ERP CFO

ERP CFO Recruitment

FD Capital places fractional, interim, and permanent CFOs for UK businesses undertaking ERP implementations, migrations, and system transformations — covering SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics 365 / Business Central, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, and Workday. Adrian Lawrence FCA, founder of FD Capital and a Fellow of the ICAEW, leads every ERP CFO search personally. Our network includes CFOs who have owned ERP business cases, led finance module implementations, managed data migration programmes, and embedded the post-go-live reporting infrastructure that makes an ERP investment deliver real value.

An ERP implementation is among the highest-risk projects a business can undertake. It touches every part of the finance function — chart of accounts design, management reporting, purchase-to-pay, order-to-cash, payroll integration, and consolidation — and it will expose weaknesses in financial controls that were previously hidden by manual workarounds. A CFO who has been through an ERP programme before understands this. One who has not will learn it at your expense. FD Capital places ERP-experienced CFOs into businesses at every stage of the implementation lifecycle, from business case development through to post-implementation optimisation.

Call 020 3287 9501 or email recruitment@fdcapital.co.uk. Shortlists typically delivered within three to seven working days.

“Adrian worked with us as our Fractional CFO for six months and we are genuinely grateful for the contribution he made. His financial expertise and calm, professional approach gave us confidence in our numbers and supported better decision-making across the business. I would recommend Adrian and FD Capital without hesitation.”

— Josh Haugh, MAS Technicae Group (International) Ltd, West Sussex

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The CFO’s Role in an ERP Implementation

Most ERP implementations are led by IT or operations. The ones that succeed are led — or at minimum, owned at board level — by the CFO. The reason is straightforward: an ERP system is fundamentally a financial data infrastructure. The quality of the chart of accounts design, the integrity of the data migration, the accuracy of the opening balances, and the reliability of the post-go-live management accounts all sit within the CFO’s domain. When these are wrong, the business loses visibility of its own financial position at precisely the moment it has invested most heavily in improving it.

An ERP-experienced CFO brings a specific set of contributions to an implementation programme that a generalist CFO cannot replicate without prior exposure.

Business case ownership and vendor selection

The CFO should own the ERP business case — not endorse it after IT has written it. A credible business case models the true cost of implementation (which is consistently underestimated), the realistic timeline to value realisation, and the specific financial benefits expected from process automation, reporting improvement, and headcount rationalisation in the finance team. The CFO is also the most qualified person to evaluate vendor proposals critically: understanding the licensing model, the implementation partner’s track record, and the total cost of ownership over a five-to-ten-year horizon. FD Capital places CFOs who have run ERP vendor selection processes and who understand the difference between what a vendor demonstrates in a sales environment and what the system delivers in production.

Finance module design and chart of accounts

The chart of accounts is the foundation on which every financial report in the new system will be built. Redesigning it for an ERP migration is an opportunity to correct years of accumulated inconsistency — account structures that made sense when the business was smaller but no longer reflect its current legal entity structure, revenue streams, or management reporting requirements. An ERP-experienced CFO has designed charts of accounts before, understands the constraints imposed by the chosen system, and knows how to build a structure that supports both statutory reporting and the management information the board actually needs. Getting this wrong at implementation means living with the consequences for the lifetime of the system.

Data migration and opening balances

Data migration is where ERP implementations most commonly fail to deliver. Historic data is frequently incomplete, inconsistent, or structured in a way that does not map cleanly to the new system. The CFO is responsible for the integrity of the financial data migrated — debtors, creditors, fixed assets, stock valuations, intercompany balances — and for reconciling the opening position in the new system to the closing position in the old one. An experienced ERP CFO has managed this reconciliation before, understands the risks of cut-over timing, and knows how to maintain parallel running controls that protect the business from data integrity failures during the transition period.

Go-live controls and parallel running

The period immediately after ERP go-live is the highest-risk point in the programme. The old system is no longer the system of record, but the new one has not yet been proven in a live environment. During this period, the CFO must maintain a rigorous reconciliation framework that confirms the new system is producing accurate outputs — matching bank reconciliations, creditor payments, payroll runs, and management accounts to expected figures. An ERP-experienced CFO builds this reconciliation framework before go-live, not after problems emerge. The ICAEW’s ERP guidance identifies post-go-live financial controls as the most frequently underinvested element of ERP programmes.

Post-implementation reporting and optimisation

An ERP system is not fully operational on go-live day. Reporting takes months to stabilise as users learn the system, data quality issues surface, and the finance team rebuilds its workflows around the new infrastructure. The CFO’s role in the post-implementation phase is to drive the reporting optimisation programme — ensuring that the board pack, management accounts, and KPI dashboards are being produced from the new system with the same reliability as before, and progressively improving the quality and speed of financial reporting as the system matures. This is a specific operational challenge that an ERP-experienced CFO has navigated before.

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ERP Systems: CFO Experience by Platform

SAP S/4HANA

SAP S/4HANA is the dominant ERP platform for large and mid-market businesses in manufacturing, distribution, and financial services. Migrations from SAP ECC to S/4HANA are a major programme for many FTSE 250 and PE-backed businesses through the mid-2020s, driven by SAP’s end-of-mainstream-maintenance deadline for ECC. FD Capital’s network includes CFOs who have owned SAP S/4HANA migration programmes from the finance side — managing the Universal Journal transition, redesigning the chart of accounts for the new data model, and rebuilding financial reporting on SAP Analytics Cloud or embedded BW.

