By the Interim Headhunters team. Updated
- Assignment detail
- Ask how the candidate personally handled a technical discrepancy in the general ledger during their last month-end close.
- Assignment detail
- If the answer focuses on the team or software capabilities, probe further into what they did with their own time and access.
- Assignment detail
- You are looking for a description of a systematic check, such as a review of recent check runs or contract commitments, rather than a reliance on department heads to submit reports.
What should the brief say about Questions that expose personal ownership?
Ask how the candidate personally handled a technical discrepancy in the general ledger during their last month-end close. A capable Interim Controller describes the specific account, the nature of the error, and the adjustment steps they took to reconcile the variance.
Ask how the candidate personally handled a technical discrepancy in the general ledger during their last month-end close. A capable Interim Controller describes the specific account, the nature of the error, and the adjustment steps they took to reconcile the variance. If the answer focuses on the team or software capabilities, probe further into what they did with their own time and access.
Request a walk-through of their process for identifying an unrecorded accrual. You are looking for a description of a systematic check, such as a review of recent check runs or contract commitments, rather than a reliance on department heads to submit reports. Owners who have performed this work themselves provide specific, repeatable steps they follow to ensure accuracy when they arrive in a new environment.
What should the brief say about Strong answers versus rehearsed answers?
Rehearsed answers sound like a summary of GAAP principles or an explanation of how a department ought to function in a perfect world. A strong answer describes a specific constraint the candidate faced, such as an incomplete set of bank records or a broken payroll integration, and the exact workaround they implemented to meet the deadline.
Rehearsed answers sound like a summary of GAAP principles or an explanation of how a department ought to function in a perfect world. A strong answer describes a specific constraint the candidate faced, such as an incomplete set of bank records or a broken payroll integration, and the exact workaround they implemented to meet the deadline. They identify the limitation of their own control and show how they communicated this risk to the owner.
Look for how the candidate discusses the relationship between the trial balance and operational decisions. A rehearsed candidate discusses reporting in the abstract. An experienced interim operator links the numbers to the cash position. They describe situations where they flagged an issue to an owner based on their analysis of the ledger, regardless of whether the owner wanted to hear the bad news.
What should the brief say about Documents and work samples to discuss?
If they cannot explain a basic discrepancy between these two documents without referring to a staff member, they lack the foundational control required for an interim assignment.Discuss a past project involving the documentation of standard operating procedures for a finance function.
Ask the candidate to explain a set of internal financial statements they have produced. They should be able to point to where the cash flow report deviated from the profit and loss statement and explain why. If they cannot explain a basic discrepancy between these two documents without referring to a staff member, they lack the foundational control required for an interim assignment.
Discuss a past project involving the documentation of standard operating procedures for a finance function. An effective interim resource will bring examples of checklists or workflow charts they created to hand off to a permanent hire. These documents should be specific to the tasks that usually cause issues in a business, such as vendor onboarding, credit card reconciliation, or inventory valuation.
What should the brief say about Questions about constraints and judgment?
Pose a scenario where the company is behind on tax filings or audit preparation. The right candidate does not panic or suggest an immediate total system overhaul. They describe a process of triage, where they prioritize the most critical regulatory requirements first and communicate a realistic schedule to the stakeholders.
Pose a scenario where the company is behind on tax filings or audit preparation. The right candidate does not panic or suggest an immediate total system overhaul. They describe a process of triage, where they prioritize the most critical regulatory requirements first and communicate a realistic schedule to the stakeholders. They distinguish between work that needs immediate correction and work that can wait until the books are stabilized.
Ask how they decide when to override a system-generated report. This reveals their judgment regarding the gap between software inputs and reality. A strong controller keeps a record of these manual adjustments and explains the logic for every change made to the system output. They treat manual entries as a temporary solution to be documented, not a permanent part of their workflow.
How to handle confidential examples?
However, they should still be able to discuss the mechanics of the problem they solved. If a candidate uses confidentiality as a reason to avoid describing their own actions or technical decisions, they are likely obscuring a lack of direct experience.
Expect candidates to be vague about specific company names or proprietary financial figures if they are currently under a non-disclosure agreement. However, they should still be able to discuss the mechanics of the problem they solved. If a candidate uses confidentiality as a reason to avoid describing their own actions or technical decisions, they are likely obscuring a lack of direct experience.
Judge them on their ability to generalize a high-level problem. They should be able to say, We had a revenue recognition issue across three service lines, and here is how I reconstructed the revenue schedule. This conveys the necessary technical details while protecting the privacy of their former employer. A controller who cannot describe the technical nature of their past work while maintaining confidentiality is not a good communicator.
What should the brief say about Choosing without relying on the title?
A candidate with an impressive title from a large firm may struggle in an interim role where they must perform the data entry, account reconciliation, and board reporting themselves. The title suggests oversight, but the interim role requires a doer.
A candidate with an impressive title from a large firm may struggle in an interim role where they must perform the data entry, account reconciliation, and board reporting themselves. The title suggests oversight, but the interim role requires a doer. Focus on whether they have operated in businesses of your scale where they were the primary contact for both the ledger and the bank.
Ignore the prestige of their previous employers. Instead, prioritize candidates who have successfully stabilized finance functions in small-to-mid-sized companies with limited administrative staff. Look for a professional who has worked in the engine room of a business, not just the management office. The best interim controllers are those who treat the general ledger as their primary tool and the owner as their primary client.