Part-time financial controller · UK
Hire a part-time financial controller for month-end
A part-time financial controller runs the engine room of finance on a fixed share of the week: the close, the reconciliations, the controls and the year-end file.
Employed part-time or engaged on a day rate, on the same days every week.
Brief us on a 15-minute call and we come back with a shortlist of three to five, each with day rate or pay, availability and IR35 position.
- Shortlist of 3–5
- Day rate or pay, availability and IR35 on each
- Published UK rate and salary bands
- Set days, every week
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 role
Tell us the situation, the days and the start date. We come back with part-time financial controller candidates, their day rates and availability.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02We scope the days and the pattern
- 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
Part-time financial controller roles on the board
No Part-time financial controller roles on the board right now.
We only show real vacancies from the last three months, read from the Fractional Quest pipeline — we never pad the board. New roles appear here as the pipeline finds them.
Looking? Build your repo once on Fractional Quest and every role on the board is read against it.
Sign up now →01/ definition
What a part-time controller does each week
A financial controller makes sure the numbers are right.
Where a finance director decides what the numbers mean, the controller makes them trustworthy: every account reconciled, every journal supported, every deadline met.
On a part-time pattern, that work is planned around the calendar so the days fall where the deadlines are.
MONTH-END
Runs a month-end close to a timetable
Accruals, prepayments, bank and balance-sheet reconciliations, and a trial balance that ties. The controller owns the checklist and signs off each step.
Runs a month-end close to a timetable. Accruals, prepayments, bank and balance-sheet reconciliations, and a trial balance that ties. The controller owns the checklist and signs off each step.
Keeps the ledgers clean. Sales and purchase ledgers reviewed, intercompany balances agreed, suspense accounts cleared. Small errors found each month never become large ones at year-end.
Prepares VAT and payroll checks. VAT returns prepared from reconciled records and payroll journals checked against the payroll provider. The external accountants file; the controller makes sure what they file is right.
Builds the year-end file. Supporting schedules for every balance, the fixed-asset register, the audit or accounts request list answered before it is asked.
Writes the controls down. Approval limits, segregation of duties, supplier bank-detail checks and a procedures manual so the days the controller is not in run safely.
02/ scope
What the part-time controller owns
Controllers on part of the week work best with a clear list.
Agree it before the first close.
- The month-end close and its timetable
- Balance-sheet and bank reconciliations
- Management accounts preparation
- VAT return preparation
- The year-end and audit file
- Financial controls and the procedures manual
- Transaction processing and data entry
- Supplier payment runs (approval stays with the controller or FD)
- Payroll processing (to the provider)
- Statutory filings (to the external accountants)
- Board-level strategy and fundraising (to the FD or CFO)
03/ which model
Part-time, fractional or full-time?
Set the days and how long you need them.
A fixed two or three days on the same pattern is a part-time controller; senior finance on a flexible share of the week is closer to a fractional finance director; four or five days for a fixed term is an interim.
Fractional Quest, our parent company, covers each.
The model that fits · financial controller
Part-time
A fixed slice of the week on a set pattern — the same days each week, often on a part-time contract or a day-rate arrangement.
Book a call about a part-time controller →Our framing, not a measured rule: the lines between the four models blur, and many briefs could run two ways.
04/ alternatives
A part-time controller against the alternatives
The question is whether the business needs its numbers made reliable, interpreted, or both, and on how many days.
→ Part-time when the close is real but not five days deep; full-time when volume fills the week.
05/ rates
Part-time financial controller day rates and salaries
Published UK bands only, with each source named.
The day-rate band spans regional and London figures in the same guide.
Type a rate to see where it sits.
- Part-time / fractional Financial Controller£400–£650Accountancy Capital 2026
- Permanent Financial Controller (salary ÷ 220 days)£286–£420Robert 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 a part-time controller costs
Model a part-time financial controller at the days you need against a permanent Financial Controller.
The slider runs across the published band for a part-time financial controller: £400–£650 a day (Accountancy Capital 2026).
