The right sequence is to fix the ledger first, build reporting second, and add specialism last. At 20m you need clean numbers and a reliable close, at 50m you need FP&A and a strong number two, and at 100m you need depth in each pillar so no single person is a point of failure.
Most hiring pain comes from doing this out of order. You feel the strain in reporting, so you hire an analyst, but the underlying ledger is still shaky and the analyst spends their week fixing data instead of interpreting it.
Get the foundation right and every later hire lands better.
What should you add at 20m revenue?
At 20m the job is control. You need someone who owns the close, the reconciliations and the day to day accuracy of the ledger.
The anchor hire here is a strong Financial Controller, or a capable Finance Manager if budget is tight. This is the person who makes the month end reliable so you stop being the last line of review on every journal.
Below them, make sure your transactional layer is genuinely covered. Accounts payable, accounts receivable and payroll should not sit with your most senior person. If they do, you are paying controller money for processing work.
Signs you have this stage right: month end closes in a predictable window, your reconciliations are current, and you trust the numbers without re-checking them yourself.
What frees up your week at 20m is simple. A Controller who owns close means you stop living inside the detail and start looking at the business.
What should you add at 50m revenue?
At 50m the question shifts from "are the numbers right" to "what do the numbers mean". This is where FP&A earns its place.
Your first dedicated FP&A hire, whether an FP&A Manager or a strong analyst, changes the conversation. Budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis and commercial partnering move out of your inbox and into a proper function.
At this stage you also want a genuine number two. A Head of Finance or senior Financial Controller who can run the operational function while you spend more time with the board and the wider leadership team.
The layer below you matters more than it did at 20m. If everything still routes through one person, you have not scaled, you have just added volume to a bottleneck.
Watch the split between technical accounting and analysis. These are different skill sets. Do not expect your best technical accountant to also be your sharpest commercial analyst, and do not force a strong analyst to own statutory accounts they dislike.
What frees up your week at 50m is the FP&A layer plus a trusted deputy. Together they give you forecasts you can defend and a function that runs without you in the room.
What should you add at 100m revenue?
At 100m the risk is concentration. One person holding a whole pillar is fine at 50m and dangerous at 100m.
You build depth. A Head of FP&A with analysts beneath them, a Financial Controller with a proper technical accounting team, and clear ownership of treasury, tax and commercial finance as distinct areas rather than side tasks.
Specialism becomes worth paying for. A dedicated technical accountant, a revenue specialist, a treasury lead. These roles look expensive until you cost the errors and missed opportunities they prevent.
This is also where succession stops being theoretical. Every senior person in your function should have someone credible developing beneath them.
Ask yourself honestly: if any single team member left tomorrow, what breaks. At 100m the answer should be "not much", because you built for depth rather than heroics.
What frees up your week at 100m is layered ownership. You manage a small number of strong leaders, and they manage the detail, so your time goes to strategy, capital and the board.
How do you avoid hiring out of sequence?
Hire to the constraint, not the symptom. If reporting feels weak, check the ledger before you blame the analysis, because bad reporting is often a data problem wearing an analysis costume.
Write down what each new hire is meant to take off your plate. If you cannot name the tasks, you are not ready to hire, you are ready to reorganise.
And be patient with seniority. Bringing in a Head of Finance before the transactional base is solid just means an expensive person doing junior work.
When you are ready to build the layer below you properly, Harper May works with finance leaders on exactly this. You can also see the kind of roles we place across the function on our current vacancies.
Common questions
Should I hire a Financial Controller or an FP&A person first? Controller first, in almost every case. Analysis built on an unreliable ledger is guesswork. Fix control, then add interpretation.
When is the right time for a dedicated number two? Around 50m, or when you notice you are the single approval point for too much. A deputy who can run the operational function is what lets you look up.
How do I know I have hired out of sequence? Your senior people are doing junior work, or your analysts spend their week cleaning data. Both signals mean the foundation was not ready for the layer you added on top.
