Finance Newsletter Q4
Transactional and Junior Level
As we close out Q4, the finance and accounting job market has continued to evolve, with significant movement within practice. Audit and Accounts Assistant roles have been the most prominent vacancies. With many senior professionals due to retire or move on, we anticipate further opportunities arising as the year progresses.
In addition, there has been a noticeable increase in demand for Credit Controllers across Scotland, particularly within industry. This growing demand highlights the ongoing need for skilled professionals to manage credit risk and ensure financial stability in businesses.
However, despite these positive trends, the feedback we’ve received from candidates indicates that the market remains challenging. While opportunities exist, competition is still fierce, and many are finding it difficult to secure roles.
On the salary front, there has been little change across the board in Accounting & Finance salaries over the past year. However, with the upcoming increase in National Insurance contributions and minimum wage adjustments, we can expect salary adjustments in the near future to reflect these economic changes.
Qualified Level
At the Qualified level there remains a high level of demand for commercially focused accountants, those that look to add value beyond the numbers, illustrated by the number of Finance Business Partner positions available. Even in more ‘traditional’ roles in financial or management accounting, we are hearing from employers that personality, the ability to challenge stakeholders, present information digestibly and add value away from the numbers is often the key decision maker between candidates.
There also remains a demand for interim and contract accountants, particularly at the mid-senior level. The demand often outstrips the supply, with candidates in long term contracts or secure permanent positions more risk adverse than ever to considering leaving for contract roles. This makes the ‘career contractor’ or interim specialist even more in demand, particularly where large projects such as implementations or transformations are concerned.
In practice there has been movement at the top of some of the firms, notably with Milne Craig officially joining Azets and changes within BDO and AAB. Consilium’s acquisition by Dains Group was also noteworthy, with the excellent talent in their Scottish offices a clear selling point to the firm.
Market update
AI and ESG remain on the forefront of the minds of those hiring finance talent and we are continuing to see an uptick in the number of vacancies in finance systems and ‘ethical’ finance. This is more prominent in larger companies where more time is being allocated to these areas.
Hybrid working patterns remain high on the list of requirements from candidates in finance. There is definitely a recognition from candidates that an element of office working is essential for collaboration, productivity and personal development, but roles that are advertised as full time in the office do struggle to attract the same level of interest as those that are hybrid. New findings show 72% of Scottish employers think flexible working is good for their business overall and a poll by one of Iconic’s consultants gathered in March 2025 showed just 18% of their network would apply for a job that was advertised as full time in the office.
https://www.insider.co.uk/news/pandemic-driven-flexible-working-here-34905390
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7305237714591735808/
The impending National Insurance increase and other employment changes has impacted hiring in finance. There hasn’t been a raft of redundancies announced as was feared, but rather employers are being cautious in their approach, being slower to replace leavers and ensure business cases are made and met for each role. Finance teams of high quality and high efficiency remain a non-negotiable for the vast majority of businesses and so hiring remains consistent, but in a more cautious manner.
CFO Awards took place in March with successes celebrated across the industry, with winners from businesses such as GAP Group, CALA and Envevo. Iconic would like to congratulate all the winners and nominees.
Iconic’s finance team were privileged to work with a number of clients in the first quarter of 2025, including on a retained basis with leading Scottish airline Loganair on newly created positions and Japanese manufacturing giant Fujifilm as well as Scottish market leaders SMS and BioMar. We also partnered with SME practice firm Wallace White on retained assignments this quarter.