Interim cover is not an admission that your hiring failed. It is a deliberate move that keeps your function running while you take the time to make the right permanent appointment rather than the fast one.
Most finance leaders reach for an interim reluctantly. It can feel like a stopgap, a sign that you did not plan well enough. That framing is wrong. A good contractor buys you something valuable: the space to hire properly.
Why does interim cover feel like a failure when it is not?
Because we are trained to see gaps as problems to close quickly. A resignation lands, the workload does not pause, and the instinct is to fill the seat before month end.
But speed and quality rarely arrive together. The hire you rush in March is often the hire you are managing out by September.
An interim breaks that link. It removes the pressure that makes you compromise. You stop hiring to stop the bleeding and start hiring for the next three years.
What does an interim actually protect?
Three things, mostly.
First, your controls. A vacant Financial Controller or Finance Manager seat means reconciliations slip, reviews get skipped, and small errors compound. An experienced contractor holds the line so your numbers stay trustworthy.
Second, your team. When the layer below you loses a manager, the workload does not vanish. It lands on people who are already stretched. An interim absorbs that pressure so you do not burn out your best performers or lose a second person to exhaustion.
Third, your week. A capable interim runs the close, manages the transactional team, and handles the queries that would otherwise fill your calendar. That frees you to think about the permanent hire properly rather than firefighting between interviews.
When is interim the right call rather than a permanent hire straight away?
Use an interim when the timing is against you. A resignation just before year end, a maternity gap, a systems migration, or a period-end you cannot afford to stumble through.
Use one when the role is changing. If you are not sure whether you need a Head of FP&A or an FP&A Manager, a contractor lets you test the shape of the work before you commit a headcount and a salary band.
Use one when the market is thin. If the right permanent candidate is worth waiting eight weeks for, an interim covers those eight weeks without forcing you to settle for the person who happens to be available now.
Skip the interim when the role is stable, the market is deep, and you have a strong shortlist ready. In that case, speed to permanent is the better play.
A short case study: the controller who left in October
A Finance Director at a mid-sized services business lost her Financial Controller in early October. Year end was December. The temptation was obvious: hire fast, get someone in before close.
She resisted. Instead she brought in an interim controller who had closed similar books before. He stabilised the ledger, tidied a few reconciliations that had drifted, and ran the December close cleanly.
That gave her until February to run a proper permanent process. She interviewed six candidates rather than two. She held out for someone with the systems experience she actually needed, not just someone who could pass a first round.
The permanent controller started in March, inherited a clean set of books, and had a documented handover from the interim. No fire to fight, no mess to unpick. The interim cost more per day, but the permanent hire has now been in seat for two years and is being groomed for Head of Finance.
That is the trade. You pay a premium for a few months to avoid a mistake that costs you a year.
How do you make interim cover work rather than drift?
Brief the interim tightly. Define what must be delivered, what must be documented, and what must be left for the permanent hire to own. An interim who tries to reshape everything creates work for their successor.
Run the permanent search in parallel from day one. The interim is buying time, not replacing the search. If you let the permanent process slide, you end up paying day rates for a year and calling it a strategy.
Insist on a handover artefact. Process notes, open items, a calendar of deadlines. That is what turns a temporary fix into a clean starting point for the person who stays.
If you want help scoping either the interim or the permanent role, Harper May works with finance leaders on exactly this, and you can see the kind of roles we place here.
Common questions
Will an interim unsettle my permanent team?
Not if you frame it clearly. Tell the team the interim is holding the fort while you find the right permanent leader for them. People handle temporary cover well when they understand the plan.
Is it worth the higher day rate?
Often, yes. A day rate looks expensive next to a salary, but a bad permanent hire costs far more in lost time, rework, and a repeat search. The interim is insurance against that.
How long should interim cover run?
Aim for three to six months. Long enough to run a proper permanent search, short enough that you never treat the contractor as the answer.
