How Long Should It Take to Hire a Financial Controller in the UK?

One of the most common questions we hear from hiring managers is: “How long should it take to hire a Financial Controller?”

The honest answer? Longer than most businesses expect.

Many organisations begin the recruitment process assuming they’ll have someone in place within a few weeks. After all, they know the role they need to fill, they’ve agreed a salary and they’re ready to interview. Unfortunately, the market doesn’t always work that way.

In today’s finance recruitment market, hiring a strong Financial Controller can take anywhere between 6 and 16 weeks depending on location, salary, flexibility, industry sector and the quality of the recruitment process. And if you’re targeting top-performing Financial Controllers rather than simply the most available candidates, it can sometimes take even longer. The question isn’t necessarily how quickly can you hire a Financial Controller.

It’s how quickly can you hire the right Financial Controller.

Why Financial Controllers Are So Important

Financial Controllers sit at the heart of most finance functions.

They’re often responsible for:

• Financial reporting
• Month-end processes
• Audit management
• Cash flow oversight
• Compliance and controls
• Team leadership
• Process improvement

In many businesses, they act as the bridge between operational finance and strategic finance leadership. Get the hire right and your finance function becomes more efficient, accurate and scalable. Get it wrong and the consequences can be significant.

As highlighted in our article The Real Cost Of A Bad Hire In Finance, poor hiring decisions can cost businesses far more than recruitment fees once productivity losses, management time and replacement costs are considered.

The Average Financial Controller Hiring Timeline

While every business is different, a typical Financial Controller recruitment process often looks something like this:

Week 1-2: Defining the Role

This stage involves:

• Agreeing responsibilities
• Reviewing salary levels
• Benchmarking benefits
• Defining reporting lines
• Preparing job specifications

Interestingly, many hiring delays start before candidates are even approached.

Unclear role requirements, unrealistic salary expectations and lengthy internal approvals can add weeks to the process before recruitment begins. This is why salary benchmarking has become increasingly important. Employers that understand current market conditions tend to move faster and secure stronger candidates.

Week 2-5: Candidate Attraction and Shortlisting

This is often where businesses underestimate the challenge. Many assume that advertising a role will generate a large volume of suitable applicants. In reality, the strongest Financial Controllers are rarely actively applying for jobs.

They’re often:

• Already employed
• Being approached by recruiters
• Engaged in ongoing discussions with employers
• Selective about opportunities

Recent findings from ACCA’s Global Talent Trends research continue to highlight strong competition for experienced finance professionals across the UK and internationally. This means candidate attraction often takes longer than businesses expect.

Week 5-8: Interviews and Assessment

A typical Financial Controller hiring process involves:

• First-stage interviews
• Technical assessment
• Stakeholder meetings
• Final interviews
• Offer discussions

This stage can move quickly. Or it can become one of the biggest causes of delay. We’ve seen businesses lose excellent candidates because interview processes stretched across five or six weeks. Meanwhile, competing employers completed the process in two.

As we discussed in The Finance Hiring Trends You Need To Know In 2025, speed is becoming an increasingly important competitive advantage when recruiting finance talent.

Week 8-16: Notice Periods

Even after an offer is accepted, the process isn’t finished. Most Financial Controllers are already employed. Notice periods commonly range from:

• 1 month
• 2 months
• 3 months

Senior Financial Controllers can sometimes have notice periods of six months or longer. This means that even when recruitment moves efficiently, businesses may still wait several months before their new hire starts. This is often where contingency planning becomes important. Some organisations utilise interim finance professionals or fractional finance leaders to bridge the gap while permanent recruitment is completed.

Why Some Financial Controller Searches Take Much Longer

Not every Financial Controller vacancy follows the same timeline. Some roles remain open for months.

Common reasons include:

1 – Salary Expectations Don’t Match the Market

One of the biggest causes of recruitment delays is salary misalignment. Employers may be benchmarking against historical salary data while candidates are comparing opportunities in today’s market.

2 – The Brief Is Too Broad

Many businesses are effectively searching for:

• A Financial Controller
• A Finance Director
• A Systems Accountant
• A Commercial Business Partner

All within one role. The more requirements added to a vacancy, the smaller the candidate pool becomes.

3 – The Process Is Too Slow

LinkedIn research consistently highlights that candidate expectations around recruitment speed continue to increase. Strong candidates often receive multiple opportunities simultaneously. The longer the process takes, the higher the risk of losing candidates to competing employers.

What Does a “Good” Hiring Timeline Look Like?

For most businesses, a realistic target would be:

Total timeline: 8-16 weeks

This allows enough time to properly assess candidates while remaining competitive in the market. Businesses attempting to hire significantly faster often compromise on quality. Businesses moving significantly slower often lose the strongest candidates. The goal is finding the balance.

The Hidden Cost of Vacancy Delays

Every additional week a Financial Controller position remains vacant creates costs that rarely appear on a budget.

These can include:

• Delayed reporting
• Increased workload for existing staff
• Reduced management information
• Slower decision-making
• Increased pressure on finance leaders

Research from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) estimates that poor hiring decisions can cost businesses well into six figures once all associated costs are considered.

For many organisations, extending the recruitment process by several months can become almost as costly as making the wrong hire altogether.

How to Reduce Time-to-Hire Without Sacrificing Quality

The businesses that consistently hire strong Financial Controllers tend to do five things well:

1. Benchmark Salaries Before Recruiting

Understand what the market is paying before launching the search.

2. Define the Role Clearly

Know exactly what success looks like before speaking with candidates.

3. Move Quickly

Reduce unnecessary interview stages and approval processes.

4. Access Passive Candidates

Many of the strongest Financial Controllers are not actively applying for jobs.

5. Work With Specialist Finance Recruiters

Specialist recruiters often have access to candidate networks that aren’t visible through traditional advertising channels.

So, How Long Should It Take?

The average Financial Controller hire in the UK typically takes between 8 and 16 weeks from initial planning through to start date.

Could it happen faster? Absolutely. Could it take longer? Unfortunately, yes.

But the businesses that consistently attract the best Financial Controllers understand one important truth:

The goal isn’t simply to hire quickly. The goal is to hire correctly.

At We Do Group, we help businesses reduce hiring timelines without compromising on quality through specialist finance recruitment expertise, salary benchmarking and access to high-performing finance professionals across the UK.

Because when it comes to hiring a Financial Controller, the right person is worth waiting for.

Just not forever.