Cost over 12 months
£57,200
104 working days · 2 d/wk · 12 mo · before tax
Fractional costs less over 12 months£54,088
Part-time financial controller, 12 months£57,200
Part-time financial controller, a month at 2 d/wk£4,763
Permanent financial controller, same period£111,288
Part-time financial controller, 12 months$75,784
Part-time financial controller, a month at 2 d/wk$6,310
Permanent financial controller, same period$147,445
Converted from £ at $1.3249 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a US market rate. Source ↗
Part-time financial controller, 12 months€67,187
Part-time financial controller, a month at 2 d/wk€5,595
Permanent financial controller, same period€130,718
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 £76,750 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.
At 3.9 days a week a permanent hire costs less.
Our arithmetic. Permanent a month = the salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI, plus the 30% search fee spread over 12 months — the calculator’s inputs. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each step.
07/ over two years
Part-time, interim or permanent over 24 months
The same seat three ways, at the days a week and day rate set in the calculator. Each crossover is computed, not typed.
- The part-time Financial Controller at 2 days a week never passes permanent inside 24 months.
Our arithmetic, cumulative. Permanent = the salary’s 30% search fee in month 0, then salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI each month. No published interim band for this seat, so no interim line. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each month.
Illustration only: one way a part-time Financial Controller’s week can divide at 2 days a week for you. Each block is half a day.
08/ decision
When to bring in a part-time controller
Four situations account for most part-time controller roles.
Which sounds like you?
Management accounts arrive halfway through the following month, which makes them history rather than information. A controller sets a timetable, closes reconciliations as they go and brings the close forward.
- → Accounts land after the 15th
- → Reconciliations done quarterly or not at all
- → Large adjustments at year-end
The auditors or accountants raised a long list of queries, the file was rebuilt from scratch and the fee rose to match. A controller prepares the year-end in house.
- → Long post-year-end query list
- → Accounts filed close to the deadline
- → Prior-year adjustments
A part-time or fractional FD is spending their days on reconciliations. Adding a controller on two days frees the FD for the work only they can do.
- → FD doing transactional work
- → No finance team below the FD
- → Board pack quality slipping
One person raises, approves and pays invoices. Supplier bank details change on an email. A controller designs proper approval limits and segregation of duties.
- → Single person controls payments
- → No written procedures
- → Near-miss on payment fraud
09/ tax and IR35
How a part-time financial controller is engaged
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 executive’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.
04 · ON THE PAYROLL
A part-time employee is an employee
Hired on a part-time contract, the executive has the same rights as a comparable full-time worker, pro rata (gov.uk part-time worker rights), and you pay employer NI on their salary.
10/ guide
Hiring a part-time controller: a practical guide
A part-time financial controller is one of the most cost-effective senior finance hires a growing business can make, because so much of the controller’s work is calendar-driven.
The close, VAT quarters and the year-end come round on known dates.
Put the controller’s days where the deadlines are and two or three days a week can cover a function that would otherwise need a full-time hire.
Decide first whether you are employing or engaging.
A part-time employee on a three-day contract gets pro-rata pay, holiday and pension, and must not be treated less favourably than a comparable full-time colleague because of the shorter week.
A controller engaged on a day rate through their own company is common too; if your company is medium or large you make the IR35 status determination, and it turns on how the work actually runs, not on the contract label (HMRC: off-payroll working).
Be specific about the system.
Controllers are often strongly tied to the accounting software they know, and moving between platforms has a learning curve.
Name the ledger, the payroll provider, the bank feeds and any add-ons in the brief.
If you are planning to change systems, say so: many controllers have led a migration and will want to know whether that is part of the job.
Think about where the controller sits.
In a business with a part-time or fractional finance director above them, the controller runs the process and the FD interprets the output.
In a business without one, the controller may be the most senior finance person, reporting directly to the owners.
Both are valid, but the second needs a controller comfortable presenting numbers to the board.
Be honest about the days.
If month-end alone takes four days, a two-day pattern will fail.
A good test: list every recurring task in the month and estimate its hours with the person currently doing it.
Then add a margin for questions from the team and the accountants.
Finally, ask for proof.
