worthmore.ie
CV & Salary Audit · UK · 2026
Hannah Clarke
Finance Manager · London · ACA · 7 years PQE · Current salary £68,000
1Current Market Value
Current salary£68,000
Market rate£72,000–£100,000
Est. gap+£4,000–£32,000
With 7 years post-qualification experience and an ACA qualification, you sit firmly in the Finance Manager (5+ years PQE) band. Robert Walters UK 2026 places Finance Managers in London at £60,000–£90,000 at this level, and technology-sector Finance Managers at £72,000–£100,000. You work in technology, so the sector range is your benchmark: at £68,000 you are below its lower end, and £4,000–£32,000 short of the range.
Estimated range based on 2026 Robert Walters UK, Hays UK, Morgan McKinley UK and Huntress salary benchmarks for your role and location. Individual salaries vary — use this as a starting point for your negotiation.
2What's Holding Your Salary Back
We found 4 specific issues holding your salary back.
Your Crown Asset Management role (2017–2020) is significantly under-detailed. Three years in a regulated financial services environment — including intercompany reconciliations across 4 entities and Deloitte audit support — is genuinely valuable experience, but it reads as a supporting role with no scope, no entity size, no reporting line, and no indication of what you personally owned versus assisted. This undersells three years of relevant financial services experience at the point in your career where technical foundations matter most to hiring managers.
Your current title and salary are misaligned with your actual scope. You are managing a team of three, running FP&A end-to-end, owning statutory audit with PwC, and reporting directly to CFO level — that is a Senior Finance Manager or Financial Controller profile in most London hiring conversations, not a standard Finance Manager. The CV as written does not make this case explicitly, and your salary of £68,000 reflects it. The CV needs to position you at the level your responsibilities actually reflect.
PowerBI appears in your skills list but nowhere in your experience bullets. Hiring managers in senior finance roles in London increasingly expect demonstrated use of BI tools, not just a listed skill. Without a single bullet point explaining what you actually built or reported using PowerBI, it reads as a credential-padding entry rather than a genuine capability — and risks being dismissed entirely at screening stage.
The Murphy & Associates role (2015–2017) is appropriately brief given it was an early-career accounts assistant position, but it gives no sense of the firm's size or the volume of AP/AR you were handling. If you can recall the approximate scale — number of suppliers, monthly transaction volumes, or firm headcount — adding a single qualifying detail would give it proportionate context and avoid it reading as a generic filler entry.
The NetSuite ERP implementation is a genuine differentiator. Leading the finance workstream of an ERP implementation is a credential that appears consistently in senior Finance Manager and Financial Controller job specifications in London, and you have it — and it's stated clearly in your CV. This should be treated as a headline achievement in every interview.
ACA qualification from ICAEW, combined with 7 years PQE and Big Four audit exposure on both sides (PwC at Datastream, Deloitte at Crown Asset Management), is a strong credential stack. ACA commands the highest premium at Finance Manager level in the UK, typically 8–12% above ACCA at equivalent experience, and your exposure to regulated financial services alongside a technology company gives you cross-sector flexibility that most candidates at your level do not have.
3Realistic Next Role
Your most realistic and well-evidenced next step is Financial Controller. With 7 years PQE, ACA qualification, team management, CFO-level reporting, ERP implementation, and direct ownership of statutory audit and FP&A, you already meet the experience requirements for Financial Controller roles at SME and mid-market level in London. In London, Financial Controllers earn £85,000–£140,000 in technology and SaaS, £95,000–£160,000 in financial services and £70,000–£110,000 in commerce. Huntress 2026 places Financial Controllers in their first three years in role at £70,000–£95,000. A move into a technology Controller role represents a step of £17,000 or more from your current salary — realistic within 6–12 months with the right targeting and a strengthened CV.
A Senior Finance Manager title at a larger organisation is also worth considering as an intermediate move — it would likely land in the £75,000–£105,000 range (Hays UK 2026, London) and position you for a Controller title within 18–24 months from a stronger platform. Given that your profile already reflects Controller-level responsibilities at Datastream Technologies, moving directly to the Controller title is the stronger play — the intermediate step is only worth taking if company scale or sector matters to you and the right Controller role isn't immediately available.
4Roles to Target Now
The following role types are well-matched to your profile and worth actively pursuing in the London market. These are directions for your search, not confirmed open positions.
Financial Controller (SME/Mid-Market, Technology or SaaS)Your Datastream Technologies background, NetSuite experience, and FP&A ownership make you a strong fit for scaling technology companies that need their first standalone Controller. Technology Controllers in London earn £85,000–£140,000, and a hands-on ACA with ERP implementation experience is consistently sought.
Financial Controller (Financial Services, Regulated Entity)Your three years at Crown Asset Management in an FCA-regulated environment, combined with your ACA and HMRC compliance experience, makes you a credible candidate for Controller roles at regulated financial services firms, where London Controllers earn £95,000–£160,000. Companies worth exploring include asset managers, insurance intermediaries, and smaller fund administration businesses.
Senior Finance Manager (Large Corporate or Multinational)If you want to build out your commercial and strategic exposure before stepping into a Controller title, a Senior Finance Manager role at a larger organisation offers that runway. UK operations of US multinationals in tech and pharma regularly recruit at this level. Hays UK 2026 places Senior Finance Managers in London at £75,000–£105,000.
Finance Manager (Financial Services)Financial services is the best-paid sector for Finance Managers in London, at £75,000–£105,000 for 5+ years PQE. Your regulated experience at Crown Asset Management makes this a credible lateral move with a meaningful salary uplift.
Senior Finance Business Partner (Commercial-Facing)Your stated goal of more strategic and less transactional work maps directly onto the Finance Business Partner model. Robert Walters UK 2026 places Senior Finance Business Partners (4–8 years PQE) in London at £80,000–£115,000. Companies worth exploring include technology, financial services and FMCG businesses where Finance Business Partners sit alongside commercial teams.
