Financial services
The people who close the month on time.
Accountants, analysts, AP and AR specialists, audit and compliance staff. Cover through a close, a contract for a system migration, or the controller everything runs through.
- 6 functions
- from transactional AP and AR through to controllership and compliance
- Close and audit ready
- screened for the cycle you run, not just the software you licence
- Contract or permanent
- the person stays our employee on contract work, including through year end
Financial Services
Six functions, one deadline everybody shares.
We recruit across transactional finance, reporting, analysis, audit and compliance, and banking and lending operations. Corporates, lenders, insurers, professional services firms and finance shared service centres.
Finance demand clusters. Year end, an audit, an ERP migration, a resignation two weeks before close. Contract cover moves quickly and contract-to-hire is common where the role is permanent but the headcount is not signed yet.
What separates candidates is rarely the qualification. It is whether they have owned a close, sat through an audit, or cleaned up a ledger somebody else left behind, and that only comes out if you ask.
Functions
What we actually recruit for.
Pick one and you get what they actually produce, the seniority we fill, and the tools and standards a screen has to cover.
Invoice processing, matching, payment runs, collections and the reconciliations that keep the ledger honest.
- Seniority we fill
- Clerk through to AP or AR supervisor
- Tools
- SAPOracleNetSuiteQuickBooksCoupaBill.com
- Standards
- Three way matchSegregation of dutiesAging targets
Invoice processing, matching, payment runs, collections and the reconciliations that keep the ledger honest.
- Seniority we fill
- Clerk through to AP or AR supervisor
- Tools
- SAPOracleNetSuiteQuickBooksCoupaBill.com
- Standards
- Three way matchSegregation of dutiesAging targets
The vocabulary
What we recruit against.
The systems and frameworks a finance screen has to cover. If your stack is not here it is worth a conversation, because the wrong ERP experience costs months.
ERP and accounting
- SAP
- Oracle
- NetSuite
- Microsoft Dynamics
- QuickBooks
- Sage
- Workday Financials
Close and reporting
- Blackline
- Hyperion
- OneStream
- Power BI
- Tableau
- Excel modelling
Banking and lending
- Encompass
- Fiserv
- Jack Henry
- nCino
- Salesforce FSC
Frameworks
- US GAAP
- SOX
- IFRS where relevant
- BSA and AML
- KYC
Credentials we verify
- CPA
- CMA
- CFA
- Enrolled Agent
- Series licences where required
Everybody has done reconciliations. The question is which accounts they owned, and what shape those accounts were in when they left.
Screening
How we screen a finance hire.
Finance resumes look alike because the vocabulary is standard. The differences show up in what somebody has owned, and that takes specific questions rather than a longer interview.
- 01
The cycle, in your terms
Your ERP, your close calendar, whether the role owns a schedule or supports one, and whether an auditor will ever speak to this person.
- 02
Ownership tested
Not have you done reconciliations, but which accounts did you own, what was the messiest one, and how long did close take when you got there compared to when you left.
- 03
Systems checked properly
SAP as an end user and SAP as somebody who configures it are different jobs. We establish which one the candidate actually is.
- 04
A short technical exercise
Where the role justifies it: a reconciliation with a deliberate error, or a small model. Fifteen minutes, and it settles more than a second interview.
- 05
A reference from a finance lead
The controller or manager who reviewed their work, not an HR contact confirming dates.
Straight answer
Where the market is actually tight.
What our recruiters see running these searches. Experience rather than a promise, and better said now than at month end.
| Role | What the market looks like | Realistic shortlist |
|---|---|---|
| AP and AR clerks | Deep pool in most markets. Volume experience and system familiarity separate them. | Days |
| Staff accountants | Available, though people who have genuinely owned a close are fewer than the resumes suggest. | About a week |
| Payroll specialists | Steadier than most think, but multi state and multi entity experience is scarcer. | One to two weeks |
| FP&A analysts | Competitive. Strong modelling plus the ability to present to a board is the constraint. | Two to three weeks |
| Controllers | A genuine search. Public company and SOX experience narrows the field quickly. | Three to five weeks |
| Compliance and AML | Tight in most regulated markets, and the first thing a competitor counter offers on. | Three to four weeks |
Close and year end are the two worst times to start a permanent search and the two most common. If you are hiring into a close, contract cover first is usually the safer sequence.
Shapes
Three shapes this usually takes.
Finance demand arrives on a calendar, which at least means it can be planned for.
Close or audit cover
Extra hands for a defined finance event.
- When it fits
- Year end, an audit, a backlog, or a resignation with bad timing.
- The arrangement
- Temporary or contract, weeks to months. We are the employer of record.
Project finance
Specialists for a system or reporting change.
- When it fits
- An ERP migration, a reporting build, a remediation programme, a carve out.
- The arrangement
- Contract, typically six to eighteen months.
The permanent hire
The person who owns the number.
- When it fits
- Controller, finance manager, senior analyst, compliance lead.
- The arrangement
- Direct hire, or contract-to-hire where the headcount is not signed yet.
Before you call
What to have ready before you call.
None of this needs writing up. Knowing it turns a first call into a shortlist.
- Your ERP, and whether the person needs to use it or configure it
- Whether the role owns a close schedule or supports one
- Public, private or private equity backed, and whether SOX applies
- Multi entity or multi state complexity, especially for payroll
- The rate or salary band you can approve without a second meeting
- Whether you are hiring into a close, and how much runway there is
Open roles
A sample of financial services roles we fill.
Questions
Before you call.
Usually. Transactional and staff accounting cover moves within days, and contractors who have worked several closes are used to arriving mid cycle. Controller level cover takes longer and is worth planning a month out.
Hiring into finance?
Tell us your ERP, your close calendar and whether this is cover or a permanent seat. You will get a straight answer on timing at the first conversation.