By Deborah Broadbent on August 4th, 2025
Finance Manager, Financial Controller, and what does a Finance Director bring
Amongst our client base – marketing, media, communications and creative businesses – we come across a range of titles and roles within a finance department. I thought I’d give you my take on some of these roles and what they mean.
Finance Manager (“FM”)
A Finance Manager has a great responsibility for running the day today finances of the business. The FM will normally be responsible for production of the monthly management accounts and supporting the budgeting and re-forecasting processes. In delivering this, they will need to ensure that all of the daily transactional work is completed efficiently (either by themselves or by a member of their team), that appropriate monthly reconciliations are carried out, that cashflow is effectively managed and that income is recognised correctly through liaison with client account handlers .
In a small business, the FM may report directly to the Management Team (eg Managing Director/Owners) or, as the business gets larger, may report into a Finance Director. Depending on the senior team structure the FM may also help with analysis of various performance measures (e.g. service levels, profitability of projects/clients, and cost reduction).
FMs may do all of the above by themselves (“sole-role”) which appeals to some candidates as they have control of the process from start to finish (note: from the business perspective there need to be sufficient internal controls in place to mitigate against the potential for fraud); or, in larger businesses, the Finance Manager may have finance assistant(s) supporting the transactional data entry and/or the client billing processes.
A FM will usually be part-qualified (i.e. part-way through their professional accountancy exam process), occasionally be fully qualified or may simply be Qualified By Experience.
Basic salary level will depend on the size and complexity of the business, size of the team and extent of professional qualification but will usually range from approx. £55k-£65k pa. Full qualification (e.g. ACA, ACCA or CIMA) will usually attract a premium.
Financial Controller (“FC”)
The role of the Financial Controller is, in many ways, very similar to that of the Finance Manager. We see the principal difference being the size of the business that they are helping to ‘control’. Mid-size to larger agencies will usually be more complex – possibly having global reach, different business units, divisions or subsidiary companies – with higher levels of revenue and will usually have more people in the finance team.
Note that there are exceptions to this. For example, in a smaller business, someone ostensibly carrying out a ‘sole-role’ FM function but who comes with greater experience and who also provides some strategic input to the owner/managers, could command a Financial Controller title and salary.
The FC role will usually attract a higher salary level than the FM, reflecting the increased responsibility and complexity of the role. Basic salary levels for FCs will typically be approx. £65k-£85k pa.
Finance Director (“FD”)
The main difference between the Finance Director and the FC is that the FD should be expected to provide valuable insight and strategic direction to the management team of a business. The should ‘direct’ while the FC/FM ‘controls’ and “manages’ the day to day finances of the business.
They will play a key role in business planning, analysis of services and new initiatives, support/lead commercial negotiations on client contracting, and lead tax & M&A investment strategies. They will also often lead other operational & capex investment decisions (eg Property and IT).
In our experience, businesses in the sector will have some form of strategic financial support from outset which, in the early days, is often provided by their external accountants.
However, there are a significant number of expert FDs who will provide part-time FD consultancy and who will come with a vast wealth of practical experience having worked in the sector for many years (typically referred to as “Fractional” or “Portfolio” FDs). This allows businesses to benefit from the support of a dedicated FD, likely to be at a lower cost than the external accountant but someone who has more engagement with the business – this needn’t harm the relationship with the accountant who can still be called upon to provide specialist audit, tax or corporate finance advice as/when required.
Once a business has reached a headcount of approx. 30 people we find that, if they’re not already doing so, there’s a shift to using Fractional/Portfolio FDs. This allows the FD to scale up their input and manage the finance team development as the business grows. Note that the investment in a good FD should be far outweighed by the financial benefit that they bring through their experience and insight (for example through looking at cost control, pricing and improving the profitability of projects/clients etc)
For SMEs in the sector, basic salary levels for FDs will start at around £100kpa rising to around £150kpa. They will also be highly motivated by performance related pay and or equity share/involvement which may provide some room to negotiate around base salary. Salary levels will rise beyond this for larger and more complex global businesses. Day rates for part-time consultant FDs will typically range from approx. £700-£1250+
If you’d like to discuss any of the above further and what it might mean for your business, please do get in touch with either Deborah (deborah.broadbent@visionfr.co.uk) or Greg (greg.broadbent@visionfr.co.uk)