A part-time finance director gives your SME the financial discipline of a much larger business — without the six-figure salary or the six-month recruitment.
Owner-managed businesses reach a point where the numbers matter more than they used to — but hiring a full-time FD costs £90,000 to £150,000 plus benefits, and the workload does not justify that.
So the finance function is left to a bookkeeper, an outsourced accountant, or an office manager stretched too thin.
Management accounts arrive weeks after month-end.
The cashflow forecast lives in the founder's head.
Board reporting is a spreadsheet the accountant emailed last quarter.
The bank asks for information nobody in the business can produce on demand.
A part-time finance director from Leadership Services fills that gap in a week.
Two or three days a week, an experienced FD takes ownership of the finance function — monthly close, board reporting, cashflow, banking, controls, and finance team management.
You get the financial rigour of a proper FD at a third of the cost, with none of the recruitment risk.
This is finance leadership, not accountancy.
Your PT-FD sits at your management table, challenges your assumptions, and helps you make better commercial decisions with real numbers behind them.
Every engagement begins with a defined 90-day impact sprint.
Full review of your existing management accounts, cashflow position, banking relationships, and finance team. Identification of the three highest-priority issues — usually late month-end, weak cashflow visibility, or an under-supported finance team. First board-standard monthly pack delivered by your PT-FD within the first month. Your first proper 13-week rolling cashflow forecast in place.
Monthly close reduced to a reliable ten-day cycle. Board pack redesigned to a one-page KPI dashboard plus supporting detail. Banking pack refreshed so covenant reporting and facility reviews go smoothly. Controls tightened where they matter — bank reconciliations, purchase approvals, credit control. Finance team roles clarified and workload rebalanced.
Twelve-month financial plan built with the MD and shareholders, aligned to the commercial plan. Rolling forecast operating monthly. KPIs owned by the operational leaders, not just finance. A part-time FD who is now the trusted financial voice in the business — challenging the numbers at the management meeting, presenting cleanly at the board, and freeing the owner to focus on customers and growth instead of firefighting the finance function.
A monthly management pack you can actually read — one-page KPI dashboard, variance vs plan, cashflow, working capital, headline P&L. Delivered inside ten working days of month-end, presented to the board or shareholders by an FD who understands your business, not read out by an accountant who does not.
A proper 13-week rolling cashflow forecast that reflects reality, not the accounts system's default. Active management of debtor days, creditor terms, and stock. Early warning on liquidity pinch points so you can act before the bank does. Cash discipline that becomes cultural, not a scramble at month-end.
Your PT-FD manages the day-to-day relationship with your bank and any lenders — covenant reporting, facility reviews, quarterly information packs, and refinancing conversations. Banks respond better to an experienced FD than to a bookkeeper. Your borrowing capacity and terms improve accordingly.
The unglamorous but essential work: bank reconciliations done properly and on time, purchase approval limits enforced, credit control disciplined, VAT and PAYE never missed, statutory accounts filed early. The controls layer that makes the business investible, saleable, and audit-ready — without over-engineering it for the stage you are actually at.
Your PT-FD manages, mentors, and develops your existing finance team — whether that is a bookkeeper, an assistant accountant, or a two-person finance function. Weekly one-to-ones, clear role definitions, work prioritised properly, and gaps identified. You get a functional, motivated finance team without paying to recruit and retain a full-time head.
The part of the job most non-FDs miss: sitting at the management table, challenging the sales forecast, sanity-checking the marketing spend, questioning the operations plan. Your PT-FD is the financial conscience of the business — the person who asks 'what does this actually cost, and what does it actually earn?' about every decision that matters.
Part-Time Finance Director
Full-Time FD
All engagements are flexible, with no long-term tie-ins. View full pricing.
Every part-time finance director engagement now includes structured coaching for the person the FD reports to.
Owner-managed businesses need more than monthly numbers — they need a leadership relationship that helps the founder or MD make sharper commercial decisions. Every Leadership Services part-time finance director engagement now includes structured monthly coaching for the CEO or MD at no additional cost. Your fractional FD becomes the finance leader; the coaching component makes the CEO more effective in the seat.
In practice, very little — the terms are used interchangeably in the UK market. If there is a distinction, it is one of positioning. A part-time FD tends to be described in the context of an owner-managed SME turning over £2m–£30m that needs board-grade finance leadership two or three days a week. A fractional CFO tends to sit with a growth-stage or PE-backed business focused on investor relations, fundraising, and M&A. The person delivering the work is often the same — the label depends on what the business needs from them first. Read our full comparison: [Part-time FD vs fractional FD](/insights/part-time-fd-vs-fractional-fd-uk/).
Most UK part-time FD engagements run £1,795 to £4,500 a month depending on the size of the business, the number of days per month required, and the complexity of the finance function. A typical SME turning over £5m–£15m needs two to three days a week from an experienced FD, which lands around £2,800–£3,800 per month. That compares with £90,000 to £150,000 per year plus 20% on-costs for a full-time equivalent — a saving of £70,000–£110,000 a year, with no recruitment fee, no notice period, and no six-month onboarding. See the [UK Fractional Director Rate Report 2026](/rate-report-2026/) for a full benchmark of day rates and monthly retainers.
Most SMEs need two to three days a week from their PT-FD. Some need only one day a week — typically businesses under £3m turnover where the finance function is simple but the board reporting still needs to be right. Larger businesses (£15m+) or companies going through a transaction, funding round, or system change may need four days for a few months, then step back down to two. The engagement flexes with the business.
Within a week for most engagements. We match you to a shortlist of two or three suitable directors from our network within 48 hours of the initial call. Interviews and reference checks are done in the following few days. Your PT-FD is on-site or on the numbers within seven working days of you deciding to proceed — compared with three to six months for a permanent FD hire once you factor in recruitment, notice period, and onboarding.
Your external accountant does compliance work — statutory accounts, corporation tax, VAT returns, sometimes payroll. That is not the same as finance leadership. A part-time FD sits inside your business, owns the numbers, manages your finance team, presents at the board, and takes commercial decisions with you. If your monthly management accounts arrive three weeks late, if your cashflow forecast lives in the founder's head, if the bank asks questions you cannot answer without emailing the accountant — you do not need more accountancy, you need finance leadership. That is the PT-FD's job.
Roughly a third of our PT-FD engagements convert into a full-time hire within 18–24 months — usually when the business scales past £30m turnover, closes a growth funding round, or acquires another business. When that happens we help you make the transition: your PT-FD stays engaged through the recruitment process and handover, ensuring continuity of controls, banking relationships, and board reporting. You do not lose the institutional knowledge — you graduate to the full-time equivalent with the finance function already running properly.
Tell us about your business and we'll talk through whether Board-Grade Finance Leadership. Two Days a Week. is the right fit.