Looking for an Interim Treasurer? Avoid These 5 Mistakes

Hiring an interim treasurer usually starts with a sense of urgency. Something has gone wrong, someone has left, or a critical project is stuck, and suddenly cash visibility is… let’s call it “creative.”

Moving quickly in these situations is often necessary, and in many cases, the right decision. However, acting too fast without taking the time to properly assess the situation can easily create a second problem right after the first.

That’s where many companies go wrong. If you’re in that situation right now and need a quick reality check on what kind of interim profile actually fits your case, it helps to sanity-check it with someone who does this every day.

Here are five common mistakes organizations make when bringing in an interim treasurer, and how to avoid them.

1. The “Perfect Candidate” Trap in Interim Hiring

This is probably the most common one.

Companies write a job description that looks like they’re hiring a permanent employee, add 20 bullet points, 15 systems, 10 soft skills, and hope someone magically ticks every box.

Interim hiring doesn’t work like that.

You’re not hiring potential. Your hiring impact.

Be clear on:

What problem needs solving
What success looks like in 3 months
What absolutely cannot go wrong

If you don’t define that, don’t be surprised if you get someone “good on paper” but useless in practice.

2. Focusing on rate instead of value

There’s always that moment.

“Can we get someone a bit cheaper?”

Sure. You can also buy a cheaper parachute.

An experienced interim treasurer doesn’t just cost money; they save it:

Optimising cash structures
Reducing bank fees
Improving FX execution
Fixing inefficiencies that have been ignored for years

The real question isn’t the day rate.

It’s whether they leave your treasury better than they found it.

3. Being vague about the scope

“We need someone to help with treasury.”

That’s not a scope…That’s a cry for help.

Treasury is broad:

Cash management
FX risk
TMS implementation
Bank rationalisation
Forecasting
Payments

If you don’t define the scope, the interim will either spend weeks figuring it out or focus on the wrong things. Spoiler, neither is what you had in mind.

4. Expecting miracles without access

If you bring in a senior interim, but they don’t get system access for a week, there’s no clear stakeholder alignment, and no real decision-making authority. You can not still expect transformation. An interim treasurer is not a magician.

If change is the goal, be ready to provide:

Access to systems
Access to people
Mandate to act

Otherwise, you’re paying senior rates for someone to wait for approvals.

5. Waiting too long to act

This one hurts the most.

Companies delay:

“Let’s see if we can manage internally.”
“We’ll hire permanently instead.”
“Let’s wait until next quarter.”

Meanwhile:

Projects stall
Risks increase
Costs quietly pile up

By the time they bring in an interim, the situation is bigger, messier, and more expensive to fix.

Speed matters,but timing matters even more.

Final thought

A good interim treasurer is not just a temporary fix; they act as a catalyst for change. They bring structure where there is chaos, clarity where there is noise, and momentum where things have stalled, but only if they are set up to succeed. Without that foundation, you are simply adding another line item to a problem that already exists.

There is also a subtle truth that many prefer to ignore: in a significant number of cases, the interim ends up fixing issues that should have been addressed years ago. Yet despite that, companies still find themselves spending weeks debating the day rate instead of focusing on the value being delivered.

If you’re currently dealing with: