Interim, fractional, permanent — or something else entirely.

Interim

Full-time, fixed term. Someone senior in the seat five days a week for a defined period — typically while you recruit, through a transaction, or because the incumbent left abruptly. They carry the whole role, including the parts nobody enjoys: the team, the audit, the bank relationship, the board papers.

An interim is a premium for intensity — you are paying for speed, focus and a defined outcome over a fixed period. Cost is at or above a permanent salary on a pro-rata basis, often with a premium for the lack of security and the speed of start. That premium is usually worth paying, because the alternative is a finance function running without a head during the period you can least afford it.

Right when: the seat is empty and the work cannot wait. A CFO has resigned, a transaction is live, an audit has gone wrong, or the business is in a covenant conversation with its bank.

Fractional

Part-time, ongoing — and a contractor, not an employee. That distinction matters: a fractional CFO works across several businesses, which is what makes the economics work for both sides, and it is why this is not the same thing as a part-time permanent hire. A day a week, two days a month, or a standing rhythm that flexes with what is happening. The relationship is open-ended and the value compounds — by month six they know your business, your board and your bank, and the advice gets materially better because of it.

This is the model for a business that needs CFO-grade judgement but does not have CFO-grade volume. You are buying the judgement, not the hours, and the honest test is whether the decisions you make in that day a month are worth more than the fee. For most businesses past a certain complexity, they are.

Right when: the numbers are getting away from you, the board is asking questions you cannot answer quickly, or you are making decisions that need someone who has made them before. No crisis required.

Permanent

Full-time, employed. They own the function outright and become the face of finance to banks, auditors, investors and regulators — relationships built over years that matter externally. They make the multi-year calls on the shape and succession of the team. The right answer eventually, and the wrong answer too early. A full-time CFO costs salary, on-costs, equity in many cases, and a recruitment process that takes months and sometimes fails. In return you get someone whose entire attention is your business.

The mistake is hiring one before there is enough work to hold them. An under-occupied CFO does not become a better CFO — they build reporting nobody asked for, or they leave. The second mistake is the reverse: keeping a fractional arrangement well past the point where the business needed someone in the building every day.

Right when: the finance function is large enough to need daily leadership, the board wants a named executive, or a transaction has created a permanent step-change in complexity.

Platform with supervision

The function delivered as a service, with a named Chartered Accountant signing. The mechanical work — coding, reconciliation, the close, the pack, the forecast, the compliance calendar — runs on supervised agents. The judgement, the escalations and the signature stay with a person. You pay a monthly fee rather than a salary or a day rate.

What this replaces is not the CFO. It replaces the two to four people underneath one, and it makes the CFO layer affordable at a size where it previously was not. The honest limitation: it will not sit in your management meeting and argue with your sales director. If that is what you need, you need a person, and we will tell you so.

Right when: the reporting is late or unreliable, you need a forward view you do not currently have, or you are paying for finance headcount doing work that no longer needs a human.