The Hire That Breaks the Business
The short answer: between £1M and £3M, most businesses need a financial controller before they need a CFO. A controller makes the numbers reliable; a CFO decides what to do with them. Hire them the other way round and you end up paying a strategist to fix month-end.
The short version
| Rung | Typical revenue | What they do | Rough cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeper | £0–1M | Record what happened: invoices, bills, VAT, payroll | A few hundred pounds a month, often outsourced |
| Financial controller | £1–3M | Management accounts within a couple of weeks of month-end; numbers you’d bet on | Around £55–75K in London, less elsewhere |
| Fractional CFO | £3–20M | Forecasting, pricing, funding and “what if” thinking, a few days a month | Part-time |
| Full-time CFO | £20M+ or a transaction | Daily strategic workload: M&A, investors, multiple entities, a sale | Typically £130–180K+ before equity |
The first “no” on the four questions at the end of this piece is your next hire.
There’s a moment that arrives in almost every scaling business, usually somewhere between £1M and £3M. The management accounts are late again. The spreadsheet that runs everything now has five people editing it and nobody who trusts it. And the founder, tired of flying blind, reaches a perfectly sensible-sounding conclusion: we need a CFO.
So they hire one. Full-time, six figures before you’ve added employer’s NI and pension. And six months later they have an expensive strategist with nothing reliable to strategise with, because nobody fixed the plumbing first.
We see versions of this across our engagements all the time, and the pattern is remarkably consistent. The problem is almost never the people you hire. It’s the order you hire them in.
So, something practical: the finance hiring ladder. Four rungs, in the order they actually work — what each person does, roughly what they cost, and the tell-tale sign you’ve reached that rung. Keep it somewhere safe. You’ll want it again at your next stage, or for a founder friend who’s about to get this wrong.
Rung one: the bookkeeper (roughly £0–1M revenue)
Someone has to record what happened. Invoices raised, bills paid, VAT filed, payroll run on time. At this stage that’s genuinely all the finance function needs to be, and it’s usually outsourced — a few hundred pounds a month, maybe more with payroll.
A good bookkeeper is worth their weight in gold, and plenty of businesses under £1M need nothing else. The tell that you’ve outgrown the rung: you start asking questions the books can’t answer. Which client actually makes us money? Why was March so much worse than February? If the answer is a shrug, or a fortnight’s wait, you’re ready for rung two.
Rung two: the financial controller (roughly £1–3M)
The rung almost everyone skips — and shouldn’t. Here’s the contrarian bit, and honestly the whole reason I’m writing this piece: at this stage, a controller is a more urgent hire than a CFO. Almost everyone does it the other way round.
A controller (or a strong financial controller-in-the-making) gets the management accounts out within a couple of weeks of month end, every month. Retires the many-hands spreadsheet. Builds numbers you’d bet on. In London you’re looking at somewhere around £55–75K for a good one, less elsewhere, and it will feel like a lot for someone who “just does the accounts.”
It isn’t. Because here’s what founders learn expensively: you cannot forecast from books you don’t trust. Every piece of strategic finance work — pricing, cash planning, scenario modelling, an eventual raise or sale — sits on top of reliable monthly numbers. Skip this rung and everything above it wobbles.
Rung three: fractional senior leadership (roughly £3–20M)
Now the questions change. Not what happened? but what happens next? Cashflow forecasting, pricing strategy, funding structure, the “what if this goes wrong” conversations. This is proper CFO work — but here’s the thing nobody selling you a full-time hire will say: at this size, there are only a handful of days of it in any given month.
A full-time CFO at £4M is too expensive and, frankly, under-occupied. What the business actually needs is senior financial leadership at a part-time weight — a few days a month of genuinely experienced thinking, sitting on top of the reliable numbers your controller now produces. The controller runs the engine; the fractional CFO decides where the car is going.
