How to Hire a Finance Director: A Step-by-Step Guide for Business Leaders

Appointing a Finance Director is among the most consequential hires a business makes, and one of the least practised: most leadership teams do it once or twice in a decade. This page is the working checklist for that hire. It is written for owners, CEOs and chairs who need to know what to decide, in what order and by when, from the first conversation to the end of the new FD’s first 90 days.

It deliberately stays short on theory. For the depth behind each step, including the FD profile and qualifications, the five competencies that separate strong candidates, interview structure and full regional salary benchmarks, read our main guide on how to hire a Finance Director. This checklist assumes you have already decided you need an FD; if that is still open, start with whether your business needs a Finance Director, because appointing at the wrong level is a more expensive error than any process failure.

The Hire in Eight Steps

Every FD appointment runs through the same eight steps. The table shows who owns each one and roughly when it happens, counting from the week the brief is agreed.

Step	What you decide	Owner	When
1. Define the role	What the FD owns that nobody owns today; board seat or not	CEO	Before week 0
2. Set the package	Salary range, bonus, equity, total cost	CEO and board	Before week 0
3. Approve and brief	Board sign-off, decision-maker, interview dates	Board	Week 0
4. Run the search	Direct approach, referrals, advert or not	Search partner	Weeks 1–2
5. Assess	Two or three interview stages, one with a board member	CEO and panel	Weeks 3–7
6. Verify	Worked references, qualification and director checks	Search partner and CEO	Weeks 7–9
7. Offer	Terms, counter-offer plan, interim cover	CEO	Weeks 8–12
8. Onboard	Authority handed over, 90-day plan, first-year scorecard	CEO and chair	Start date onwards

Before You Start: The Decision Checklist

Answer these in writing before anyone is approached. If you cannot answer one, that is the first job, not something to resolve mid-search.

• What will this person own that nobody owns today? If the list involves the bank, the board, a transaction or the shape of the business two years out, you need an FD. If it is reporting and control tasks, you are describing a Financial Controller; our guide on when to hire an FC or an FD helps you decide.
• Full-time, fractional or interim? A fractional Finance Director suits a real but part-time board-level need; an interim Finance Director suits urgency or a defined project.
• Board seat? A statutory directorship carries duties under the Companies Act 2006 and is filed at Companies House. Candidates read that difference carefully.
• What sits beneath them? An FD inheriting a functioning team does a different job from one inheriting a bookkeeper and a spreadsheet.
• What is the trajectory? Exit, succession, refinancing or growth towards a CFO role each call for a different person.
• What does success look like at twelve months? Write three or four outcomes, such as a forecast the board trusts or a refinancing completed. They become the brief, the interview test and the first-year scorecard.
• Who makes the final decision? Name one person with authority to move quickly.

Write the specification around those outcomes rather than duties. “Own the relationship with our lender and lead the refinancing due in eighteen months” tells a candidate what the job is; “responsible for financial management” does not. The Finance Director job description gives a starting template.

The Week-by-Week Timeline

From an agreed brief, a permanent FD search typically produces a shortlist within one to two weeks and an accepted offer in eight to twelve weeks. The start date is usually later still, because FD notice periods are commonly two to three months. Plan the whole span, not just the search.

Week	What happens	Your actions
Before week 0	Role defined, budget set	Complete the decision checklist; draft the board paper
Week 0	Board approval and brief agreed	Diarise every interview slot now; brief the search partner
Weeks 1–2	Search and approach	Share the management accounts pack and NDA; review the longlist
Weeks 2–3	Shortlist presented	Pick three to five candidates within 48 hours of receiving it
Weeks 3–5	First interviews	CEO or board sponsor meets each candidate; give feedback within days
Weeks 5–7	Final stage	Panel with a board member or NED; presentation on your real numbers
Weeks 7–9	References and checks	Take worked references yourself on the preferred candidate
Weeks 8–12	Offer and acceptance	Verbal offer, then written contract within days; arrange interim cover
Notice period	Commonly two to three months	Keep in touch; share board papers; plan day one
Start + 90 days	Onboarding	Hand over authority; review against the scorecard at day 90

The weeks most often lost are between stages. A four-week gap while diaries are found is the commonest reason a first-choice candidate accepts elsewhere, since the strongest FDs are often running two or three processes at once. Every week the seat is empty also has a cost; our analysis of the cost of an unfilled finance seat sets it out.

Setting the Budget

Set the range before the board paper, not after the first interview. The figures below are summarised from the benchmarks in our main Finance Director hiring guide; the Finance Director salary guide has more detail.

Context	London	Midlands / North
First FD above an FC, £10m–£25m turnover	£95k–£130k	£73k–£100k
FD, owner-managed, £25m–£60m	£115k–£158k	£86k–£120k
FD, PE-backed, £15m–£60m	£125k–£168k	£93k–£127k
Group FD, £50m+ multi-entity	£145k–£205k	£108k–£153k
Interim FD (day rate)	£600–£1,100/day	£450–£750/day
Fractional FD (2 days/week)	£57k–£99k/year	£42k–£75k/year

Budget the total cost, not the base salary. Add a bonus, employer’s National Insurance (15% from April 2025), pension, benefits and, in investor-backed businesses, equity or a long-term incentive, which is often the part of the package most worth structuring carefully. A London FD on a typical package often costs £120,000–£200,000 all-in. Add the search fee, which is agreed in writing before the search starts, and the cost of interim cover through the notice period. Our guide to the true cost of a finance team hire has a worked breakdown. State the salary range in any advert: withholding it costs applications from the experienced candidates who will not speculate.

