Interim CFO services · UK
Hire an interim CFO for the vacancy
An interim CFO is a full-time, fixed-term finance leader who steps in when the seat cannot wait.
We scope the mandate with you in fifteen minutes and come back with a shortlist of three to five interim CFOs, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
- Shortlist of 3–5
- Day rate, availability and IR35 on each
- Published UK rate bands
- Fixed-term, full-time mandates
How a brief runswhat we undertake
- 01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
- 02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
- 03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
- 04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
- 05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief
Shortlist3–5
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to scope the mandate
Tell us the situation, the days and the start date. We come back with interim CFO candidates, their day rates and availability.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02We scope the assignment
- 03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
- 04Fractional, interim, part-time and permanent briefs
Pick a day that suits · live availability
On the board · last 3 months
Interim CFO and finance roles on the board
No Interim CFO and finance roles on the board in the last three months. Showing interim roles instead — each card says what it is.
Looking? Build your repo once on Fractional Quest and every role on the board is read against it.
Sign up now →01/ definition
What an interim CFO actually does
An interim CFO runs the finance function for a defined term, usually full-time and on site when it matters.
The mandate has an end date and a reason.
The best interims are measured by what they hand over: a clean close, a closed round, a sold business or a permanent successor who inherits something that works.
COVER
Holds the seat while you search
A CFO resigns, falls ill or leaves on short notice. The interim keeps the close, cash forecast and board pack running while the permanent search runs alongside.
Holds the seat while you search. A CFO resigns, falls ill or leaves on short notice. The interim keeps the close, cash forecast and board pack running while the permanent search runs alongside.
Builds the model and the data room. Equity or debt: the interim owns the three-statement model, the investor narrative on the numbers, diligence questions and the lender or investor relationship until close.
Takes cash control in a squeeze. Thirteen-week cash flow, creditor conversations, cost-out and covenant headroom. A turnaround interim is often working with the board, the bank and advisers at once.
Carries finance through an M&A process. Sell-side or buy-side, the interim prepares the business for diligence, works the SPA mechanics with advisers and runs post-deal integration of the finance team.
Rebuilds systems and the team. An ERP move, a new reporting pack, a finance team rebuilt for the next stage. Transformation mandates tend to run longest and need the clearest hand-over plan.
02/ scope
What the interim CFO owns
Agree the line before day one.
An interim who owns the right things moves fast; one who owns everything stalls.
- The monthly close and management accounts
- Thirteen-week and annual cash forecasting
- Board and investor reporting
- Bank, lender and auditor relationships
- The finance team during the term
- The hand-over to the permanent CFO
- Day-to-day bookkeeping and payables
- Payroll processing
- Tax compliance filings (to advisers)
- Legal drafting on transactions (to counsel)
- Long-term strategy beyond the mandate
03/ which model
Interim, fractional or permanent?
Move the slider to the days the finance seat needs and pick how long.
Four days or more on a fixed term is interim; two or three days, open-ended, is a fractional CFO.
Our parent company covers both.
The model that fits · CFO
Interim
A full-time or near full-time leader on a fixed-term mandate — a gap, a turnaround, a transaction — who hands over at the end.
Book a call about an interim CFO →Our framing, not a measured rule: the lines between the four models blur, and many briefs could run two ways.
04/ alternatives
Interim CFO against the alternatives
Each option is right for a different problem.
The question is how fast you need someone, for how long and at what intensity.
→ Interim when the seat cannot wait; permanent when the brief is the next five years.
05/ rates
Interim CFO day rates
Published UK bands only, each with the source named.
Type your own day rate to see where it sits against each band.
- Interim CFO£650–£1,500FD Capital 2026
- Fractional CFO£700–£1,400FD Capital 2026
- Permanent CFO (salary ÷ 220 days)£602–£1,002Robert Half 2026 salary ÷ 220 days
Bands are as each source publishes them; permanent day equivalents are the salary band ÷ 220 working days, our arithmetic. Recruiter guides are named, not linked. Rates vary with sector, scope and location.
06/ calculator
What an interim CFO costs
Model a fixed-term interim CFO against a permanent Chief Financial Officer over the same period.
£1,100 a day is within the published CFO band (£650–£1,500, FD Capital 2026).
Interim cost for the term
£143,000
130 working days · 5 d/wk · 6 mo · before tax
Interim costs less over 6 months£11,438
Interim CFO, the term£143,000
Permanent CFO, same period£154,438
Interim CFO, the term$189,461
Permanent CFO, same period$204,614
Converted from £ at $1.3249 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a US market rate. Source ↗
Interim CFO, the term€167,968
Permanent CFO, same period€181,402
Converted from £ at €1.1746 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a EU market rate. Source ↗
Our arithmetic, indicative. Permanent = the £176,500 Robert Half 2026 median salary pro rata for the same months, plus 15% employer NI, plus a 30% search fee on the annual base (UK retained search runs 25–35%, Headhunters.co.uk). Excludes pension, bonus and equity.
07/ decision
When to hire an interim CFO
Four situations account for most interim finance mandates.
If one of these sounds like your board meeting, the case for an interim is strong.
Which sounds like you?
The close slips, the forecast stops being trusted, and the board pack is late. An interim stabilises reporting quickly while the permanent search runs without panic.