(Yes, this is the model our practice is built on. I’d argue for it even if it weren’t — the maths simply doesn’t support a full-time strategic hire at this stage, and we work with businesses well past £10M who agree.)
Rung four: the full-time CFO (£20M and beyond, or approaching a transaction)
Eventually the strategic workload stops being monthly and becomes daily. Sustained M&A activity, institutional investors wanting constant engagement, multiple entities across borders, a sale process on the horizon. That’s when a full-time CFO earns their keep — typically £130–180K upwards before equity, and worth every penny at the right moment.
The threshold isn’t really a revenue number, it’s a workload one. Some businesses hit it at £15M because they’re acquisitive; others sail past £25M happily on a fractional basis because the model is simple and the strategy is steady. But if you’re under £20M and nothing transactional is looming, be honest about whether the daily workload is really there yet. (Even then, a great CFO benefits from a second chair.)
Three ways the finance hiring ladder goes wrong
The premature CFO. Strategy hired before the plumbing works. The expensive strategist spends their days chasing invoices and rebuilding the month-end process — a controller’s job, done reluctantly and at three times the price. They leave within eighteen months, and the founder concludes CFOs are overrated.
The overloaded bookkeeper. The wonderful person who kept the books immaculate at £500K, quietly drowning at £4M. The founder mistakes loyalty for capability and waits too long. Nobody comes out of this well — least of all the bookkeeper, who deserved a rung of their own to succeed on.
The skipped rung. Straight from bookkeeper to Finance Director, and a year later the management accounts still arrive three weeks late — because the FD was hired to think, not to fix month end, and neither is happening.
Which rung are you on?
Here’s your action, and it takes ten minutes. Ask yourself four questions, in order:
- Is everything recorded accurately and on time?
- Would you bet money on your management accounts?
- Is someone senior thinking about what happens next — cash, pricing, funding — not just what happened?
- Is that strategic work genuinely a daily job yet?
The first “no” you hit is your next hire. Not the most impressive title you can afford — the next rung on the ladder.
If the ladder pointed you at rung two or three — a controller to make the numbers trustworthy, or senior CFO thinking at a few days a month — that’s exactly what we do at WrightCFO. The quickest way to find out whether we’re the right fit is a 30-minute discovery call with me: an honest conversation about what your business actually needs next, even if the answer is “nothing yet.”
— Sophie
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a financial controller and a CFO?
A financial controller makes sure the numbers are accurate and on time: month-end, management accounts, reconciliations and systems. A CFO uses those numbers to shape decisions on cash, pricing, funding and strategy. Most growing businesses need the controller first.
When should a business hire a financial controller?
Typically between about £1M and £3M of revenue, when management accounts are late or unreliable and the books can no longer answer questions such as which clients make money.
How much does a financial controller cost in the UK?
A good controller in London typically costs around £55,000 to £75,000 a year in salary, less elsewhere, plus employer’s National Insurance, pension and recruitment costs.
When does a business need a full-time CFO?
When the strategic finance workload becomes daily rather than monthly, usually around £20M of revenue or earlier if the business is making acquisitions, managing institutional investors or preparing for a sale.
What is a fractional CFO?
An experienced CFO who works with a business part-time, often a few days a month, providing forecasting, pricing, funding and strategic input at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.
This article was first published in The Scaling CFO, Sophie Wright’s fortnightly newsletter for founders between £1M and £20M. Subscribe free. Related reading: Twelve years running a fractional CFO practice.
Sophie Wright is the founder of WrightCFO, a UK fractional CFO practice. WrightCFO provides fractional (part-time) Chief Financial Officers to founder-led and private equity-backed businesses, typically between £1M and £20M in revenue, scaling towards and beyond £10M. The practice specialises in cashflow forecasting, margin and pricing, investor-ready reporting, post-acquisition integration and exit readiness, across the technology, creative, media, professional services and not-for-profit sectors. WrightCFO works alongside clients’ existing accountants rather than replacing them.
