for interviews.
• Why this is a good opportunity: what makes this role and business attractive to a strong candidate.

For role-specific advice, our step-by-step guides on how to hire a Financial Controller and how to hire a Finance Manager show how this template applies in practice, and how to brief a senior finance search that completes first time covers more senior appointments.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should we brief one agency or several?

For senior finance roles, one specialist agency on an exclusive basis for two to three weeks usually produces a better shortlist than several agencies competing. If the shortlist is weak, widen the search at that point.

Should we tell the agency the salary if we don’t want to advertise it?

Yes. You can ask the agency to keep it out of adverts, but it needs the figure to manage candidate expectations and avoid offers being declined on pay.

How do your fees work?

Fees are agreed in writing before a search starts. Call our recruitment team on 0204 553 8893 or email recruitment@accountancycapital.co.uk to discuss your brief. Accountancy Capital is one of the five specialist firms of FD Capital Group, with offices at 167–169 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5PF, and Watling Court, Orbital Plaza, Watling Street, Cannock WS11 0EL.

Further Reading

• GOV.UK: Employment agencies and businesses — the regulatory framework governing recruitment agencies in the UK.
• Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate — the body that enforces the rules on employment agencies.
• Recruitment and Employment Confederation — the professional body for the UK recruitment industry, with research on hiring markets.