Contract Length: 6 months
Start Date: January 2026
Location: London – hybrid working, with an on-site presence required initially
Rate: Up to £600 per day (inclusive)
Overview
We are supporting a well-established UK professional services organisation with revenues of approximately £30m, which is performing strongly commercially but requires decisive financial leadership to resolve legacy operational finance challenges.
This role calls for a hands-on Interim Financial Controller with a demonstrable track record of transformation — particularly in repairing debtor positions, instilling financial discipline, and rebuilding management reporting in complex partner-led environments.
The Mandate
You will be brought in to reassert control, restore confidence in the numbers, and modernise the finance function so it can properly support future growth and investment readiness.
This is a visible, authoritative role working closely with the CFO, partners, auditors, and the wider finance team.
Key Objectives & Responsibilities
Phase 1: Stabilisation & Control (First 6–8 Weeks)
- Take ownership of trade debtor performance, introducing robust aged debt review routines and enforcing clear accountability for collections
- Drive a material reduction in overdue receivables, with a specific focus on reducing 60+ day debt
- Act as senior finance lead through the year-end audit process, ensuring balance sheet integrity and providing credibility and confidence to external auditors
- Bring order and predictability to the month-end close and management accounts process
- Review the structure, capability, and ways of working within the finance team and reset roles where required
- Build trust quickly with senior stakeholders through clarity, pace, and delivery
Phase 2: Transformation & Build (Remainder of Contract)
- Support the CFO-led budgeting and planning cycle for the upcoming financial year
- Redesign management information so it is accruals-based, timely, and genuinely useful for decision-making
- Re-engineer historic reporting to correct distorted trends caused by prior cash accounting and audit-only adjustments
- Fully leverage the organisation’s practice management system to deliver enterprise-quality reporting
- Define and document core financial controls, policies, and processes
- Introduce a clear KPI suite covering areas such as lock-up, utilisation, pricing recovery, and partner performance
- Develop board-level reporting that goes beyond compliance and provides commercial insight
- Ensure all changes are clearly documented and handed over for a smooth transition to a permanent Financial Controller
Required Experience & Profile
- Proven Interim or senior Financial Controller experience within professional services (legal, advisory, consulting, or similar)
- Strong history of successfully reducing delinquent trade debt and implementing effective credit control frameworks
- Comfortable challenging senior fee-earners and partners on financial discipline and collections
- Deep operational finance expertise, including audits, balance sheet control, and reporting rebuilds
- Experience extracting value from underused finance or practice management systems
- Calm, authoritative presence able to stabilise teams without creating disruption
- A natural coach who leaves teams and processes stronger than they were found
- High standards mindset, able to deliver “institutional-quality” finance in non-PE environments
Why This Role?
- A genuine transformation assignment with clear objectives and measurable outcomes
- Strong sponsorship from an engaged CFO
- Authority to fix what needs fixing
- Opportunity to create a finance function that actually works — operationally and strategically
- A well-defined engagement with a clear end point and legacy
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