The short answer
Two documents decide the speed and quality of a placement. The requirements brief before the enquiry – eight fields, half a page. And the proposal comparison afterwards – seven points that have to appear in every proposal for two proposals to be comparable at all.
The most common reason for a poor placement is not the wrong provider. It is an enquiry that does not say what is needed.
The requirements brief in eight fields
These eight are enough. Whoever has them receives fitting profiles instead of standard suggestions.
- Trigger and next critical date. Why now, and what happens if nothing happens? A close, a shareholder meeting, a covenant deadline, a closing. This field determines everything else.
- Role and decision rights. What does the appointment decide itself, what stays with management or the shareholder? Who approves payments? The most common point of friction of all – and it arises almost always because this field was left empty.
- Expected results. What should exist at the end, reviewed by whom? "Close by the tenth working day, signed off" is verifiable; "stabilise the finance function" is not.
- Scope and term. Days per week, expected duration, location and travel.
- Starting position. Entities, systems, team size, state of the books, open closes.
- Shareholders and reporting obligations. Who receives which numbers when? A PE fund with a defined reporting format is a different task from a founder group.
- What the appointment does not take on. As important as the brief itself – otherwise everything nobody else does drifts into the mandate by month three.
- Handover. To whom, in what form, by when? If that gets settled at the end, it does not get settled.
The seven points in the proposal
Two proposals with the same day rate can differ by three-digit percentages. These seven points make them comparable:
- Is the day rate the final price? Or do placement fee, project management or quality assurance come on top?
- What counts as a day? A full working day, a minimum number of hours, any day started?
- Travel cost and travel time. Included, flat-rated, at cost? Is travel time billed?
- Minimum volume. Is there a minimum number of days per month or a minimum term?
- Notice period – on both sides, stated in days or weeks.
- Cover and replacement. What happens in case of absence, what in case of a wrong fit? Details in what happens if it does not work out.
- Handover. Is the effort at the end of the mandate in the price, or billed separately?
A provider who gives no written answer to these seven questions has not asked them of itself yet.
The calculation that decides the comparison
Not the day rate but the total cost over the expected term: day rate × days per week × weeks, plus travel, plus handover effort, plus everything not included in the rate.
A rate of €1,600 all-inclusive can be cheaper than €1,400 plus placement fee, travel and billed handover effort. The ranges by role are on the pricing page.
How many providers to ask?
Two to three. One gives no benchmark, five cost more time than they yield in insight – and the good profiles are taken before the round is through.
In time-critical situations the opposite applies: then what counts is who presents a fitting profile within 24 hours, and the comparison is between two people, not between five providers.
A note for readers outside Germany
Two fields deserve extra care when the company is a German entity in an international group. Under "role and decision rights", state whether the appointment is to be registered as managing director (Geschäftsführer) or works as a contractor without statutory office – that changes liability and the contract type. And under "reporting obligations", name both the statutory HGB reporting and the group format, because the reconciliation between them is usually the first thing a new finance lead has to build.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a requirements brief be?
Half a page. What cannot be said in eight fields is usually not yet decided – and that becomes apparent while filling it in, which is the real benefit.
What if we do not yet know which role we need?
Then the field "expected results" is the answer: describe the result, not the role. A good provider derives from that whether it needs accounting, FP&A or finance leadership – see strengthening rather than replacing.
Should we state a budget?
Yes. A stated range leads to fitting proposals; an unstated one leads to two rounds of renegotiation. The usual ranges are public anyway.
How long does the selection take?
With a requirements brief and two to three providers: first profiles within 24 hours, interviews in the same week, start a few days after the decision. Without a brief, clarifying the enquiry alone usually takes longer.
Does it need a formal tender?
Outside the public sector, rarely. The eight fields in an email are enough – more important than the form is that every provider gets the same basis.
Read on
- Finding an interim CFO – selection criteria and review questions.
- Interim CFO or executive search.
- Liability, NDA and data access.
- Pricing · Interim CFO.
Sources and status
The article is based on nugrow's mandate practice in enquiries and proposal processes. Status: September 2026.