There comes a point in almost every growing business when the finance function needs to change. At the beginning, things are relatively simple. You have an accountant, maybe a Finance Manager, perhaps a Financial Controller keeping everything moving. Management accounts arrive, payroll gets processed, VAT returns happen, everyone broadly knows what’s going on.
Then the business grows.
Revenue increases, headcount expands, new customers arrive, cash becomes more complicated, the leadership team starts asking questions that take longer and longer to answer. And eventually, someone asks: “Do we need a Finance Director?”
It’s an important question.
Hire a Finance Director too early and you could be paying for expertise the business doesn’t yet need. Hire one too late and poor visibility, weak financial planning and a lack of commercial challenge can start holding the business back.
So, when should you hire a Finance Director?
Here are seven signs your business might be ready.
1. You’re Making Big Decisions Without Good Enough Financial Information
This is probably the biggest warning sign. Your leadership team is making decisions about:
- Hiring
- Pricing
- Investment
- Expansion
- New products
- Acquisitions
- New offices
- International growth
But the financial information supporting those decisions isn’t where it needs to be. Perhaps management accounts arrive three weeks after month-end. Maybe forecasts aren’t updated regularly. Or perhaps the CEO asks: “What happens to cash if we hire another 15 people?”
And nobody can confidently answer.
That is when finance needs to move beyond reporting what has already happened. A good Finance Director helps the business understand what is likely to happen next. They turn financial information into commercial decision-making, and that distinction becomes increasingly important as a business grows.
2. Your CEO or Founder Is Still Acting as Finance Director
This happens all the time, particularly in founder-led businesses. Initially, the founder knows every number.
- They approve payments.
- They monitor the bank balance.
- They build forecasts.
- They negotiate with the bank.
- They sit with the accountant.
- They probably have an enormous spreadsheet they’ve been maintaining since 2019.
It works… Until it doesn’t.
As the business grows, every hour a founder spends trying to understand cash flow, budgets or management accounts is an hour they aren’t spending on customers, people, strategy or growth. Eventually, finance becomes too important to remain another item on the founder’s to-do list.
That’s usually a strong indication that the business needs senior finance leadership, not necessarily because finance is broken, but because the founder shouldn’t be the person holding it together anymore.
3. Revenue Is Growing Faster Than Your Finance Function
Growth creates complexity,
✅ More customers create more invoices.
✅ More employees create more payroll.
✅ More suppliers create more payments.
✅ More revenue creates greater tax, cash flow and reporting considerations.
What worked at £2 million turnover might not work at £10 million, and what worked at £10 million probably won’t survive £30 million. This is something we explored in Growing Fast? Here’s Why Your Finance Hire Matters Most
Businesses naturally invest heavily in revenue-generating teams as they scale, but eventually, the infrastructure supporting that growth needs to catch up. A Finance Director can help build:
- Stronger financial controls
- Better forecasting
- Improved management information
- Scalable finance processes
- More sophisticated commercial analysis
Growth is brilliant, but uncontrolled growth can become expensive very quickly.
4. Cash Flow Is Becoming Harder to Predict
Revenue and cash are not the same thing. A business can be profitable and growing while simultaneously experiencing significant cash pressure. Perhaps customers are paying more slowly, maybe you’ve increased headcount ahead of growth, perhaps inventory requirements have increased, or large contracts require significant investment before revenue arrives.
According to the UK Government’s Office of the Small Business Commissioner, late payments alone cost the UK economy almost £11 billion annually, with more than a quarter of businesses affected. For a growing company, working capital can quickly become one of the biggest constraints on growth.
A Finance Director doesn’t simply monitor the bank account. They help the business understand:
- Cash conversion
- Working capital
- Payment terms
- Funding requirements
- Scenario planning
- Future cash needs
If you’re regularly surprised by your cash position, you probably need more senior finance capability.
5. You’re Preparing for Investment, Acquisition or Exit
Some moments in a company’s journey change what finance needs to deliver.
Fundraising is one, acquisition is another, preparing for exit is definitely one. Suddenly, historical accounts aren’t enough. Investors, lenders and potential buyers want:
- Reliable forecasts
- Strong management information
- Clear KPIs
- Cash flow visibility
- Robust financial controls
- Due diligence-ready information
- A credible financial story
And somebody needs to own that process. A strong Finance Director becomes an important bridge between the business, its leadership team and external stakeholders. They can challenge assumptions, prepare financial models, support negotiations and ensure the numbers stand up to scrutiny.
If you’re considering an investment round, acquisition or exit in the next 12-24 months, waiting until the process starts before strengthening finance can leave you playing catch-up.
6. Your Financial Controller Has Become the Finance Director Without the Title
This one is particularly common…
You hired a brilliant Financial Controller, over time, they’ve taken on more, then more, and more. Suddenly they’re:
- Running reporting.