Oracle Fusion / Oracle ERP Cloud

Oracle Fusion is the preferred platform for larger, complex organisations — particularly those with multi-currency, multi-entity, or multi-jurisdiction requirements. The Oracle Fusion finance modules cover general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, fixed assets, cash management, and financial reporting cloud. FD Capital places CFOs experienced with Oracle Fusion implementations, including the specific challenges of subledger accounting configuration and the intercompany reconciliation framework in complex group structures.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 / Business Central

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Business Central are the dominant ERP platforms for UK mid-market businesses. Dynamics 365 Finance suits larger, more complex organisations; Business Central is optimised for SMEs and scale-ups. Both are cloud-native and integrate natively with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, Power BI, and Azure. FD Capital places CFOs experienced with Dynamics implementations across manufacturing, distribution, professional services, and technology businesses — including the specific challenges of Power BI report migration and Dataverse integration.

NetSuite

NetSuite is the ERP platform of choice for fast-growing technology businesses, e-commerce companies, and PE-backed portfolio companies requiring a scalable cloud ERP that can be implemented quickly. NetSuite implementations are typically faster than SAP or Oracle programmes, but the finance module configuration — particularly around revenue recognition under IFRS 15, multi-subsidiary consolidation, and intercompany eliminations — requires CFO-level expertise to configure correctly. FD Capital has placed CFOs into NetSuite implementations across SaaS, e-commerce, and professional services businesses.

Sage Intacct and Workday Financials

Sage Intacct is increasingly the ERP of choice for professional services firms, not-for-profit organisations, and financial services businesses. Workday Financials serves the HR-led ERP market, particularly in professional services and financial services. FD Capital places CFOs with implementation experience across both platforms, including the specific challenges of project accounting in Sage Intacct and the HR-finance integration complexity in Workday deployments.

“FD Capital has supported SBS Insurance Services over the past three years through the provision of a Fractional FD/CFO. Their expertise has made a significant difference in professionalising our finance function and delivering accurate, timely management information — exactly what our business needed to grow with confidence.”

— Tracey Rees, COO, SBS Insurance Services Ltd

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When to Hire an ERP CFO

Businesses typically need an ERP-experienced CFO at one of four points in the implementation lifecycle. Understanding which stage applies to your business determines the type of CFO engagement required.

Pre-implementation: A permanent or fractional CFO brought in before vendor selection can shape the business case, drive the requirements definition from a finance perspective, and ensure the chosen system and implementation partner are the right fit. This is the highest-value intervention point and the most frequently missed.

During implementation: An interim CFO appointed to own the finance workstream of an ERP programme provides dedicated senior resource without disrupting the existing CFO’s ongoing BAU responsibilities. This model is increasingly common in PE-backed businesses where the portfolio company CFO does not have prior ERP implementation experience.

At go-live: The go-live period is the most operationally intensive point of an ERP programme. An interim CFO who has been through a go-live before can manage the parallel running period, resolve data integrity issues quickly, and maintain board confidence during a period when financial reporting is temporarily disrupted.

Post-implementation: A fractional CFO engaged in the six to twelve months after go-live can drive the reporting optimisation programme — ensuring the business is fully extracting value from the system investment and that the finance team has been retrained around the new workflows. See our technology CFO and SaaS CFO pages for related technology finance expertise.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What ERP experience should I look for in a CFO?

The most valuable ERP experience is direct ownership of a finance implementation — specifically, having been the CFO or FD who signed off the business case, made the vendor selection, owned the data migration, and delivered the first set of management accounts from the new system. Beyond that, familiarity with the specific platform you are implementing is important: a CFO who has implemented SAP S/4HANA in a manufacturing business brings different experience from one who has implemented NetSuite in a SaaS business, even though the implementation discipline is similar. FD Capital matches CFO candidates to your specific system and business context.

Do you place interim CFOs specifically for ERP programmes?

Yes. Interim CFO appointments for ERP programmes are a specific engagement type that FD Capital supports. The interim ERP CFO is typically appointed for the duration of the implementation programme — twelve to twenty-four months — and their mandate is to own the finance workstream, manage the data migration, and deliver the post-go-live reporting infrastructure. This is distinct from a standard interim CFO appointment, which covers a leadership gap. We can structure the engagement as a day-rate interim or a fixed-term contract depending on your preference.

Can a fractional CFO support an ERP implementation alongside the existing finance team?

Yes — and this is often the most cost-effective model. A fractional CFO with ERP experience, working two to three days per week, can provide the senior oversight and implementation discipline that the existing finance team lacks without displacing ongoing BAU financial management. This model works particularly well for mid-market businesses where the Finance Director has strong operational finance skills but has not previously managed an ERP programme. The fractional CFO carries the programme responsibility; the existing FD runs the day-to-day finance function. See our fractional CFO page for engagement model detail.

Which sectors do your ERP CFOs specialise in?

FD Capital places ERP-experienced CFOs across manufacturing and distribution (SAP, Oracle), technology and SaaS (NetSuite, Dynamics), professional services (Sage Intacct, Workday), financial services (Oracle Fusion, Workday), and PE-backed businesses at all stages. Our placements reflect the sectors where ERP implementations are most common — see our technology CFO, SaaS CFO, and fractional CFO for PE-backed companies pages for sector-specific context.

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Related CFO Services

Technology CFO | SaaS CFO | Fintech CFO | E-Commerce CFO | Fractional CFO | Interim CFO | Fractional CFO for PE-backed Companies | CFO Recruitment | Outsourced CFO | CFO Salary Guide

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