Interim Group Financial Controller​/Finance Stabilisation Lead

The company is an established fintech and enterprise-software business with an international corporate structure, using Microsoft Dynamics as its accounting system. Following the departure of the Financial Controller, we require an experienced, hands-on interim Group Financial Controller / Finance Stabilisation Lead to restore confidence in financial reporting, strengthen the month-end close, and deliver decision-ready forecasts. This role reports to the CEO, will work closely with a junior accountant, and is UK-preferred (strong US candidates considered if they can maintain substantial overlap with UK hours).

Initial term: approximately three months with an option to extend; initial commitment about 3-4 days per week (roughly 30-40 hours), tapering thereafter.

• Assess the accuracy and completeness of the group’s accounting records.
• Validate closing and opening balances across the most recent fiscal years.
• Review and correct year-to-date financial results.
• Establish reliable entity-level and consolidated trial balances.
• Identify misclassifications, unsupported balances and incomplete accounting.
• Maintain a documented adjustment and remediation log.
• Quantify unresolved issues and communicate their potential impact clearly.

• Complete or supervise reconciliations for bank and credit-card accounts; accounts receivable and accounts payable; payroll, benefits and payroll taxes; deferred and unbilled revenue; accruals and prepayments; fixed assets; taxes (VAT/GST and sales tax); intercompany accounts; debt, equity and retained earnings.
• Reconcile subledgers and supporting schedules to the general ledger.
• Establish a documented month-end close calendar and checklist.
• Introduce appropriate journal, reconciliation and management-review controls.
• Reduce the recurring close timetable to around two weeks.

• Review revenue-recognition practices and supporting schedules.
• Document treatment of foreign currency, intercompany transactions and consolidation entries.
• Produce reliable consolidated P&L, balance-sheet and cash-flow statements.
• Coordinate with external tax, statutory reporting and audit advisers as required.
• Identify issues that may affect prior statutory filings or require deeper historical review.

• Produce an initial short-term (e.g., 13-week) cash forecast early in the assignment.
• Build an integrated reforecast for the current fiscal year and a monthly budget for the following year (monthly P&L, balance sheet and cash flow).
• Develop base, downside and upside scenarios; model revenue, customer contracts, renewals, headcount, collections, operating expenditure, tax, capital expenditure and foreign exchange.
• Establish an actual-to-forecast reporting process.
• Create a concise monthly KPI and management-reporting pack; ensure each KPI has a clear definition, source and owner.

• Coach and develop the junior accountant; assess their readiness to operate as an acting controller.
• Identify transactional work to reassign or outsource.
• Recommend whether the organization should hire a permanent full-time Financial Controller or appoint a fractional CFO and develop the junior accountant as acting controller.
• Prepare a complete handover package for the permanent finance leader.

• First 2-3 weeks: finance risk and remediation register; reconciled cash position; assessment of immediate payroll, tax, AP and collection risks; preliminary fiscal outlook; initial short-term cash forecast; close-process assessment; prioritised short-term workplan.
• Around month 1: status assessment for every material balance-sheet account; reconciliation and adjustment tracker; preliminary corrected year-to-date financial statements; documented historical-validation boundary; initial junior-accountant skills assessment.
• By month 2: validated entity-level trial balances; corrected and consolidated year-to-date financial statements; completed material balance-sheet reconciliation files; integrated reforecast and monthly budget with scenario analysis; revenue-recognition, intercompany and FX documentation; initial KPI and management-reporting pack.
• By month 3: two controlled month-end closes completed or substantially demonstrated (close and reporting operating to the agreed timetable); finalised accounting procedures, account ownership and control documentation; final…