By Richard Langlsow Published 22 July 2026
If you've ever looked at the hourly or daily rate for a temporary finance professional and quietly inhaled through your teeth, you're not alone.
“How much?”
It's an understandable reaction. Whether your business regularly uses temporary staff, brings them in occasionally or is considering the option for the first time, a temp can initially look expensive when the charge rate is compared with the salary attached to a permanent or fixed-term role.
There's just one problem.
Those aren't necessarily the right numbers to compare.
Temporary recruitment has the rather unfortunate habit of putting much of its cost where you can see it. Permanent and fixed-term employment can be considerably more coy.
Salary sits there looking innocent while employer costs, benefits, recruitment time, onboarding and various other expenses lurk politely beneath the surface.
So perhaps the question isn't simply, “How much does a temp cost?”
A more useful question might be: what is the most commercially sensible way of getting the work done?
Why can a temp look more expensive?
Because the cost is visible.
When you hire a temporary worker through a recruitment agency, you'll typically agree an hourly or daily charge rate. Depending on the engagement and arrangements in place, that charge may incorporate a number of the costs associated with employing and supplying the temporary worker.
You know the rate. You know how long they're working. You can calculate what the assignment is likely to cost.
It's refreshingly transparent.
Unfortunately for temporary recruitment, transparency can occasionally make something look more expensive than an alternative where several costs haven't yet made it onto the spreadsheet.
A £50,000 salary doesn't cost £50,000
Most experienced hiring managers already know this, but it's still surprisingly easy to forget when a temporary charge rate is placed next to a permanent salary.
Depending on the role and organisation, the true cost of employing somebody may also include employer National Insurance, pension contributions, holiday entitlement, employee benefits, advertising and recruitment costs, agency fees where applicable, management and HR time, interviews, onboarding, equipment, technology and training.
There's also the time it takes for somebody to reach full productivity.
Not every cost applies to every hire, of course, but comparing a temporary charge rate directly with basic salary can still be a little like comparing the price of an all-inclusive holiday with the cost of the flight.
One number has rather more packed into it.
Don't forget the cost of the empty desk
There's another cost which rarely appears in the recruitment budget.
Someone leaves unexpectedly and the business decides to recruit permanently without bringing in temporary cover.
Perfectly reasonable.
Unfortunately, month-end hasn't been consulted.
Neither has the audit. The reconciliations don't develop self-awareness and complete themselves, and the board remains stubbornly attached to receiving its numbers.
So the work moves elsewhere.
The Financial Controller picks some up. The Finance Director takes something else. The rest of the team absorbs whatever remains.
For a couple of weeks, everybody copes.
Then two weeks becomes six. Six becomes ten. Before long, expensive senior people are doing work several levels below them while the rest of the finance team begins looking slightly haunted.
An empty desk isn't free. It just hides its invoice rather better than a temp does.
Temporary recruitment can buy something valuable: time
For organisations familiar with temporary and interim recruitment, this is often one of its greatest advantages.
You're not necessarily buying a long-term solution. Sometimes you're buying time to make the right long-term decision.
Temporary support can make commercial sense when a permanent employee has left and the work needs covering immediately, the permanent recruitment process is taking longer than expected or the future structure of the team isn't yet clear.
It can also be valuable for sickness or maternity cover, year-end and audit pressure, systems implementations, transformation programmes, projects, backlogs and unexpected increases in workload.
The important distinction is between “we need a permanent employee” and “we need somebody doing this work now.”
Sometimes both statements are true.
That's where temporary support can be particularly useful. It keeps the work moving without forcing the business to rush a permanent recruitment decision simply because everyone is drowning.
Panic is excellent at creating urgency. It's considerably less accomplished at making hiring decisions.
Temp or fixed-term contract?
Here comes the slightly irritating but commercially responsible answer: it depends.
A fixed-term contract can be an excellent solution when you know a position will exist for a defined period. Maternity cover, projects and transformation programmes are obvious examples.
But an FTC is still an employment relationship, with the associated responsibilities and employment costs. There's also the recruitment market to consider. You're asking somebody to accept a role with a known finishing date, which can influence the available candidate pool.
Temporary professionals, on the other hand, have generally made a conscious decision to operate in the temporary or interim market. Experienced temps can become particularly accomplished at something employers rather appreciate: walking in and getting on with it.
There are circumstances where temporary recruitment is the better answer. There are circumstances where an FTC makes more sense.
The important thing is understanding the whole cost, timescale and requirement before deciding.
When does permanent recruitment make more sense?
Quite often.
If you've identified a genuine long-term role, have approved headcount and need somebody to become an established part of the organisation, permanent recruitment may be exactly the right answer.
Sheridan Maine recruits permanent accounting, audit and tax professionals too, so we'd be committing a fairly spectacular own goal if we suggested otherwise.
The danger is assuming permanent automatically means cheaper simply because the annual salary looks smaller than an annualised temporary charge.
You may not need the temp for a year.
You might need them for three months, six weeks or simply until the permanent employee starts.
The relevant comparison is the cost of solving the actual business problem, rather than annualising two very different hiring models until one of them wins.
What about the cost of getting it wrong?
Permanent recruitment brings commitment. Usually, that's precisely what both employer and employee want.
But if an appointment doesn't work out, the business may already have invested considerable time and money before discovering it.
Recruitment starts again. Managers return to interviewing. Productivity is lost. The vacancy needs covering once more.
Temporary and interim recruitment offers a different degree of flexibility when the business isn't yet certain about its longer-term requirement.
That doesn't make temporary automatically better. It simply means you don't necessarily have to make a permanent decision before you're ready to make one.
So, what does a good finance temp actually cost?
We have finally arrived at the question.
And, with apologies, the answer is:
It depends.
Temporary and interim rates vary according to seniority, experience, specialist expertise, location, candidate availability, assignment length, urgency, working arrangements, responsibilities and wider market conditions.
A temporary Accounts Assistant helping clear a backlog and an interim Financial Controller leading a transformation programme clearly aren't going to command the same rate.
Nor should they.
That's why a sensible recruiter should start by asking: what do you actually need this person to accomplish?
Once that's understood, you can have a meaningful conversation about rates, availability and the most appropriate way of engaging somebody.
Because the cheapest candidate and the best-value solution aren't necessarily the same thing.
Compare the whole cost, not just the obvious one
When deciding between temporary, interim, fixed-term and permanent recruitment, look beyond the headline number.
Consider the total employment cost, recruitment costs, time to hire, internal management time, candidate availability, flexibility and the likely length of the requirement.
Then consider the costs that are rather less obvious: leaving work uncovered, asking senior people to absorb it, putting additional pressure on the existing team and potentially rushing a permanent appointment because the situation has become urgent.
Once you look at the complete picture, the right answer may be temporary. It may be interim. It may be fixed-term. It may be permanent.
That's rather the point.
Considering your next finance, accounting, audit or tax hire?
Whether temporary recruitment is something your organisation uses regularly, occasionally or hasn't considered before, it's worth comparing the complete picture before deciding how to hire.
At Sheridan Maine, we recruit temporary, interim and permanent professionals across accounting, finance, audit and tax throughout the UK.
That means we don't need to make temporary recruitment win every argument. Sometimes it isn't the right answer.
We'd rather understand what you're trying to achieve and have a sensible conversation about cost, candidate availability, speed, flexibility and how long you're likely to need somebody.
No obligation. No mysterious recruitment mathematics. And no predetermined answer.
Just a sensible conversation about the best way to get the work done.
