Case studies · Accountancy & finance
Finance roles, filled
A senior accountant for a practice and a financial controller for a landmark London market. 128 candidates worked, 10 presented, two hired — one of them in 28 days.
Financial Controller
A landmark central London market operator · Retail & leisure property
- Time to fill
- 28 days
- Brief taken
- 14 May 2026
- Filled
- 11 June 2026
- Package
- £40,000–£45,000
- Location
- Central London, hybrid — part-time, 3 days per week
A part-time, three-day Financial Controller is a harder brief than a full-time one. The work is senior and the responsibility does not shrink with the hours, so the field is limited to people who want that shape deliberately rather than as a compromise.
63 candidates were worked, 15 interviewed by us and five presented. Four of those five were interviewed by the client — an unusually high strike rate, and the reason this closed inside a month.
Pipeline — candidates reaching each stage
- Sourced & screened 63
- Internal interview 15
- Presented to client 5
- Client interview 4
- Hired 1
63 candidates worked. Filled in 28 days — the fastest of the nine.
Four of the five candidates presented went to interview. When the shortlist is right, speed follows.
28 days from brief to filled.
Senior Accountant
A mid-sized accountancy and taxation practice · Accountancy practice
- Time to fill
- 93 days
- Brief taken
- 1 April 2026
- Filled
- 3 July 2026
- Package
- £45,000–£60,000, with growth beyond
- Location
- North West England, office-based with flexibility
Practice accountancy is its own market. An accountant from industry rarely transfers cleanly into a practice handling a portfolio of clients, and the practices know it, so the real field is far smaller than the job title suggests.
29 of the 65 were interviewed by us — a deliberately heavy internal stage, because the difference between a practice accountant and an industry one is a conversation, not a keyword.
Pipeline — candidates reaching each stage
- Sourced & screened 65
- Internal interview 29
- Presented to client 5
- Client interview 3
- Hired 1
65 candidates worked, 29 interviewed by us, 5 presented.
Only five of 65 candidates were considered good enough to present. Three were interviewed and one was hired.
93 days, and a hire at the top of the range.
How the fee works
Every role on this page was delivered on the same basis: a fixed fee, agreed before we start, with no percentage of salary attached. The straightforward search and the difficult one cost the client the same.
That is the point of the model. A percentage fee charges you more for hiring a better-paid person and rewards us for the easy search. A fixed fee puts the risk of a long search where it belongs — with us. And if we do not fill the role, you get every penny of your fee back.
Every figure here comes from our own placement records. Clients and placed candidates are not named. Full detail on the model is on our Guaranteed Hire page.