Getting Board Approval

A short board paper saves weeks later. Investors and non-executives who agree the case at the start make faster decisions at offer stage. The paper should cover:

• Why now, and what the FD will own that nobody owns today.
• The three or four twelve-month outcomes from the decision checklist.
• The salary range, bonus and any equity, with the all-in annual cost.
• Full-time, fractional or interim, and why.
• Whether the appointment is a statutory directorship. If so, the appointment must be notified to Companies House within 14 days, and the new director takes on the duties set out in GOV.UK guidance on being a company director.
• The timeline, the named decision-maker and which board member or NED will sit on the final panel.
• How finance will be covered until the new FD starts.

Running the Search: Process Checklist

FD candidates usually come from three routes: a Financial Controller or Head of Finance stepping up, an established FD moving sideways, or a practice or corporate finance professional moving in-house. The strongest are employed and not looking, so advertising alone reaches only part of the market. A search that produces a genuine shortlist combines direct approach, referrals through your board, investors, advisers and auditors, and a specialist network. Whichever route you use, tick these off:

• Interview slots diarised before the search starts.
• One named decision-maker empowered to move.
• No more than two or three stages; senior candidates read five stages as indecision.
• A board member or non-executive involved in at least one stage, since the FD will present to them.
• Your real management accounts shared under an NDA, with the candidate asked what they would want to know first.
• Feedback to every candidate within days of each stage.

What to test at interview, and how, is covered in the main guide’s section on the competencies of strong FD candidates, and in what boards look for in a Finance Director. We do not repeat it here.

References and Verification Checklist

• Worked references from a former chair or CEO, someone who reported to the candidate and, where possible, a lender, investor or audit partner.
• Ask each referee: what would you want to know if you were hiring them?
• Qualification confirmed with the institute: ICAEW, ACCA or CIMA.
• For a statutory directorship, the register of disqualified directors checked and existing appointments reviewed at Companies House.
• Right to work and any background checks your sector requires.

A reputable search partner completes most of this before shortlist; the worked references on your preferred candidate are worth taking yourself.

Offer, Counter-Offer and Notice Period

Two things go wrong at this stage more than any other. First, notice periods: FD notice is commonly two to three months, and businesses that have not planned for the gap go through a quarter-end without senior finance leadership. Our guide to notice periods in finance covers the detail. Second, counter-offers, which are common and often generous; see our counter-offer guide. Moves made for scope and trajectory stick; moves made only for money are the ones most often reversed.

• Bonus tied to what the role is actually for, and equity where the business is investor-backed or heading for an exit.
• Board position and reporting line confirmed in the offer.
• Written contract issued within days of the verbal offer.
• Counter-offer discussed openly with the candidate before they resign.
• Interim FD cover arranged at offer stage, not in the week notice is served.
• The twelve-month scorecard shared with the offer, so both sides know what success looks like.

Onboarding: The First 90 Days

The hire is not the outcome; a working finance leadership function is. The most common cause of a disappointing appointment is not candidate quality but withheld authority: an FD without delegated limits, the bank relationship and the adviser relationships is an expensive observer. Use this as the frame and agree it with the FD in their first week.

Period	CEO’s job	FD’s focus
Days 1–30	Transfer delegated authority and bank mandates; introduce the board, lender, auditor and key advisers	Understand the numbers, the team and the risks; no big changes yet
Days 31–60	Hold a weekly one-to-one; agree priorities	Present findings and a plan; first board pack under their name
Days 61–90	Review against the scorecard; confirm the first-year objectives in writing	Deliver early wins; propose any changes to the finance team

Our guide to the Finance Director’s first 100 days covers the FD’s side in more depth, and how CEOs should work with their Finance Director covers yours. A new FD often exposes gaps below them, such as a close that depends on one person or no FP&A capability; that is where Financial Controller recruitment and our guide on how to structure a finance team come in.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to hire a Finance Director?

A permanent shortlist typically follows within one to two weeks of an agreed brief, with eight to twelve weeks from brief to offer and a notice period of commonly two to three months on top. Interim and fractional FD candidates can usually be put forward within days.

What budget should we set?

Typically £73,000–£130,000 base for a first FD above an FC at a £10m–£25m business depending on region, rising to £145,000–£205,000 for a London Group FD. Budget the all-in cost, including employer’s National Insurance, pension, bonus and interim cover.

Who runs the search?

FD searches run jointly with our sister firm FD Capital. Accountancy Capital recruits the finance team beneath the FD. Both are part of FD Capital Group, so one brief covers both. See our Finance Director recruitment page.

How do you charge?

Fees depend on whether the role is permanent, interim or fractional and are agreed in writing before a search starts. Call 0204 553 8893 or email recruitment@accountancycapital.co.uk.