Ask candidates to show you a month-end checklist they have built, a reconciliation they are proud of and a control they introduced after something went wrong.
Controllers who have done the work talk about it in specifics.
10.1/ how to hire
How to hire a part-time financial controller in five steps
Hiring a part-time financial controller runs in five steps.
List the recurring finance tasks and the hours they take now.
Choose the days so they fall on close, VAT and payroll deadlines.
Decide employed or day-rate, and set a budget against the published bands on this page.
Brief one search partner and interview a shortlist of three to five, asking each to talk through a close they have run on your accounting system.
Then agree terms, the days and the reporting line.
Our parent company is a fractional recruitment agency that runs part-time, fractional, interim and permanent finance searches; its page on part-time financial controller jobs covers the hiring side in more depth.
What to put in the brief
Turnover band and number of entities, the accounting system and payroll provider, monthly transaction volume, who processes the transactions, the days and whether they are fixed, the reporting line, the year-end date and whether the company is audited.
10.2/ which seat
Part-time financial controller vs finance director which comes first?
A financial controller and a finance director do different jobs, though small businesses often ask one person to do both.
The controller looks backwards and inwards: is every number right, reconciled, supported and on time?
The finance director looks forwards and outwards: what do the numbers mean, what should the business do about cash, what will the bank and the owners ask next?
If your accounts are late or unreliable, hire the controller first; an FD cannot interpret numbers nobody trusts.
If your accounts are on time and accurate but nobody is using them to decide anything, you need a part-time finance director.
Many businesses end up with both on part of the week, the controller on the close days and the FD on the board days.
The published bands follow the split.
Accountancy Capital’s 2026 guide puts fractional financial controller day rates at £400–£550 regionally and £450–£650 in London and the South East; FD Capital’s 2026 guide puts fractional finance directors at £600–£1,000 for one to two days a week.
On salary, Robert Half’s 2026 figures put a UK financial controller at £63,000–£92,500 and a finance director at £89,750–£138,000, both 25th to 75th percentile.
10.3/ the calendar
Month-end close and year-end support
Month-end and year-end are where a part-time controller earns their keep.
The month-end close is a fixed sequence: cut-off, bank reconciliations, accruals and prepayments, payroll journals, balance-sheet reconciliations, review and management accounts.
A controller writes that sequence down with an owner and a day for each step, then runs it the same way every month.
VAT is part of the same rhythm.
Most VAT-registered businesses file quarterly, and the deadline for both the return and the payment is usually one month and seven days after the end of the period (GOV.UK: VAT Returns).
A controller who reconciles VAT monthly makes the quarter a review, not a scramble.
Year-end support is the controller’s other big deliverable.
Private limited companies must prepare statutory accounts and send them to Companies House and HMRC (GOV.UK: annual accounts), and records must be kept for at least six years from the end of the financial year they relate to (GOV.UK: company and accounting records).
The controller prepares the supporting schedules, answers the accountants’ or auditors’ questions and leaves a file that makes next year easier.
Year-end only?
Some businesses need a controller only around the year-end and audit.
That is closer to a short interim or contract assignment than a part-time role.
Tell us the dates and we will say which shape fits.
10.4/ for controllers
Part-time financial controller jobs on the board
Part-time financial controller jobs appear on the board above, read daily from the Fractional Quest pipeline.
Each role is labelled for what it is, and widened tiers are named as such.
The parent site lists part-time financial controller jobs alongside the wider fractional finance jobs board.
Employers hiring a part-time controller read the same few things first: the days you can offer, your rate or salary expectation, the systems you know and the size of the closes you have run.
Keep those current, and see part-time executive jobs for every seat on the board.
11/ 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 part-time financial controller 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
12/ the family
Finance roles across Fractional Quest
Part-Time Quest is part of Fractional Quest.
When the controller seat is interim, or the brief moves up to finance director, these pages cover it.
The parent site’s part-time financial controller hub: hiring, jobs and costs.
A financial controller full-time for a fixed term: a gap, an audit or a system move.
When the business needs a finance director on a share of the week.
Part-time, fractional, interim and permanent executive search in one firm.
13/ 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.