- Managing the team.
- Building forecasts.
- Speaking with the board.
- Supporting strategy.
- Working with lenders.
- Challenging commercial decisions.
Essentially, they’re performing significant parts of an FD role while still trying to run the day-to-day finance function.
That creates two questions.
1️⃣ Is it time to develop and promote them?
2️⃣ If they move upwards, who takes ownership of financial control underneath them?
Not every growing business needs to recruit its Finance Director externally. Sometimes the right person is already sitting inside the finance team, but businesses need to recognise when roles have evolved and build the finance structure around that reality. It is also worth benchmarking the position properly before making that decision.
7. You’re Asking Strategic Questions Your Current Finance Team Can’t Answer
This is perhaps the clearest sign of all. Your finance team may be excellent, but you are increasingly asking questions that sit outside their current experience.
Questions like:
- “Should we acquire this competitor?”
- “How should we fund our next stage of growth?”
- “What would an investor value us at?”
- “Should we enter another market?”
- “How do we improve EBITDA before an exit?”
- “What’s the right capital structure for the business?”
These are not necessarily accounting questions, they’re commercial and strategic questions with financial consequences, and answering them requires a different level of experience. That is where a Finance Director starts becoming incredibly valuable.
But Do You Actually Need a Full-Time Finance Director?
This is where the conversation becomes interesting. Because recognising that you need Finance Director-level expertise does not automatically mean you need to hire a permanent Finance Director tomorrow.
Perhaps you need someone two days per week, maybe you need strategic finance leadership while preparing for investment, perhaps your existing Financial Controller is excellent operationally but needs senior support above them. Or maybe the business is growing quickly but isn’t yet ready to justify a full-time FD salary. That could mean support for a specific project, one or two days per week, or senior finance leadership while the business transitions towards eventually making a permanent hire.
The important thing is accessing the right level of finance expertise at the right stage of growth.
Finance Director vs Financial Controller: What’s the Difference?
This is another question businesses frequently ask. Broadly speaking, a Financial Controller tends to focus more heavily on financial control and reporting. A Finance Director typically takes that information and uses it to influence business strategy. Think of it like this:
Financial Controller: “Here’s what happened and here’s where we are.”
Finance Director: “Here’s what is likely to happen next, here’s what it means and here’s what I think we should do about it.”
There is obviously overlap, and job titles vary enormously between businesses, but if your biggest finance challenges are increasingly about strategy, investment, commercial decisions and future planning rather than reporting and control, that is another strong sign the business may be ready for FD-level leadership.
How Much Should You Pay a Finance Director?
There isn’t one useful answer, and we’d be slightly suspicious of anyone who gives you one without asking anything about your business. Finance Director salaries can vary considerably depending on:
- Location
- Company size
- Turnover
- Industry
- Team size
- Ownership structure
- International exposure
- PE or VC backing
- Scope of responsibility
A Finance Director for a £10 million owner-managed business is not necessarily the same hire as an FD joining a £100 million PE-backed organisation preparing for exit.
That’s why benchmarking the role properly before recruitment starts matters. Our free We Do Benchmark service helps employers understand current salary and benefits expectations based on their specific requirements rather than relying purely on broad salary guides.
Don’t Wait Until Finance Becomes a Problem
Perhaps the biggest mistake businesses make is assuming senior finance leadership is something you introduce when things go wrong.
- Cash becomes tight.
- Reporting breaks.
- The bank starts asking questions.
- Growth stalls.
- An investor requests information nobody can produce.
Then suddenly: “We need an FD.” But the best Finance Directors aren’t simply there to fix problems, they help prevent them, they provide challenges before decisions are made, they improve visibility before cash becomes tight, they build processes before growth overwhelms them. And they help leadership teams make better decisions before mistakes become expensive.
That’s why the best time to hire a Finance Director is often before it feels absolutely necessary.
So, Is It Time to Hire Your First Finance Director?
There isn’t a magic turnover number. You don’t automatically need a Finance Director when revenue hits £10 million, £20 million or £50 million. Every business is different, but there are clear signals.
If your business is growing quickly, financial complexity is increasing, strategic decisions are becoming harder and your existing finance structure is struggling to provide the insight leadership needs, it may be time. That could mean promoting internally. It could mean hiring permanently. Or it could mean bringing in fractional Finance Director support until the business is ready for the next stage.
At We Do Group, we help businesses understand what their finance function needs now, not simply what an organisational chart says they should hire. Whether that’s recruiting a permanent Finance Director, benchmarking the role or accessing experienced leadership, the objective is the same:
Get the right finance expertise into the business at the right time. Because your first Finance Director shouldn’t simply help you manage the business you’ve built.
They should help you build the business you’re trying to become.
If you think it’s time, Let’s chat.