- → Resignation or sudden departure
- → Board or lender reporting at risk
- → No credible internal successor yet
Investors and lenders want a finance lead who has done this before. The interim builds the model, owns diligence and stays to completion.
- → Term sheet or lender process in sight
- → Model and data room not ready
- → Founder doing the CFO job at night
Thirteen-week cash flow, creditor management and cost decisions need someone with authority, full-time, now.
- → Covenant headroom shrinking
- → Creditor pressure
- → Forecasts missing by a wide margin
Deals expose finance weaknesses. An interim prepares the business, works with advisers through the SPA and integrates the teams after close.
- → Advisers appointed
- → Vendor or buyer diligence ahead
- → Two finance teams to merge
08/ tax and IR35
How an interim CFO is contracted
General position under UK rules, with the HMRC source for each point. Not tax advice — check your own case with your accountant.
01 · DEDUCTIBLE
Fees are a business expense
Fees, like a salary, are deductible against profits when incurred wholly and exclusively for the trade (HMRC BIM37000), with corporation tax at the 25% main rate.
02 · WHO DECIDES
Status turns on how the work runs
Medium and large clients make the off-payroll status determination themselves; for a small private-sector client, the interim’s own company does (HMRC off-payroll guidance).
03 · WHAT HMRC LOOKS AT
Substitution, control, mutuality
Whether a substitute could genuinely be sent, who decides how the work is done, and whether either side must offer or accept further work. HMRC’s CEST tool walks through the same questions.
09/ guide
Interim CFO services: a practical guide
Interim CFO services are simple to describe and hard to do well.
You need a finance leader who can walk in, earn the trust of the team and the board in the first fortnight, and change something that matters before they leave.
That means the brief matters more than the CV.
Start with the outcome.
"Cover the role" is not a brief.
"Deliver a clean year-end audit by March and hand over to the permanent CFO" is.
The outcome tells you which interim to hire: a transaction specialist, a turnaround operator, a systems builder or a steady pair of hands.
Then set the term and the intensity.
Most interim CFOs work four or five days a week on a fixed term.
If the work is really two days a week, open-ended, you want a fractional CFO instead — our parent company, Fractional Quest, runs that search too.
On cost, compare like with like.
An interim is paid a day rate for the days worked, with no employer NI when they are engaged outside IR35 through their own company, and no search fee on a salary.
A permanent CFO carries salary, employer NI, pension, bonus and often a retained search fee.
The calculator above runs both on published figures.
Finally, plan the exit on day one.
The best interim mandates end with a written hand-over, a stronger team and a permanent successor who starts with a working function.
Agree what “done” looks like before the interim starts.
10.1/ how to hire
How to hire an interim CFO in the UK
Hiring an interim CFO in the UK runs in five steps: write a one-page brief with the outcome and the term; decide the days a week and the budget against published day-rate bands; brief one search partner rather than five; interview a shortlist of three to five; and contract on clear terms, including the IR35 status determination where you are a medium or large company.
On IR35: if your company is medium or large, you make the status determination and must give the interim a status determination statement (see HMRC’s off-payroll guidance).
If you are small, the interim’s own company decides.
Status turns on how the work actually runs, not on the contract’s label.
What to put in the brief
The situation in two lines, the outcome by the end of the term, the start date, days a week, location and travel, reporting line, team size, systems, and the decisions the interim can take without asking.
How long it takes
The shortlist follows the scoping call.
Start dates turn mostly on the candidate’s notice: many interims are between mandates, others finish an assignment first.
10.2/ transformation
An interim CFO with transformation experience
Transformation is the most common reason a board asks for an interim CFO with a specific track record.
An ERP replacement, a move from spreadsheets to proper FP&A, a carve-out finance function or a post-merger integration all need someone who has done it before and can show the scars.
Ask for evidence, not adjectives: which system, what size of business, how many entities, what went wrong and how they recovered.
Ask who they handed over to, and call that person.
A transformation interim should leave behind documented processes and a team that can run them.
10.3/ for executives
Interim CFO jobs and how to find them
Interim CFO jobs are rarely advertised for long.
The board above reads the Fractional Quest pipeline daily and labels every role honestly.
For part-week work, see fractional CFO jobs and part-time CFO jobs on our parent site.
Most interim CFOs work through their own limited company.
Keep your rate, availability, notice and the sectors and situations you have handled current — that is what a hiring board reads first.
10/ process
How we run the search
What we undertake on every brief, run by Fractional Quest, our parent company.
- 01
Brief
A scoping call on the role, the days a week, the start date and what the interim CFO must have delivered.
DAY 0 - 02
Search
We search and screen against that brief: track record at your stage, in your situation, and references we take ourselves.
SCREENING - 03
Shortlist
Three to five candidates, each with day rate or salary, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5 - 04
Start
You interview and choose. The executive you choose contracts with you.
YOU CHOOSE
11/ the family
Finance leadership across Fractional Quest
Interim Quest is part of Fractional Quest.
When the brief is part-week or permanent, these pages cover it.
The parent site’s interim CFO hub: hire, jobs and the interim CFO salary guide.
A CFO on one to three days a week, open-ended — what it is and what it costs.
Fractional, interim, part-time and permanent executive search in one firm.
12/ questions
Questions, answered
For hiring managers, and for executives looking for the role.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
Start with the brief.
Fifteen minutes to scope the seat, the days and the start date.