5Rewritten CV Summary
ACA-qualified Finance Manager with 7 years post-qualification experience across regulated financial services and technology sectors in London, currently leading finance operations at Datastream Technologies Ltd, a £45m revenue UK entity. Hands-on owner of FP&A, statutory audit, team management, and a completed NetSuite ERP implementation — with a track record of measurable delivery including reducing month-end close from 10 days to 6. Seeking a Financial Controller or Senior Finance Manager role offering greater commercial scope and strategic leadership responsibility.
6Your Rewritten CV
Hannah Clarke
hannah.clarke@email.com · 07700 900123 · London SE1
Profile
ACA-qualified Finance Manager with 7 years post-qualification experience across regulated financial services and technology sectors in London, currently leading finance operations at Datastream Technologies Ltd, a £45m revenue UK entity. Hands-on owner of FP&A, statutory audit, team management, and a completed NetSuite ERP implementation — with a track record of measurable delivery including reducing month-end close from 10 days to 6. Seeking a Financial Controller or Senior Finance Manager role with greater commercial scope and strategic leadership responsibility.
Experience
Finance Manager — Datastream Technologies Ltd, London2020 – Present
Sole Finance Manager for a UK technology entity with £45m annual revenue, reporting to CFO and managing a team of three (one Financial Accountant and two Accounts Assistants).
- Prepare and deliver monthly management accounts and board pack to CFO, including variance analysis and KPI reporting
- Lead annual budgeting and quarterly forecasting process for Board presentation
- Own VAT returns, HMRC submissions, and statutory audit — primary finance contact for PwC audit team
- Reduced month-end close from 10 days to 6 through process redesign and workflow improvements
- Led finance workstream of company-wide ERP migration to NetSuite, including system configuration, data migration oversight, and team training
- Drive FP&A function including rolling forecasts, scenario modelling, and commercial performance reporting
Financial Accountant — Crown Asset Management, London2017 – 2020
Financial Accountant at an FCA-regulated financial services entity, responsible for monthly reporting, compliance, and multi-entity reconciliations.
- Prepared monthly management accounts and board pack for a regulated financial services entity
- Managed VAT and HMRC compliance obligations in a regulated environment
- Supported annual statutory audit process — primary finance contact for Deloitte audit team
- Managed intercompany reconciliations across 4 legal entities
Note: If you can add the approximate size of the entities (e.g. combined revenue or balance sheet) or the reporting line you held here, this section would be strengthened further — it is currently the leanest part of the CV relative to the experience it represents.
Accounts Assistant — Murphy & Associates, London2015 – 2017
- Managed accounts payable and receivable for a mid-size professional services firm
- Prepared monthly bank reconciliations and posted journal entries
Education & Qualifications
ACA — ICAEW, Qualified 2017
BSc (Accounting & Finance) — University of Leeds, 2014
Skills & Systems
NetSuite (ERP implementation) · SAP · Excel (advanced) · PowerBI · VAT compliance · FP&A · Management accounts · Statutory audit · Team management · Budget & forecasting
7Your Interview Guide
1. "I led the finance workstream of our NetSuite ERP implementation at Datastream Technologies — from scoping the requirements through to go-live and team training."ERP implementation experience is one of the most consistently cited requirements in Financial Controller and Senior Finance Manager roles in London right now. Stating this clearly and early signals you can manage a complex cross-functional project, not just run a finance function — that's a differentiator at your level.
2. "I reduced our month-end close from 10 days to 6 by reworking the process end-to-end — it wasn't a technology fix, it was identifying where the bottlenecks actually were."This is exactly the kind of quantified, process-improvement achievement that hiring managers at Financial Controller and FM level want to hear. It demonstrates initiative, commercial awareness, and the ability to deliver change — not just maintain the status quo. The specific numbers (10 to 6 days) make it credible and memorable.
3. "I've been the sole finance contact for PwC and previously Deloitte on annual audits — I own that relationship, prepare the audit file, and manage the timeline."Big Four audit management experience — from the client side — is a genuine credential that many candidates at Finance Manager level can't claim clearly. Stating it this directly tells a hiring manager you are comfortable in high-scrutiny environments and can operate without hand-holding at a senior level.
4. "My background spans a regulated financial services entity and a technology company, so I'm comfortable with both the compliance rigour of a regulated environment and the pace and commercial focus of a scaling tech business."Cross-sector experience is increasingly valued in the London finance market. This framing positions your career path as a deliberate breadth-builder rather than someone who simply changed jobs — and gives you genuine flexibility in the types of organisations you can credibly target.
5. "I report directly to the CFO and prepare the board pack — I'm used to presenting to and fielding questions from senior stakeholders who expect commercial insight, not just numbers."CFO-level reporting is a threshold credential for Financial Controller roles. Many Finance Managers at your salary level are one step removed from that relationship — stating it plainly, and noting that you field questions rather than just produce output, immediately positions you as operating above your current title and salary.
8Your Next Steps
Action 1. Rewrite your top three CV bullets this week.Outcome first, scope second, tools third. Lead with the month-end close reduction from 10 days to 6.
Action 2. Target Financial Controller roles in London technology and financial services.Update your LinkedIn headline to “Finance Manager | ACA | ERP Implementation | Team Leadership” and set an alert for Financial Controller roles in London.
Action 3. Prepare your salary anchor.When asked about expectations, reference the 2026 market range for Finance Managers in London technology, £72,000–£100,000 at 5+ years PQE.
Your single strongest asset is the NetSuite ERP implementation combined with CFO-level reporting. Lead every interview with it, because it is the clearest proof that you are ready for a Financial Controller role.