Get strategic CFO hours and cut Full Time FC UK costs
In the current UK market, the decision to recruit a full-time finance chief carries heavy, often hidden costs. Many growing businesses discover too late that the cost of a full-time FC UK—salary, employer National Insurance, pension contributions, benefits and office resources—quickly becomes a fixed burden that eats into cash flow and strategic flexibility. This article explains a practical alternative: buying strategic CFO hours from an experienced, Chartered professional and, where needed, hiring a part-time financial controller to cover hands-on bookkeeping and reporting.
Slash Full-Time FC UK Costs with Strategic CFO Hours
The problem is simple and immediate: the cost of a full-time FC UK commonly starts at £90k in salary alone, and when you add on employer NICs, pension contributions, bonuses and the cost of office space and equipment, the true ongoing cost is substantially higher. That large fixed overhead can be crippling for scaling businesses, startups and companies with seasonal revenue swings because it reduces runway and limits the ability to reinvest in growth initiatives. Many companies end up paying for capacity they don’t need during slower periods.
The solution is to buy strategic CFO hours rather than employ a full-time officer. A fractional CFO or hired-hours Chartered finance leader with 30+ years’ experience can provide the same high-level guidance—cashflow forecasting, capital planning, investor reporting, and transformational strategy—without the fixed employment cost. You only pay for the strategic time you use, whether that’s a few days a month or a few hours a week, meaning your finance leadership becomes a scalable, on-demand resource aligned with business needs.
The unique edge is focus. A fractional role is designed to spend roughly 90% of its time on strategy—direction, financial modelling, raising capital, and executive-level decision support—whereas many full-time FC hires end up bogged down with administrative tasks and day-to-day bookkeeping that can consume 40–50% of their time. By separating strategic leadership from transactional work, you get better-quality decisions, faster execution on growth plans, and a dramatically lower total cost of ownership. That shift in focus often delivers better ROI than hiring a single full-time employee at a higher fixed price.
Fractional CFO Cost: Hire Part-Time Financial Controller
When considering how to structure your finance function, it helps to distinguish roles. The fractional CFO cost refers to paying for senior, strategic finance expertise on a part-time or project basis—think financial strategy, investor relations, budgeting and complex modelling. If you still need hands-on day-to-day bookkeeping, reporting and systems maintenance, you can hire a part-time financial controller to cover those duties. This blended approach gives you strategic direction without neglecting operational accuracy.
From a cost perspective, a fractional CFO cost is typically a fraction of the full-time FC total employment cost. Rather than the £90k+ base salary and associated overheads, many businesses find that engaging a seasoned Chartered CFO for agreed hours costs significantly less—often a fraction of the annual employment figure depending on hours and seniority. Similarly, hiring a part-time financial controller to handle routine processing can be structured on a fixed monthly retainer or hourly basis, making the combined spend predictable and much lower than a single full-time hire.
To implement this model effectively, define clear scopes: set the fractional CFO to own strategy, forecasts, fundraising and board-ready reporting, and allocate the controller to manage AP/AR, month-end close, reconciliations and systems. Use cloud accounting, clear handover procedures and regular check-ins to ensure the two roles complement each other. When you hire part-time financial controller resources alongside strategic CFO hours, you preserve expert oversight while removing the heavy fixed cost of employing a full-time FC UK—improving agility and focusing senior time where it delivers the most value.
Switching from a full-time FC to a mix of strategic CFO hours and a part-time controller can reduce costs, sharpen finance leadership and improve business outcomes. For companies mindful of runway and growth, it’s a pragmatic way to get Chartered, 30+ years’ experience without carrying the full weight of employment overheads.
If you’re weighing options, start by listing the strategic tasks you need most and estimating hours per month. That will make comparing fractional CFO cost versus the cost of a full-time FC UK straightforward—and likely reveal significant savings and better alignment with your growth plans.